My heart hammered against my ribs like it was trying to escape. I didn't blame it—the rational part of me wanted to be anywhere but here, preparing to storm a heavily fortified facility full of people who wanted to either capture or kill me.
Nicolai was in there, and that fact alone overrode every self-preservation instinct I'd developed over years on the run.
"Last equipment check," Yuri ordered, his voice a low rumble that matched his bear shifter nature. His eyes gleamed with barely contained violence as he surveyed our tactical team.
I adjusted the lightweight kevlar vest that felt simultaneously too heavy and too insubstantial. The guns made me nervous—I'd spent most of my life avoiding violence rather than initiating it. Tonight was different. Tonight, I wasn't running away from something. I was running toward someone.
"Remember," Yuri continued, his gaze lingering on me longer than the others, "this is extraction, not extermination. We get the boss, we get out."
I nodded, though we both knew it wasn't that simple. O'Rourke had crossed a line by taking Nicolai. There would be blood tonight, one way or another.
Dima checked his watch and gave a sharp nod. "Perimeter guards change in three minutes. That's our window."
The six of us moved as one unit toward the facility's fence line. Zev, Ivan, and Sergei—all Syndicate members whose loyalty to Nicolai was absolute—positioned themselves at strategic points.
I stuck close to Yuri, as instructed, my hands already tingling with the electronic energy that connected me to every circuit, every camera, every alarm system in the vicinity.
"Now," Dima whispered into his comm.
The world exploded into chaos. Flashbangs detonated along the eastern perimeter—a distraction orchestrated to draw attention away from our entry point. The sharp cracks split the night air, followed immediately by the wail of alarm systems. I winced at the sensory overload, but kept moving.
Yuri cut through the fence with specialized tools, creating an opening just large enough for us to slip through. I felt the security systems reacting, electrons racing through circuits to alert guards of the breach. With a deep breath, I extended my consciousness into the nearest camera, looping its feed for thirty crucial seconds.
"Clear," I whispered, the effort already making my temples throb.
We moved across the exposed ground between the fence and the building in a tight formation. Gunfire erupted from somewhere to our left—Zev's team engaging the first responders.
The sound made me flinch, but I kept going, one foot in front of the other, focusing on the electric pulses surrounding us rather than the violence.
The side entrance was exactly where the stolen blueprints indicated. A keycard reader guarded access—child's play for me. I placed my palm near the reader, not touching it, and visualized the electronic lock mechanism. The door clicked open obediently.
"Good boy," Dima murmured, patting my shoulder as he moved past me to secure the corridor beyond.
The interior of the facility pulsed with electronic life—security cameras, computer networks, communication systems. It was overwhelming, like standing in the middle of a shouting crowd where I could hear every individual voice. I gritted my teeth and focused on filtering out the noise, concentrating only on what we needed.
"Control room is two levels down, north quadrant," I said, recalling the facility layout we'd memorized.
Yuri nodded sharply. "You and I will break off here. The others will create diversions to keep O'Rourke's forces scattered."
I followed Yuri through dimly lit corridors that smelled of antiseptic and fear. The facility was larger than I'd expected—a warren of research labs and containment cells. Each door we passed made me wonder how many others like me had been imprisoned here, their abilities exploited.
We encountered the first guards at an intersection—two men in tactical gear who barely had time to register our presence before Yuri moved. I'd seen him fight before, but never like this. He was brutally efficient, breaking the first guard's neck with a single practiced motion while simultaneously disarming the second.
The remaining guard reached for his radio, but I was faster, sending a surge of energy that short-circuited the device in his hand. Yuri finished him with a precise blow to the head. No gunshots, no noise. Just the soft thud of bodies hitting the floor.
I swallowed hard, reminding myself these were the same men who'd taken Nicolai, who'd hurt who knows how many others with abilities like mine.
Still, the violence left a sour taste in my mouth.
Yuri dragged the bodies into a nearby storage room while I checked our position against the mental map I'd constructed.
"Two more corridors, then the service stairwell," I whispered. "The control room will be on our right after we descend."
Yuri gripped my arm, his eyes locking with mine. "Get in, disable security, locate Nicolai—no heroics. Understood?"
I nodded, though my mind was already racing with contingencies he hadn't considered. What if Nicolai wasinjured? What if O'Rourke had implemented countermeasures specifically designed to neutralize electronic manipulation? What if we were already too late?
No. I couldn't think that way. Nicolai was alive. I'd know if he wasn't—I'd feel it in the hollow space beneath my ribs that had somehow become filled with thoughts of him.
