Outside, the sky is beginning to show the first signs of light. Twenty-five minutes later, as the sun crests the horizon, the assault begins.
Drone reconnaissance hits first, and Grizz’s sensors catch it before the images finish rendering on the feed.
“Eyes in the sky. Multiple vectors,” I say.
“Positions.” Atlas’s jaw is set, but his voice is calm.
The three of us disperse like muscle memory. I take to my nest in the east tree line, rifle dialed in. Through the scope, I spot the attackers and track them as they fan out. They’re moving like men who think this will be easy.
I intend to make sure it won’t.
My first shot drops their point man. Before the suppressed report reaches the compound, I fire again and take down another target.
They scatter, return fire, and keep advancing.
They’re not here to talk.
Bullets tear through the tree, one of them inches from my cheek. I adjust, recalculate, and fire again.
Below me, Atlas moves through the compound directing the action like he’d never left command.
And Grizz? Since the day we found Kira in that snowstorm, he’s been a gentle giant, but now, he’s something else entirely.
He’s the Grizz who keeps people alive when things explode.
CHAPTER 45
GRIZZ
My fingers are surprisingly steady as I arm the line. “Det charge set,” I mutter. “Primary access road is compromised.”
Atlas doesn’t question it. “Execute.”
I trigger the blast.
Rock and snow collapse exactly where I want them, with no wasted force. The primary access route disappears in a roar, funneling the attackers into the kill corridor we mapped long ago.
But they adapt fast. Too fast.
“Multiple targets approaching north tree line,” Viper calls. “Heavy kit.”
“Copy. Adjusting.”
Lungs burning, I duck and sprint, hands busy with another charge. I angle it toward the line of advance, then roll clear.
The blast lifts the ground beneath them and drops it behind them.
A round cuts through my shoulder before I can reposition. The wound screams, hot and blinding, but I ignore it.
She’s inside,I tell myself.And they’re not taking her.
I set off another device. The charge goes where I want it, but something goes wrong at the edge of it. There’s rock where there shouldn’t have been rock, and pain tears through my side like I’ve been split open.
I stagger, catching myself on a tree, the breath knocked out of me. When I test my ribs, my hand comes away bloody.
“Grizz,” Atlas barks over comms. “Status.”
I force air back into my lungs and grit my teeth.
