She led Braden into the darkest shadows along the edge of the building, then followed it around until they got to the gardens in the rear. A big, high stone wall ran along the perimeter, and she jumped to the top, then leaned down and grabbed Braden’s hand to help him up.
They dropped to the ground on the far side and ran until they saw the door that should open up onto the first floor of the isolation ward—if the quick drawing Ivy had given them was right.
“There’s a camera covering the door,” Braden pointed out when they stopped. “How are we going to get past it?”
Dreya pulled her canvas bag off her back and dug through it, then pulled a black cylinder about the size and shape of a Star Wars lightsaber out of her bag.
“We’re going to blind it with a laser,” she said as she set it up on a small tripod and pointed it straight at the camera mounted on the wall over the door.
Braden frowned. “If we blind the camera, won’t whoever is watching the monitors know there’s something wrong and come looking to see what’s up?”
She nodded as she pushed a button on the side of the cylinder, pulsing the red laser just long enough to make sure it would hit the camera directly in the lens. “I hope so. How else do you think we’re going to get in?”
He did a double take. “Wait a minute. I thought we were just going to sneak in.”
“Nope,” she said. “I screw up the camera, they send somebody to check it out, you beat them up, and poof…we’re in.”
Braden groaned. “That’s the best idea you can come up with?”
“Yup.”
Dreya swung her canvas pack back on, then got a firm grip on the little remote for the laser and pushed the button. There wasn’t a lot to see—unless someone was dumb enough to look down the barrel of the laser, which would blind a person for life—but the 750 milliwatt high-intensity laser was currently scrambling the hell out of the camera.
“Come on,” she said, running for the door.
The moment they reached it, she pushed Braden to the side, then stood right in open view of whoever stepped out.
“I’ll distract them,” she told him. “You take them while they’re focused on me.”
Braden opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the door swung open, and a big guy stepped out. He was dressed like a hospital orderly but carried a small, scary-looking weapon strapped across his chest.
He had enough time to stare at Dreya in disbelief before Braden came at him from the side, slamming his fist into the guy’s jaw and sending him flying.
Dreya would have cheered, until she saw a second orderly come out after the first. She didn’t think but just launched herself at the man, her fangs and claws extending in the rush of pure adrenaline that surged through her.
The man’s eyes widened in alarm as she hit him full in the chest, sending him reeling backward.
That’s when she realized the situation was worse than she’d thought. There weren’t two guys but four. And while she was climbing all over the second one, the third one brought up his weapon to shoot her, and the fourth guy was reaching for his radio.
She had no time to deal with problems three and four. She had her hands full with problem two—the man she’d pounced on. He’d tumbled to the floor and was trying to take her with him. Dreya knew she couldn’t allow herself to get caught up in a wrestling match with a man who outweighed her by seventy pounds. She was a thief, not an MMA fighter.
She slashed her claws at the man’s arms. He let go of her damn quick.
Dreya had no clue what to do next and really wished Clayne and Danica had spent a few hours teaching her to fight hand-to-hand instead of running around shooting stuff. She was pretty sure firing her 9mm right now would bring a lot more trouble down on them.
“Radio!” Braden said from behind her.
He wanted her to stop the guy with the radio before he could warn the rest of the orderlies.
Dreya clicked the button on the laser remote, praying the door alcove was clear as she turned off the laser and bounded up from the man on the floor, stomping on his face as she leaped for the guy with the small machine gun. She slashed at the hand on the trigger, feeling her claws dig in deep and tearing a grunt of pain from the guy.
Two more swipes, and he was stumbling back, dropping his weapon to let it dangle by the short straps around his neck as he tried to protect his face from her claws. She changed her attack direction, shredding the straps holding the weapon, as well as a lot of his chest and shoulder muscles.
As the weapon clattered to the floor, she shoved him aside and headed for the last orderly, sure she wouldn’t get there in time. The man’s hand was only inches from the radio.
Dreya growled in frustration.
The man spun around with a look of pure terror on his face, ignoring the radio and reaching for the pistol on his hip instead. She’d been okay with slashing at the other men and hurting them enough to get past them, assuming that Braden would deal with them as he came up behind her. But it sounded like Braden had his hands full, dealing with the three men she’d already left him to handle. She couldn’t simply swipe at this guy’s hands and face and hope to keep him busy until Braden came to her rescue. She needed to take him out herself.
