Alpha Team was handled either by Stirling or Nazari directly. Metahumans with a military background were spread out over the field teams, but Alpha Team was the only one whose eight members wholly consisted of military personnel. When the MDF wanted someone or something taken out with extreme prejudice, they sent in Alpha Team. Only the director or deputy director had the authority to deploy them, which was why Stirling was up past zero dark thirty instead of someone else oflesserrank.
“Thanks for getting here so quickly,” Stirling said as she took the seat at the head of the conference table. Her dark brown eyes swept the table, making Alexei unconsciously straighten his shoulders. “I know it’s late, and we’d all rather be in bed, but we seem to have a problem on our hands that needs to be handled with a certain amount of finesse. For those who aren’t aware of it, Agent Delaney contacted Dvorkin tonight while undercover as Riley Miller. He flew into New Miami yesterday afternoon for a dinner meeting with a client as the face of RootSource,Inc.”
“Ma’am?” Katie asked a littlesharply.
Stirling held up a hand, instantly silencing her. “We’ve kept Root Source, Inc. going even if we haven’t been using Alpha Team as the face of it outside direct contact with Stanislav Pavluhkin. Delaney has been running point on those missions to widen its business reach because we couldn’t afford to not bring on clients without making Pavluhkin suspicious. And we need Alpha Team in the field more than we need them in aboardroom.”
“You usually brief us on what he’s been up to for ourcovers.”
“The mission this time was a little last minute and involves Adrian Wolcott, a casino magnate out of Las Vegas. We had plans to update your team after it was completed, but unfortunately, the mission seems to have hit alittlesnag.”
“Is not little if Russian mafia calling, ma’am,” Alexeireplied.
Stirling tipped her head in his direction in faint agreement. “True. They weren’t on our radar because they don’t normally operate in Las Vegas. It’s not their territory. Unfortunately, they had Wolcott in their sights and Delaney got caught in the middle of it. From what we can deduce, he played up Root Source, Inc.’s ties to the Pavluhkins to buy us time until we couldextractthem.”
“Delaney can phase, so why not phase outta there?” Annabelleasked.
“We can’t afford to lose Wolcott right now for reasons that are not pertinent to this particular extractionmission.”
Alexei shared a look with Kyle. They’d heard that reasoning before, just with different words, too many times to count. Something else was going down, something bigger. Alexei was suddenly very glad he’d read the situation correctly with Antonovich and handled it in the guise of his cover from January rather than telling him tofuckoff.
Stirling swiped her hand over the terminal in front of her. Command windows popped up around her fingers and she tapped at a couple. The holographic globe disintegrated before reforming into a map of New Miami, with holopics of people appearing in the air over the center of the table. Alexei scowled atAntonovich’sface.
“We need Alpha Team to retrieve Delaney and the Wolcotts alive, without letting them know you’re metahumans,”Stirlingsaid.
“We’re reprising our roles from January?” Katieasked.
“Some of you will be. Alexei’s call with Antonovich let us know that Delaney must have informed him, for whatever reason, that you are unavailable. Which means you aren’t going into the field,Ovechkina.”
“Ma’am—”
“That isn’t up fornegotiation.”
Katie snapped her mouth shut audibly, the sheer lack of expression on her face telling Alexei just how pissed she was with that order. She wouldn’t fight it, but she didn’t have to like it. Stirling’s dark brown gaze pinned Alexei where he sat and he tried not to wilt beneath her attention as he waited to hear hisorders.
“Dvorkin will head to New Miami in his role as COO of Root Source, Inc. Chan, Brown, and Sanchez will join him. I’m giving all of you as much offensive firepower as I can because the AntonovichBrigadawill confiscate every weapon we let you take to New Miami. They’ll get you unarmed and think you’re under theircontrol.”
“Why aren’t I going, ma’am?” Kyle asked. “I’m overwatch. They coulduseme.”
“Your role is too deeply intertwined with Callahan’s. He’s on the campaign trail right now with his father, and thankfully that fits with his cover, but you being away from himdoesnot.”
“>” Alexei said off-handedly.
Kyle shot him a scathing look. “>”
Alexei shrugged. It was the truth, whether or not Kyle wanted tohearit.
“And me, ma’am? Why aren’t I going?” Donovanasked.
“Callahan is being protected by his family’s personal security. You are guarding Ovechkina, which means the both of you will remain here. You’ll be looped in on comms and Ovechkina will be coordinating the mission from headquarters. That’s the best I cangiveyou.”
It wasn’t unheard of for Alpha Team to be broken up into smaller squads. Alexei would’ve preferred being separated this time for a straightforward attack instead of one where everyone would expect him to use words instead of aweapon.
Alexei took a deep swallow of his synthcaf before leaning forward, asking the question he knew would give him a headache, because Stirling had straight up said they’d be limited on weapons, if not their powers. “Whatisplan?”
* * *
The uplink cutoff and Sean curled his left hand into a fist. Antonovich swore thickly from where he sat at the head of the table, face turning red fromanger.
