A second and third time was definitely not the charm, especially when friendly fire hit one of their own people trying to rout Sean from behind. By the time the man hit the ground unconscious, Sean was already past their line of defense, racing for the building. He couldn’t count the number of bullets that cut through him and didn’t bother to try. Less than a minute later Sean ran through the closed and biolocked doors of the closest wing of thecompound.
Manufactured coolness replaced the outside warmth. Bright lights overhead made Sean blink rapidly to clear his vision. A long hallway came into view, lights flashing along the entire length of it in warning. A pair of soldiers raced toward him, raising their weaponstofire.
I’min.
Bullets tore through him before slamming into the door behind him. Sean took a breath and started running again, letting Katie fill his mind with a mental map of the training facility since his HUD no longerworked.
We’re coming to you,Katietoldhim.
Sean nodded, even though she couldn’t see it, racing for the heart of North StarInternational.
* * *
“Get ready!”Jamie called out over the roar of the engines priming for a harddescent.
Alexei calmly breathed through the drop, feeling his ears pop as the combat jet they were in hurtled to earth in a way he actually missed. It reminded him of the insertions he, Kyle, and their old Strike Force team would go through behind enemy lines. Quick, deadly, and capable, they’d entered active warzones like this numerous times. Doing it on home soilwasnew.
The jet’s ramp started to open, the crackling glow of the personal energy shield shining through the opening. Stealth got them this far, but once the facility’s main shield was destroyed, there was no hiding theirarrival.
The heavy whine of the engines abruptly faded as the jet jerked to a sudden halt, hovering over the ground. Alexei got to his feet, standing right behind Trevor as their telekinetic pushed a shield outward like a concussive blast, clearing the way and securing theirposition.
Jamie, Trevor, and Alexei were the only members of Alpha Team on the jet. All snipers had been dropped off at the designated perimeter the MDF and Strike Force had decided on. While Kyle and others with the skills necessary to take out targets from a distance acted as overwatch, their job was to breach Vitae Neurotherapeutics and secure the biotech lab. Anyone who got between them and their mission would be taken out with force if they didn’tsurrender.
The people here were American citizens, despite the loyalty given to the Sons of Adam and Declan’s company. Giving the enemy a chance to surrender was only fair, but Alexei doubted they would take it. He knew how heretics thought, how they could believe wholeheartedly in something so anathema to the country they hailed from and consider it truth. He’d seen it in the Ukraine, in the Middle East, in Africa, in too many countries over the years while wearing a Strike Forceuniform.
And now he was seeing itathome.
Alexei wished he could say he was surprised, but it would bealie.
“Inferno, on my six!” Jamieshouted.
“Copy!” Alexeibellowedback.
He followed Jamie out of the jet, Trevor right beside him as members of Strike Force fanned out around them, weapons up, ready toshoot.
The jet shot back into the sky with a roar of engines, sending dust flying into the air from the backdraft. Alexei peered beyond the shifting schematics on his helmet’s tactical goggles HUD at their target. His night vision was clean and crisp, making it easy to spot the snipers on the roof. Only Trevor’s telekinetic shield stopped them from taking bullets to thechest.
“Nova, Blaze, targets on the roof. Take them out,” Jamie ordered as they double-timed it over openground.
Around them, other jets landed and dropped their fighters off, high-caliber machine guns mounted on their roofs laying down suppressive fire to ensure a clean drop. Their group advanced quickly and silently, Trevor keeping them safe with his power. Moments later small explosions on the roof of the seven-story main building showed Nova and Blaze were taking Jamie’s order toheart.
The heavy sound of machine guns echoed through the air, reminding Alexei of his time in the desert. He ignored it as much as he could in order to stay safe, eyes on the target—Vitae Neurotherapeutics’ main entrance. The biotech company’s logo glowed neon bright above the sealed doors beyond the large courtyard and its low wall, perfect for enemycover.
Stealth would only get them so far when the enemy knew they were coming. With the possibility of Stanislav Pavluhkin knowing their true identities now because of the Wolcotts, SOCOM and the MDF had agreed a quick infiltration was most likely not going to happen. North Star International employed too many ex-Special Forces to make the fight easy. It was one thing to fight against the Sons of Adam—a homegrown militia-inspired terrorist group culled from civilians—but quite another to go up against men and women who had their sametraining.
No one liked the idea of gunning down American citizens, but with the possibility of a Splice lab operating on the premises, there was no other choice. And if these fighters had known what was going on, and still agreed to contract with Valerie Hayes’ company, then they deserved what they got. Alexei believed thatwholeheartedly.
Those who trafficked in Splice didn’t deserve to leave this fightalive.
The crackling whine of the biotech lab’s public comms system suddenly coming online sent a zing through his teeth. Katie’s voice boomed through the air, barely broken up by static and the constant sound of automatic rifle fire. Someone back at headquarters must have finally hacked it and brought her into the loop. As their communications specialist, Jamie had tapped her to help coordinate movement on the ground. The brass back in D.C. would be following the action via their helmet cams, but someone needed to be their go-between. Between Jamie and Katie, they had thatcovered.
“This is the MDF under orders of the United States government. Drop your weapons and surrender, or else we will be forced to take drastic action,” shewarned.
“I think this is pretty drastic,” Madison said over Alpha Team’s encryptedcomms.
“It’s gonna get worse,” Annabellepromised.
She and some of their other flyers might not be as quick as the jets that flew them in, but they were more agile and capable of dodging ground-to-air fire, which there was a lot of. Declan had built out a military-style base beneath the civilian veneer of his company and the ranchland it owned. Training facility aside, no one outside the military should have had some of these weapons on hand. But for all the weapons the other side had, they weren’t a match for the metahumans the MDF couldfield.
