Alpha Team and their allies were more than willing tooblige.
Madison took point at the stairwell entrance, lobbing a few of her smaller energy blasts at a small group of cartel fighters one floor below. She tailored the explosion low enough to ensure maximum damage for her targets while not risking the structural integrity of the stairwell too much. Jamie’s boots squelched in the blood on the landing as they descended, sidestepping the splattered remains as much aspossible.
They finally reached a door more heavily secured than the few they’d put behind them. Jamie held up a fist, silently signaling everyone behind him to freeze. He shot out the control panel and locking mechanism, watching the door jerk a little as it was released from its seal. Jamie crept down the stairs, put his back against the wall once he hit the landing, and reached for the door. He shoved it open with minimal effort, the heavy door grinding against its shallowtracks.
Jamie quickly cleared the corner, advancing once it became obvious the cartel didn’t have anyone posted in their area. The lighting down here was bright and clear, reflecting off the dull walls and concrete floor. The first door they came across two turns later had the biohazard symbol attached to the front. No window was available to see through, but they couldn’t risk not clearingtheroom.
Jamie signaled for two of the SF Corps operatives to take point while ordering the rest to fall back. They were human; he didn’t want them getting contaminated by whatever remained intheroom.
“Ready when you are,” Madison said, weapon braced against her shoulder as she coveredhissix.
Jamie let his weapon hang from its strap so he could yank open the door. He lifted it off its grooved track and shoved it into the recess within the wall, the metal crumpling like old paper in hishands.
Even with his air filtration mask on, Jamie swore he could make out the smell of decomposition pouring out of the room now that the seal was broken. He stepped inside, clutching his weapon in both hands, trying to remember not to break it as he tookeverythingin.
The large room wasn’t a lab, but a holding area forthedead.
A row of what could only be described as prison cells lined both sides of the long space that stretched far into the earth. The plas-glass walls were smeared with blood and dirt, countless handprints smudging each one. Lying on the ground, slumped over in rigid positions, were numerous bodies in various stages ofdecay.
Jamie walked the length of the long passageway bisecting both sides of the area, taking in the horrible scene with a critical eye as rage simmered beneath his skin. From what he could tell, none of those who’d died down here had died by way of Splice. The bodies weren’t in as liquefied a state they would’ve been in if that were the case. Starvation, dehydration, and disease were probably the most likely culprits outside being shot, but that didn’t make it any easier to bearwitnessto.
“Apollo?” Madison called out in a quietvoice.
“Place needs to be cleared by a biohazard crew, but I don’t think any of the deceased were subjected to Splice in here,” Jamiereplied.
“Doesn’t make it anybetter.”
“Iknow.”
They retreated into the hallway, where Madison pulled a graffiti marker from one of her belt pouches and proceeded to draw a large red X across the front of the door after Jamie slid it back into the place. Tagging the door in such a way gave notice to anyone coming in after them that they’d cleared the room. She put the marker away when finished and looked over atJamie.
“Lead theway,boss.”
They came across three more rooms like the first containing only the dead. Men, women, and children of various ages, all of whom had never reached their destination, were left to rot underground. Jamie knew not all of them would be identified. Most likely, they would all be assigned numbers by a government coroner before being cremated, reduced to a note in an electronic file no one would ever look for. And that was only if the Mexican government decided to sendpeoplein.
Jamie shoved aside his thoughts of the dead, and keptmoving.
Clearing the compound took time, and quite a lot of bullets. The cartel had left foot soldiers behind to hold the line long enough to destroy evidence. Despite Katie’s interference, when they finally made it to the heart of the lab—beating Alexei and Donovan’s group by twenty seconds—most of the terminals had been destroyed, to say nothing of the server towers in the cold-storageroom.
Two men stood frozen in front of the last intact terminal. Their chests rose and fell in sync, trapped within the unforgiving grasp of Katie’stelepathy.
“Viper, we have them,” Jamie said as SF Corps operatives manhandled the cartel soldiers to the floor and cuffed their hands behind theirbacks.
He knew the exact moment when Katie released them from her power. Both men heaved in the operatives’ grip, choked-out yells escaping their mouths. They remained pinned to the floor, no longer a threat, while Jamie and the others quickly cleared the room. Jamie peeked into the server room and wasn’t surprised to see the data towers shattered by a grenade. He doubted anything was salvageable, and walked away fromthemess.
“Status,” Jamie said into thecomms.
He listened to the field updates, pleased to hear the perimeter was in their control. Ground squads were still clearing the compound, but it seemed the majority of theFederaciónCartel had already dispersed well before they arrived. Jamie didn’t know if a leak was responsible for their retreat, but it seemedlikely.
“Can maybe take one or two solid-state drives back,” Alexei said as heapproached.
He and Jamie were almost the same height, but Jamie knew enough of his own skills to know Alexei would beat him in hand-to-hand combat nine times out of ten—and had, during training. As a former Strike Force operative, Alexei was one of the deadliest members of Alpha Team, even before one factored in hispyrokinesis.
“Extract them,” Jamieordered.
Alexei tipped his head in Jamie’s direction before hustling to obey the order. Jamie checked the chrono on his HUD, mentally keeping track of how long they’d had boots on the ground. Securing the compound for processing would take time, but Alpha Team would be long gone before the Mexican authorities made it through themountains.
He only hoped his team came away with enough evidence to show that North Star International and Vitae Neurotherapeutics had been involved with selling Splice to theFederaciónCartel. MDF analysts would have their work cut out for them on extracting any data from the solid-state drives they werebringingback.
