Gracie immediately put one hand on Alexei and the other on Sean as her people lowered the hovering stretchers nearly to the floor to more easily transfer the wounded. The painful sounding gasp Sean let out was most likely from the lack of pain he now felt. Alexei, tellingly, never made asound.
Gracie’s ability to increase the human body’s ability to heal at a rapid rate made her a phenomenal doctor, but her power was only a quick fix in the face of injuries thisextensive.
“Prep OR 1 for Dvorkin and get a regen regime up and running. We’ll need to operate while we tank him,” Gracie ordered, brows furrowed in concentration over her half-closed eyes. “Prep OR 2 for Delaney and have the regen regime on standby for latertransfer.”
Katie hauled Kyle away before he could attach himself to Alexei’s side. “We need to get back to thefield.”
“Delta Team is waiting out in the hall,” Gracie said, not taking her eyes off her patients. “The director wants them in the fieldwithyou.”
Kyle fought Katie’s firm grip for all of a second before turning his back on Alexei and Sean in favor of doing his job. They were safe now, about to get the medical care they desperately needed, while the rest of the team still had a raging mess back in Boston to get control of. Walking away wasn’t easy, but he did it. As they were leaving, Dr. Naomi Delaney and Mercedes shoved past him, intent on getting inside the medevactriageroom.
Delta Team was geared up and ready to fight when the three met them in the bustling medical hallway. The four-member team consisted of two offensive kinetic-based powers, a speedster, and an empath whose ability to influence mass emotion would be critical in crowd control. Their sniper wasn’t anything to sneeze abouteither.
“Hold tight,” Tessa said, right before she teleported them back to the wharf area to pick up herpartner.
Bryan gave the all-clear from his position of cover near an outdoor coffee stand some meters away that had been abandoned once the bullets started flying. The sharp wail of police sirens and fire trucks filled the air, the sound both far away and coming closer at the same time. Every first responder employed by Boston was probably being called in because of the attack on the campaignrally.
“Get to Boston Common,” Katie said. “We’ll track downCillian.”
“Good luck,” Tessa said before she teleported her partner and DeltaTeamaway.
Kyle scanned the area and caught sight of an abandoned motorcycle, its rider lying prone in the street. He signaled Katie to follow even as she tapped into the general comms to contact the pilotagain.
“Still got eyes on the target?” sheasked.
“Copy that, Viper. Still got eyes,” the pilot responded. “Relayingcoordinatesnow.”
Kyle let Katie deal with figuring out the route they needed to go while he spared a moment to check on the fallen civilian who’d taken a bullet to the side and bled out on the street. Shaking his head, Kyle turned his attention to the motorcycle and hauled it up to a standing position. The engine was on standby, access to the controls still open. At least they wouldn’t have to waste time hacking the damn thing, though knowing Katie, it would probably take her less than aminute.
He slung a leg over the body of the motorcycle, settling into the seat. It could carry two, and Katie scrambled behind him, thrusting one arm over his shoulder to point in the direction theyfaced.
“Cillian is heading for Interstate 93. We can’t let them get in the tunnels if they’re carrying a bomb,”shesaid.
Kyle tapped the side of his tactical goggles, a map of Boston overlaying his sight. A route lined up, courtesy of the agents back at headquarters monitoring them in the field. He revved the engine and the motorcycle shot forward. Kyle kept half his attention on the street traffic he could see up ahead and the hovering shape of the combat jet in the partly cloudy sky tracking Cillian’s attempted escaperoute.
I need him alive long enough to do a deep scan on his mind,Katie said, bypassing their comms because what she was tacitly approving wasn’t sanctioned by the director.After that, he’s allyours.
The government would prefer Cillian alive for interrogation purposes and a trial. The United States was still one of the last few holdouts in the world who administered capital punishment for certain crimes, but that didn’t mean a criminal would die soon after sentencing. The appeals process could take years, decades even, and the thought of Cillian rotting away in solitary might comfort someone else, butnotKyle.
Solitary meant Cillian would still bealive. After what the bastard had done to his brother and Sean, Kyle wasn’t willing to let a jury and judge try the fucker in a farce of a trial just so the mediacrats could gainratings.
Kyle had chosen his code name as Reaper all those years ago for areason.
13
FireAtWill
“Find us some cover,right fucking now!” Jamiesnarled.
Larson slammed his foot on the gas pedal and the SUV shot forward. Jamie tapped into the direct comms line linking the commanders of various departments and agencies overseeing the rallysecurity.
“This is Captain Jamie Callahan. Evacuate Boston Common and the surrounding area. Check everyone in the crowd for explosives. A Splice chemical bomb just went off on Washington Street. Get containment started in that area and warn everyone in the city to shelter inplace.”
Jamie didn’t bother responding to the chatter that erupted on the line, mind running through his options at top speed as Larson drove into the parking garage tower at the corner and rammed through the flimsypaygate.
“Orders, sir?” Larsonasked.
“You arenotgoing back out there,” Burwell snapped, one hand cupping his ear as he listened in on a comms channel Jamie didn’t haveaccessto.
