“Did you call him?” Katieasked.
“After I called my father I called Matthew. We’ll keep watch here, Katie. Matthew will keep watch with you,” Jamie said, not taking his eyesoffher.
He knew she wouldn’t be able to talk about what she’d done to those children at his request with the MDF psychologists. But she could talk about it with the team, and she could talk about it with Matthew, if that’s what shewanted.
Katie made a face at him before rolling her eyes and giving in with grace. Either she was too tired to protest more than that, or she finally believed Jamie knew just what the hell he wasdoing.
Probably the former. Like any good NCO, Katie believed she knew best, and Jamie was never going to argueotherwise.
“Come on,” he said. “We’ve still got a jobtodo.”
Jamie’s practice was to never leave a fellow teammate alone in Medical if at all possible. It didn’t matter that Alexei’s and Sean’s families were here to keep them company. Alpha Team took care ofitsown.
* * *
“You ignored a direct order,Brannigan.”
Kyle bit down on his tongue so hard he tasted blood, the slight sting gone in an instant. After a moment, he swallowed the metallic tang of it, refusing to look away from the director. “If that’s what you want to callit,sir.”
At this point, Kyle had been awake for over sixty hours. The stress of the last two days in particular had left him in a confrontational mood he was only just now coming off of. He was not going to apologize for blowing Cillian up into a hundred million pieces. As far as he was concerned, the fucker didn’t nearly get what he deserved, but Kyle had been under a timecrunch.
Nazari leaned back in his seat, expression vaguely irritated. “We needed himalive.”
And I wanted him dead,Kyle thought. “Sorry,sir.”
Kyle knew he didn’t sound sorry at fucking all, but he didn’t care. Judging by the way Nazari and Stirling stared at him, they recognized the insubordinate tone for whatitwas.
A glaringfuckyou.
“We have official recordings of you ignoring Stirling’s order about a mission-critical objective. That isn’t something we’re going to just letslide.”
Kyle dug his fingers into his thighs. “Permission tospeak,sir?”
Stirling waved her hand at him. “Let’s hear it,Brannigan.”
“What’s the punishment? Lay it on me, put it in my jacket,I don’t care. Right now, I want to get to Medical and see how Dvorkin is doing. So can we cut to the chase, sir?Ma’am?”
If he was still with Strike Force, Kyle would never even dream of speaking like this to his superior officer. But he was no longer only a special forces operative, he was a metahuman. That, right there, gave him a level of security he wouldn’t otherwise have. Nazari and Stirling knew that, because the punishment was something that might have worried Kyle in the past, but right now? It didn’t bother himatall.
“An official Letter of Counseling is going into your jacket regarding this incident,” Nazaritoldhim.
That was a few steps down from an official reprimand. Under any other circumstances, Kyle wouldn’t be proud about receiving it, but he considered this one a badge ofhonor.
“Yes, sir,” he said in a clipped voice. “Permission toleave?”
Nazari huffed out an irritated sigh. “Dismissed,Brannigan.”
Kyle stood up, saluted the director and deputy director, then turned smartly on his heels and walked out of the conference room. He didn’t run, despite how badly he wanted to get over to Medical. Too bad he didn’t have Tessa’s teleportationpower.
No one had waited for him out in the hallway, not that he thought they would. Even Kyle hadn’t known how long the director would keep him behind. Now that he was free of all immediate obligations, Kyle didn’t waste any time getting over to Medical. He wasn’t in any mood to be poked and prodded by Gracie’s staff. With his rapid healing, any wounds that might have been a problem would’ve been long healed by now. He didn’t need a checkup. All Kyle wanted to do was see hisbrother.
Stepping into an elevator on the ground floor of Medical, he said, “Ceres, location of Staff SergeantDvorkin.”
“Level 10, East Wing,” theAIsaid.
Kyle grimaced. It wasn’t surprising that Alexei was in the ICU, but it left him anxious and twitchy in a way that felt odd to him. Kyle could keep still and quiet for hours on end behind the scope of his rifle, but family always did throw him offhisgame.
The private room Ceres directed him to was one of the larger rooms, with a window that overlooked the courtyard between Medical and Building Two, the area of the base that held the MDF’s R&D labs. The polarized plas-glass windows were shaded dark while the lights were dimmed to their lowestsettings.
