The echoing silence in his skull made Jamie grind his teeth.
Your condo was attacked,Katie said, her words falling through his mind in a quick jumble.The director thinks it was targeted first.
Ice slipped down his spine, spreading through his chest.Why thefuckdidn’t he—
He wanted you to focus on the mission.
I fucking told him not to keep me out of the loop! Why didn’t you tell me the second you knew?
Because I’m trying to find Kyle, and I can’t do that while worrying about your mental state in the middle of a fucking firefight!
Her telepathic shout made Jamie wince, mouth pulling into a snarl as he walked. Liam came up beside him, giving him some extra coverage.
My job is to find and eliminate Blanchett, but they have a telepath on the ground who is keeping her and everyone else around her shielded and hidden from us. She must be keeping him out of her power’s nullification field, which means he has to be close to her. Pinpointing their location is difficult. I’m doing the best I can.
The strain in Katie’s mental voice caused Jamie’s anger to momentarily die out.I know. Just find him. Please.
Because if she didn’t—it wasn’t something Jamie was ready to think about.
To live without.
Katie slipped out of his mind without a word and Jamie put his faith in his second-in-command to come through, as she always did when the chips were down.
“Any news?” Liam asked as they jogged beside the armored vehicle.
Jamie shook his head, unable to speak. Liam grimaced in the face of his silence and didn’t ask for clarification. Jamie flexed his fingers around the grip of his weapon and readjusted its position against his shoulder.
They were heading south toward the National Mall, bypassing the huge Ellipse lawn to their right and a burning bus to their left. Up above, the foreign energy shield was trying to reform again, smaller than before, but even as Jamie watched, another section south of them flickered and began to dissolve. Sean was still taking out the shield anchor platforms located outside Blanchett’s nullification power. None of their fighter jets had yet targeted the aerial anchor hovering high in the air above the National Mall, too focused on dog fights high above the megacity.
Two fighter jets had already been shot down; Jamie didn’t know whether they were friendly or not. The damaged fighter jets had ultimately crashed into the megacity and distant fires were lighting up the sky as bright as neon, but more dangerous. Civilian casualties were going to be high, especially with Splice chemical bombs going off in random areas.
“This is too bloody well-coordinated,” Liam grunted. “Fucking precogs.”
With Stanislav having seen an endgame none of them were prepared for, aided by Bennett’s interference and Declan’s need for revenge, they were all hard-pressed to keep up. All of Jamie’s ability to plan for the last possible scenario meant nothing in the face of precognition. He couldn’t see the future.
Stanislav Pavluhkin could.
Jamie shouldn’t have been surprised at the sound of a call coming through on an encrypted, personal line, but he was. He answered it without looking at the ID on his bioware as Liam took point and Jamie stayed on his six, the armored vehicle rumbling along beside them.
“Hello, Jamie,” Stanislav said in greeting, his Russian accent sounding thick in Jamie’s ears.
Jamie’s stomach churned; bile crawling up his throat. He swallowed it down. “Stanislav.”
Liam did a double-take over his shoulder, swearing loudly, before facing forward again. They were almost to the street, members of Strike Force using scattered trees as cover when they could, but Jamie wasn’t paying any attention to their location. A dangerous state of mind to be sure, but all his formidable attention was taken up by the voice in his ears.
“All of this could have been avoided if you had simply agreed to my terms.”
“You ever see a future where I became your fucking lapdog?” Jamie snarled.
“Yes.”
That simple, easy answer made Jamie hate himself in that distant alternate universe just a little.
“Fuck you.”
“You should know that you can’t win,” Stanislav told him. “Not against me.”
“If you think we’ll—”
