Nothing about this situation was normal.
“He in there?” Alexei asked brusquely.
Jamie didn’t need to ask whichheAlexei meant. “Yes. Stanislav has Kyle.”
The rage in Alexei’s eyes was easy enough for Jamie to make out, despite the low lighting. It matched his own, as did the fearful worry.
“We go in.”
Jamie grabbed Alexei by the arm, holding him back. “No.”
Alexei jerked out of his grip more easily than he could have if Jamie still had his enhanced strength. “Not think I stay behind and—”
“I need you to find and eliminate Blanchett,” Jamie interrupted harshly. “Leave Kyle to me.”
Alexei looked like he wanted to argue—and Jamie understood that desire, hedid—but they couldn’t all focus on the rescue and ignore the fight.
“Inferno, that’s an order,” Jamie reiterated.
Alexei clenched his jaw so tight the tendons in his neck stood out. When he spoke, his words were a snarl. “You find him. Bring him back.”
Jamie held Alexei’s gaze, refusing to look away. “I will.”
It wasn’t a lie, he told himself. Jamie meant it with every fiber of his being, but he couldn’t control the future, and he didn’t know what the one Stanislav had painted looked like.
He didn’t want to.
Matthew stepped up, signaling for his people to follow him. He nodded at Jamie before pushing at Alexei’s shoulder. “Let’s go, Inferno. Got a target to take out.”
Alexei went in one direction, and Jamie went in another, both with the same goal in mind.
To save Kyle.
In order to keep attention off the rear of the building where the others were breaking in, Jamie skirted the grand white building with its Neoclassical style and white marble marred by smoke blowing through the wind, making sure to be seen. It felt vaguely suicidal, but he doubted Stanislav wanted him dead—yet.
Gunfire echoed in the distance, shouts and screams from nearby pockets of fighting impossible to understand. Jamie tuned it all out when he finally came face-to-face with the imposing western front of the Supreme Court Building, the courtyard and steps ghostly empty. He could feel eyes on him, telling Jamie he wasn’t alone. The borrowed tactical vest and hard helmet he wore would be an afterthought of protection if a sniper wanted him dead right then.
Jamie kept walking.
Across the courtyard, up the steps, passing between two of the columns, Jamie made his way inside the highest court of the country, a place where justice was served. The irony wasn’t lost on him.
The ancient, bronze double doors leading into the Supreme Court Building were normally locked at this time of the night. They opened before he reached them, a familiar person standing framed in the doorway. Jamie’s hands tightened on his weapon as he approached Declan, ignoring the gun aimed in his direction.
“Callahan,” Declan said, the hatred in his voice impossible to miss.
“Wolcott,” Jamie threw back, with just as much vitriol.
Declan opened the door wider, stepping backward and gesturing sharply for Jamie to come inside. Behind Declan stood an ex-Special Forces operative, rifle aimed right at Jamie’s chest. Jamie entered the Supreme Court Building without hesitation, not fighting when another operative immediately moved to disarm him. Refusing to give up his weapons might put Kyle in even worse danger, and Jamie wasn’t willing to risk that.
He was stripped of his rifle and handguns, his tactical vest and hard helmet, the knife in his belt and the last grenade one of the Strike Force soldiers had shared with him during their push forward near the White House. All of it was removed until Jamie was standing in his uniform evening dress pants and shirt, black shoes having long since lost their shine.
Declan stepped in close, never taking his eyes off Jamie. The older man looked the same as he had in Boston, full of righteous fury and a grief that hadn’t yet left him. Valerie Hayes had died by Jamie’s hand, in full view of Declan through an uplink. Killing Declan’s wife had drawn the former owner of North Star International to Stanislav’s side, turning him into little more than a mercenary.
“What did Stanislav promise you?” Jamie asked, breaking the silence.
The corner of Declan’s mouth twitched. “Revenge against you and the government that turned its back on me.”
Jamie saw the blow coming and didn’t try to block it. Declan’s fist slammed against his jaw with excruciating force. Jamie’s head snapped to the side as pain exploded through his face, teeth cutting into his lips. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth as he stumbled back a step, bracing himself for more hits that never came. The one was enough to prove Blanchett’s nullification power was still working. Which meant Alexei and the others still hadn’t located her yet.
