Liam had been so incredibly glad to discover Oliver alive, the relief he’d felt making him almost queasy at the time. His reaction had been unexpected, but he’d pushed through it and gotten Oliver into the hands of UMG medics to get him the care he needed.
“Do you know which hospital Raven was taken to?” Liam asked.
Even through her tactical goggles, Liam could see the curiosity in her eyes. “Since when do you care about an agent from MI6?”
The words caught behind Liam’s teeth, a confession he wasn’t willing to give voice to publicly. “I doubt Bailey will appreciate us breaking her agent.”
“The old dragon is never happy when we have to work with any of her people.”
“True. All right, then, let’s get off the field.”
Samaira pointed her finger at him as she turned around. “We’re not done talking about our liaison.”
“I’m well aware of how you like to give orders.”
“I gave many during my service with the Royal Navy. It was perfect practice for dealing with your stubborn arse.”
Liam couldn’t help but laugh a little at the pointed way Samaira addressed him. He was grateful for the familiarity between them, and the way she didn’t treat him differently simply because of the royal blood running through his veins. They were equals in rank when it came to leading the Royal Legion. When push came to shove, Liam had no qualms about following her orders, the same way Samaira had no problem following his.
The pair left the crash site, cutting through a narrow alleyway between two buildings pressed tight together. It was used to store trash bins, and Liam was glad his mask filtered all the smells that had probably built up in the alleyway over decades.
They came onto a street littered with police vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, and other government cars. The crowd from Victoria Station had been pushed farther afield, well outside the quarantine zone. The same couldn’t be said of the residents in the buildings around them.
The Met had stationed armed police at every building entrance in a quarter-kilometer radius around the crash site. The show of force was unfortunately necessary for containment purposes to minimize the possible spread of Splice if the deadly chemical was found in the field. Liam always worried about the loss of civilian lives, but right now, the only person he was thinking about was Oliver.
Since their jet wasn’t authorized for an aerial extraction, Samaira and Liam commandeered the first UMG vehicle they could track down. Tariq and Glenn found their own rides, while Abigail made use of her speed power.
“Last one back to base buys a round of drinks,” Tariq said over the comms on their encrypted channel.
“I’ll take an entire bottle of wine. Cheers, love,” Abigail said with a tired laugh.
She never lost a race, and Liam was unsurprised to find Abigail waiting for them at headquarters sometime later. The moment the entire team was within the bounds of UMG property, Chapman addressed them on the restricted private team line.
“We’re debriefing in ten,” Chapman ordered.
“He doesn’t sound thrilled,” Glenn muttered under his breath.
Liam took off his helmet, running a hand through his sweaty hair. “We did just ruin Victoria Station, not to mention the National Rail.”
“Eh, there’s still Waterloo,” Tariq said with a dismissive shrug.
“I will continue to maintain Victoria Station was not our fault,” Abigail said.
Liam shook his head. “The brass won’t see it that way, and I doubt the public will either. How are you lot?”
“Nothing some quick-heal won’t fix,” Samaira said.
Liam nodded. “Then let’s get this over with.”
They made it up to the command level in less than ten minutes, all of them ready to be done with today.
“That could have gone better,” Chapman said.
“We aren’t the ones threatening the public. There’s no evidence so far that the bomb on the train was a Splice one,” Samaira said as everyone got situated around the table.
“There’s still the matter of the damage done to the station and loss of property and life. That’s not playing well in the media, especially since the targets got away.”
“The Reborn IRA crashed a train,” Liam pointed out. “That’s not on us.”
