“I thought all the scans came up empty for explosives!” Tariq shouted as they raced out of the warehouse. The agents who had been guarding the perimeter were already running away in search of cover.
Liam’s mouth twisted in a snarl. “Just run!”
He knew he wouldn’t have to tell Tariq twice. Liam made it two steps outside the warehouse when a hot, concussive force erupted behind them. He was thrown several meters away by the blast, heat and fire billowing out around him. Liam tucked into the fall, landing with a hard grunt and rolling into the impact. He was back on his feet a second later, yelling at the agents crouched behind a dumpster.
“Don’t bloody stand there!Run!” he shouted.
He looked over his shoulder, getting eyes on Tariq after a second or two. The older man nodded at him. “I’m all right.”
“Better stay that way, mate.”
They moved, running away from the destroyed warehouses and the fire burning behind them. Liam’s headcount came up several short, but since he didn’t know when or if the next bomb would go off, he couldn’t go looking for the missing. All they could do was get clear and wait for an exfil while base tried to raise their missing agents on the comms.
“Knight to transport, lock on to our location for immediate extraction, copy,” Liam snarled into his comms.
“Solid copy,” their pilot replied.
“Scans cleared all the warehouses. How the hell did we miss this?” Tariq said as they cut left, aiming for the wider road separating clusters of warehouses they’d seen on the flight in.
“The Reborn IRA has always favored bombs. Maybe they built a new one.”
“Nothing on the microscale would cause that big of an explosion. Someone could have doubled back or teleported in to set them off.”
“Let’s just get airborne.”
They made it to the road that lorries used for cargo pick-ups. Liam’s ears rang with a roar more welcoming than the explosions. He looked up as the jet that doubled as troop transport descended in a vertical landing. The crackle of its shields separated just enough for the rear hatch to unseal and open up. Liam and Tariq ushered the agents on before following them onto the decking.
“Is the fire department on the way?” Liam asked the agent on board handling communications.
“On their way,” she replied.
“Then let’s find the rest of our people and hope they weren’t caught in the blasts. Inform base of the ambush and warn the other teams in the field.”
Liam hoped they would return with everyone they had gone into the field with, but he knew they wouldn’t be that lucky. Of the six other agents who had joined them in the field, they were only able to locate two. Liam had a sinking suspicion the other four had been caught in one of the blasts. The only saving grace was that the two explosions seemed to be all that went off.
It wasn’t much comfort.
“Return to base,” Chapman ordered ten minutes later. “We’ll send a retrieval team for the bodies. The fire department will handle it from here.”
“Are you sure that’s safe for them?” Liam asked.
“We can’t be sure it’s cleared of Splice, but neither can we afford for a fire of that magnitude to spread. It’s a risk, but they’re going to take it.”
Liam grimaced, his hands clenching into fists. “Did the rest of my team or Apollo run into the same issue?”
“Not yet, but I’ve ordered everyone to pull back. We’ll modify the scanners and send in robots and drones. We can’t afford to lose you, your team, or Apollo and Reaper.”
“Don’t bench me.”
“I should have listened to the queen. We’ll discuss it when you’re back on base.”
The line cut off. Liam slammed his fist against the siding of the hull, swearing loudly. Tariq gave him a sympathetic look before jerking his thumb at the seat beside him. “That didn’t sound like good news. Strap in so you don’t bang your head in the event the Reborn IRA has ground to air missiles.”
There was a terrifying thought, more for the Reborn IRA having military grade weaponry and not that the agent piloting the combat jet would have to perform evasive maneuvers.
Liam hated leaving the mess behind, because the part of London that was burning was his responsibility. Even if he hadn’t been the one to hit the detonator, their presence at that location had caused the Reborn IRA to escalate their attacks. Paired with what had happened to Victoria Station and the Royal Ascot, Liam was unsurprised to walk off the jet and discover that Chapman was benching him.
No amount of arguing would change the chief’s mind.
