“I know.” He reached for a gun in his boot. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. If I go dark and pass out again, it didn’t work.” But he’d go down fighting. “For now, isn’t there a computer center we need to secure? Just think of the data you could get there, Sami.”
Her eyes glowed, and something settled deep inside him. There was his little hacker. So much of her made sense now, and he liked her even more than before. “I guess we could go make sure Raze has it all under control,” she said, almost bouncing toward the door.
The gunfire had stopped, so either Raze was down, or the computer room was secured. Either way, they needed to find out. Tace took the lead, his vision incredibly clear. “Stay behind me, Sami.”
“I can fight,” she grumbled.
Yeah, but she still sucked at shooting. “If we go hand to hand, you can lead,” he said.
Jax opened the door. “Yell if you need backup.”
Tace nodded, dodging into the now-empty hallway. “Copy that.” Just as he finished the last syllable, Raze strode out of the computer center, a man over his shoulder. “Looks like we have injured.”
“I can handle it,” Penelope said, pushing from the bed.
Marcus stepped back, effectively blocking her.
“Please,” she whispered.
Without a word, he shifted to the side.
Tace shook his head. Here he thought he’d had problems. “Yell if you need me,” he told Jax, hurrying toward Raze. “Status?”
“Entire floor is secure—several Bunker soldiers dead.” Raze kept moving, his strides long and strong. “We’re holding prisoners in the cafeteria on B for now and will need to make some decisions soon.”
Tace motioned for Sami to follow him back into the computer room. “I guess we’re on data collection for now.” He’d cover both doors while his woman went to work, as long as his vision remained. He felt better but still weak in the limbs.
The fight had been bloody, and they’d surely lost a few. But was there a cure for Scorpius hidden somewhere in those computers?
A real cure? It was the first time he’d felt hope in so long that it took him several moments to recognize the feeling.
Hope.
* * *
Jax stood at the Bunker command center window, staring down a level at the sprawling cafeteria. White plastic chairs surrounded wooden tables all around with a long orange counter holding food. “That’s all the people left standing?” he asked.
Greyson walked over from a wall of computers to stand next to him. “Yes. At least ten people escaped through an underground tunnel when we breached the facility—we’ll know who once Sami hacks into these computers when she’s finished with the medical ones.”
“Nobody down there, not a person, knows the codes?” Jax asked, irritation clawing his skin.
“I don’t think so.” Greyson pointed to the door in the far wall of the command center that had now been cordoned off. “Once they started losing floors, they escaped from here. The top soldiers, doctors, and scientists all had escape plans and are probably halfway to another facility.” He stared down at the people held below. “Not that we shouldn’t interrogate every single person down there.”
“Agreed.” Jax studied the people. Twenty-five soldiers in blue uniforms, ten lab techs or scientists in lab coats, and another twenty people in off-duty comfortable clothes. “Fifty-five people here, ten escaped, thirty dead. That’s only ninety-five personnel in a facility created to hold probably three hundred.”
“Scorpius took two hundred, according to the lab tech I questioned,” Greyson said. “I don’t know how many down there are survivors, and how many haven’t been infected.”
“The doctor with my brother right now hadn’t been,” Jax said slowly. He’d left Marcus with the suffering doctor in the infirmary, posting three guards on the door.
“That’s weird about your brother. You okay?” Greyson asked.
“Fine. Just glad he’s alive.” Jax’s chest hurt and he wanted nothing more than to go hug his brother and force him to remember their childhood. But right now, he had other things to deal with. The last thing he needed to do was bond with Greyson Storm, since he was still considering taking Storm’s resources. Plus, it was almost certain Raze was going to kill the guy at some point. “Anybody down there know of a cure for Scorpius?”
“I’ve only interrogated three lab techs so far, and I don’t think anyone’s found a cure for Scorpius. But one lab tech had plenty to say about a vitamin B inoculation that helps the body create its own B. Unfortunately, she deals with data and isn’t a scientist.”
Sami moved into the room, reams of paper in her hands. “I’ve hacked through all the security in the medical computers and have a couple of the guys collecting data. I had to use an encryption program, so they’ll collect it now and we’ll have to sift through it later. Frankly, somebody with a medical background needs to translate half that stuff, anyway.” She looked around the command center and gave a low whistle. “Nice.”
Tace entered and covered the door.
