Silence cameover the line.
She sighed. “I can hear you judging me.”
It was Collin who spoke first, and his voice was rough with anger. As the mellow cousin, he rarely lost his temper. “You have clear orders to stay away from theSeven. Period.”
“I haven’t disobeyed orders. We received concrete intel that an enemy of the Realm was going to be here buying illegal computer components.” She’d also had a hunch they’d find the Interloper. Yeah, her hunches were psychic, so were they really hunches? “If you ask me, fate has intervened again.”
“Damn fate,”Libby muttered.
Hope could agree. She thought through the weapons she had at her disposal, mainly her cousins. Though young, they were deadly and they were strong. She had to take back control of the mission. “Derrick,” she reminded him. “If you throw fire underground, there’s going to be a smoke problem. You need to keepthat in mind.”
“Affirmative,” Derrick said.
“Liam and Collin, you come in strong from the other side,” Hope ordered, typing rapidly, trying to find the best place for them totake this guy.
“Not a problem,” Liam said.
“Got it,” Collin said.
She tracked her swiftly moving team by their dots on the map. Liam and Collin worked perfectly together, sweeping each area before they went forward, moving in a synchronized dance. Derrick did the same with Libby, but he stayed slightly ahead of the shifter no matter what, willing to get shot to prevent her from being harmed. Hope admired that in him, but she didn’t want to see any of her cousins hurt.
“Hope.” Liam’s low tone came over the line. “I’m thinking maybe it was more than a hunch, considering you got your source to toss tracking dust on this guy.”
She winced. “You know I’m always prepared.”
Triple sighs came through the line, along with a small chuckle from Libby.
Hope winced. “Honestly, I didn’t think we’d actually find him here.” She’d been chasing this guy all over the world for the last two years. She leaned forward. “Wait a minute, he’s gone south.” There was no tunnel to the south. It looked as if his body was moving through solid rock. “Twenty feet ahead of you, Derrick and Libs. He somehow turned left.” Liam and Collin approached from the other direction. “Ten feet ahead of you, guys, there’s a doorway. There’s a passageor something.”
“We don’t see it,” Derrick said. The sound of tapping and pounding cameover the line.
“It’s solid brick,” Collin muttered.
Panic rose in Hope. “It’s not. I can see him moving.” She’d made it her mission to catch the man she’d dubbed the Interloper, and she was the best strategic planner in her generation. She didn’t know how and she didn’t know why, but she felt like her first big test was to catch this guy. “There’s got to be a way in. Derrick, if you have to use fire, do it.”
“Copy that. Forming now,” Derrick said calmly.
Good. “Throw it at the brick. I’m telling you, there’s some sort of tunnel in there.” As Hope watched, her quarry climbed up and emerged out onto the street. She flipped on an external camera feed. Maybe she could actually see him instead of just following him as a freaking blue dot. “Damn it, he’s exited the tunnel in the Christmas market.” She yanked a bulletproof vest over her head and reachedfor her weapon.
“Don’t do it,” Collin snarled. “Hope, you’re not covered. You needto stay there.”
“We’re losing him,” she said, cocking her gun and then yanking a jacket over her vest and weapon. She hurried toward the door.
Something blasted over the line. “We’ll find the tunnel,” Derrick said.
“We’re headed back and will rendezvous with you,” Collin said,his tone grim.
Hope snatched a combat knife off the weapons table and shoved it into her boot, pulling her phone free to watch the blue dot. “He’s right below me.”
“Hope Kayrs-Kyllwood,” Derrick snapped. “Do not even think of leaving thatcontrol room.”
She unlocked the doors with their multiple bolts and dashed into the hallway, running full bore down the steps out into the Christmas market. Tourists milled around, looking at the colorful booths with cups of glühwein in their hands, chatting happily. She kept her phone in her hand and followed the trail of the enemy through the crowd, dodging out of the way of an elderly man moving fragile Christmas ornaments ona rickety cart.
“Hope, where are you?” Liam called. “We’re headed back out. We’ll be there in about three minutes, tops. Do not engage this guy on your own.”
Ignoring his command, she ran down an alleyway, turning, headed toward one of the many nearby buildings with their curved copper roofs.
The Interloper was quick, but she saw a wayto cut him off.
