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Incense. God how she hated the smell of incense. Nightshade had gotten used to a lot of things since she’d moved to this sumptuous Middle Eastern palace, but she couldn't train her nostrils to ignore the cloying smell of smoke.
What purpose did it serve anyway? Absolutely nothing. And she hated things that didn't serve a purpose. Take the perfectly balanced forged-steel-throwing knife strapped to her thigh - that served a purpose. A quick flick of her wrist and she could take down an enemy from fifty yards away. Or the small 9 mm sidearm tucked nice and snug against her hip; that served a purpose. A yank and bam - target neutralized.
Even the burka she wore served a purpose. It covered her from head to toe, completely masking her identity from roving satellites and from local criminals tempted by her light hair to swap her out on the human trafficking market like a used car salesman swapped out cars. Not that she’d let them get that far, but it was easier to avoid the temptation than going around killing people and having to provide an explanation.
Nightshade took a deep breath and wrapped her fingers over the back of the black swivel chair in the large security room. From here she could monitor the entire palace and its grounds, but right now, she focused only on one monitor. Her identical twin sister’s bedroom.
She wanted to go to her sister, to touch and talk to the twin that had been missing since birth.
But that wasn’t part of the plan. No matter how much Nightshade longed to talk to her twin, she wanted to save her team, Mayhem, more.
“I figured you’d be in here.” Jack Mankel, Nightshade’s father, walked silently into the room, stopping a foot away.
“Caroline should be better by now. She’s crying. Please call Dr. Hassan back to do another checkup.” Nightshade cast another longing glance at her sister, struck once more at their uncanny resemblance.
“You were there when Hassan checked her three hours ago. He said the infection will take time to clear from her system. That bastard Abdul had a rusted shackle on her the whole time he’d held her. The infection got in her blood.” Her father crossed his suit-covered arms and leaned against the wall.
“But she’s shaking all over. She wasn’t doing that when Hassan was here. It could mean something else. What if she has a heart condition we don’t know about?” Just the thought of losing her sister again, after twenty-seven years of not having her by her side, made her whole body hurt.
But watching her cry and knowing she wasn’t allowed to comfort her ripped Nightshade’s heart into pieces.
“You think I haven’t learned every detail of my other daughter’s life? I know her blood type, her last dental exam...I know everything. She isn’t suffering from a heart condition. Her body is fighting the infection. Your sister will live – I promise that. Have I ever lied to you?”
“I don’t want to lose her when we’ve just gotten her back.”
“We won’t. I’ll keep her protected. You’ll keep her protected. Unless you’re trying to find a way out of your mission just to stay with your sister.” Mankel kept his voice low, almost whispering.
“You know that’s not true.”
“If you don’t complete this mission, we’ll never locate your team. My sources inside the CIA confirmed that Senator Cotter is responsible for your team’s capture. We have to break into his computer to find Mayhem and rescue them.”
Nightshade’s stomach knotted. Some of her first memories were of her teammates. They’d lived together since they were children, having been selected and trained for highly covert operations and assassinations based on their inherent skills. Skills her father, Jack Mankel, honed to a precision unmatched by any other team. Until three months ago, when Team Mayhem was ambushed and taken captive. She’d searched and hunted tirelessly, the only hint of their whereabouts was a grainy image pulled off a secret Russian satellite of a small US military force in the area at the time. Task Force Scorpion.
Senator Tom Cotter’s unit.
While he didn’t have direct control, his handprints were all over Team Scorpion.
The burning need for revenge revved through her veins. Cotter had taken her sister at birth and now he had the only family Nightshade had ever known besides her father in his clutches. “I will complete my mission. I always do.”
“Nightshade, our lives are in your hands. If you don’t think you can go through with it...”
She sliced her hand between them. “I will find them and make sure Cotter will never have the chance to hurt our family again.” She not only intended to hack into Cotter’s private server to locate where Mayhem was being held captive, she intended to see to it that Cotter paid for his offenses against her family with his life.
Nightshade turned back to the screen, yearning for one more glance at her sister. She’d dreamed of their reunion, how they’d run to each other and embrace. They’d spend all of their free time together, catching up and talking. Now she might never get the chance to know Caroline. Nightshade was headed into the heart of the enemy, completely alone and cut off from support. As soon as she hacked into Cotter’s private server, she was as good as dead. “I want to say goodbye.”
“It’s too risky.”
“We both know this may be the only chance I ever have to talk to her.”
Her father flinched and his fingers loosened on her arm. “Nightshade, you’re my best warrior. I know you’ll make it back to me. To your sister.”
Mankel’s phone chirped and he answered it immediately. “Yes?” A few seconds later and her father disconnected the call. “They’ve spotted one of Scorpion’s men moving in.” He clicked some keys on the nearest keyboard, the monitors casting a pale green glow over his hard visage. “See there?”
He pointed to a screen and Nightshade had to stare a few seconds before she spotted the irregularity in the sand. A man covered in tan camo inched forward on his stomach, moving so slow that he almost completely blended in with the dips and hollows of the sand dune beneath him. Her stomach tensed. She’d never seen anyone move with such lethal skill.
Not even her own teammates.
