Keeping his gun trained on Mitch, Russ motioned the thug holding the knife to Mitch’s throat to cover Drake and the perimeter man in the living room. In turn, Slugger moved next to Russ in the kitchen area.
“You know what, Agent Granger? A man like you should have a chance to save himself. How would you like a one-on-one fight with one of my CT guys?” Russ smirked as he grabbed Liz’s arm and pulled her farther back into the kitchen. “Go ahead, choose one.”
Mitch calculated Slugger to be a street fighter. The long-necked knife guy in the living room moved more like a martial art expert. Either way, there’d still be one man to fight and—
“Oh, don’t forget my third CT agent. I believe you already know each other.” Russ pointed up to the second-floor balcony. “Ain’t that right, Keith?”
Mitch glanced up, forcing his brain to comprehend what he was seeing. “Keith? Keith Ayres?”
“You always were a quick study.” Keith grinned like the devil in some Halloween mask.
“You? You’re the CT rat in OPAQUE?”
“The one and only. And as you can see—I’m not dead.”
“Not yet.” Mitch processed all the things during the past week that had pointed to OPAQUE incompetence. Now it all made sense. Things had been engineered by the rat in the system. Keith had been part of OPAQUE for the past five years. No telling what else he’d affected.
“Believe me, I’ve enjoyed every moment.” Keith flipped the tech-band back and forth with his fingers. “By the way, thanks for the loan of the tracking tech-band. Came in handy the past few days.”
“You fucking son of a bitch.” Mitch charged up the steps but stopped halfway to the top. As every good SEAL could tell you— Don’t run to your death.
“Come on, Mitch. Don’t stop now,” Keith goaded. “Show me some of those moves you’re so famous for.”
“Why? Why CT?” Mitch planned each action he needed to make. This was about staying alive to save the others. He needed to keep his mind clear. Bait the target. Draw him in.
“I got tired of being known as the sonar techie. The radar geek,” Keith said. “I fought just as well as the rest of you, but I never got the same respect as you or the others on the Shades team.”
“We were showing you respect, man. None of us could come close to reading the tech stuff like you.” With care, Mitch used his negotiating skills. Say whatever it took to throw the target off-balance. “It’s not too late. You can come back to OPAQUE. We can say you were working both sides.”
Keith blinked. Paused.
Mitch sucked in a deep breath as he started a slow, methodical climb up the remaining steps.Hooyah…One step at a time. Measured and calculated.Hooyah…Looking for makeshift weapons on the landing.Hooyah…Counting the steps to the knife taped to the back of the picture above the lamp table.Hooyah…Remembering every dirty fight move he’d ever seen Keith use.
“Are you guys gonna stand there and yap all day?” Russ yelled from the kitchen below. “You got five seconds or I shoot one of you.”
Keith continued to lean on the balcony rail, clicking the tech-band back and forth in his hand. “Just to make this fair, I’ve cleared all your guns and knives and creative ammo from up here. Even locked all the doors. What you see is what you get.” Keith flung the tech-band in Mitch’s face, hitting him above the eye.
“You fucking prima donna. Is that all you’ve got?” Mitch brushed the back of his hand across the trickle of blood. “Don’t you know? Rats like you never make it out alive.” Mitch stepped onto the landing. “Hooyahhhhhh!”
Charging toward Keith, he body-slammed him up against the wall. Turned him around and raced them both toward the railing. Their hand-to-hand, fist-to-fist struggle intensified as Mitch grabbed him by the collar and took them both over the rail. Landing on the floor below, he smashed his fist into Keith then jumped to his feet.
Mitch yanked the silverware drawer out of the cabinet as Russ jerked Liz in front of himself, using her as a shield. Forks and spoons and knives flew across the room. She screamed and flung her free arm in front of her face.
Intensifying his grip on the drawer handle, Mitch stepped and spun in a strong, tight circle. The next second, he slammed Keith with the bottom of the drawer. Circled again and smashed the drawer flat against the man’s face, breaking his nose. Keith dropped to the floor, blood gushing down his face. Mitch braced his foot against Keith’s groin, grabbed his leg, and karate chopped the knee. It popped. Twisting the ankle, it popped next. And when Mitch dropped the disfigured leg back to the floor, he heel stomped the shin. Keith screamed as one of the broken bones slashed through the skin on the front of his shin. He wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.
The man was incapacitated enough to keep him down, yet alive for OPAQUE to interrogate. Enough to find out exactly what he’d done in the past five years. Enough to—
Slugger stepped across and up-kicked Mitch’s chin.
…
Liz screamed as Mitch staggered to stay on his feet. He charged headfirst into Slugger, but the thug reacted with a downward fist chop on Mitch’s back, and he crumpled to his knees gasping for breath. At least Slugger hadn’t landed the blow on his neck.
“That’s enough for now.” Russ stepped over Keith’s crumpled body and moved farther into the room. “I must say, it’ll be hard to outdo Agent Granger and Agent Ayers’s opening act. But I believe the main presentation will stand as the crowd-pleaser.”
As Mitch regained his footing, Liz walked in his direction, reaching out to help him. He shoved her hand away, but she grabbed his hand and slipped him a piece of the sharp beer bottle glass. Most of the shards she’d picked up from the floor had been from the oven door, but she still had a few more of the sharp pieces in her pocket. At least now he had a weapon.
He nodded and slid the jagged shard into the tiny pouch on his Neoprene swim shorts.
