Now the doorknob began to turn, a millimeter at a time.
Whoever this is, they’re going to get a big fucking surprise.
If it was a Sig, she intended to do some damage before letting them catch her.If it was anyone else…
The doorknob turned.Adrenaline freeze poured over Rowan’s vision, sharp and clear—the nap of a cheap bedspread, the horrid beige carpet, the print of a fruit basket over the useless television, individual scratches left on the painted wall from other people banging luggage carelessly around.Rowan’s pulse slowed.She was still and quiet as an adder under a rock, buttoned down tightly, not daring to scan outside the door in case the attacker was a psion.
The door released.The attacker waited a moment before opening, an inch at a time.Chill industrial-filtered air swept across Rowan’s arms as she slashed, legs turning into coiled springs, driving a shoulder into the attacker’s hard-muscled midriff and spilling them both onto cheap harsh hallway carpet.She struggled wildly, her right wrist caught in a bruising grip and locked, twisted mercilessly until the knife dropped.Then he grabbed her other wrist and rolled, effectively trapping her.A sharp twisting psychic attack smashed into her bruised and vulnerable head.
She shunted the force of the attack aside, not even bothering to turn it back upon the attacker.Rowan found her mouth near his shoulder, training suddenly shoving aside fear.Shebitas hard as she could, thrashing wildly.
He let out a short barking cry.She brought her knee up swiftly, rolled free as his arm loosened, scooping up the knife as she made it upright.Threw a kick, catching the man squarely in the face, and catching a glimpse of blonde hair as he collapsed.Then Rowan was on him again, knife sinking into flesh with a solid sound.
Memory cascaded inside her head.She seemed to remember a blond man clutching her arm as Justin, bloody and battered, raised his hands slowly, one full of a knife blade glittering through a haze of sedation.
The man swore in a vicious whisper.Rowan stabbed again, knife sinking in just as Justin had taught her, the shock of blade meeting bone jarring up to her shoulder.Twist it, break the suction of muscle on the blade, good girl.Just like that.
The man gurgled under her.Rowan got one foot on the floor, her knee in his midriff.She let out a short, sharp breath.
He was in Sigma gear.They’d found her, all right.
A smallpsshht!sound, a spear of ice buried itself in her shoulder.Ow!What the hell?
Comprehension burst inside her head just as the compulsion broke, shattered by consummation, and Rowan’s body turned to lead.The drug was quick, a tranquilizer dart loaded with something icy-prickling, lassitude flooding out from its touch.For one agonized moment before her head hit the floor she understood that she’d been very silly, she was trapped, and she was very, very grateful Justin was safe back at Headquarters.
Sigma had her now.
CHAPTER24
Del watchedfrom the screen of thick bushes, too far away fro anything but gnashing his teeth as the Sigs carried down two limp forms.One was Rowan, a pale sheaf of ash-blonde hair rising on the faint, chill night breeze.Two Sigs carried her to the black van, bundled her in.
Del’s hands turned to ice.
The second cargo was male-shaped, a familiar wheat-blond buzzcut.
Andrews.I’d bet anything that’s him.A hard, satisfied agony burst in Del’s chest.He drew back into the shadows, even though they weren’t scanning for him.
They had what they’d come for.If he’d been a little quicker he might have saved her, but now it was too late.She wouldn’t be served by getting him caught too.
Oh, Rowan.
The limp male bodywasAndrews, he decided as a stray gleam of light passed along the corpse.They bundled his body into the second black van, and more carried her duffel and kitbag.It was the off-season; the parking lot had been near-empty.Not many people came south in spring or summer when the heat got unbearable.
Now it was crawling with Sig teams and lcoal support, colored lights flashing, voices raised.By dawn her hotel room would be empty and wiped; it was all over but the paperwork.
He just couldn’t get to her under these odds.He’d narrowly escaped the Sigs in Saint City while following her.She had taken suicidal chances by operating without dampers and doing everything but getting arrested and shouting,“Here I am, boys!”It was a wonder she hadn’t been picked up until now.
Too late, too late, I’m too fucking late.Where are they taking her?
She’d accessed an old map from the intranet at Headquarters.He could have told her it was out of date.There was an old Sig installation near here, but it had been closed for a good five years.
Which made the closest installation Zero-Fifteen.The belly of the beast itself.
Are you crazy, Delgado?Christ, they’ll eat her alive and there’ll be nothing left but a husk.They’ll break her; Anton will break her.Don’t do it.Please don’t do what you’re contemplating.It’s insanity.You won’t make it out alive.
He reached out blindly, hand closing over a juniper branch.He squeezed, hearing the crackle of dry wood under his fingers, strangely removed.Besides, she doesn’t love you.She couldn’t.She’s not that type.She’s good, and you’re not.What the hell are you thinking?
The vans roused, beasts purring in satisfaction.The one carrying Rowan made a short, sharp half-circle in the parking lot, headlights splashing wetly against other cars.Del ducked instinctively, though his cover was good and he was sure they couldn’t see or sense him.
