Kade swallows down his violent desire to absolutely decimate this motherfucker, knows he needs to be patient.
He keeps his eyes glued to the boots.
They walk closer.
Shit.
Kade grips his gun, won’t go down without a fight.
But then the boots turn away and pull into a run, headed out of the room.Kade quickly sees why when a fuck-ton of white lights come streaming inside, all of them attached to guns.Rough hands are on him, pulling him up.
It’s Luca.He’s saying things.
Kade shakes his head, taps his ears.
Luca switches rapidly to sign language, which he speaks well because Kade taught him.Are you hurt?Shot?
‘No, you?’
Fine.Was it a flashbang?
‘Yeah.’Kade’s sense of balance goes briefly sideways but after he takes a few slow breaths, thumb pressing into his left wrist, it levels out.
Luca pats him on the back.
He wasso surethey had him.
Kade can’t hear himself speak, but he, being a godless man, mutters, ‘Pride goeth,’ like it’s both prayer and apology.Then he looks up and casts around the room.‘Gage?’Luca shakes his head.‘Fuck.OK, listen up.I want everyone who’s able with me in pursuit.Headshots only, this fucker is wearingsomething.We unloaded on him, and he got up like it was paintball.Bravo Team bring up the rear.Alpha Team take the lead.Luca, tell Echo and Foxtrot to hold the lower floors in case thisisa Breacher.’
Luca signs,Heard.
Still unable to hear himself talk, Kade goes on.‘This one’s done his homework, and he’s ex-military.Boss is locked down but we are not letting him get near, so let’s go.’
In methodical formation, they pursue the trail, what little there is to follow, all the way up to the fourth floor when it ends abruptly.
Kade keeps everyone tight behind him, wary of afallback trick,but it doesn’t seem that way.Luca taps his shoulder and signs,Unless he levitated, he didn’t go up the main stairs.
‘Oh shit,’ Kade utters, looking to the right.
The service stairwell.
‘Luca, Rike, Mara, with me.Everyone else go up the main way.’
Kade leads the way up the dark service stairwell, tight and narrow, not made for heavy traffic.Along the way, tiny fragments of vague sound begin filtering into his consciousness, but he mostly ignores them.Gun aimed ahead, he makes it all the way up in record time and then emerges carefully, focus on the massive steel doors that lead to the Watch.
The blackout is still ongoing.
Kade calculates less than a minute before it’s back on, barring delays.
‘Where is he?’he mutters to himself, barely hears even the tone of it.He’s clocking corners, dark places.There’s no way the fucker is inside already.It’s impossible.They beat the other teams up here, but they can’t be far behind.‘Wherearey—?’
Kade is grabbed from behind, a thick arm clenching around his throat.He slams his elbow into the seemingly unprotected solar plexus of the intruder, who doesn’t even flinch, then pulls out his blade and drives it deep into the intruder’s thigh before yanking it out again to ensure heavy bleed but gets no reaction whatsoever.
It’s a solid grip, purepython.
Kade’s not getting out of it and has maybe thirty seconds before he’s unconscious.He can’thearwhat the guy is saying but knows by the setup that he’s using Kade as a hostage to enter the Watch.
Kade looks to Luca who is yelling, gun trained on the man behind him.‘Shoot him,’ he tells Luca clearly.‘Take himdown!’Luca makes a face, visibly torn.He’s not firing, none of them are.
