Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

Friday gasped. “That’s awful.”

“Yeah, bébé, it’s awful. It also makes him feel like he has to save every woman who comes across his path.” Something that’d gotten the team into trouble a time or two in the past.

“Especially the ones he’s been balls deep in,” Gray added. “Makes him feel extra responsible.”

“Not helping.” Striker frowned at his teammate. Unfortunately, it was also true. “We need to plan this operation with the assumption that Mace and Keiko are together and we have to get both of them out of there.”

“That isn’t good news,” Hunter stated the obvious. “If he’s with Keiko, he’s screwed. Everybody will be hunting for her. Terrorists and Enforcement alike. This is one huge game of capture the flag.”

There was silence.

“You all get that Keiko’s the flag, right?” Hunter said, making Sandi smack him upside his head.

“Get the building specs and have Ignacio go over them,” Striker told him. “And contact the rest of the team. We’re going to need all hands on deck if this thing goes south. Sandi, get in touch with our CommTECH contacts, find out what’s going on at that end. Gray, you check out Freedom. I want to know everything there is to know about Susan Neal. And you, bébé”—he looked down at his serious wife—“I need you to rack your brain and think of a way out for our boy. Nobody else on the team knows that building like you do. You spent years working in there. Give us every option you can think of, no matter how far-fetched. Let’s get our boy out of there.”

Friday wrapped her hand around his arm. “What about Keiko’s friend, Abigail?”

He shared a look with his team, knowing full well that the chances of getting three people out of the building alive were miniscule. As soon as Enforcement arrived, the building would turn into a war zone, and neither Enforcement nor Freedom would care who survived.

“We can’t leave them,” Friday said. “We got them into this.”

The soft pleading in her eyes broke his heart. “We’ll do our best,” he promised her.

It was all he could do.

Chapter Nine

CommTECH headquarters

New York City, Northern Territory

Miriam Shepherd wanted to pick up the handblown glass paperweight on her desk and throw it at the screens covering the opposite wall. But she didn’t. She hadn’t made it to the top of the most powerful company on the planet by letting her emotions loose when things went wrong. No, she calculated, planned, and retaliated. Most of all, she was always, always, well-informed, which was why she was particularly upset to receive news of the attack on the research facility from the public information network instead of from her new joint-heads of security.

“Why am I hearing about Houston in this way?” She motioned to the images of the Freedom fighter making her inane demands.

The two men standing beside her didn’t move a muscle. Their identical features were equally contained. Miriam had chosen the Mercer twins for exactly these qualities. They were deadly, unemotional, and quite possibly psychotic. Perfect attributes for the heads of her personal security.

“The on-site security team deployed as soon as the attack started,” one of the twins said.

Miriam had long ago stopped trying to tell them apart; now she just called them both Mercer. Seeing as they worked as a unit, it was a perfect solution to the naming problem.

“The on-site security team didn’t contact base until the situation was well underway,” the other twin continued. “By then it was too late to advise or send in backup. The security team was eliminated, and communications jammed.” He looked at the time on the far screen. “That was seven minutes ago. We sent you a communiqué and came straight here as soon as we knew there was nothing else that could be done from this distance.”

“You should have told me while you were dealing with the situation.” Her previous head of security would have known to do that. Unfortunately, he wasn’t alive to meet her demands, and it would take some time to break in his replacements.

The twins didn’t reply, as no response was required, but she knew that next time a security situation occurred, she would be informed immediately.

“The Houston team was foolish.” Miriam sank back into her state-of-the-art desk chair. “They should have isolated the sixty-sixth floor, left it

to Freedom, and secured the rest of the building. Instead, they managed to get themselves killed and give control of the entire facility to the terrorists.” She tapped one pearly fingernail on her glass desk. “What’s your plan?”

“We need you to negotiate with Freedom, buy us some time while we go to Houston and take over the operation,” the first twin said.

Miriam nodded. It was exactly as she expected. “How much time do you need?”

The Freedom woman had given her an hour to get back to her. An hour? Honestly, even if she were considering giving in to their demands, she wouldn’t be able to assemble the board and vote on governance changes in that time. The CommTECH board was difficult to assemble at the best of times. They were a hands-off board. More interested in the profit margin than in the day-to-day running of the company. Which was exactly the way she liked them.

“I’ll contact Freedom a few minutes before deadline.” Let them think she was scrambling to meet their demands. She brushed a piece of lint from her pristine white silk suit. “The hostages are not the priority.”