Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

“You brought me on board to study your DNA. To give you answers. I can’t do that if he won’t cooperate.”

“That wasn’t the only reason I brought you on board, bébé.” He gave her a wicked smile that made her cheeks turn pink. “But once this is over, I’ll talk to him. Okay?”

She nodded as Sandi snapped her old-fashioned phone shut and turned to them.

“Things just got a whole lot worse,” she said. “I got word from Zane that the Mercer twins are on their way to Houston. They’re coming to deal with the situation personally.”

The air in the van thickened, and it became harder to breathe.

“How long ’til they get here?” Striker asked.

“Couple of hours at most.”

“If they realize Mace is part of your team, they’ll try to capture him so they can flush you out.” The color drained from Friday’s face. “They’ll take DNA samples. It’s standard procedure. If CommTECH gets hold of him, all of your secrets will be revealed. We need to do something to help him get out of there, right now.”

“We could start with getting that camera off our guy,” Gray said from the front of the van, where he’d tried to put distance between himself and the rest of them. Gray had become far too good at isolating himself, which was why Striker had brought him along on this op—he wanted to keep an eye on him.

“Sandi, Gray,” Striker said. “Deal with the helicopter. Let’s get the light off Mace.”

With a nod, they were out the door and running for their hoverbikes. The door slammed behind them, echoing through the interior of the van.

“Hunter, where’s the rest of the team?”

“Still at least an hour away.”

Striker contacted one of the team members who’d already arrived, speaking to him through his comm. “Ignacio. The Mercers are on the way. Cover the front of the building and keep an eye out for them. Let me know as soon as they arrive.”

“On it,” came the reply.

Chapter Sixteen

Downtown

Houston, Northern Territory

Sandi zoomed through the streets of downtown Houston on a bike that silently skimmed the road. It was fast and efficient, but she still missed the old Harley she’d helped Mace fix up when they were teens. She’d barely known him then, and he’d scared the life out of her. He’d been the massive, strange kid who was placed alongside her in foster care. Back then, she’d been a skinny teen who’d jumped at her own shadow and was afraid she’d get kicked out into the street if she so much as made a sound.

She would never have spoken to Mace if he hadn’t approached her first. But one day, he’d asked her to fix his bike with him, the bike he kept hidden from their useless foster parents in case they sold it. Some of the best times in her life were spent working on that bike with Mace. It had turned them into family. Her only family. Mace was her brother, and she would die to save him.

“Cordon up ahead,” she told Gray through the comm unit installed in her helmet. “What’s happening at your end?”

They’d split up. Coming at the research facility from different directions.

Gray let out a huff. “Got a wall of cops blocking my path. I’m looking for an in.”

She spotted an alley sitting between two of the heritage buildings and nipped into it. It narrowed toward the end, but she skirted through, turning her bike into the street behind it. To her right, Buffalo Bayou snaked through the darkness, city lights glittering off the surface of the water. The old aquarium sat abandoned on the other side of the water, destroyed in one of the many floods that had hit Houston over the years. The same floods that had turned the bayou from a lazy stream into a deep river. A lot had changed in the years she’d been gone from Houston.

“I’m getting blocked at every turn.” Gray didn’t sound happy.

She sped between two more buildings, glimpsing the top of the research facility in the distance. If she was to have any chance of taking out that chopper’s light, she had to get a whole lot closer than this. Trusting the sensors on the bike to keep her from hitting a wall, she did a visual scan on the area, looking for a building high enough to take her shot from.

Got it!

She veered to the left, jumped the sidewalk, and headed for her target. The building she’d earmarked was an older skyscraper that rented its offices to businesses at the lower end of the market, which meant security wasn’t as tight as it was in some other buildings. Not that she cared. She’d blast her way in if she had to.

“I’m getting nowhere here.” Gray sounded disgusted.

“I’ve got something. Give me a minute.” She came to a halt, jumped off the bike, grabbed her rifle bag, and ran for the main entrance.