Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

A princess dismissing her peasant.

And that really grated.

Chapter Twenty

He should have let it go, but he couldn’t. Her ignorance put their lives in danger. Worse, it put hers in danger. And he couldn’t stomach the thought of her being hurt because of it.

“Have you heard of Friday Jones?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Have you heard of her or not?”

“Of course I’ve heard of her. She’s the scientist who ran away with CommTECH secrets a few months ago. She tried to sell them to one of our competitors, but the Bolivian government intervened, a firefight broke out, and she died in the fray.”

“Friday Jones didn’t steal secrets, and she sure as hell didn’t die in South America.” He snorted. “She’s alive and well, married to our team leader, Striker.”

The color drained from her face. “That isn’t possible. Are you sure it’s the same person?”

“Oh, I’m sure. She ran from CommTECH when she witnessed a meeting between the world’s leaders that she shouldn’t have. And what did your perfect CommTECH do? They sent mercenaries and Enforcement after her to kill her. Until, finally, they sent in Kane Duggan, who locked her in a cell in an illegal mine in La Paz and waited for her to die. Fortunately, we got her out before that happened, but Kane didn’t make it in the process.”

“No,” she said as her eyes widened. “That can’t be right. I gave the press release on his death. We were told he died in the same firefight that killed Friday Jones. He died protecting company secrets.”

“He died protecting company secrets, all right, just not the ones you think he was protecting. CommTECH is mining ladmium in La Paz, a shit ton of the stuff, all ripped out of the earth illegally, and with the blessing of the Bolivian president. That’s one of the secrets Miriam’s security chief was protecting. That and the fact Friday was in the wrong place at the wrong time, saw something she shouldn’t, and they wanted her dead because of it.”

“It doesn’t make sense…” she muttered almost to herself, but he could see she was wavering.

That was why he opened his mouth and said the very last thing he should have said to CommTECH’s press secretary. “What if I could prove Friday is alive?”

Her dark eyes held his, and there was a plea in them. Her world was crumbling around her, and she was torn between remaining in ignorance and knowing the truth. And for some reason, he just couldn’t let her stay in the dark. It was a dangerous place, filled with the secrets and machinations of CommTECH’s leaders. She wasn’t safe there.

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his handheld datapad. This mission had been a series of screwups since it’d started, and one of them was his forgetting to wipe the information from the datapad after Friday had taken control of it on the terrace. He tapped the screen, telling it to replay last actions, and then he handed it to Keiko.

The screen burst into life with an image of Friday’s frowning face and Keiko gasped.

“I’m taking remote control of your datapad,” Friday said as her image appeared in the top right-hand corner of the screen, frowning. “See this box?” A dialogue box appeared on the screen. “You type in the release command, and the injector will pop out of the datapad. From the time it emerges, you only have about fifteen seconds to inject it into our target, otherwise it will be useless. So don’t release it until you know you’re going to use it.” She let out a long-suffering sigh. “When you get back to base, I’m making you take a Technology for Beginners course. Your ignorance makes you a danger to the team. And it’s embarrassing.”

“I know enough for what I need to do,” Mace’s voice rang out.

“Obviously not, or you’d be doing it.” She turned to her husband, who appeared behind her on the screen. “Is it too late to swap him out and put someone more capable in there? I’m worried he’s going to screw everything up and we won’t get the information we need. This is too important to let Mace loose on it. Millions of people could die if that chip is implanted in their heads.”

“Yeah, it’s too late to swap him out,” Striker said. “But don’t worry about it none. Mace’ll get the job done—he ain’t screwed up a mission yet. Take a deep breath and leave him be. You can fight it out with him once this is over.”

“Fine,” she huffed, “but if we ever have to infiltrate a research facility again, we send in someone who understands how to use a datapad. There are days I’m not even sure Mace can walk and talk at the same time.”

“Hey,” Mace said. “Still here.”

“I know,” Friday said. “I’m finished with your datapad. You can have control back. Do you think you can manage to wipe its memory once I log out, or do I need to talk you through that, too?”

“Why did we rescue her again?” Mace said.

“She’s great in bed,” Striker joked, earning a slap on the back of his head from his wife.

The screen went blank.

Keiko’s hands were shaking as she looked up at him. “That was Friday Jones.”

“I know.”