Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

She put the empty bottle on the table. “Why can’t we just stay here until everything is over?”

Mace reached behind him, grabbed another water bottle from the counter, unscrewed the cap, and put it in front of her. “Because Enforcement will search the building, and when they find me here, they’ll arrest me.”

“Why?” Her eyes grew wider. “They don’t know who you are, and I won’t tell them.”

“Princess, they’ll know who I am by now. Every resource CommTECH has will be aimed at finding out everything they can about the man on the ledge with their press secretary.”

“Former press secretary,” she mumbled, and then her eyes hit his. “I resigned earlier. Even wrote a memo. It will go straight to Miriam as soon as I’m connected to the network again.”

“Please tell me you didn’t put in there that you knew all about her being a lying, murderous cancer on humanity?”

Keiko’s lips twitched. “You should have gone into public relations. You have a way with words. And no, I told them that after this experience, I was getting out of the PR game.” She blinked those thick lashes at him. “I have to protect my parents. As long as I’m with CommTECH, they will always be in danger.”

He shook his head. “Striker told you we wouldn’t use them again, and I’ll make sure he keeps his promise.”

Reaching out, her hand covered his. “It isn’t that, although I’m sure some other group would eventually find out about their affiliations and use it to get what they want. It’s also that I know the truth about CommTECH now, and I can’t carry on working with them knowing it. And then…there’s Abigail.” She swallowed hard. “I need time to…”

“Mourn.” He turned his hand in hers and threaded their fingers together.

“Yeah,” she whispered.

&nbs

p; Mace’s throat felt suddenly tight, and he cleared it. “Can’t say I’m upset that you’re done with CommTECH, but I hate that your life has been upended.”

“Well, you can start fixing that by getting us out of here. I’m fed up with CommTECH, this building, Freedom’s violence, and this tomb Miriam calls a panic room.”

He gave her hand one last squeeze and reached for the datapad. “I can do that.” Holding up the device, he said, “Where’s the on switch again?”

“For goodness’ sake…” She reached for the datapad, but Mace snatched it away.

“Joking.” He grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes at him, but some of the sparkle was back.

“Mace.” Striker’s voice came from the datapad. “I knew you were too ornery to die.”

Mace angled the pad up to face the inbuilt camera. “I’m glad to see you too, brother,” he said.

Striker was joined by Friday, who looked relieved to see Mace. It almost made him feel bad about winding her up so much. Almost.

“Is it safe to talk?” she said.

“Yeah, we’re in Miriam’s panic room, up on the sixty-eighth floor. I’m using a wired-in connection point because Freedom is still jamming the signals. Wait a minute—let me put you on the bigger screens.”

“Do you know how to do that?” Friday asked.

Mace just grunted and hit the one button he did know how to find. At once, Striker and Friday appeared on the wall beside them, and the camera built into the wall showed them the interior of the panic room. When the couple spotted Keiko, Friday screeched before rushing out of frame.

“What the hell?” Striker demanded.

Mace ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, forgot to mention, Keiko’s here listening, too. But don’t panic, she already knows all about Friday. She may as well come back.”

The blond scientist appeared again and glared at Mace, which was pretty disconcerting, given that her face was about four feet tall on the screen. “You told CommTECH’s press secretary about me? Have you lost your mind?”

“Hey,” Keiko snapped as she pointed at Friday. “Don’t talk to him like that. When you’re in this situation, you can make the decisions; otherwise, you keep your commentary to yourself.”

Mace fought a grin. “You done defending me, tiger?”