Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

She threw her hands in the air. “Well, come on, that was out of order.”

Striker cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him. “Right now, we’ve got other things to discuss, but we’ll be talking about you breaking team trust when this is over.”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say in front of Keiko, too, because she shot to her feet, put her hands on her hips, and faced off against his team leader. “No, you won’t. Not unless you want to talk about the trust issues you’ve steamrolled through. We can start with you organizing to kidnap my parents. Then we can move on to the fact they were never really in danger and you put Mace in a position where he had to lie about it.”

There was a long silence before Striker focused on Mace. “You told her about her parents?”

“She’s got enough to worry about without adding fear for their lives into the mix.”

The team leader pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s not the point.”

“No,” Mace said. “The point is we need to know if you can help us get out of here. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this isn’t Club Med.”

Striker’s shoulders relaxed, and he inclined his head at Mace. “You’re right. What’s your current situation?”

Hooking a finger into the back of Keiko’s shorts, Mace tugged her back to her seat. She still glared at Striker, but at least she wasn’t facing off against him. Although, he couldn’t help the surge of awe he felt that she’d taken on his team for him. It was something else.

“The terrorists are pulling out the stops looking for Keiko. My guess is they want to make an example out of her. We’ve had to deal with a few of them already. Some permanently. And they’ve been”—he glanced at Keiko and watched her face turn blank, showing she knew what was coming—“assassinating the scientists.”

Striker and Friday’s faces both softened as they looked at Keiko.

“We’re sorry about your friend, chère,” Striker said.

Keiko nodded and reached for her water bottle.

Mace guided the conversation away from her. “What’s the situation on your end?”

“It ain’t good.” Striker’s tone was subdued, in deference for Keiko’s loss. “Enforcement’s surrounding the building, and the Mercer twins have arrived.”

“Damn,” Mace hissed. Things just kept getting worse.

Keiko looked up at him. “Why are you upset that CommTECH’s heads of security are here? We’re surrounded by Enforcement, anyway. What’s two more on their side?”

“You know what happened when they sent their last head of security after us in Bolivia. The Mercers turning up isn’t good news. It means that CommTECH’s in damage-control mode.”

“You told her about Bolivia?” Friday was outraged. “Do you even understand the meaning of the word secret?”

“Stop it,” Keiko snapped. “No more put-downs. I won’t tell you again.” She turned from Friday, whose mouth was hanging open, and asked Mace her question. “What do you mean, ‘damage control’?”

Never in his life had he wanted to kiss a woman as much as he wanted to kiss Keiko right then.

“He means,” Striker said, “that the Mercer twins are going to lead an assault to take back the building and protect the data stored in the vault. They won’t care who gets hurt as long as they meet their objectives, and, according to our sources, they’ve been told the research takes precedence over the staff.”

She let out a mirthless laugh. “I can’t believe I ever thought CommTECH was the good guy. How could I have missed the clues?”

Mace reached over and took her hand in his. “You missed them because there weren’t any to see from where you were standing. Stop beating yourself up. You know what’s real now, and that’s what matters.”

“If I’d known a whole lot earlier, I could have tried to get Abigail away from CommTECH. I could have saved her life.”

“We’ve been over this.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “Hindsight will screw with your mind. There’s no point wondering what could have been done differently. Instead, put the blame where it belongs—firmly on the shoulders of the people who killed her.”

Her small, sad smile almost broke his heart.

Beside them, Striker cleared his throat, and Mace turned to find both him and his wife studying them intently.

“We’ve got a plan,” Striker said. “We’re gonna create a diversion, see if we can thin out Enforcement some and make it easier for you to sneak out of there.”

Now that was the best news he’d heard in days. “How long are we talking until your plan goes into play? We need to get to the security hub and take out the central control system and make sure the cameras are down.”