Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

At last, with a worried little frown, she looked over at him. “Mace, this relationship with the bat—it’s symbiotic, right?”

“Not quite. We thought that’s what it was, but turns out our science was off. Friday’s got some big, fancy words to describe our situation, but basically it boils down to us being hybrids. Two different entities in one body, making up something new.”

“But you both depend on each other for life, right?”

“There’s no separating us, if that’s what you mean.”

“That’s what I thought.” She paled. “Which makes me wonder: What happens to you if the bat dies?”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Freedom

CommTECH Research Facility terrace

Houston, Northern Territory

The blaring alarm, which had been grating on Susan Neal’s nerves, went blessedly silent.

“The security-hub team reports it was a false alarm,” Graham, her communications expert, informed her. “They think it had something to do with our jamming the building’s signals.”

“Or it could have been our rogue press secretary and her reporter friend.”

“The team couldn’t find any evidence of their interference. The alarm appears to have been triggered in a remote part of the building. The pair couldn’t have gotten near it without security picking them up on their screens.”

Then it was just a fault. “Where are we on hunting down the press secretary?”

Graham indicated to Michael as he crossed the terrace toward them. His face was grim as he approached. “I’d say your second-in-command knows the answer to that,” he said.

“The men we sent out after Keiko and the reporter are dead,” Michael said as he came up to them. “He broke one of their necks and threw the other out the window.”

“Broken neck? Are you sure?” Contrary to common belief, it wasn’t easy to snap someone’s neck.

“I’m sure. We searched the penthouse, but there was no sign of them. They somehow managed to get past us.”

Susan let out a long, slow breath. “Who is this reporter with Keiko? What do we know about him?”

Graham pulled her datapad out of the side pocket of her pants. “Mace Armstrong. Freelance. New to reporting on CommTECH. His past work was small-time, local news. Looks like he was angling to move up in the world.”

“Training? Ex-Enforcement?” There were alarm bells going off in Susan’s head. A local news reporter shouldn’t have been able to take out two of her men as easily as Mace Armstrong had.

Graham shook his head. “Not that I can find.”

“Get tech onto it. See what they can dig up.”

“Already done.”

Susan nodded as she felt her wrist unit issue an alert. “It’s time to talk to Miriam again.” She looked up at Michael. “Find that press secretary. We need her.”

“I’ll take Rock.” Michael eyed the man on the other side of the terrace who was easily a head taller than everyone around him. “Rock’s ex-Enforcement, and I don’t know what skill set we’re up against with that reporter.”

She nodded. Her attention was already on what she would say to CommTECH’s CEO. “Are you set up?” she asked Graham.

“We’re good to go whenever you’re ready.”

Susan had no doubt that the CEO hadn’t gotten any further in fulfilling their demands. It was as though Miriam didn’t care about her scientists. And that was fine with Susan because she knew that the viewers glued to their newsfeeds did care, and each execution would push CommTECH’s stock further into decline until it plummeted so far that Miriam couldn’t ignore Freedom any longer. She glanced at the stage and wondered which scientist would have the pleasure of furthering Freedom’s cause this time.

She sighed. Anyone but Rueben Granger would do. He was too valuable to lose him now. She got a lot more mileage out of the world watching him suffer. With a flick of her hand, she signaled to her cameraman that it was time to start the show.