Blood & Thunder (THIRDS 2)

“Shit.” Sloane grabbed Calvin and Cael. “Start getting these kids out of here.”

Maddock appeared with a dozen agents behind him. “I put out a call to the other divisions requesting assistance. Emergency services are already here and Beta Ambush is ready for their orders. Where do you want them?”

“Okay, I want one agent per floor along with my team, the rest down here and outside helping Rosa and Letty until the other squads arrive. I’ll take this floor, Ash you take the second. Dex, you and Hobbs evacuate the third and fourth floors, Beta Ambush, you’re on your own for the fifth floor and the court on the roof. Let’s get everyone out of here. I want updates as you get them and watch your step!”

They broke off, Dex running after Hobbs as they took the stairs two at a time while simultaneously checking to make sure it was safe. Exposed wires hung from the ceiling, but not low enough to reach them. The fallen ceiling panels snapped under their boots as they rushed through the fire door. Dex tried not to think about what they might find. From the looks of the place, the ground floor was in worse shape, which told him the explosion had originated there. Every time Dex thought about the man behind this, he had to quickly push it from his head to keep his anger in check. If he thought about the sick fuck who’d done this, he’d be no good to anyone. He had a job to do and terrified kids depending on them.

Kids ranging from young to teens huddled together in small groups or pairs, looking stricken, their dirty cheeks stained with trails from their tears. They were lost, and scared, and when they spotted Hobbs, they flooded over en masse. Hobbs was a huge Therian, a golden tabby tiger in his Therian form, but unlike Ash, Hobbs had a kind face and a tender smile. He knelt down as the kids all tried to talk to him or climb into his arms at once. He hugged them close to reassure them, whispering at them and doing his best to soothe them. Some of them eyed Dex warily, and he couldn’t blame them. They were in this center because they’d been shunned or mistreated by Humans, whether by their parents or other Humans. Hobbs must have said something, because they turned their tearful gazes toward him, uncertain but willing to take Hobbs’s word for it that Dex was one of the good guys.

“We need to get out of here, okay?” Dex approached one of the bigger boys. “What’s your name?”

The kid rounded his shoulders, his gaze unwavering, though Dex could see past the bravado to the fear he was trying so desperately to hide. “Kurt.”

“Okay, Kurt. These fellas need your help. Take the smallest ones, lead them downstairs. Our guys are in the lobby. They’ll make sure you get out safe.” Kurt hopped to it while Dex and Hobbs rounded up the others and saw them down the stairs, waiting while they made their way out to the lobby. Dex tapped his earpiece. “Sloane, we’ve got thirteen kids on the way down. I’d send Cael for them. Anyone else will scare them, especially Human agents.”

“Copy that. Good work.”

When the last of them had disappeared out the door downstairs, Dex turned to Hobbs. “Why don’t we start at the west end and make our way down, then take the stairs up to the fourth.”

Hobbs nodded and they hurried to the other end of the corridor, checking each room. The third floor was all dorm rooms. They were painted in cheerful colors, some with rows of bunk beds, some with rows of single beds, while others had fewer beds. The rooms with bunk beds were clearly for the younger kids, judging by the scattered toys, picture books, and cartoon bedding. The rooms with single beds were most likely for the preteens with posters of young pop stars and superheroes on the wall. And the rooms with fewer beds were for the teenagers as they were mostly solid colors, included desks with computers, and bookshelves piled high with books ranging from Algebra to Harry Potter. Dex was glad to see all the rooms were clean, everything freshly painted. As far as youth centers went, the place was top notch.

Dex made sure to check under, inside, and over any space where a kid could wedge him or herself. Everything was clear by the time they got to the end. He tapped his earpiece. “Sloane, third floor is clear. We’re heading up to the fourth.”

“Copy that. From the intel I’m getting, it seems the worst of the damage is down here. Still, keep your eyes peeled up there.”

“Copy that,” Dex replied, joining Hobbs on the stairwell to the next floor. This one was quiet, and he assumed at this time of day, the kids had been involved in other activities. The fourth floor was mostly classrooms for different age groups. One had a huge rug with a map of the United States with each state and name in a bright color. All kinds of maps were pinned against the walls, waist-high bookshelves running along the walls all around the room filled with books, DVDs, and games. Finding that room clear, they moved into the next room, which was some kind of recreation room filled with game tables—Ping-Pong, foosball, paddleball, a pool table, and air hockey. They checked the art room, library, computer room, and finally reached the last classroom. It was a huge room behind a large set of fire doors at the end of the hall.

It looked like any other children’s classroom filled with colorful tables and chairs, a teacher’s desk that was made of some kind of durable stainless steel or aluminum, shelves filled with books, chalkboards, corkboards displaying colorful pictures, and science diagrams hanging from the ceiling. There were shelves displaying projects, hooks for school bags, and a section for educational toys. They checked behind every piece of furniture, inside every cupboard, and even behind all the

raincoats. They were about to head out when Hobbs stopped in the middle of the room.

“Hobbs?”

Hobbs put a finger to his lips and cocked his head to one side. That’s when Dex heard it too. Faint sniffling. Hobbs walked to a medium sized toy chest filled with stuffed animals and got down on his knees. He picked up two bright bears with numbers on their tummies and smiled. Putting the bears on the floor, he tapped his name badge, his smile making wrinkles form at the corners of his green eyes as he held his gloved hand out. A second later, a small chubby hand slipped into Hobbs’s much larger one. A small boy with big brown eyes, an Iron Man T-shirt, and paint-spattered jeans stood up. He threw his arms around Hobbs.

Dex tapped his earpiece. “Sloane, we’ve got one more.”

“Copy that. I’ll send someone up.” Moments later, a Therian agent from Beta Ambush came running, and Hobbs handed the boy over. With a nod, the agent was off, disappearing through the stairwell. Dex tapped his earpiece. “Sloane, Agent Simmons is heading down with the last one. We’re going to do one last sweep of the floor, but I think we might be clear….” His voice trailed off when Hobbs stopped to study the vent up near the ceiling at the far end of the room. “Hobbs?”

“Dex? What’s going on?” Sloane asked.

Hobbs pulled off the vent screen, stood on his toes, and peeked in. The rest happened so fast, Dex barely had time to register what the hell was going on. Hobbs sped straight for Dex, shoving him so hard he went stumbling through the fire doors. The last thing he heard was the slam of metal and an explosion that shook the floor beneath him when he hit it.

Dex curled up on himself, arms thrown over his helmet as the blast reverberated around him. Debris, ceiling panels, chunks of plaster, and brick falling on him, banging against his helmet as a cloud of heavy smoke and dust threatened to choke him. He rolled onto his side, coughing and hacking, his body covered in a layer of gray dust. When he inhaled, his lungs burned, and sitting up made him wince. His left thigh stung. Checking his leg, there was a long gash where a piece of something sharp had sliced through his tac pants, but lucky for him, it wasn’t deep. When his ears stopped ringing, he could hear Sloane shouting through his earpiece.

“Dex, goddamn it, answer me!”

“I’m okay,” he wheezed. “Are Simmons and the kid okay?”

“Yeah, they’re fine. The stairs are blocked. You’ll have to make your way down the stairs on the other side of the building. What the hell happened?”

“There was another bomb. We were about to sweep the area, when Hobbs—” Realization slammed into Dex’s chest, and he pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain in his leg. “Oh, God. Hobbs!”

Calvin’s anxious voice came over his earpiece. “What happened to Hobbs? Where is he?”

“That son of a bitch!” Dex slammed his fist into the wall. “He pushed me through the fire door. He… he stayed inside the classroom.” There was silence on the other end of his earpiece until Sloane spoke up.

“Can you see the room?”