Shiver (Unbreakable Bonds 1)

As the guard nearest to the first reacted, Lucas pegged him and they were both out. “Two down,” Lucas whispered.

“My two are down.” Snow’s words followed seconds later.

“The front is clear,” Rowe chimed in.

Lucas pressed his back against the wall beside the rear door, his pistol held up in front of him. He took a deep breath, and released it slowly. He was calm, distant from the events unfolding with each action he took. There was only the methodical plan that he and Rowe had laid out before leaving.

“Hit it,” Lucas bit out.

A couple seconds later, lights around the area winked in a wave that washed over the land, deepening the darkness. One of Rowe’s little errands was a well-placed charge on an area electric transformer. The tiny explosion would have thrown a few sparks as if some mechanical piece had suddenly gone bad, plunging the entire grid into darkness. It would take Duke Energy at least a half hour to get someone dispatched and another hour to fix the problem, leaving them plenty of time to slip in and out under cover.

Switching on his night vision goggles, Lucas pulled open the door and entered the building. Men were shouting and bumping into things while others had wisely pulled out their phones to use the flashlight app. Lucas, moving as soundlessly as possible, darted around large crates and stacks of busted wooden skids that had been left behind by the last owner of the warehouse. The smell of old grease and mildew filled the air following years of being closed up and neglected. The place had previously been a fiberglass manufacturer, but the owner had moved all the large equipment out so that now it held only a few crates and lots of I-beam poles holding up the roof. Snow and Lucas had entered from north and west, respectively, and were sweeping south with the goal of clearing everyone out until they reached Andrei.

“Figaro in. Two down.”

Lucas squeezed off a round and ducked behind a skid. He looked to make sure no one else was close before he answered. “Gepetto in. One down.”

“Blue Fairy blind. On approach.”

They’d estimated that it would take Rowe three minutes to cross from his current location to the warehouse where he would enter from the front and take down any stragglers along the east wall. In that three minutes, Lucas and Snow were to get the place mostly cleared out and Andrei located.

“What the fuck?” someone shouted from the far end of the building. “Someone kick on the generator and check the guards. No one is answering.”

“He ain’t supposed to be here for another hour,” another voice shouted back with a bit of a whine.

“Yeah, and he’s survived too much so far. Go get the damned generator!”

Lucas swore under his breath and backpedaled toward the door. They had figured that the location was temporary and would be crippled if the electricity was cut. They weren’t supposed to have a generator. Time was running out. Lucas had to keep everyone inside and blind to the fact that they’d been infiltrated. The only thing on their side was that it seemed like this bastard had stuck with the usual crew of thugs and fighters. No military training. They didn’t realize they were already fucked.

Another man using his cell phone as a flashlight came around the corner. He spotted Lucas before he was hit with a dart in the chest. He fell heavily, his phone clattering loudly to the concrete floor, the light left shining up at the ceiling. Lucas stepped up to it and flipped it over, putting the area back into darkness in hopes that no one else would come in that direction so he could continue toward the offices at the south of the building.

“Hey! Someone knocked out Pete!” The new voice echoed through the warehouse. The voice came from farther to the north of Lucas so it was likely the prick had stumbled across one of Snow’s victims. Fuck.

“Cat’s out of the bag,” Snow muttered over the earpiece. “Gotta move now.”

“I got one more,” Lucas said evenly. “Four left.”

“Everyone to the office!” the boss shouted while gunfire echoed through the building. Bullets pinged off the various metal I-beams and hit the roof. Lucas ducked behind a crate and put a dart in two more men as they ran down the center of the warehouse toward the south. They both collapsed in a heap, causing more shouts. The one man Lucas missed dove into the office and kicked the door closed.

Cursing, Lucas shoved the dart gun in a holster and pulled his 9mm. He was done with this shit. They went in quiet, picked them off, and didn’t take any lives, but it wasn’t working. There were at least two left—the boss and the guy who dove into the office.