Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

The area around the building was dead, and, at the sight of the gun pointed at him, the lone guard on duty swung the door open wide.

“Do I have to shoot you to stop you from calling Enforcement?” she asked him.

“Lady, I’m happy to look the other way for a payday instead of a bullet.”

That was all she wanted to hear. Sandi unzipped the pocket on the side of her pants and took out the credit chip she’d placed there earlier. She flicked it at him, and he snatched it from the air.

“There’s enough on there to make sure you forget me ten times over. If you don’t, I will find you and deal with you. That’s a promise.” She made sure he heard the conviction in her voice.

Sweat beaded on his brow, and he nervously swallowed as he motioned to the elevator. “Where do you want to go?”

“The top.” She stepped inside and watched him press his palm to the access panel.

“It’s all yours.” He scurried away before she’d even pressed the right button.

As the elevator shot upward, Sandi took her old cell phone out of her pocket and sent a text to Gray. No one paid any attention to the old cell network. The towers that were still around had been left to rot and were ignored. But there were still enough of them to make it a good communications network for their team. One that was under the radar in a country where pretty much all public communication was accessible to the government.

The elevator doors opened, and she ran for the stairs leading up to the roof. She raced through the emergency door, out into a night where the sky was black and a gentle breeze cooled her cheeks.

Perfect conditions for taking a long-range shot.

She set up in the corner of the rooftop as the helicopter hovered at the edge of the police cordon around CommTECH’s research building. The powerful beam of light from the chopper was easy to make out, but she was too far away to see the object of its focus. Which meant there was no way to tell if Mace was still on that ledge. All she could do was take out the spotlight and hope it gave him enough cover to get out of the building alive.

As she lined up her shot, she took a slow, even breath. Everything within her settled. This was her comfort zone. Her calling. She was born to do this job.

“You owe me, big brother,” she whispered as she pressed the trigger.

Chapter Seventeen

The spotlight suddenly blinked out, leaving Mace to adjust to the darkness again. He would have given his right arm for five minutes alone with the assholes who’d thought it was a good idea to blind them. Not that they gave a crap about putting his or Keiko’s life in danger. To the media, they were nothing more than fodder for ever-hungry audiences.

At a speed that would have made Keiko scream, he ran along the ledge and back to the office. His heartbeat was loud and erratic, his palms were tingling, and his breathing was labored—a leftover from watching Keiko slip from the building. Her fall replayed in his mind, making him break out in a fresh wave of cold sweat. He could have killed his other half for breaking free and heading straight for her. He hoped the little sucker got eaten by a hawk while it was out sco

uring for food.

A voice sounded in his mind. I die, you die.

It’s a risk I’m willing to take, he told it. You put us all in danger.

There was no reply. His other half only cared about his stomach.

Although the bat was to blame for Keiko’s fall, the agility and speed he’d gained from sharing his genes with the animal were the reasons he’d managed to catch her. His reaction had been pure instinct as he fell to his stomach and reached for her ankle. In his mind, he’d seen the whole thing a split second before it happened—he’d read the air currents, knew how much time he had and exactly where he’d grab her. He’d moved like a bat, using the same skills it used to snatch insects from the air.

And it had all been caught on camera.

Striker was going to kill him.

With a low grunt of disgust, Mace reached the broken window and slowed his pace, his ears straining for the slightest sound. Over the pounding of his heartbeat, he heard them. Two men moving about inside the office.

“The newsfeed’s been cut,” one of them said. “Looks like Enforcement took out the light.”

“You think he’s still out there on the ledge?” The second guy’s voice trembled.

“Only one way to find out.” He sounded cocky.

“I don’t hear anything outside. I think he’s gone through the stairwell window with the press secretary. If I were him, that’s what I would have done. I hope to hell he isn’t still out there and coming our way. Did you see the size of him? I didn’t sign up to confront a guy like that. I signed up to free our people. We should just go back to the terrace and tell them he got away.”

“And have Susan execute us as an example for the hostages? I don’t think so,” the cocky guy mocked.