Chapter 63

Chapter Sixty-Four



"What's going on in there? We're going in blind. We know the locations, but we don't know what to expect inside," Victor broke the bubble of silence.

"That's right. We have a surprise edge. They know something is cooking between us, but they won't exactly believe we're going for each other in less than a month from our last meetings," Julian agreed, nodding as he went toward the window.

Emma started hearing around her discussion as she quietly rechecked her gear. "We need to be ready for anything," she said, looking up. "If this new player is as dangerous as Cross, we can't afford any mistakes.

Fiona's mind raced as she weighed the options. Kian had already told them much there was to know, yet still it felt like walking off a cliff edge. She realized that they could not lollygag, though they had no other choice. The more the time passed, the more they actually gave their enemies time to build their defense.

"We move in pairs," Fiona continued, her voice firm. "Julian and I will take the first location. Victor and Emma, you handle the second. We'll hit them simultaneously and see what we can find."

Kian, who had been off to one side, eyes peering out from his dark corner, finally joined the discussion. "I'll stay here and coordinate. Should anything go wrong, I'll be your eyes and ears."

Fiona nodded, gratified by his support. "Let's do this."

In a few moments, the team had donned its gear and slipped into the vehicles. The city's streets were alarmingly deserted; usually the maddening crowd replaced the stillness. Fiona's hand on the steering wheel tightened as they got nearer to their destination: some rundown warehouse on the outskirts of town.

"This is it," Julian said quietly, his eyes scanning the area for any signs of movement.

Fiona, nodding, had parked the car a few blocks away so as not to attract any unwanted attention. Their strides cushioned by stealth, they were able to reach the warehouse with just the slightest bit of nimbleness, the building looming before them, dark and forbidding.

"Stay sharp," she whispered to him as they came up to the entrance.

Julian nodded and pulled a small device from his pocket. "I'll disable the alarm system. Give me a minute."

Fiona watched as Julian went to work with his fingers over the controls of the device. A few tense seconds of waiting later, he nodded to her as the system went down.

"Let's go," Fiona whispered, pushing the door open and stepping inside.

The interior was more than half in dark, the shadows of the moving objects throwing diaphanous dances on the surrounding walls. Fiona's heart pounded as she swept a glance around. Her senses were alert; there was no telling what they might find—or who might be waiting for them.

Julian moved ahead, his eyes on the shadows. "There's a staircase at the back. Let's check upstairs," he said.

Fiona followed him up and her hand caressed the grip of her gun. The air grew cooler as they wound up what felt like a never-ending spiral staircase. The only sound was the creaking of the old wood beneath their feet.

At the top they were met with a long corridor of closed doors, each and every one closed, the contents of each hidden.

"We should split up," Julian suggested, his voice barely above a whisper. "Cover more ground."

Fiona hesitated for just a second, but she nodded. "I'll take the left side; you take the right. Be careful."

Julian nodded and moved to the first door on the right, slowly pushing it open. Fiona did the same on the left, her breath catching as she peered inside. The room was empty other than a few dusty old crates, the contents of which all but intangible through the thick shroud that covered everything tolerable to see.

She crept down to the next door, and by the time her hand was on the door handle, her heart was hammering. This time the door creaked open to reveal a small room crammed full of old office furniture, but something seemed wrong. Some part of this room was shouting at Fiona's base instincts that there was more here than first met the eye.

She comes into the room and looks about. Restless, her eyes start to flick towards the walls, looking for something out of the ordinary. She nudges closer. There it was. A thin line in the crooked surface of one wall. She moved closer, her hand brushed past the wall and there was a latch.

A deep breath, and Fiona pulled the latch; the wall further opened to reveal a hidden passageway. Her heart raced as she looked inside, with the darkness beyond the doorway seeming to call at her.

"Julian," she breathed into her comms, "I found something."

"On my way," Julian's voice crackled back.

Fiona waited, her nerves spiked as she watched Julian step up beside her. His eyes widened as he saw the hidden passageway.

"This wasn't on any of the blueprints," he muttered, his voice filled with trepidation. "What the hell is this place?"

Fiona replied, "I don't know, but we're about to find out."

They moved into the passage cautiously, as the darkness seemed to engulf them with their small steps into the depth of the unknown. The air around them increased, each second growing colder; it was just like every other nightmare as the walls now started to constrict toward them. They were walking down a narrow, spiraling staircase going down.

Finally, at the very bottom, there was a heavy steel door. Fiona and Julian glanced at each other before she reached for the handle. Creaking open, the door revealed a quite spacious, for the underground, chamber.

There was a room filled with high-tech equipment: computers, monitors, and quietly humming servers. Fiona's eyes bulged in their sockets as she surveyed the room. This was no ordinary warehouse.

"This has to be their command-and-control center," Julian added, his voice almost in awe. "We have to gain entry into these systems."

Fiona nodded, thoughts whirling. This was huge, but they couldn't let it go to their heads. "Can you get in?"

Julian was already heading for the closest terminal. "I'll try. Keep me covered."

She watched, the gate, her senses very wide awake, time stretching out between the seconds. She felt the tension in the room, felt like they were teetering on the edge of something huge.

Finally, Julian gave in, looking up, his expression graven. "I'm in. But there's something you need to see."

Fiona came beside him, her gaze rising to the screen. What she saw made her blood run cold. Surveillance footage showed Victor and Emma making their way over to what the gang had targeted: a warehouse on the other end of the city.

But they hadn't been alone.

A group of heavily armed men had lain in wait, hidden in the shadows, ready to pounce on them.

Julian was already on it; his fingers fluttered over the keys while he tried to get a message out to Victor and Emma, but before he could, the screen went black.

"What the hell's going on?" Fiona demanded of anyone who would listen.

"They cut the feed," Julian said, frustrated. "Someone knows we're here.

Fiona started brainstorming through her options full speed. She couldn't leave Victor and Emma to get into a trap. On the other hand, though, they couldn't get caught either.

"We have to move, now," Fiona said pulling Julian away from the computer. "We have to get to Victor and Emma before it's too late.

They bolted out of the underground chamber, the echo of their footfalls fast through the passageway, racing up the staircase. Fiona could feel her heart pounding in her chest, filled with images of what would happen if she didn't meet their friends in time.

No sooner had they burst from the secret room than Fiona's comms crackled to life with Victor.

"Fiona, we're under attack! They knew we were coming!"

"Hold on, Victor. We're on our way!" she yelled back, steel in her voice.

They thundered across floors through the warehouse, out onto the night and back to their car. There was no time to waste; every second counted. Everything blurred around them, the streets and car turning around the other side of the city.

As they pulled up, Fiona's heart sank as the muffled staccato of gunfire echoed in the night and she could even see the flicker of light coming from inside of the building.

"Victor! Emma!" she shouted moments before they leapt out of the car, but to no response.

"Julian, round the back. I'll take the front," Fiona ordered with a surety in her voice that coated the abject fear within her.

Julian nodded and melted into the shadows; Fiona charged at the entrance fast, picking up the sound of gunfire as it grew closer, the yelling and the chaos inside telling her just how badly the situation had spiraled out of control.

She didn't slow down. Her body exploded through the doors with a weapon out, ready to meet whoever was waiting inside.

The sight that met her was enough to chill blood.

Victor had been pinned in a corner behind some piled crates. Blood was dripping from a cut in his arm. Emma was by his side, attempting to create a barricade against the attackers. The room was filled with men in masks, pointing the guns and various other armaments at Fiona's friends.

She fired, taking down the closest attacker as she ran toward Victor and Emma. The chaos around them was deafening, but Fiona's focus was razor-sharp. She had to get to her team and find a way to get out of there.

"Fiona!" Emma called out when she saw her, the voice filled with relief.

"Down!" Fiona called over her shoulder, firing again as she reached their position.

Julian appeared on the other side of the room