Chapter 15

“If Ed was so worried about the DCO figuring out he was behind the bombing, why hang around the area and get a job?” Alina asked. “Why not flee the country?”

Trevor shrugged as he and Alina approached the address Jake had given him earlier, momentarily distracted as he realized the place was a decrepit-looking hazardous material storage site. Of all the jobs he could imagine his former teammate taking, security guard at a hazmat site wasn’t one of them. The operation was nothing more than a large collection of mismatched metal warehouses surrounded by endless piles of beat-up drums and long sections of rusted chain-link fence. Not only that, but it stunk to high heaven. Trevor’s nose was already burning, and they hadn’t even gotten inside yet.

“Ed and I worked espionage cases for a long time together, digging out sleeper agents and moles who had been hiding in plain sight for years,” Trevor said as he slowed the SUV. “Maybe Ed thought changing his name and blending into a sea of humanity was the best way to disappear. He’s seen it work in the past.”

“Okay. But then why contact Jake?”

Trevor didn’t have a good answer for that. “No clue. Unless he thought Jake might be willing to clue him in when trouble was on the way.”

Trevor pulled up to the gate of the hazmat complex, expecting to see guards there—maybe even Ed—but there was no one around. Just a wide-open gate and an empty guard shack. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and his senses began to tingle. This place was like a ghost town. Something didn’t feel right.

“Are you sure this is the address Jake gave you?” Alina murmured as he drove through the gate. She took in the discarded, rusty drums stacked up against a few of the buildings. “It doesn’t look like there’s anyone here.”

Trevor was thinking the same thing. “It’s Sunday, so maybe the place is closed.”

Alina made a face, clearly not buying that idea. “More likely the EPA shut everything down, and everyone who used to run the place is in jail. Maybe Ed is watching this place until the feds send someone in to clean it up.”

Considering that his eyes were practically tearing up from all the strange chemical odors, Trevor could believe that.

He stopped in front of a building that looked like it was the main office and climbed out of their vehicle. Alina did the same. They were confronted with rows of squat, metal buildings marked with various hazmat signs, warning the structures contained everything from flammable liquids and gases to poisons, corrosives, and explosives. He could see why they needed guards in a place like this. It wasn’t exactly the kind of facility you’d want people wandering around in. Which begged the question, why had the gate been left open? And if there were guards around, why hadn’t anyone challenged them yet?

“Are we wasting our time here?” Alina asked.

Trevor was tempted to say yes. Then he looked down the row between two of the buildings and spotted a truck with a security decal plastered on the side. The driver’s side door was open, and it was parked in front of a big two-story building with flammable signs posted on both sides.

He caught Alina’s eye and jerked his head in that direction. She nodded, falling into step beside him. As they got closer to the truck, he expected Ed to step out of the big warehouse and ask them what the hell they were doing here, but there was no one in sight. The big, sliding double doors of the warehouse were open, a rusty lock hanging off the hasp and heavy petroleum fumes rolling out of the building in waves.

“Can you smell Ed’s scent in the truck?” Alina asked. “At least confirm he’s here?”

Trevor leaned and took a sniff. With the fumes, he could barely smell anything. He thought he was picking up a man’s scent, but it didn’t seem familiar. With this stench, he simply couldn’t trust his nose.

He shook his head. “I can’t be sure.” He motioned toward the warehouse. “But we’re here now—might as well check the place out.”

The interior of the building was dark, the only light coming from the overhead skylights and a few windows scattered along the upper and lower floors. The windows might have let in a bit more light if they hadn’t been filthy—and covered with heavy-gauge security wire.

The second level seemed to be more catwalk than actual storage area, with its only apparent purpose being to provide access to the various overhead hoists and to let people move around the stuffed warehouse more easily.

The fumes were worse inside, making Trevor’s nose tingle and eyes water more than they already had been. He closed his eyes and focused on his sense of hearing, trying to shut out the stench long enough to figure out if he and Alina were alone.

His eyes snapped open when he heard a creak of metal somewhere in the back of the place.

“Which way?” Alina asked.

She had her sidearm out and had clearly been covering him while he’d been standing there with his eyes closed. Maybe her instincts were saying the same thing his were, that there was something strange going on in here.

Trevor pulled his own weapon out as he motioned with his chin toward the rear of the building. “That way. It sounded like footsteps.”

They carefully made their way between stacks of barrels and boxes, every one of them marked with either a flammable-liquid or flammable-gas label. Trevor hoped no one started shooting in here. This wasn’t the environment for it. One shot into the wrong box or drum, and this place would go up like a Roman candle.

Trevor scanned the dimly lit rows and aisles between the boxes and drums as well as the second-floor catwalk that ran around three sides of the building and overlooked the main floor. If there was someone in here, he couldn’t see them.

He tried to move and listen at the same time, straining to catch the sound of another creak—or better, the sound of a heartbeat—but he didn’t pick up anything. Maybe that was because the space was large, and sound bounced around funny because of all the metal.

Or maybe it was simply because there was no one here.

He and Alina were near the back wall when he picked up a scent that didn’t belong. It was hard to believe he could smell anything with all the petroleum odors cloying his nose, but this odor was peculiar enough to grab his attention. It smelled a little like blood mixed with something seriously nasty.

Trevor turned and headed in that direction, letting his nose lead him. Alina followed silently. The stench only got stranger the deeper they went into the building. It was definitely blood. And it smelled fresh. At least he thought it did. It was hard to tell with the other odors nearly overwhelming it. Shit, what the hell was that smell?

When he rounded a stack of boxes, Trevor discovered exactly what it was—and really wished he hadn’t.

There were two metal containers in the center of the floor, filled with viscous, yellowish-green liquid. Inside each was a decomposing body. One looked fresh, still mostly recognizable and wearing the remains of a dark-blue security uniform. The other wasn’t so fresh.

“Is that…acid?” Alina asked in horror.

Trevor couldn’t blame her. He’d seen a lot in his time in the army, DIA, and DCO. But nothing like this.

All he could do was nod as he slipped his weapon back into his holster and stepped closer to get a better look. The fresher body wasn’t too bad, but the other one was hard to look at. The acid had eaten away most of the guy’s skin and organs. About the only solid parts left were one arm and a leg that had been too long to fit into the cramped space of the metal shipping container.

Trevor wasn’t sure what the hell was going on here and wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He hated to think it, but it looked like Ed had killed two of the security guards who’d worked here and attempted to dispose of their bodies. Why? He had no idea. Just like he had no idea why Ed had killed John and Olivia.

He was about to take out his phone to call the cops when a glint of something shiny along the badly decomposed man’s leg caught his attention.

Ignoring the acid fumes and the horrible stench, he leaned over the container and took a closer look. A long, slim piece of metal was attached to the man’s lower thigh bone just above the knee joint.

Shit.

Heart pounding, Trevor yanked his weapon out and spun to look around the warehouse space.

Alina spun around with him, her eyes trying to dart every direction at once. “What’s wrong?”

“Ed broke his leg jumping out of a helicopter when he was in Air Force Pararescue. He had a long plate attached to his lower femur to stabilize it,” Trevor said. “This body is Ed’s. We’ve been set up.”

Somewhere along the catwalk on the far side of the warehouse, a man clapped his hands in applause.

Trevor and Alina pointed their weapons that way as Jake stepped forward to stand in the beam of late-day sunshine streaming in through one of the overhead skylights. Wade and two other men were with him. Judging by their size and the telltale red eyes, they were hybrids as well.

“So you finally fucking figured it out, huh, Trevor?” Jake sneered. “Took you long enough.”

Then the shooting started.

Trevor tried to stay with Alina, but as the four people up on the catwalk started blazing away at them with automatic rifles, that became impossible, and they both had to run for their lives. He turned and headed deeper into the warehouse, popping off an occasional shot at Jake and the others as they moved down the stairs from the second level. He hoped he could draw them away from his partner and give her time to get out of here.

“What happened, Jake?” he shouted as he ran, wanting to make sure they knew exactly where he was. “Ed catch you planting the bomb, or is there another reason you killed the man who covered your back for all those years?”

He didn’t really expect an answer, not in the middle of a firefight, but Jake surprised him by laughing. From the sound of it, the man wasn’t more than three or four rows away.

“He didn’t catch me,” Jake called out as he headed in Trevor’s direction “But I knew he was onto me. The stupid idiot confronted me after the bombing. I had no choice but to kill him.”

Trevor wasn’t naive. Jake wasn’t confessing out of the goodness of his heart. He and some of his hybrid buddies were probably trying to home in on Trevor’s voice right this second. Knowing that, it would likely have been smart to shut up. But Trevor had never professed to be that smart, not when it came to dealing with a traitor. He was pissed, and he wanted Jake dead.

“You didn’t simply kill Ed, you asshole,” Trevor growled as he kept moving, luring Jake, and hopefully the others, in a great big circle around the warehouse. “You put him in a tub of fucking acid.”

“There’s no reason to be like that, man,” Jake said. “It was nothing personal. Just business.”

“Business?” Trevor snapped, doubling back toward the place they’d found Ed’s body. “What the hell does that mean? Whose business?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Jake asked, mirroring Trevor’s movements. “I’ve worked for Thomas Thorn from the day the DCO recruited me,” Jake admitted. “When he called and said it was time for John to die, I simply did what I was paid to do. Like I said. It was nothing personal. Just business.”

* * *

Alina dove for cover behind four yellow drums covered in flammable-liquid labels. It wasn’t the best place to hide. One spark, and it would all be over. But when you’re getting shot at by your psycho ex-teammate turned hybrid monster, you take what you can get.

She turned, expecting to see Trevor right behind her, and barely caught sight of him running in the other direction. Alina moved to follow, but another burst of automatic weapon fire near her feet drove her back even farther, making her scramble for better cover.

She heard Trevor shooting at Jake, then practically taunting the man, and she knew exactly what her partner was doing. The damn heroic idiot was trying to get Wade and all the others to chase after him so she could get away. She could understand why he would do something like that—she’d do the same. But he had to know that, with her background, there was no way in hell she was ever going to leave him—even if they weren’t already more than partners.

So she kept moving fast, avoiding the hail of gunshots coming at her from the catwalk above while trying to figure out where Trevor was at the same time. The moment she got a reprieve from the constant gunfire, she poked her head up to see where everyone was. As she expected, Wade and the other hybrids were coming down the stairs and splitting up to start searching the warehouse.

Seeing Wade up on the catwalk earlier had been bad enough, but realizing Jake, a guy she’d liked from the moment she’d met him, was involved in both Ed’s and John’s deaths was gut-wrenching. Knowing something about what it felt like to find out a team member had betrayed you, Alina didn’t have to guess what Trevor would be trying to do once he thought she was safe. He’d be looking for revenge, and he’d do anything to get it—even if it meant risking his own life.

Alina had to figure out a way to help him. She needed to get Wade and at least one of those other hybrids to come after her and not Trevor. That would give her partner his best chance to deal with Jake—then get them both out of here.

It wasn’t like she’d have to do anything special to get Wade to come after her. He hated her. Chasing her down would be fun for him.

Pulse racing at the insanity of what she was about to do, Alina hunkered down a little lower in her hiding place, trying to be as quiet as possible as she pulled her backup magazine out of her pocket and had it ready so she could reload quickly. When she had a chance to hit these guys, she needed to make it count. Because she wasn’t merely fighting a collection of cold-blooded killers. She was dealing with hybrids who were stronger, faster, and ten times harder to kill than a normal person.

Yup, it was insane. But she was doing it anyway.

“I guess you’re with Thorn now, too, huh, Wade?” she yelled as she moved out from behind the protection of the boxes she’d been hiding behind, firing a couple of shots in the general direction of the stealthy hybrids.

When Wade didn’t answer, she moved a little to the left, not even trying to be quiet, and poked him again. Not so much because she cared what he had to say, but simply so she could get his goat. Because that was one thing she always remembered about him…he hated losing at anything, even if it was just a bout of trash talking. He’d always wanted people to know he was the smartest person in the room and always had the answers.

“Did he buy you recently, or has he owned your balls all along? I know your loyalty has always been flexible.”

That must have gotten his attention, because she heard him growl from somewhere to her right. Crap, he was a lot closer to her than she’d thought. She immediately started backing up, hoping he and the other hybrids—if they were coming this way—would follow.

“I started working for him a few weeks before Turkey,” he admitted as he continued moving to the right. “As much as I disliked the four of you, I hadn’t been planning to betray you. But when a man comes to you and drops a briefcase full of money in your lap, it’s amazing how easy it is to change your plans. Thorn wanted the CIA out of the way so he could put sarin gas in the hands of certain rebel forces in Syria. You and your team had to go.”

“Why would Thorn want something like that?” Alina demanded, just to keep him talking.

If he was talking, she’d know where he was. Of course, there was a very good chance he was just talking to distract her while his hybrid buddies circled around and took her out from behind. But that was a chance she had to take.

“Over a thousand people died in that sarin attack, Wade,” she added. “Why would he pay you money just so a bunch of peasants would get killed? They were nothing to him.”

On the other side of the warehouse, there was a barrage of automatic gunfire. Moments later, an explosion shook the building, and gouts of flame flew through the air, starting half a dozen small fires. Slower, individual shots followed, and Alina knew that meant Trevor was still over there dealing with Jake and maybe one of the hybrids.

“Oldest reason in the world—money,” Wade said from somewhere close behind her.

He was trying to herd her toward one of his men, she realized. Her instincts screamed at her to fall farther back or try and loop around him to the left. But she knew she’d never beat these guys at this kind of game. They were better equipped to be the cats than she was to be the mouse in this scenario. She moved behind a stack of heavy crates, preparing to shoot the first person she saw coming her way, praying it would be Wade.

“I guess Thorn was hoping the attack would prompt the U.S. and European coalition to mount a full-scale invasion of Syria and topple the al-Assad government. If that had happened, Russia and Iran would have been drawn in as well, and Chadwick-Thorn would have made billions selling arms to every side.”

Even though Alina was coming to understand how horrible Thorn was, her mind still rebelled at the idea that someone could be so greedy they’d start a war for money.

Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she leaned out from behind her crate just enough to see one of the hybrids standing a few feet away. She held her breath as the man sniffed the air. While it seemed like he might be picking up her scent, it was obvious he couldn’t pinpoint her location. The fumes must be confusing him.

She slowly lifted her weapon, getting ready to shoot. She would have felt better if she’d known exactly where Wade was, but she wasn’t about to wait to see if he’d show up. She’d never get a better chance than this to take out one of the hybrids trying to kill them.

The hybrid must have seen her movements, because he snapped his head around in her direction at the last second, his eyes glowing crazy red. He started bringing his weapon around, but she got her shots off first, hitting him three times and dropping him to the ground. Even after being hit that many times, he still got right back up and scrambled away between two rows of boxes.

She started to move after him, but as she stood up, she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. She spun around and popped off several shots at Wade before throwing herself to the side just in time to avoid the burst of gunfire slamming into the crates only inches from her head. She was sure at least one of her shots had gotten the man, but he barely moved in response.

When Alina hit the concrete floor and rolled behind the next row of drums without getting shot, she thought she’d been lucky. Then something exploded nearby, sending a firestorm of flames rolling right over her head, forcing her to quickly crawl on her hands and knees to get away from the heat. She heard Wade somewhere right behind her, laughing now that he thought he had her.

But then she heard him curse as he moved right to avoid the flames starting to eat into all the cardboard boxes and wooden crates around them. “You’ve always been naive, Alina!” he shouted. “That’s why I couldn’t stand working with you. You never understood how the world works and how vicious people really are. You think Thorn made me and all these other hybrids to save the world or something? Fuck no! He needs a squad of unstoppable soldiers to start his war. He tried it before with lesser men, but this time, he’s not messing around.”

Alina came to her feet, trying to get a shot lined up on Wade through the flames as he prowled around. But the fire grew out of control now, and he was forced toward the front of the warehouse by the spreading flames, away from her.

The urge to do something extreme, like jump through the flames and go after him, was hard to resist. But her need for revenge paled in comparison to finding out what he was talking about. If Thorn was going to pull something like that sarin gas attack again, she needed to know about it. She wasn’t going to let more innocent people die because of her.

“You’re full of crap. There’s no war!” she shouted, praying his ego would force him to answer.

Wade smirked as he backed farther away, the flames making his eyes look even redder. “The crazy bastard is sending us to the eastern part of Ukraine. Wearing Russian uniforms and using those Russian weapons we stole, he wants us to go kill a couple thousand people in the nastiest massacre you’ve ever seen. And we’re going to make sure Russia gets blamed for it all. You wanted to know what war I’m talking about? The big one—World War III. The United States and NATO will have to respond, and then Russia will counterattack. After that, it’s all over. Just think of all the money to be made in a war like that.”

Alina stood there in the raging fire as drums of flammable liquid began to rupture, spilling sheets of flames everywhere. Her stomach churned as she realized all of this really was about money. Raging mad, she lifted her weapon and fired three shots at Wade. He skipped aside, though, and she missed. She expected him to return fire, but he laughed and backed toward the exit.

“I would have preferred shooting you.” He grinned. “But burning you to a crisp works, too.”

With that, Wade turned and let out a loud growl, like he was calling to the other hybrids. Then he picked up speed and disappeared into the warehouse beyond the smoke and flames. A moment later, she heard movement on the catwalk above, and she caught sight of the hybrids racing through the smoke, leaping to the floor beyond the wall of flames that had cut her off from Wade.

Alina turned and ran toward the back of the warehouse. She hadn’t heard many shots being fired from that direction, and she prayed that meant Trevor had already won and found a way out of here. The flames were spreading fast, and soon, the smoke building up in here was going to make breathing impossible.

She found Trevor and Jake standing beside the tubs where they’d found Ed and the security guard, fire burning all around them. She slid to a halt, coughing and choking on acrid smoke. Jake had some kind of wicked clawed crowbar in his hands while Trevor was empty-handed.

“It’s over, Jake,” Trevor said, and Alina had to wonder why he was trying to talk the man down. It wasn’t going to happen.

“I don’t think so.” Jake adjusted his grip on the makeshift weapon. “I’ve hated you and all your damn shifter friends the entire time I’ve been here. There’s no way in hell I’m letting one of you put me in jail.”

Lifting the crowbar, Jake let out a shout of hatred and charged at Trevor.

Alina lifted her weapon to shoot, but before she could squeeze the trigger, Trevor reached out and grabbed Jake, flinging him into flames. There was a short shout of pain as Jake’s body disappeared into the inferno, but the fire roared higher, snuffing out the sound.

Trevor stood there, motionless for a time, staring into the flames where his old partner had disappeared. Finally, he turned and saw her. He ran over to grab her hand. “Can we make it to the front of the building?”

Alina shook her head. “We’ll never get that far. There’s a wall of flame between us and the doors. Even if we could, Wade and the other two hybrids are probably waiting for us.”

“Then we find a way out the back,” Trevor said without hesitation, tugging her in that direction.

But by the time they were halfway to the back wall of the warehouse, thick, black smoke was working its way down from the ceiling, making her lungs feel like they were on fire. There was no way they could keep going in this direction. She opened her mouth to tell Trevor as much, but he’d already scooped her up into his arms and was running through the boxes and crates so fast they were almost a blur.

Alina couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of her, so she had no idea where they were going. She only prayed they got there soon. Gas cylinders and fuel drums were exploding all over the place, puncturing the smoke with gouts of red and yellow flames. If they didn’t escape soon, this whole place was going to disappear.

Through watery eyes, she saw a patch of light ahead of them. She had half a second to remember the dirty windows covered with the security grating. Trevor didn’t even slow down. He simply tucked her to his chest and smashed his shoulder through the glass, metal screen and all.

They hit the ground outside, then rolled a few times before Trevor was up and running away from the building with her. They’d only gone about twenty or thirty feet before the warehouse blew outward, and a column of fire consumed the sky behind her.

Trevor didn’t stop running for at least five minutes, probably worried about hybrids coming after them. But when it appeared that wasn’t going to happen, he carefully lowered her to the ground and checked her urgently for injuries, his face so overwhelmed with concern she could have kissed him.

The hell with it.

Reaching up, she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and dragged his mouth down to hers. Trevor seemed surprised at first but must have decided that meant she was okay, because he let out a sexy growl and returned her kiss full force.

Pulling away, he looked at her seriously. “You really okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, though maybe we should stop putting ourselves in positions where you have to keep saving my ass like that. Not that I mind being swept off my feet now and then, of course.”

He grinned. “I like saving your ass. It’s a nice ass.”

She laughed but then grew serious again. “I know you were busy, but did you hear what Wade said to me? It’s possible he was full of crap, but considering he probably thought we weren’t going to make it out of there, I don’t see why he would have bothered lying. I think he was serious. I think Thorn means to start a war.”