***
The smile was still on his face hours later as he jogged into the command center, long after he had dropped her off to resume her search for her dad. No. Her father, not her dad. She was very specific about that. They’re family, but she’s never been extremely close to him. It explained why Shay wasn’t out desperately searching for him every minute of the day. All she had were a few photographs, and a three-month-old trail at best. It seemed to him like she’d already given up hope, and was just going through the paces.
Justin wished he could help her, but his team needed him.
They had a mission.
He stuffed the second picture Shay had given him of her father into his wallet. This time it was a more clean-cut looking fellow compared to the beard and shaggy-hair sporting man in the first one. Brown eyes, a crooked nose, and a gap-toothed smile complemented the black hair. The nose, smile, and a mole on his left cheek made him rather identifiable in a crowd, if Justin ever did happen to see him. He’d promised to keep his eyes open for her, but the vague description of what her father did wasn’t exactly much of a help. It sounded like he was a security guard of some sort, but he didn’t know.
With a helpless shrug he filed all that information away, opening his brain up to what he was about to be told. For the moment, the mission was his priority.
“Okay, now that you’re all here,” Madison said without preamble. “Extraction mission.”
Justin nodded. Those were the bread and butter of his team.
“Location?” Jared asked.
“The warehouse you located the other day,” she said without hesitation.
The entire Sentinel team sat up straight in their chairs. This was not the standard evacuation mission.
“This is a rescue mission,” Justin said after a split second as his mind processed everything.
“Correct,” Madison said. “You were going to extract them later this week, but it appears the Agency got wind of them first. One of our trackers spotted them moving in and departing with the shifter. He tracked them to the same warehouse.”
Justin frowned. The spotters were human elements of the Underground, people who volunteered to go out in the field to do nothing but reconnaissance. It was a hugely risky job, and he respected all four of them currently working for Madison.
“This is a trap,” he said bluntly before Madison could go any further. “It has to be.”
To his surprise, Madison didn’t argue. “I agree.”
Justin blinked in surprise, fumbling for a different set of words compared to his first.
“So why are we going then?” Jared asked.
“Because it’s a good time to turn the tables on the Agency,” Madison said simply.
He frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Us going in there after this guy is exactly what J and Baldy are going to want. This is going to be a trap, designed to ensure we don’t get out. Why would we willingly walk right into that?”
The smile that played across Madison’s face chilled his stomach. “Because we’re going to turn their trap into an ambush of our own.”
Justin exchanged glances with the rest of the Sentinels. “How, exactly, are we going to do that, ma’am?” he said as respectfully as possible, hoping his formality would get through to her. “He’s going to have more than enough men there to overwhelm the four of us. We’re good, but even we have limits in the end,” he stated firmly.
He felt his stomach begin to roil. An ambush meant fighting. Fighting meant killing.
Madison nodded. “That’s why there won’t be four of you,” she said.
Jared growled. “What is your plan? Simple and concise please,” he said firmly, taking over the conversation.
“We’re going to assault that warehouse, and burn it to the ground,” she said, standing upright.
“We?” Jared said carefully.
“Yes. Your team will go in first, the four of you. Ajax’s team will come in second to turn the trap into an ambush favorable to us.”
Justin frowned as he listened to them talk. Ajax’s team? He knew the big shifter was still in town, but who else was here with him?
“Who is composing this second team?” Jared inquired, his thoughts running parallel to Justin’s it would seem.
“Ajax, Milos, Andre, Arianna, and myself,” Madison said coolly, leveling her eyes at Jared in challenge.
“No,” the big shifter said. “Absolutely not.”
“Yes,” the leader said bluntly. “It’s happening.”
“Ajax has training. Hell, even Andre and Milos have some training now after spending several months with us. But the two of you have no combat training at all!” Jared fired back, still shaking his head.
Justin bit his lip, letting his Alpha do the talking, even if he agreed completely.
“We’ve been training,” Madison said ferociously, “And if you encounter any of the enhanced versions of their Agents, then you may very well need me.”
Beside her, Arianna also nodded strongly. Although she couldn’t shift, she was still as strong and as fast as a shifter, thanks to the Extremis serum coursing through her blood.
Justin had to give her a point there. With the dual nature of the serums Madison had injected herself with, one bonding to her human DNA and one to her shifter DNA, she was the strongest shifter Justin had ever met that wasn’t a dragon. He himself hadn’t fought against one of them, but Connor had, and he swore up and down that Madison was a match for them in sheer strength.
But again, she didn’t have any training.
It didn’t take Justin long to realize that no matter what he or Jared said, this was going to happen. Not long after that, his Alpha came to the same conclusion.
“You do not lead. Ajax leads, and you obey his orders in the field. And he obeys mine. In here, you are the boss, and I am okay with that. But not out there,” the Alpha said. “Out there, I am the one with the training. My team are. All of them have more specific training for this than your entire team put together. So you will obey them, or this is a no-go.”
Madison looked triumphant for just a split second, then nodded seriously. “I have no issues with that, and I don’t think anyone will argue against your team’s expertise. If Ajax and Arianna weren’t in town to bolster our numbers, I wouldn’t recommend us going anyway. But we can do this,” she said strongly. “It will be a big blow to the Agency, one that we’ve needed to strike for a while now.”
Justin just sat back, wondering if he’d be able to do what was expected of him. This mission was going to result in a lot of killing. He still hadn’t quite come to terms with that, and truthfully, he had been hoping to have a little more time to make a decision on the question bouncing around in his head.
Around him, people got to their feet, preparing to head out.
Could he continue to do this?