Hidden Impact (20 page)

No. Training hadn’t added to their program or they’d have notified the fire teams on site for rest and rehabilitation.

Marc appeared in the doorway of the surveillance room, tossing Gabe and Victoria portable communications units.

Gabe slapped on the throat mic and threaded the earpiece over his ear, shoving the rest of the receiver into his shoulder harness and giving it a tug to be sure it was clipped securely.

“Need to get eyes on the asset, stat.” Lizzy’s statement was actually a question for Gabe. Who did he want going to secure the asset?

Maylin.

Gabe continued toward the front door. “Victoria is with me. Marc, get reinforcements from Training. Suspected incursion on the guest cabin. Lizzy, go high. We need a bird’s eye view. Everybody count in on the comm in ten.”

“Apaches, incoming.” Victoria’s voice came in clear on his comm—her sharp hearing had given her a split-second advantage on the rest of them. The low, distinctive sound of the attack helicopter blades beating the air reached them all.

“Go.” Gabe was out the door and proceeding through the trees at speed, eyes open and scanning the area as he took a curved path towards the guest cabin. The front door faced outward to the creek running past the Centurion property. Intruders were going to come from the perimeter right to the front door.

He was headed for the back of the cabin, and hoped Maylin had remained in the bedroom at the rear. His heart kicked into overdrive, pounding hard in his chest. He sucked in air, held it for a beat, and blew it out to get his shit under control. She needed him. If she was in the kitchen...

Chapter Nineteen

The explosion had sent Maylin to her knees, instinctively ducking and throwing up her hands. The ground had shaken, and it felt like the cabin had shifted a little on its foundation, even. Or maybe she was just scared out of her mind.

Yeah, she was definitely afraid.

“We’ll see you shortly, Maylin Cheng,” Jewel sang out from the phone still clutched in Maylin’s hand.

Tā mā de.

Adrenaline coursed through her as she looked around wildly for something she could do, some way she could go. The windows were still intact somehow. But Jewel and her people were coming. Did she have time to run to Gabe and the others in the main cabin? What if Jewel had a surprise waiting for her outside?

The loud strike on the front door sent a fresh spike of fear stabbing into her chest, and another hit to the door followed.

No. She didn’t have time. Not unless she bought herself some. Otherwise, they’d just grab her while she was trying to wrestle the damn window open.

She swallowed hard. Go with them? Charlie knew too much about An-mei’s kidnapping if they’d told him they knew where her sister was. That they were taking her to An-mei. No. If they had Maylin, they’d probably kill Charlie to erase proof of An-mei’s abduction. He didn’t deserve to be caught up in all this.

Worse, if they had her, they had the leverage to make An-mei do what they wanted. Based on what Gabe had told her—and she believed what he’d said about biological warfare—a lot more people could be hurt than Charlie if An-mei did the research.

She was going to hell, but she wasn’t going to go with them. Maybe she could sell her soul to get Gabe and his team to rescue Charlie too.

Please forgive me.

Another bang at the front door, followed by gunfire. Maylin ducked back behind the doorjamb in the bedroom, breathed for a two count, then made herself peek. Hiding wouldn’t help her. She needed to know what was coming toward her.

There was a man. He’d shot out the lock of the door. Someone was cursing behind him. “What if you shot the girl? Keep it under control, idiot.”

“If I’d shot her, she’d have screamed. Asshole,” another man answered. “She’ll be fine. Let’s grab her and get out.”

They sounded nothing like Gabe and his team. She’d listened as they’d murmured communications to each other that first night, forever ago. Even in banter, they’d been professional. Concise. These people weren’t Centurions.

How long before they managed to shoot her, on purpose or by accident?

Someday she was going to learn to come up with answers instead of so many questions.

Her heart pounded. She tightened her grip on the cold cylinder she’d grabbed from the duffel, hoping her hands wouldn’t sweat and make her slip. One chance. And she had to hope she understood how to use the thing. It was heavy in her hand, weighing a lot more than she’d expected. No wonder the bag had been so hard to get out of the closet.

The man came through the door, his gun held out in front of him as his gaze swept the room. She waited—and she might be stupid for losing the precious moments—until his attention was on the far end of the room. Pulling the pin, she tossed the flash bang grenade hard.

His partner shouted a warning.

It landed short, its arc only taking it part of the way to the man, but it rolled the remaining few feet toward him. She turned away just as it exploded. The sharp bang was deafening and she clutched her head. There were shouts, but they came to her as if her ears were stuffed with cotton. She didn’t wait for her hearing to come the rest of the way back. She ran for the window, lobbing one of the metal batons she’d found in the bag through the glass. No time to climb through. Instead she threw herself through the window headfirst and tried to tell herself to roll.

She hit the ground hard, rolling onto her back, the wind knocked out of her.

“Stay down!” Gabe’s voice, still muffled as if she had earplugs in her ears. One side was worse than the other.

But okay. She could do that. Happiness and relief cut through her fear. He was here. Relief might have been a wonderful thing if her hands and shoulders weren’t stinging. The pain was actually increasing steadily. Oh, she had to have landed on something bad. Like glass.

“Victoria.” Gabe was crouching over her and she could see the muscles in his neck strain like he was shouting. Maybe he was. The whole world was a muted cacophony for her. His hands patted her down in a gentle but thorough progression over her entire body. This checking for injuries was becoming a thing between them. Maybe it wasn’t a good thing.

Maybe she was going to be hysterical.

Victoria was at their side, firing her weapon. “Covering. Go.”

Gabe’s mouth was set in a grim line as he grabbed Maylin by the wrist and pulled her to a sitting position, urging her to her feet. “We’re going to need medical. Have them meet me at the main cabin, stat.”

She tried. Honestly, she dug into her reserves and pulled up every contrary, stubborn moment in her life to drive herself to her feet. But nothing was working right. Everything throbbed, punctuated by piercing pain in random places. And a hot wetness was running from her ears down her jawline.

Gabe had her up, though, and he hoisted her over his shoulder. The jostling hurt more, blood rushing to her head as her view consisted of the ground and his feet running. She might throw up.

The world went black instead.

* * *

“You’re safe.” Gabe’s voice came clearer this time, but not by much. There was still cotton, or maybe dirt, clogging her ears.

Around her, people were rushing back and forth. There was an IV in her left arm and a man in fatigues was injecting something into the line leading to her. Beyond him, another man in fatigues was being led by. The skin up and down his arm and the side of his face darkened, burned.

“Here. Focus right here.” Gabe stepped into her line of sight. He caressed her cheek and she turned in to the caress, letting her eyes flutter closed as his thumb gently brushed across her skin.

“We’re giving her Toradol for the pain...” The stranger’s voice faded away.

* * *

It was a lot quieter when she woke up.

“Welcome back.” The voice was familiar but it wasn’t Gabe or Lizzy, not Victoria or Marc either.

Maylin inhaled and exhaled nice and slow, each breath clearing away more of the grogginess. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times before focusing on the slender man seated next to her.

“Caleb.”

He grinned. “Glad you recognize me.”

“I don’t know where I am, though.” The room looked something like the nurse’s office from high school. Not really, but it was the closest comparison she could think of with the curtain partitions around her stretcher partially open to reveal several similar beds. There were doors at either end of the long room but no one seemed to be walking by. A couple of curtains were drawn around stretchers at the other end of the row.

“You’re still on Centurion Corporation grounds.” Caleb stood and poured water into a tiny cup. He handed it to her carefully, making sure she had a good hold on it before he settled back into his chair. “Sip slow. If it stays down, we’ll see about getting you whatever chow the medics say you can try first.”

“Where’s Gabe?” She followed directions, the water cool against her lips and her dry throat. Since the initial sip seemed to go down fine, she took another then returned her attention to Caleb.

“Well, Diaz and the team are fine. Not a scratch on them.” Caleb waved a hand in the direction of the hallway. “You, on the other hand, look a lot worse than you are.”

“Thanks?” Most likely she’d regret asking for a mirror.

“You fell on broken glass.” Caleb eyed her, maybe to gauge how well she was reacting to the news.

“I remember. I jumped through a window.”

“Not recommended. We all try to avoid it if possible.”

“I can understand why.” But she wasn’t in pain, per se. Stiff, yes. And maybe there was a dull throb over most of her body.

“Most of the cuts were superficial. A couple are held closed with butterfly stitches, so don’t mess with those. One or two spots, we had to stitch closed after the glass was removed. When those itch, don’t mess with them either.” Caleb stood and refilled her little cup with more water. “How’s it staying down?”

“No nausea.” She pondered. “So if I start itching, you’re going to put a cone of shame on me?”

Caleb grinned. “Nah. But they make these mitts we can put over your hands to keep you from scratching.”

“I’ll pass, thank you.” And the conversation was starting to wear on her. It wasn’t that he wasn’t nice, and the banter was pretty light, but there was a nagging...something at the back of her mind.

“Everything sounds weird. Kind of hollow.” The words popped out.

“Yeah.” Caleb set the pitcher down. “About that. Nice distraction with the flash bang, but you were too close. You blew out your eardrums.”

“Ah.” Well, considering the alternative, it might be the better of the options. “Is it permanent?”

“Medic says the ruptures on your tympanic membrane are fortunately minor. Obviously you can hear some, and what trouble you’re having isn’t likely to be permanent.” Caleb tapped a finger to the side of his own ear. “I can tell you from personal experience it’ll probably be fine. Could even get back to close to one hundred percent in a few days to a week. But if you don’t have your full hearing back in about three months, what’s gone is probably gone for good.”

Sobering thought.

“Considering most of your injuries were minor, we decided to keep you here at our medical facilities, but we can provide you with protection at a civilian hospital if you really want to move.”

Some of the tension left her shoulders. There was a world of difference when someone gave her a choice. “This is okay. Especially if I can get up and leave soon.”

“So long as you promise to rest, you can be moved to the rest and rehab cabin, but the guest cabin is a mess. We’d rather you stay in a more secure building for the time being.”

Memory came crashing back. “Charlie!”

“Whoa, whoa.” Caleb jumped up as she started to swing her legs down off the stretcher. “You’ve still got an IV in, don’t rip it out by accident. Your friend is going to be fine. Our men retrieved him from one of the Apaches when we responded to the offensive action.”

She blinked back tears. How could she have forgotten? “Really?”

“To be honest, Edict shoved him out of the helicopter.” Caleb held her shoulders. “But he didn’t fall far. He’s got a few bumps and bruises, but you look a lot worse than he does. Plus, with the damage to your ears, let’s take it slow with the standing up or one of the medics is going to come in here and yell at us both. Your balance might be off.”

“They just...let him go?” Maylin had been so sure they’d kill Charlie, and maybe her too, once she wasn’t of use as leverage. Maybe she’d been watching too many television shows.

Caleb grimaced. “Well, there’s no being sure. But Lizzy took a distance shot at the person holding him in the copter. So whatever they were going to do, their mind was changed. Lizzy is a pretty incredible sniper, in case you didn’t know.”

“I didn’t.” Really, she didn’t know much about any of them. Except Gabe. “Where are they all now?”

Caleb paused. “I promised Diaz I wouldn’t lie to you. He said he owed it to you.”

Maylin’s breath caught in her throat.

“You have been out for a good twenty-four hours. They’ve been cleaning up and analyzing the attack, including a captured recording of your call with Jewel. Nice presence of mind, setting it to record the call, by the way, and keeping your wits about you with her. That woman is too clever for her own good.” Caleb sat and crossed one leg over the other, tapping his knee with his fingers in a rapid staccato beat. “Harte and I arrived with several other fire teams, enough to make a couple of squadrons. That’s two dozen more people to support Diaz’s team, by the way.”

“Okay.” It was a lot of people. All to the good, she hoped. Elation bloomed in her chest and spread through her body, clearing away the last of the fog of her injuries. They had enough people and firepower. They were going to get her.

Her heart contracted and expended in her chest almost painfully. After being told so many times to give up, by everyone, this was finally happening. And she couldn’t help holding her breath against the fear that all of this could still end badly.

A few tears welled up and she blinked them back. Happiness and apprehension warred with each other inside her head until she clenched her hands in her lap to stop them from trembling.

Caleb didn’t say anything as she worked through her tumble of emotions. He seemed so nonchalant about it or, she was realizing, his expressions weren’t reflective of what he was actually thinking.

She’d blinked away the tears and sat staring at him for a few moments before he continued as if he’d never stopped. “Diaz and his team were ready with a plan, and it was determined they should execute, with certain tweaks, before Edict or their sponsor decided to move your sister since the acquisition of you failed.”

In his own way, Caleb was really hard to read. She couldn’t help but watch him close. He seemed so genial and pleasant, she almost missed the tightness around his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. His tone had barely changed. But he was angry. Maybe.

“Caleb, I...”

He waved her apology away before she could finish. “It’s not your fault. Not any of this. And Edict is ballsy as fuck for taking action here. There has been tension between the two organizations ever since they cherry-picked a couple of our resources, but this took it to a whole new level. Trust me. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been a different contract and a different altercation.”

“How are you and Harte different, Caleb?” She’d wondered before, and maybe it was a stupid question now. But she wanted to know. Isabelle and Victoria had nicknames, but most of the men had been addressed by last name.

Caleb blinked. “Different?”

“Everyone calls you and Harte by your first names.”