issuing instructions with the authority of a drill sergeant. Even the guards
moved as she indicated where she wanted people to go.
Alex had given everyone their instructions on the ride over. There was no
need to remind them to expect the unexpected. Lexi rubbed the tingle on
the back of her neck as she reassured the members of the choir in
passable Dansk that this was no more than a drill. Cool and calm, she still
made sure she hurried people along.
She had a talent for languages. She’d learned Danish when Alex had been
in Denmark on an op three years ago, so she could read the transcriptions
of his reports, and the language had stuck. The fact that she’d learned a
language because an operative had been posted there for several months
was something she’d kept to herself. There was no need to have mastered
the language while she’d been buried in the research department. It
certainly hadn’t been a part of her job description. Still, it came in handy
here and now, halfway across the world in Australia.
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Night Shadow
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Ginsberg as he pointed a group
of adults and kids toward an exit. There was no reason to feel a shudder
of revulsion travel up her spine. The fact that he didn’t like women in the
field, and her in particular, shouldn’t bother her. And it didn’t.
What bothered her was that he’d seemed pretty innocuous a couple of
days ago. Now he . . .
wasn’t.
He made the hair on the back of her neck
rise. Every instinct she had said not to trust him. Yet he’d done no more
than be rude, and not even particularly rude at that. She rubbed her
temples, which were beginning to ache. And while she was casting stones,
Lexi considered her own childish behavior in baiting the man.
Where the hel had that come from? He hadn’t really annoyed her enough
for her to goad him as she’d done. Not only was it an overreaction, it was
unprofessional. That entire exchange at the safe house, brief as it had
been, was a bit odd. She needed to give it some thought when she had a
moment, after she’d assessed Alex and made another report into IA. She
was overdue reporting in as it was.
She absently rubbed her temples again, then turned away from Ruben
Ginsberg’s soulful black eyes to go back to herding kids. It took less than
an hour and al non-security personnel had been removed, and the
building secured. Lexi went to the front of the stage, shading her eyes,
looking for Alex. Even though the house lights were up, she didn’t see
him, but Kiersted was about fifty rows back and happened to glance up.
Lexi indicated she was going backstage to check for stragglers. There was
sure to be some kid who’d just had to go to the bathroom. Kiersted
nodded and went back to his study of some handheld device. She walked
into the dimly lit hallway behind the main theater.
There wasn’t anyone around backstage. Half an hour before, Lexi had
ferreted three boys out of a bathroom down a long hal way, and she
headed back down that way once more.
The sat phone at her hip vibrated, revealing a 411 code, meaning IA was
calling. Lexi glanced around to make sure she was alone.
“Stone here.”
Control answered. “Pass code?”
“Beacon.” She waited for the affirmation.
“White.” There was a pause as the control cleared the line so the call
would not be monitored within T-FLAC except by the IA recorders. “Al
clear. The director is on the line.”
“Your report is twelve hours late, Stone.”
She turned and looked down the hallway as she answered. “Yes, sir. I’m
still investigating the current mission. We’ve had some complications and
I’m not certain Stone is the rogue. I need more time.”
“Negative. We don’t have more time. Whoever is leaking information is
making T-FLAC look like a fucking triage patient with al their limbs blown
off. That’s how bad we’re bleeding intel. I need answers and I need them
now.”
“I’l have a report to you by midnight.”
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Night Shadow
“You better, Stone, or I’l pull you from the field and stick you in the filing
room so fast it’l make your head spin.” The call ended with an abrupt
click. She winced. “Ass.”
“Stone.” The whisper came from directly over her head as she paced
under a fly walk. Shit! She glanced up. Ruben Ginsberg stood in the
shadows fifteen feet overhead.
She snapped off the sat phone. What exactly had he overheard?
“Come on down,” Lexi told him, backing up a little so she could see him
better. “We’re heading out.” As she spoke, she backed into the deep
shadows near the wall. Whatever Ginsberg was up to, it wasn’t good. She
didn’t trust him further than she could spit. And she couldn’t spit that far.
Suddenly he was right
there,
so close she had to take a step back as he
shimmered directly in front of her. “Busy taking orders from somebody
other than Stone, bitch?” He smel ed of nervous sweat and dust as he
moved in. Lexi took another step back. He was almost on top of her. The
meager light backstage suddenly glinted off the dul metal of the Ka-Bar in
his hand.
Shit. Lexi reached for her weapon. It was gone. “What are you playing at,
Ginsberg?”
“You annoy me, Stone. Annoy the fucking shit out of me. Especially when
you’re crawling off behind our backs, just waiting to take Stone down for
IA.” He waved the knife in front of her eyes.
“I’m sure I annoy a lot of people,” she told him, forcing herself to speak
evenly. “But they don’t come at me with a knife.” Her heartbeat was rapid
enough to make her dizzy, and an alien panic was taking hold of her so
that she was almost frozen in her tracks.
Lexi shook off the overwhelming feeling of pee-her-pants fear.
Focus,
Stone.
Her Sig Sauer was strapped to her ankle. He’d slice and dice her
before she could free it from the holster. He had weapons, and he had his
wizard powers. She had her wits, but she was too frightened to think
rationally.
He’s one man.
One trained, experienced operative with a terrifying look of determination
in his black eyes as he stalked her closer and closer to the wall. He started
tossing the large knife from hand to hand like some B-movie villain.
Back and forth. Back and forth.
She made herself maintain eye contact, but she could see every
movement as the knife went from hand to hand. Hand to hand. Sweat
stung her eyes as she felt the wal at her back.
“Are you threatening me?” Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye,
she shot a quick glance at the two young men standing just beyond the
dim lights. “In front of witnesses no less?”
“What witnesses?” Ginsberg sneered as the two guys disappeared into the
shadows. “You’re so certain your own shit doesn’t stink that you’re wil ing
to take down a decent operative. You don’t even realize what’s going on
with him, do you?”
Lexi tried inching along the wall, and instantly, faster than a normal
human being could move, Ginsberg was in her face, nose to nose with
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Night Shadow
her. He smiled. “I’m not going to let you fuck this up. And if he won’t take
care of your ass, I wil .” A demonic, unnatural smile that didn’t reach his
eyes twisted his face as he reached up and sliced her cheek. The knife was
so sharp it took several seconds for her to feel the heat of it.
Strangely, it didn’t hurt. She used the back of her hand to dash away the
blood as a red wave of anger rol ed through her like a noxious cloud
pushing aside the fear as if it had never been. She’d never experienced
anything like it.
Anger was bright blood red. A pulsing, blazing fiery crimson.
With a wild cry she struck back, knocking aside the hand holding the
knife. They went down hard. She landed on top, straddling his chest.
Forgetting every single lesson in hand-to-hand she’d learned and excel ed
at, Lexi punched, bit, kicked, heaved, and head-butted. Most of her
defensive and offensive attacks hurt her more, she thought in the sane
part of her mind, than they hurt him. But the fury rode her. She was too
overwhelmingly furious, too blindly incensed and panicked to let the
rational run the show.
Grabbing the short hair over his ears, she slammed his head down
hard
on the wood floor. Once. Twice. He bucked and heaved her off his body
with a grunt, the knife, his whole arm, moving faster than she could see
it. He straddled her this time, his considerable weight pinning down her
legs, crushing her to the floor. Obsidian eyes gleamed with pleasure as he
brought the Ka-Bar down.
She twisted, felt a hot slice on her upper arm. Again on her thigh. Didn’t
hurt and she didn’t give a shit. He’d disposed of her LockOut. She was
going to beat the son of a bitch senseless, then kil him with his own knife.
“What in holy hell is going on here?” Alex’s voice. Ignoring his running
steps, Lexi hauled back her fist and punched Ginsberg in the face, reveling
in the crunch of bone and cartilage as his nose broke under her fist. Her
heart soared with satisfaction. She tasted blood, and punched him again.
This time he dodged and the blow landed on his bicep. He sliced her
again, and her throat was on fire.
She barely heard Alex cursing. “Christ. Both of you. Stop right now. What
the fuck’s gotten into you?”
Lexi managed to shove Ginsberg farther down her legs. Far enough so
that she could bring a knee up and strike him hard in the balls. He didn’t
make a sound. And even though she knew she’d put most of her weight
behind the blow, he didn’t even flinch. His eyes gleamed like malevolent
onyx as he raised his arm, his meaty hand curled into a fist.
Alex teleported Lexi out from under Ginsberg seconds before the other
man’s fist connected. His weapon was drawn and he slammed the muzzle
of his Glock hard against Ginsberg’s temple for emphasis. “I want an
explanation, and I want it now. What the
fuck’s
going on?”
Two things happened simultaneously. Ginsberg sliced out with the Ka-Bar,
almost jettisoning the Glock from Alex’s hand, and Lexi, enraged and
bleeding, flew across the space separating her from her opponent.
Launching herself onto him, she sent them both skittering across the floor
in a tangle of arms and legs and flashing knife.
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Night Shadow
What the fuck?!
Puzzled and exasperated, Alex instantly removed Lexi, encasing her in a
protective shield twelve feet away. He immobilized Ginsberg, one hand
raised to stab Lexi, one foot braced against her attack, his expression a
rigor of hatred.
Jesus.
He strode over to Lexi. Her eyes were wild, and blood dripped down her
cheek. She had a bloody gash on her arm, another on her upper thigh and
across her col arbone. Her face was filthy, and already starting to bruise.
She looked ready to tear someone a new one. Alex had never seen a
woman so completely enraged. “Want to explain yourself ?”
She didn’t spare him a glance. Al her attention was on Ginsberg. Large
gray eyes glittered dangerously, and her pretty mouth was held tightly as
she bit out a terse, “No.”
She was bleeding. Where the hel was her LockOut? “Bul shit, Lexi. This
behavior is unconscionable.”
“I’m going to kill him.” She rose to her knees and rocked a little, resting
on her hands.
“Apparently, he has the same agenda.” Alex reached for the headset in his
back pocket and attached it over his ear. He touched the control, keeping
his attention on Lexi as she staggered to her feet and started pacing,
testing the confines of her invisible prison with her bal ed fists. She was
manic, feeling the air in a circle around her, trying to find a way out.
“Lu?” he said into the lip mic. “Kiersted? Backstage, my coordinates. We
have a situation.”
Lu arrived first. “What—” His gaze went from a pissed off, snarling,
imprisoned Lexi, to a paralyzed Ginsberg. “Good God.”
Kiersted materialized beside Alex, weapon drawn. He took in the situation
with his usual equanimity. “Want me to shoot one or both?”
“Take Ginsberg back to the safe house. Find out what you can. Keep him
in that state until we know what the hel went down here. Lu, find Daklin,
fil him in. I want to make sure everything here is secure. But I have to
get Lexi calmed down and cleaned up before I get her to tel me her
version of events.”
“Good luck with that,” Kiersted said dryly, before teleporting himself and
Ginsberg back to the safe house.
“Want me to hang around?” Lu asked.