A flicker of movement caught his eye, and he stopped Tierney with an arm across her chest before he went to one knee, traced the nearly invisible monofilament strung between the last tank and the main building, the thin wire fluttering in the wind. It led to a concealed claymore, an LED blinking green across the top.
Buck touched the line, shaking his head. “The way Grieves strung this sends the bulk of the blast force away from the trip line. This isn’t designed to kill. It’s a variation on my perimeter traps. He’s hoping we’ll set one off, show him which quadrant we breached. Though, I’m sure we’ll show up on one of his cameras sooner or later.” He stepped over it. “We’ll leave it for now.”
Tierney broke into a run, veered toward a rusted, half-open loading bay door on the side of the main processing building. She stopped at the threshold, let Buck give it a quick once-over, before stepping inside, pressing against the adjoining wall.
The stench hit them full force, a toxic mix of ammonia, wet rust, and decades of rotten fish. Green algae bloomed from the cracks in the concrete floor, the damp surface riddled with puddles. Above, jagged gray light sliced through the broken skylights, as water plinked against a hollow metal vat, the erratic rhythm scratching at his nerves.
Buck listened for movement, the combined noise echoing through the space. “This place is an acoustic nightmare. We’d be lucky to hear one of Grieves’ men stomp across the room.”
She gagged, covering her mouth and nose with the neckline of her shirt. “At least, it works both ways. Assuming the air in here doesn’t kill us, first.” She pointed across the room. “It the schematics Sloane downloaded are right, Wade’s probably down that hallway toward the center of the building.”
“I’ve got?—”
A click cut him off, Dalton’s intermittent voice crackling over their comms. “Alpha… Bravo’s… upper catwalks. You’ve… movement coming... Two...”
Buck tapped his earpiece. Sloane had warned them that between the massive amount of concrete and metal, the comms would likely be compromised. Especially if Grieves added jamming tech to the mix.
Tierney ducked behind a shattered conveyor belt, crouching beside Buck as he scoured the shadows, searching for a hint of movement. A crackle of static drifted in from outside, what sounded like footsteps blending in with the echoed noise.
They waited, breath held, weapons at the ready, when two mercs wavered into view wearing heavily plated tactical gear with suppressed carbines and night-vision hanging around their necks. They stopped just shy of committing to the room, sweeping the area, staring at where Buck and Tierney were hiding for several seconds before inching inside.
One of the men reached for his goggles, signaling he’d clear the room before moving on. Buck held a finger to his mouth, motioned to the other side of the conveyor as he removed his knife, readying it. Tierney nodded, notching her rifle into the crook of her shoulder, sighting the guy as Buck scooted underneath the belt, crossing the short space to the far wall.
He grabbed a stray hex nut off the floor, waiting until the men took a few more steps inside before tossing it off to the right. It clattered across the floor, the metallic ping snapping their attention toward the door.
Tierney rose from behind the conveyor, finger caressing the trigger, muzzle pointed at the lead man as he turned, looked directly at her.
The rifle coughed twice, the dull thuts cutting through the dripping water as the guy’s head jerked back, both rounds shattering his goggles — toppling him backwards. His buddy turned, rifle still lifting, gaze searching the shadows to find his mark as Buck surged forward, barreling into him before he’d zeroed in on Tierney.
No prolonged fight. No jostling for position. Just a lunging stab under the asshole’s Kevlar collar, Buck’s other hand across his mouth. The guy’s eyes bulged wide, body rounding inward before he slowly sank to the floor, Buck bracing his weight.
Two down in five seconds flat.
He wrapped his hands around the man’s chest, dragged him over to an empty vat as Tierney hauled the other. He patted the guy down, pausing when he saw a thick, insulated wire running from his radio through a slit in his armor.
A voice shouted inside Buck’s head, that wire dropping his stomach. He checked their six, then ripped the guy’s vest off, tracing the line under the merc’s shirt to a unit strapped around his chest. A green LED flickered erratically on the side of the unit, pulsing on and off before fading into a solid red glow.
A shrill, flatline tone sounded over the radio, the beep echoed a second later by the guy Tierney had dropped.
Buck pounded the concrete. “Shit.”
Tierney looked from the men over to him. “What? What is that?”
“It’s a fucking wrench in our plan.” He tugged the unit free. He’d only ever seen a setup like this once, and it had ended poorly. “This is a very unique dead-man switch that sends a continuous biometric signal to a central receiver. Whenever the signal gets interrupted, the relay activates a failsafe protocol, and the timer on Wade’s chest accelerates.”
She frowned, glancing at the two dead men, brows furrowed, her pulse thrashing beneath her skin. She rolled her guy over, dug into his vest, revealing an identical unit, the crimson glow illuminating the man’s pale skin. “If they’re all wired, and we kill them…”
“We’ll kill Wade.”
“Jesus, what?—”
She cut off when a loud horn blared from somewhere deep inside the plant, the noise vibrating the cracked glass barely holding together on the skylights. Above them, a red strobe light flashed twice, lighting up the darkness before cutting off, the lingering tone still rattling the panes.
Buck grunted. “I’ll give Grieves this much. He’s definitely got a flair for the dramatic. And now he knows that, not only are we already on the board, we just took out two of his players. I doubt we’ll be able to surprise the rest.”
He tapped his comms, calling out to his teammates, but only empty air answered back. “And there go the jammers.”
“This is bad.”
