Page 182 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

Cassidy stared.

Ruxs and Green vibrated with alert hostility.

Genesis rose to his feet slowly.

Steele stilled the balls rotating in his palm.

Meridian pushed his low hood back, his face impassive, every line of him controlled to the point of cruelty. His eyes, black and glossy as wet onyx, moved once over the room, measuring, before he returned his dark attention on him.

God closed the door.

“Didn’t know you’d come this deep,” God murmured.

The bass in Meridian’s voice was ruinously smooth. Not cold exactly. Cold things still had temperature. His voice held no warmth at all.

A chill swept through the room.

“You said you needed help,” Meridian answered. “You didn’t say how much.”

God held his stare for a beat.

Meridian didn’t offer introductions of the men he’d brought with him. The low hoods covering most of their faces were indication enough they didn’t want to be known.

That was fine with him.

God pointed towards Free’s screens. “We’ve been providing protection for Xander Vale, the man in the hat you see tied down. He’s had numerous threats on his life and—.”

Meridian lifted one hand.

God stopped.

“I don’t care about your righteousness, God.” Meridian’s gaze cut to the feed. “Just tell me why I flew to the other side of the country in an extremely expensive jet. What do you want me to do?”

No one moved.

Everyone in the room seemed to realize, all at once, that the men standing in it were exactly who they looked like.

The deadliest assassins in the world.

The Ravens.

A program— no one admitted existed— created by a privately-funded organization to turn enhanced, trained men into ghosts that crossed borders and dismantled threats the government was powerless to control.

Coupled teams: Blacks. Browns. Greens. Whites.

God pointed at the main screen. “Four hostages. My goddamn family. Nine kidnappers total. They want ten million dollars. They plan to take Xander to a bank in the morning, force the transfer, then they say they’ll let them go.”

“They won’t,” Meridian said.

“No,” Day said quietly. “They won’t.”

God continued. “They’re armed. Emotional. Connected to the men we either killed or had arrested a week ago.”

Meridian stepped closer to the screen.

His men moved with him.

On the feed, Xander sat with his back against a column, pale and breathing shallow. Curtis’s split lip had swollen. Free leaned into Xander as if he were silently comforting him. Tech kept his head angled just enough for the glasses cam to capture faces when kidnappers crossed his line of sight.