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Cole nodded. He sure hoped so. And he prayed it would be before this guy trashed all the servers and set Zia back decades in research and trials.
When they reached the 4th floor, Cole was regretting all those morning workouts he’d skipped in the last six months.
In his earpiece, Flint’s voice came loud and clear. “We’re at the landing. You guys here?”
Joey responded for them. “Ready.”
“Breach on three,” Flint commanded.
“One.”
Cole adjusted his grip, his palms sweaty and his heart racing.
“Two.”
His gaze flicked to Joey, who was focused entirely on the door in front of them. He knew she wanted to be here, and she was obviously capable, but he’d much prefer her to be safely tucked behind her computer.
“Three!”
At Flint’s command, Joey pushed through the door, sweeping left. Robbie followed and moved right. Cole wasn’t sure exactly what to do, but based on the hundred or so action movies he’d seen in the last decade, he held his gun out and pressed forward.
Joey whispered, “Move toward the server room. Keep your eyes open because he might already be on the move.”
Cole flinched at the sudden noise in front of him, then ducked as the wall behind him exploded. “Get down!” He scrambled to take cover behind one of the desks in the wide-open office space. Stupid open offices. Joey was right, this was a terrible concept for a workspace.
Where was Joey? He found her across the room, in a similar position as himself, huddled behind a filing cabinet.
“You won’t make it out of here!” she yelled at the shooter.
There was a gunshot in response, striking the edge of the cabinet. Joey retreated a bit farther. Cole stuck his head up, trying to spot the shooter across the room. There was no sign of him.
“We’ve got this floor surrounded and more agents onsite!” Cole yelled. “If you turn yourself in, we can work something out.”
He heard a chuckle and paused, zeroing in on where it was coming from.
“We’re approaching from the east. Can you distract him?” Cole praised the Lord for his friend. Together, they could take him down.
Joey slowly peeked her head around the cabinet, searching for the killer. Cole pointed toward the cubicle he thought the man was hiding in.
* * *
Joey kept her finger alongside the trigger as she crouched while making her way across the aisle, ducking from cubicle to cubicle.
“What’s your endgame, anyway? There’s no way out of this.”
“You just let me worry about that.”
Joey’s breath caught at the voice. There was no denying it now.
On her comms, she whispered, “That’s Ben Parker.” Her mind raced, still trying to connect the dots. Despite Patrick assigning him to bring her up-to-speed in the department, Ben had been completely disengaged from the beginning. Had he known she was an imposter from the start?
She saw him emerge from his cubicle, ducking as he fired several rounds in their direction. Hundreds of pieces of glass rained down on her from the cubicle divider, stinging like a hundred papercuts as they hit her bare arms. When it was safe to look again, the door was closing to the server room.
What was he thinking? That was a total dead end.
“He’s in the server room, Raven,” she said. She had to get in there.
“I got him.”
