A bullet dug into the wall in front of him, shattering concrete in a tiny spray. Knox swore and swung around the corner, firing off three rapid shots that forced the approaching soldier to dive back under cover.
A spray of automatic fire forced him back. The assault was followed by the clink of a canister skittering down the cracked floor.
“Dani!” he roared, but she was already moving. A blur of black clothing and blond hair darted past him to scoop up the grenade. She’d tossed it back and whipped back around the corner in the space between heartbeats, and the building rattled as the explosion shook the hallway.
A fresh hail of bullets was the response, and Knox flinched as another spray of concrete pelted his face. He checked his magazine and swore. “I’m out.”
Nina frowned. “Me, too.”
“Here.” Dani tossed two 9mm magazines their way, and Knox caught them.
“That’s the last of it,” Mace said flatly.
The slides had locked back on both of Ava’s pistols, indicating the magazines were spent. She threw them aside, exchanged a silent look with Nina, and received a nod in return.
“Toss a smoke grenade, Captain,” Ava said without looking away from Nina. “Give us three seconds, then follow.”
Knox didn’t argue that he wasn’t a captain. He didn’t ask questions. He jerked the pin from the grenade, waited until the last moment, and sent it skittering down the hallway, spewing heavy white smoke.
Ava dove after it, with Nina hard on her heels.
One.
Gunfire exploded. A man screamed.
Two.
Something thudded hard. A body skidded out of the smoke, eyes wide and blank, staring upward.
Three.
Knox dove into the hallway, holding his breath. A flash beside him marked Dani’s passage, disappearing toward the sounds of combat ahead. Mace was a shadow behind him, covering his back.
Bodies littered the hallway. Knox leapt the final one and broke free of the smoke and into a room that looked like it had once been a cafeteria.
Right now, it was anarchy.
Half a dozen bodies already littered the ground. Two dozen more were battling for their lives against an absolute maelstrom of graceful destruction with Nina and Ava at its heart.
He’d never seen anything like the way they moved together. Calling it a dance felt inadequate. Knox had learned to move with Nina, but their connection paled in comparison to the instinctive, complete understanding between Ava and Nina. They flowed through the soldiers with perfect awareness of each other and everything happening around them.
While Knox scrambled to assess the situation, Nina slid beneath Ava’s outstretched arm to hamstring a man as Ava slit a second’s throat. Spinning with the momentum of her knife stroke, Ava hooked elbows with Nina and vaulted her back into the air, flying at an opponent.
Nina crashed into him and carried him down in a dizzying roll that snapped her opponent’s neck before momentum carried her through a graceful leg sweep that tripped the man trying to close with Ava.
Deprived of her current target, Ava swung and swatted a bullet from midair with a negligent swipe of her shiny, silver arm bracer. The bullet ricocheted with terrifying precision into one opponent, but Ava had already turned to fling a knife in a deadly arc toward a soldier who’d made the mistake of targeting Nina.
Six men eliminated in a heartbeat. A seventh staggered by, screaming as he clawed at Dani’s arms. She was riding his back, stabbing him repeatedly.
Two dozen men didn’t have a chance.
Static wailed over their comms, followed by Rafe’s panicked voice. “Fuck. Can anyone hear me?”
A man charged—whether at Knox or just trying to get to the exit, he didn’t know. His gun rose, and Knox charged, knocking his arm up so it fired uselessly at the ceiling. Then he engaged his comms. “Rafe. Sit rep!”
“They have Gray. Maya’s missing, and Conall’s been shot. Three times, center mass. One round made it through his vest.”
Mace ducked behind a column. “Where’s he hit?”
The sound of Velcro ripped over the comms. “Right upper quadrant.”
“Exit wound?”
“I don’t see one.”
“Vitals?”
“He’s tachycardic at 115, with a weak, thready pulse. BP is low—90/55. Resps are shallow.”
“He’s hypovolemic. Got your IV access?”
“Working on it.”
Mace stepped out of cover, took slow, careful aim, and used one of his last rounds to bring down one of the Ex-Sec soldiers. “Talk to me, Rafe.”
“Got it!”
“Good. Run a green bag, wide open. And Rafe—” Mace exhaled. “You have to open him up.”
“A laparotomy,” Rafe said flatly. “In the back of a fucking van?”
“I know,” Mace soothed. “But if you don’t get a handle on the bleeding, he’s going to die.”
Rafe cursed. Then a flurry of sounds interspersed with his panicked breathing tickled Knox’s ears—paper ripping, metal clinking, and one low, pained groan that froze Knox’s heart in his chest.
Then Rafe sucked in a sharp, shocked breath. “His liver’s shredded, Mace. Massive parenchymal disruption.”
“Pack it with med-gel dressings.”
“Will that even—”
“Just do it!” Mace barked. But his expression had melted into one of sick, resigned dread.
No. No.
The massive Ex-Sec soldier grappling with Knox dropped his gun and whipped a pressure injector from his vest. Knox jerked his arm out of the way, but the man jammed it into his own neck. His eyes glazed over as he let out a feral roar.
Before Knox could react, the man gripped him by the vest and slung him across the room.
Knox crashed into the cement wall hard enough to crack it. The window next to him exploded in a shower of glass he barely blocked from shredding his face.
A timely reminder. This wasn’t just two dozen men—it was two dozen highly trained Ex-Sec soldiers with God knew what enhancements and unfettered access to top-of-the-line biochem stimulants.
Tobias Richter had Gray. Maya, too, most likely. A tactical catastrophe and a personal horror. The secrets in her head were priceless. Gray’s pain would be the leverage Richter used to unlock them.
Every second Knox was delayed would cost them both too much.
“Fuck, Mace, I can’t get control of it!”
And Conall was still bleeding.
A chill resolve swept over Knox. He dodged easily as a table crashed into the wall where he’d been and kicked the nearest fallen chair into the air. He caught it mid-flight and whipped it back toward his attacker’s legs, turning his charge into a tripping stumble.
“Dani!” Knox roared. “Get Mace to Conall.”
Dani brushed her hair out of her face and pulled a fresh knife from her boot. “You heard the man, Doc.”
Mace hesitated, then nodded. “I’m on my way, Rafe. Just hold on.”
Dani had been Ex-Sec, too. She’d get the medic to Conall’s side in time. Knox let himself believe it for one vital moment.
Then he locked it away. Turned.
Ava and Nina were still dancing their path of elegant, glorious destruction through the Ex-Sec squads. Fast and brutal, there was no doubt they would persevere. Eventually. But every second they lingered here would be measured in Maya’s and Gray’s agony. Tobias Richter would hurt them.