Page 62 of Croatia Collateral

Giva couldn’t breathe. With one hand, she clutched at the man’s hand in an attempt to pry his fingers loose. With the other, she felt for the knife she’d stabbed into his neck. Had she missed his carotid artery? If she could just find the knife...

The grip on her neck weakened.

She pulled his fingers away, and the hand dropped to the ground. The guard lay with his eyes wide open, staring up at the starry sky. Lifeless. He’d bled out.

Dax gave one final shove against the other guard’s neck and rolled off the man’s limp body.

Giva pulled her knife from her guard’s throat. “Need this?” she asked, holding the handle out for Dax.

“No, he’s dead,” Dax said.

The other members of the team converged on the entrance. “Peter and I will take lead,” Fearghas said.

“Follow the sound of the generator.” Dax tipped his head toward the submachine gun the guard had dropped. “Take that and use it. Just be careful not to damage the equipment if you can. Even if we eliminate the Nexus Collective, the EMP capability is still up there in those satellites. We need access to the programs to incapacitate the devices completely. We don’t know who else Evan Maas brought in on their development.”

Fearghas nodded. “Roger.” He lifted his chin toward Peter. “Ready?”

Atkins nodded.

Fearghas and Atkins entered first.

Dax followed, limping more heavily.

Giva had his back.

Teams Yellowstone and Montana brought up the rear.

The broken glass doors led into a massive entryway stretching three stories upward. Moonlight streamed in from huge broken glass windows, casting strange prisms of light and shadow across the space. At the center, a ghostly-white spiral staircase snaked upward from the ground to the floors above.

In the cavernous foyer, the generator's hum echoed eerily off the walls, making it impossible to determine the direction from which it emanated.

Fearghas pointed to Team Yellowstone, then pointed to his left, indicating they should search the corridors leading off the left side of the entrance. He pointed to Team Montana and then to the right corridors. The two teams took off, moving quickly.

Fearghas pointed to Dax and Giva and then to the corridors on the other side of the spiral staircase. They were to start there.

Fearghas and Atkins climbed the spiral staircase to the floor above.

Dax and Giva quickly moved down the corridor at the rear of the building, clearing room after room. All they found were pieces of broken furniture, graffiti and trash left behind by squatters.

They emerged in the grand foyer to find Team Montana and Yellowstone coming out at the same time.

“We hear the generator on the second floor, near the rear of the building,” Fearghas’s voice filled Giva’s ears.

“Hold fast,” Dax said. “We’ll come up the rear stairwell.” He motioned for the others to follow him to the corridor he and Giva had cleared. They’d noted a staircase at the end that would be a much better way to climb to the next level without exposing the entire team.

Dax led the way up the stairs, moving as quickly as his injured leg would allow. At the top, he eased open the heavy metal door and peered out into a dark hallway. A little light shone through the open doors of the rooms lining the corridor from windows long broken with views of a midnight sky sprinkled with diamond accents that never quit.

Fearghas stepped out of one of them and waved them into the room.

With all eight team members in one place, Fearghas gathered them in a circle and dropped to his haunches. With his finger, he drew in the dust.

“We found the room with the generator. It’s on the next corridor over, running parallel to this one. The door appears to have a series of heavy padlocks securing it and one guard standing outside. We think their alternate command center is at the end of the same hallway and around a corner. The rooms are set up similarly in each corridor in this section of the resort. We think they’ve set up in the suite at the end of the hallway.”

“Do they have a stairwell at the end, like on this hallway?”

Fearghas nodded. “We spied at least one guard pacing outside the suite, but I would guess there are two. The alcove in front of the door is large enough for two guards.”

“What about shutting down their power source in the room coming from the generator?” Chase asked.

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