Page 36 of Warrior's Captive
“Slippery bugger,” Evvek muttered. “Don’t think you’re gonna catch me like—fuck me.Noooooooononononono . . . vakshit. Okay, okay, wait . . . hmm.”
“Evvek. Not inspiring confidence.”
“Traps, and traps entrapped in traps. Someone doesn’t want their security bypassed. The goddess damned nerve. Everyone thinks they’re fancy shit, these days.”
“Just tell me you can bypass the—”
“Yeah, yeah. Fuck. Okay, we’re clear. Let’s go, I can’t hold this for long without it sending out an alert.”
Tai’ri stood, slinging his bag over his shoulder and tossing the remains of his lunch into a nearby recycler.
Several tense minutes later they strolled down the hallway leading to the flat. One entire side of the building was transparent, each floor open to view by anyone walking below. It was a feature for the residents: step outside one’s apartment and sip a morning beverage while watching the city below. It supposedly made up for the lack of rooftop greenspace or individual balconies, one of the reasons why these units were so affordable.
A couple exited the lift moments later, holding hands as they approached, chatting. The female was as short as Vivian, and dressed in slacks that swung playfully around her ankles and a blouse that tied right above her waist. Her shoulder length hair was artfully mussed, her makeup subtle and tasteful.
Holding her hand was a taller, lean male in a collared business casual shirt and slender trousers, his feet encased in delicate rope sandals. They looked young, soft, oblivious to the dark undercurrents of the city.
Evvek ignored them and stepped forward, placing a round disc next to the security panel. The panel flickered green, and the door slid open. He sneered. “No one is ever as good as they think.”
He stepped forward, but the business casual male touched Evvek’s shoulder and went first, Tai’ri on his heels.
And swore as the air erupted into a shriek of sound and flame.
* * *
“What vakshit places manual booby traps?” Evvek groaned, emerging from cover. He’d dived behind a couch as the others returned fire, dismantling the drones.
Tai’ri processed the ringing in his ears as Adyat’s voice demanded status. The remains of three hand constructed aerial drones littered the floor along with the furniture the team had dived behind for cover.
“Cancel backup, Adyat,” Tai’ri said. “We’re good.”
Ebwenna and Dayan completed a perfunctory scan for serious injuries and then gloved up to begin packing up the remains of the drones, looking as cheerful as if they’d just come from a lunch date. Being under fire agreed with their temperaments. Tai’ri had watched remotely one time as Ebwenna slipped through a crowd to assassinate a target with a single stroke to a femoral artery, then chatted with the completely oblivious bystanders while sipping a beverage.
Evvek kicked the threshold of the projectile scarred door. “It’s safe to say the occupant of this apartment won’t be coming back.”
“Then we’d better make the search good,” Tai’ri said. Evvek scowled but they began tossing the unit.
Adyat’s voice came through the comm again. “Sir, Corann lost the target. She reports diversionary tactics were utilized, and the target was extracted in the fight.”
Tai’ri swore. “Find me something, Evvek. How the fuck did they know we were coming?”
“They didn’t,” Evvek said, rich satisfaction in his voice. “These units come with built in study centers.” As he spoke, a section of a long, nondescript wall slid open to reveal a datasphere unit on an inset desk. Evvek reached underneath the desk and pulled out a folding chair. “The handler must have called for an extraction once the booby trap alerted him, and he made Corann. But he wasn’t expecting us or he would have taken this unit.”
“Unless he wiped it.”
“We’re about to find out.”
“We shouldn’t do this here,” Dayan said. “They could send people to torch the unit. I’m uninterested in a firefight today, I’d like my manicure to last at least two weeks.”
“Can you uninstall the unit?” Tai’ri asked.
Evvek gave him a withering look. “Really? Just step away, it probably has a self-destruct.”
“This should be interesting,” Ebwenna murmured, then wandered into the kitchen. “I wonder if there’s coffee.”
* * *
Back to waiting at the hidden office, Evvek and the other techs combed through the darksphere console they’d extracted, finally assigning Tai’ri a low-level task that would normally go to a drone, just to prevent him from hovering. He accepted the task because it was that or pace. Hated waiting, but until there was a direction to point him in, the hunt was all digital for now.
