Marcus (7 page)

He ran his hands over the molded carbon
fiber pieces, checking them. “A little big but not bad.”

“Claudia found it for me. Not sure why, I
don’t think she likes me,” Elle muttered.

“She doesn’t like anyone.” Amusement
underscored his tone. “But actually I think she likes you just
fine. She told me you’re the best comms officer she’s ever
had.”

“Really?” Elle was floored. “But she’s
always laughing at me. Not out loud, just these little smirks—”

A snort from behind Marcus.
Oh God, she’d
heard.

“Princess, that’s for Marcus’ benefit, not
yours.” Claudia stepped into view, her carbine slung over her
shoulder. “I just love seeing him squirm.”

Elle frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Shut it, Frost.” Marcus turned his back on
Claudia, blocking Elle’s view of the other woman. “Did you find a
weapon?”

Elle slipped a hand into the side holster on
the armor and withdrew a small thermo pistol.

He took it, checked it, handed it back to
her. “It’ll do. It isn’t too heavy for you and it’s easy to use.
Just point and shoot. You have extra ammunition?”

She put the pistol away and nodded. She had
a stash of thermo bullets. When fired, a chemical reaction was
triggered in the bullets that made them heat up to scorching
temperatures. Hot enough to penetrate tough, scaled skin.

“I’m nervous.” The words slipped out of
her.

He set one finger under her chin and tilted
it up. His green gaze was steady. “Nerves are good. You go in
cocky, you get yourself killed.”

“Okay.”

He looked at his heavy-duty watch. “Five
minutes until we land. Ready?”

No.
A part of her wanted to curl up
and stay in relative safety on the Hawk. She straightened her
shoulders. She wasn’t that girl anymore. Besides, Marcus would be
by her side.

“I’m ready.”

He turned to the team. “Hell Squad, ready to
go to hell?”

“Hell, yeah!” Elle raised her voice to mix
with the rest of the team. “The devil needs an ass-kicking.”

***

Marcus activated his combat helmet and once
it was in place, leaped the couple of meters from the hovering
quadcopter to the cracked concrete. He kept his gaze up, searching
for any waiting raptors.

Around him, his team also hit the ground.
They crouched low, guns up, and headed for cover.

Marcus turned and held his arms out for
Elle. She didn’t hesitate to jump. He caught her slight weight,
took an extra second to hold her close, then set her on her feet.
“Let’s go.”

They jogged toward what had once been a
shopping mall. Now the large sign above the doors hung lopsided,
and all the windows in the triple-story building were broken. In
the parking lot, cars were piled on top of each other and tipped
over, as though they were nothing more than toys that an angry
child had kicked.

Or an angry rex.

“It’s so quiet,” Elle whispered.

Yeah. Too quiet.

They were ten meters from the safety of the
mall entrance when raptor fire ripped across the ground in front of
them. Elle skidded to a halt, throwing her arms up.

Marcus didn’t stop to think. He tackled her
to the ground and rolled them into cover behind a car.

They stopped with him on top of her, both of
them breathing heavily. He gripped her face in his gloved fingers.
“Elle, you okay?” God, she hadn’t been hit, had she? Standard
raptor weapons shot high-velocity poison that burned and paralyzed,
while their snipers shot razor-sharp projectiles made of a
bone-like substance. Either was deadly. He felt the racing drum of
her pulse in her temple.

“I’m okay.” Her words were breathless as her
hands clamped over his wrists.

Shit.
He was twice her size and
squishing her. He rolled off her and crouched. “Stay down.” He
lifted his carbine and sighted a raptor sniper on the roof. He
heard his team returning fire and through the scope, the reptilian
humanoid came into view. For a second, Marcus wondered if the
scientists’ theories were right. That this alien was what the
Earth’s dinosaurs might have evolved into over millions of years if
they’d survived.

He gave his head a tiny shake and blocked
everything out. It was second nature. “Get the job done” had always
been his motto, one he’d learned from his Marine father. Marcus
sighted the head of the ugly raptor, right between his red eyes.
One, two, three
. Marcus pulled the trigger.

There was a spray of blood and the raptor
fell backward out of view.

“Let’s go.” He yanked Elle up and pulled her
toward the others.

“A little welcoming committee,” Cruz
said.

“Yeah.” Marcus nodded at his second. “They
know we’re here.” He glanced at Elle. “Time to do your stuff. Where
to?”

She studied her little screen, her brow
furrowed. “Through the mall. The library’s situated on the street
on the other side.”

“Let’s move.” Marcus motioned them on.

“Wait.” Elle reached up and pressed her
fingers to his face. Her touch was electric, he froze.

“You got nicked by something.” Her finger
ran over his stubbled cheek.

He clamped a hand over her wrist, held her
touch to his cheek for the briefest second before he pulled it
away. “I’m fine.”

She nodded and stepped back. Over her head,
Marcus saw his team all grinning at him like idiots.

“Into position.” He growled the command, but
inside he felt a little glow of something he couldn’t focus on
right now. He studied Elle’s dark head. He had to keep her
safe.

His team moved into their positions. They
were a motley crew but Hell Squad got the job done. The rules had
changed since the invasion. Now a little rebel thinking was needed
because that was what they’d become in their own world.

Elle kept pace beside him. As they moved
through the mall, past shops with their windows still displaying
their wares, she mimicked the others on the team, staying in cover.
Moving fast. He knew she had to be afraid, but she was steady.
Good girl, hang in there.
A quick learner, his Elle.

Not yours, Steele
. They moved through
the old food court. All the chairs were empty, but the tables were
still covered in old trays and fast-food wrappers. Like people had
only just left moments before.

Where the hell were the raptors? Marcus
clutched his carbine tighter. He almost wished for an attack. It
would make him less nervous.

They made it to the other end of the mall,
but Marcus’ neck was tingling. This was far too easy. They were
deep in raptor territory, close to one of their key installations.
No way they’d let them just waltz in.

“Razor sharp, Hell Squad,” he murmured.
“They’re here somewhere.”

They stepped out onto the street. It was
deserted except for twisted steel, rusting cars and rubble.

Marcus warily led the team out, Elle close
at his side, moving into the open. He’d be happy when they were
back in cover.

Suddenly, Shaw yelled, “Canids!”

Fuck
. Marcus saw the pack of
fast-moving creatures racing toward them.

Canids were the equivalent to raptor hunting
dogs. The damned things had a row of sharp spikes along their backs
and a mouth of teeth that made razors look dull.

And they loved gnawing on humans.

Hell Squad opened fire.

The canids loped in their direction, easily
leaping over obstacles, their burning-red eyes fixed on them.
Marcus fired with one hand and grabbed Elle with the other, pushing
her down.

The front line of creatures fell, letting
out wild, inhuman screams as they writhed in pools of their own
blood.

“We need to go there!” Elle pointed to a
long, low-set building. “That’s the library.”

“Go!” Marcus pulled her up. She ran, her
arms pumping. His team closed in around them, still firing at the
next wave of canids.

Marcus hit the door with one shoulder. The
metal groaned. He reared back and hit again. It gave way.

Immediately inside sat the library reception
desk. Dust coated all the surfaces and trash and dried leaves
littered the floor.

Marcus nodded toward the main part of the
library. “Keep it quiet,” he murmured. “Roth said there were
raptors working in here. They might still be around.” He looked at
Gabe and Zeke. “Bar the door.”

One step ahead of Marcus, the brothers had
already started the task before Marcus had finished speaking.
They’d barely gotten some metal pipes through the door handles when
the canids hit it. The door vibrated under the weight of them, and
they shrieked. The canids’ howls were enough to send shivers
through anyone. Gabe and Zeke kept working to strengthen the
doors.

“All right, let’s find these crystals.”
Marcus touched his ear. “Noah, we’ve reached the library.”

A hiss of static came across the line. Then
Noah’s faint voice. “Marcus…raptors jamming…working to…hold
tight.”

Dammit
. Marcus bit off a curse. It
didn’t change anything, it just left them blind until Noah could
get the comms back up. The team fell into position. Cruz took
point, followed by Claudia. Marcus kept Elle in the center and Shaw
brought up the rear, holding his sniper rifle like it was precious
gold.

The passed into the main part of the library
and as the doors closed behind them, all the noise cut off. The
library had been soundproofed, no doubt to keep the noise of the
city out. It was mostly high-tech comp screens and consoles, now
silent and covered in dust. But toward the back, the library still
had a historic section of paper books lined up on rows of
shelves.

A loud humming sound filled the room. Like
the whirr of a large machine.

Marcus used hand signals to direct his team.
They moved with stealth, constantly scanning ahead for any movement
or noise. Moments later, Gabe and Zeke silently rejoined the
group.

Elle stayed close, moving slowly and working
hard to be quiet.

They rounded an overturned table. Elle
stepped onto glass from one smashed comp screen. It made a faint
crunching noise.

A sudden, deep grunt made them all
freeze.

Marcus held his closed fist up. Then he
inched forward and glanced around a bookshelf.

Three large screens sat on a long desk. He
guessed they were what passed for raptor comp screens. They were
all liquid black with jagged edges, and had strange golden symbols
flashing in the center of them.

Surrounding them, heavy, scale-covered
cables tapped into the side of the screens. The cables looked
organic and pulsed gently. They were attached to a large black box
that was making the humming sound and glowed red intermittently.
The geek squad at base had studied some raptor tech the squads had
brought home. Most of the alien technology had organic material
spliced into it.

Off to the side on a separate table sat an
untidy stack of black crystals in the shape of small cubes. More
were sitting in a box below.

A raptor sat in front of the screens,
perusing the data.

Marcus scanned around. The alien appeared to
be alone. He was smaller than the standard warrior raptors.

Gabe inched forward and caught Marcus’ gaze.
He held up his large gladius combat knife. The knife all the squad
members carried.

Marcus nodded. Gabe was a spooky-good
soldier. When Marcus had accepted the man onto Squad Six, he’d
heard the rumors. That Gabe had come from some secret military
super-soldier program. Marcus had certainly seen the man do some
things that didn’t seem humanly possible.

The unknown and unexplainable tended to
scare people, but Marcus didn’t care because Gabe was damned good
at his job. Marcus figured everything that had come before the
invasion could stay there. None of them were the same people they’d
been before.

Elle glanced from Gabe, to the knife, and
then to the raptor.

Yeah, the realities of this ugly war of
survival were what he’d wanted to protect her from. He gripped her
chin and forced her to look at him. Her blue eyes were wide, but
steady.

Gabe didn’t make a single noise, nor did the
raptor as he died.

Marcus waited until Gabe had dragged the
body away before he urged Elle forward.

She hurried to the comp screens, grabbed the
chair, then paused. Blood stained the edge of the seat. She stared
at it for a second before she stiffened her spine and sat. As she
studied the raptor symbols on the screen, her brow scrunched. Then
she tapped some of them. Data filled the far right screen. Most if
it was in English.

“Looks like they’re copying ebooks and any
other relevant data from the library’s databases.” She tapped
again, scanning the screens. “They’re focusing on anything
referencing resources, power generation, computer technology and
medical science.” She shook her head. “No raptor language on this
crystal.”

She reached over, her hand hovering over the
scale-covered holder where the crystal was lodged. She yanked it
out.

“Hand me another.” She waved her
fingers.

Marcus grabbed one off the table and set it
on her hand.

She jammed it into the holder. More data
flashed up. More English.

“Another one,” she said.

As they worked through the crystals, Elle
muttered to herself. She discarded crystal after crystal in rapid
succession.

“Dammit.” She yanked another crystal out.
“Still only English.”

She kept working as Marcus’ team prowled
around the space. They were getting edgy and so was he.

They’d been here too long.

Their missions were always quick in-out
incursions. The raptors knew they were here, somewhere. With a pack
of hungry canids out front, it wouldn’t take much to find them.

“Come on, Elle,” Marcus growled.