Night Shadow (18 page)

issuing instructions with the authority of a drill sergeant. Even the guards

moved as she indicated where she wanted people to go.

Alex had given everyone their instructions on the ride over. There was no

need to remind them to expect the unexpected. Lexi rubbed the tingle on

the back of her neck as she reassured the members of the choir in

passable Dansk that this was no more than a drill. Cool and calm, she still

made sure she hurried people along.

She had a talent for languages. She’d learned Danish when Alex had been

in Denmark on an op three years ago, so she could read the transcriptions

of his reports, and the language had stuck. The fact that she’d learned a

language because an operative had been posted there for several months

was something she’d kept to herself. There was no need to have mastered

the language while she’d been buried in the research department. It

certainly hadn’t been a part of her job description. Still, it came in handy

here and now, halfway across the world in Australia.

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Night Shadow

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Ginsberg as he pointed a group

of adults and kids toward an exit. There was no reason to feel a shudder

of revulsion travel up her spine. The fact that he didn’t like women in the

field, and her in particular, shouldn’t bother her. And it didn’t.

What bothered her was that he’d seemed pretty innocuous a couple of

days ago. Now he . . .
wasn’t.
He made the hair on the back of her neck

rise. Every instinct she had said not to trust him. Yet he’d done no more

than be rude, and not even particularly rude at that. She rubbed her

temples, which were beginning to ache. And while she was casting stones,

Lexi considered her own childish behavior in baiting the man.

Where the hel had that come from? He hadn’t really annoyed her enough

for her to goad him as she’d done. Not only was it an overreaction, it was

unprofessional. That entire exchange at the safe house, brief as it had

been, was a bit odd. She needed to give it some thought when she had a

moment, after she’d assessed Alex and made another report into IA. She

was overdue reporting in as it was.

She absently rubbed her temples again, then turned away from Ruben

Ginsberg’s soulful black eyes to go back to herding kids. It took less than

an hour and al non-security personnel had been removed, and the

building secured. Lexi went to the front of the stage, shading her eyes,

looking for Alex. Even though the house lights were up, she didn’t see

him, but Kiersted was about fifty rows back and happened to glance up.

Lexi indicated she was going backstage to check for stragglers. There was

sure to be some kid who’d just had to go to the bathroom. Kiersted

nodded and went back to his study of some handheld device. She walked

into the dimly lit hallway behind the main theater.

There wasn’t anyone around backstage. Half an hour before, Lexi had

ferreted three boys out of a bathroom down a long hal way, and she

headed back down that way once more.

The sat phone at her hip vibrated, revealing a 411 code, meaning IA was

calling. Lexi glanced around to make sure she was alone.

“Stone here.”

Control answered. “Pass code?”

“Beacon.” She waited for the affirmation.

“White.” There was a pause as the control cleared the line so the call

would not be monitored within T-FLAC except by the IA recorders. “Al

clear. The director is on the line.”

“Your report is twelve hours late, Stone.”

She turned and looked down the hallway as she answered. “Yes, sir. I’m

still investigating the current mission. We’ve had some complications and

I’m not certain Stone is the rogue. I need more time.”

“Negative. We don’t have more time. Whoever is leaking information is

making T-FLAC look like a fucking triage patient with al their limbs blown

off. That’s how bad we’re bleeding intel. I need answers and I need them

now.”

“I’l have a report to you by midnight.”

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“You better, Stone, or I’l pull you from the field and stick you in the filing

room so fast it’l make your head spin.” The call ended with an abrupt

click. She winced. “Ass.”

“Stone.” The whisper came from directly over her head as she paced

under a fly walk. Shit! She glanced up. Ruben Ginsberg stood in the

shadows fifteen feet overhead.

She snapped off the sat phone. What exactly had he overheard?

“Come on down,” Lexi told him, backing up a little so she could see him

better. “We’re heading out.” As she spoke, she backed into the deep

shadows near the wall. Whatever Ginsberg was up to, it wasn’t good. She

didn’t trust him further than she could spit. And she couldn’t spit that far.

Suddenly he was right
there,
so close she had to take a step back as he

shimmered directly in front of her. “Busy taking orders from somebody

other than Stone, bitch?” He smel ed of nervous sweat and dust as he

moved in. Lexi took another step back. He was almost on top of her. The

meager light backstage suddenly glinted off the dul metal of the Ka-Bar in

his hand.

Shit. Lexi reached for her weapon. It was gone. “What are you playing at,

Ginsberg?”

“You annoy me, Stone. Annoy the fucking shit out of me. Especially when

you’re crawling off behind our backs, just waiting to take Stone down for

IA.” He waved the knife in front of her eyes.

“I’m sure I annoy a lot of people,” she told him, forcing herself to speak

evenly. “But they don’t come at me with a knife.” Her heartbeat was rapid

enough to make her dizzy, and an alien panic was taking hold of her so

that she was almost frozen in her tracks.

Lexi shook off the overwhelming feeling of pee-her-pants fear.
Focus,

Stone.
Her Sig Sauer was strapped to her ankle. He’d slice and dice her

before she could free it from the holster. He had weapons, and he had his

wizard powers. She had her wits, but she was too frightened to think

rationally.

He’s one man.

One trained, experienced operative with a terrifying look of determination

in his black eyes as he stalked her closer and closer to the wall. He started

tossing the large knife from hand to hand like some B-movie villain.

Back and forth. Back and forth.

She made herself maintain eye contact, but she could see every

movement as the knife went from hand to hand. Hand to hand. Sweat

stung her eyes as she felt the wal at her back.

“Are you threatening me?” Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye,

she shot a quick glance at the two young men standing just beyond the

dim lights. “In front of witnesses no less?”

“What witnesses?” Ginsberg sneered as the two guys disappeared into the

shadows. “You’re so certain your own shit doesn’t stink that you’re wil ing

to take down a decent operative. You don’t even realize what’s going on

with him, do you?”

Lexi tried inching along the wall, and instantly, faster than a normal

human being could move, Ginsberg was in her face, nose to nose with

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her. He smiled. “I’m not going to let you fuck this up. And if he won’t take

care of your ass, I wil .” A demonic, unnatural smile that didn’t reach his

eyes twisted his face as he reached up and sliced her cheek. The knife was

so sharp it took several seconds for her to feel the heat of it.

Strangely, it didn’t hurt. She used the back of her hand to dash away the

blood as a red wave of anger rol ed through her like a noxious cloud

pushing aside the fear as if it had never been. She’d never experienced

anything like it.

Anger was bright blood red. A pulsing, blazing fiery crimson.

With a wild cry she struck back, knocking aside the hand holding the

knife. They went down hard. She landed on top, straddling his chest.

Forgetting every single lesson in hand-to-hand she’d learned and excel ed

at, Lexi punched, bit, kicked, heaved, and head-butted. Most of her

defensive and offensive attacks hurt her more, she thought in the sane

part of her mind, than they hurt him. But the fury rode her. She was too

overwhelmingly furious, too blindly incensed and panicked to let the

rational run the show.

Grabbing the short hair over his ears, she slammed his head down
hard

on the wood floor. Once. Twice. He bucked and heaved her off his body

with a grunt, the knife, his whole arm, moving faster than she could see

it. He straddled her this time, his considerable weight pinning down her

legs, crushing her to the floor. Obsidian eyes gleamed with pleasure as he

brought the Ka-Bar down.

She twisted, felt a hot slice on her upper arm. Again on her thigh. Didn’t

hurt and she didn’t give a shit. He’d disposed of her LockOut. She was

going to beat the son of a bitch senseless, then kil him with his own knife.

“What in holy hell is going on here?” Alex’s voice. Ignoring his running

steps, Lexi hauled back her fist and punched Ginsberg in the face, reveling

in the crunch of bone and cartilage as his nose broke under her fist. Her

heart soared with satisfaction. She tasted blood, and punched him again.

This time he dodged and the blow landed on his bicep. He sliced her

again, and her throat was on fire.

She barely heard Alex cursing. “Christ. Both of you. Stop right now. What

the fuck’s gotten into you?”

Lexi managed to shove Ginsberg farther down her legs. Far enough so

that she could bring a knee up and strike him hard in the balls. He didn’t

make a sound. And even though she knew she’d put most of her weight

behind the blow, he didn’t even flinch. His eyes gleamed like malevolent

onyx as he raised his arm, his meaty hand curled into a fist.

Alex teleported Lexi out from under Ginsberg seconds before the other

man’s fist connected. His weapon was drawn and he slammed the muzzle

of his Glock hard against Ginsberg’s temple for emphasis. “I want an

explanation, and I want it now. What the
fuck’s
going on?”

Two things happened simultaneously. Ginsberg sliced out with the Ka-Bar,

almost jettisoning the Glock from Alex’s hand, and Lexi, enraged and

bleeding, flew across the space separating her from her opponent.

Launching herself onto him, she sent them both skittering across the floor

in a tangle of arms and legs and flashing knife.

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Night Shadow

What the fuck?!

Puzzled and exasperated, Alex instantly removed Lexi, encasing her in a

protective shield twelve feet away. He immobilized Ginsberg, one hand

raised to stab Lexi, one foot braced against her attack, his expression a

rigor of hatred.

Jesus.

He strode over to Lexi. Her eyes were wild, and blood dripped down her

cheek. She had a bloody gash on her arm, another on her upper thigh and

across her col arbone. Her face was filthy, and already starting to bruise.

She looked ready to tear someone a new one. Alex had never seen a

woman so completely enraged. “Want to explain yourself ?”

She didn’t spare him a glance. Al her attention was on Ginsberg. Large

gray eyes glittered dangerously, and her pretty mouth was held tightly as

she bit out a terse, “No.”

She was bleeding. Where the hel was her LockOut? “Bul shit, Lexi. This

behavior is unconscionable.”

“I’m going to kill him.” She rose to her knees and rocked a little, resting

on her hands.

“Apparently, he has the same agenda.” Alex reached for the headset in his

back pocket and attached it over his ear. He touched the control, keeping

his attention on Lexi as she staggered to her feet and started pacing,

testing the confines of her invisible prison with her bal ed fists. She was

manic, feeling the air in a circle around her, trying to find a way out.

“Lu?” he said into the lip mic. “Kiersted? Backstage, my coordinates. We

have a situation.”

Lu arrived first. “What—” His gaze went from a pissed off, snarling,

imprisoned Lexi, to a paralyzed Ginsberg. “Good God.”

Kiersted materialized beside Alex, weapon drawn. He took in the situation

with his usual equanimity. “Want me to shoot one or both?”

“Take Ginsberg back to the safe house. Find out what you can. Keep him

in that state until we know what the hel went down here. Lu, find Daklin,

fil him in. I want to make sure everything here is secure. But I have to

get Lexi calmed down and cleaned up before I get her to tel me her

version of events.”

“Good luck with that,” Kiersted said dryly, before teleporting himself and

Ginsberg back to the safe house.

“Want me to hang around?” Lu asked.