Forged in Smoke (Red-Hot SEALs #3)(103)

Cosky pushed the door open wide, and Mac silently shot up the immediate flight of stairs. He paused at the landing, with his back against the wall, and chanced a quick peek around the corner.

Wolf’s distraction was working well. The Tango’s back was pressed against the wall, at an angle to Mac. He was facing the stairs going up, concentrating on the men above, totally oblivious to the men below.

Normally he’d go for a kill shot. But damn it, they needed the f*cker alive. Mac had a whole slew of questions for the bastard.

The Tango was right-handed according to the way he was holding his gun, so Mac targeted the bastard’s shoulder. Best to disable him first, then worry about the interrogation.

His finger steady on the trigger, he squeezed off a shot. The target spun toward him and Mac dropped his rifle barrel, nailing the *’s hand.

The bastard’s gun hit the stair.

Satisfaction swelled, but it was short-lived. As the gun clattered down the stairs, the trigger engaged and the falling gun sprayed the stairwell with bullets. One moment the target was standing. The next he hit the ground with half his face and head missing.

Mac’s mouth dropped open in pure disgust.

Son of a f*cking bitch.

There went his informant.

“Stairway’s clear,” he said into his mouthpiece.

“Copy,” Wolf responded immediately.

Heading up the stairs, Mac stepped over the dead Tango and joined Wolf on the third-level landing.

“Sitrep?” Mac asked, staring at the carnage spread before him. Well, he’d found everyone.

“They cleaned house. We’ve identified all but Benton,” Wolf said, his voice grim.

“He’s on the stairs below,” Mac said slowly, still staring at the massacre before him.

Wolf’s grunt acknowledged the information. He didn’t ask if the scientist was alive. “We need Dr. Ansell.”

Mac pushed his way farther into the room. Christ, blood and bodies were everywhere. Some bodies in lab coats. Some in jeans and T-shirts. Some slumped in chairs, some strewn on the floor, and others collapsed over counters scattered with computers and machinery. He counted twenty bodies on this floor alone.

True, the plan had called for Rawls’s gal pal to enter the building once the premises were secure. But that had been back when her new energy prototype had been a threat. Judging by the bloodbath before him, he’d say that possibility was no longer an issue.

Hell, the woman didn’t need to see the butchery up here. Half these bodies had been her friends.

He turned back to Wolf. “You lose any men?” Wolf shook his head, and Mac exhaled in relief. At least this damn operation hadn’t cost them anyone. “Any chance you grabbed one of the bastards responsible for this?”

Another shake of Wolf’s head.

Fuck.

Scowling, Mac scanned the carnage again. “So why call for Dr. Ansell?”

“The heebii3soo was dismantling the lab. We need to know whether Dr. Benton’s prototype is here.”

Mac studied the tangle of equipment spread across desks and counters. Yeah, the answer to that question was imperative. It was essential to find out whether Benton and his team had produced a second Thrive generator. If they had, it might still be in the lab. Unless the * they’d caught cleaning the place out had already sent the prototype up the ladder to his employers.

Although Faith had drawn a sketch of her Thrive generator, several of the machines in the lab fit her depiction of it. They’d need her to identify the actual machine.

Cosky joined him and took a long, grim look around. “Faith doesn’t need to see this. There’s not much we can do about the blood. But we can move the bodies.”

For a moment, barely more than a blink, an irritated expression flickered across Wolf’s face. And then he went all stoic again. “Already being done.”

As though to reinforce his statement, several of his warriors came through a large sliding door at the opposite end of the lab, grabbed a pair of limp bodies, hoisted them up, and dragged them away.

Mac shrugged. How the hell were they supposed to know what the taciturn agent had planned? He wasn’t exactly Mr. Chatty, now was he?

“Wait a few minutes before calling Rawls in,” Mac told Cosky. “By the time he gets here with Faith, the dead should be cleared away.” He took a step farther into the lab, his attention on a bank of computer terminals pushed up against the left wall. “Looks like the computer system is still intact.”

Which was a stroke of luck. They could pull hard drives and access the data back at Shadow Mountain. If Faith didn’t find her Thrive generator in the building, they could check the computer logs and—

Bomb!

The word suddenly exploded in Mac’s head. He winced, unsure of who’d shouted it, or if anyone had shouted it at all. The warning was just suddenly there in his head. Filling his mind. Jettisoning his heart into his throat and his pulse into his ears.

“Out. Everyone. Now.”

This time he recognized Wolf’s voice, although his mind was messing with him, because the bastard was standing directly across from him, and hell, his mouth hadn’t moved.

“Out!” Wolf roared. And this time Mac saw his mouth open wide, expelling the order forcefully. He must have imagined that earlier idiocy.

Spinning, he bolted for the stairs behind them. He could feel the moist heat of Cosky’s breath on the back of his neck. The pounding of boots filled his ears.