Predatory Game (GhostWalkers, #6)(114)

“This room was built specifically for this purpose.”

She sent him a quick glare over her shoulder. “Nice that you told me. What other secrets do you have?”

“Okay, I’ve got it up and running. Am locking it down.”

Coverings slid into place over the windows, thick steel to prevent the gas canisters and attackers from entering.

“Bullets aren’t going to penetrate the walls and doors. The coverings won’t stop them, but it will slow them down until our team shows up.”

“What else does that thing do?” She began pulling weapons and ammunition out and tossing them to him.

Saber shoved guns and knives into her waistband, taped one to her ankle and another to her wrist. She threw him a vest and donned one herself and then added the gas masks to their growing pile.

“I need the small suitcase. Hurry, Saber.”

She dragged it off the shelf and gave it to him. “I hate to ask.”

He flashed a quick grin. “I’ve tapped into the security monitors and you can see them. I count six. They’re coming in.”

“We’re overloaded.” She traveled light and all the weapons were a bit much. Still, she strapped them on and went back to him.

He began pulling materials from the suitcase.

Saber stared at the contents and then at him. “A bomb? You’re going to make a bomb?”

“It’s mostly already made. I just have to arm it.” He positioned the claymore mine in the middle of the door and ran a thin trip wire to the door handle and signaled her to the other side of the room. “They’ll be coming into the house in another minute. They know we’re inside and they’ve got us surrounded. They’ll try to blow the door, and the claymore will take out anyone on the other side.”

“You’re crazy, you know that?” But she was beginning to feel safe with him. He was a soldier and very methodical. And he had planned for just such an attack. He was perfectly calm and very confident.

He flicked her a wicked smile. “You got it right, baby. I’m a GhostWalker and we were born crazy.”

Saber had the sudden urge to laugh. He really was crazy. “You like this, don’t you? They’re tearing up your house, and you’re stoked about it.”

“We’re moving anyway.” He indicated the wall around the swimming pool. “Get behind that. There’s a grate in the cement.”

Saber had looked at that grate hundreds of times, assuming it drained any water that splashed from the pool. “You have an escape route.”

His eyebrow shot up. “Doesn’t everybody?”

“I must be slipping. I didn’t suspect.” But she should have. Jess was no lamb. No Navy SEAL was. Add in the GhostWalker program and she should have been searching his house for his arsenal. “Is the house wired?”

“You’re making me proud, angel face. Hell yes, it’s wired. Pull the grate.” He indicated the monitor.

She could see shadowy figures moving through the smoke surrounding the house. Two tossed hooks over the upstairs balcony while others surrounded the house. They rushed, blowing open the doors and windows. Glass and wood sprayed into the air and shot across the interior of the rooms to slam into walls. The house shook ominously.

Saber ducked her head and Jess swept her behind him with one arm. “Stay close. The energy is going to be racing toward us and it’s going to get ugly.”

She planned on staying very close to him. His solid frame was comforting and his complete confidence inspired the same in her. The first rush of adrenaline was wearing off, leaving her more exhausted than ever, the psychic drain taking its toll. She rested her head against his broad back, and he reached over his shoulder to curl his arm around her neck, holding her to him while they both stared at the monitor. Saber held her breath.

Two men entered through the front door in standard two-man formation.

“They’re military,” Saber said. “Look at the way they’re moving.”

“I believe the late Colonel Higgens had a lot more to answer for than we gave him credit for. I think he was part of an espionage ring that reaches all the way to the White House.”

The two men separated, rifles at the ready, and began a cautious exploration of the living room. With the gas masks on, they looked like monsters as their shadowy figures moved through the swirling vapor.

“If they think you’ve uncovered evidence of that, they’ll want to kill you for certain, Jesse. They aren’t going to be taking prisoners.”

“I have that feeling.”

Jess watched as the two climbing the ropes made it onto the balcony. One pulled out a very large-looking knife while the other had a gun. They tried the door, and when it didn’t open, the one with the gun fired several shots. The two in the living room were too disciplined to react to the gunfire. They swept the room efficiently, quartering the area, checking thoroughly.

Jess kept his eyes fixed on them, so much so that Saber stopped watching the split screens showing every entry point and watched the living room. She felt the jump in Jess’s pulse, the slight tension in his body as the man sweeping to the left of the room approached the doorway to the kitchen. The soldier took a step, then a second one. She saw a light flash red on the strip along the bottom of the screen. The soldier stopped abruptly, staring down at his foot, and the very line of his body screamed horror. He said something to his partner, who backed up, looking wildly around him at the floor.