Page 27 of Breaking Danger (Ghost Ops #3)

“Here.” He stretched out the dark, malleable material that seemed to absorb light.

He recognized his body armor wouldn’t fit her, otherwise he’d give it to her, gladly.

“Hold your arms up.” Her arms went immediately up.

He fitted a tunic of ballistic material over her as if it were a front and back apron, making sure it fit along her sides, covering them as much as possible, velcroing it together.

It covered her arms, torso and back and reached down to her knees.

He looked at her. She’d watched him carefully, following his murmured instructions to the letter.

She looked a little like a medieval knight from space.

“This is ballistic material and it’s guaranteed to stop a bullet and diffuse the charge of a stunner.

No one could have possibly predicted the infected.

But it will save you from a bite in the areas the material covers you.

It’s not perfect but it’s the best I can do.

Now stretch your limbs and make sure you understand your range of movement. ”

She stretched her arms up and to the sides. Bent forward then backward as far as she could. Exactly what he would have told her to do, only she did it before he could say it.

“Do you know how to handle a gun?”

Her eyes grew wide. “No. I’m sorry, but no.”

“Stunner?”

She shook her head.

He undid his lightweight nylon belt holding his knife sheath and fitted it around her tiny waist. The knife hung low on her hip.

“I can’t let you out of here without some kind of weapon.

If you have to, pull out the knife and try to aim for the throat.

It’s hard for someone untrained to aim for the heart.

It’s well protected inside the rib cage and you have to know what you’re doing to reach the heart and not have a knife bounce off bone.

That blade is sharply honed. Slash it across the throat if you can. Do you think you can do that?”

“Yes,” she said firmly. “We need to get back to your base with the case and if possible me too, both intact. I won’t hesitate to defend myself. And I will try to defend you, too, if necessary.”

Oh man. Jon never had emotions before a mission.

He just switched that part of himself right off.

They all did. Emotions were pointless, harmful even.

He never felt fear or panic or even exultation.

He was all cold calculation, his mind constantly running checklists and tactics and strategy.

So the wave of love and admiration that swept over him at seeing her before him, untrained, a freaking scientist of all things, but unafraid and perfectly prepared to do her very best nearly brought him to his knees.

Something hot and sharp bloomed in his chest. Love.

Fear. Panic. Because she could die. Most likely would die if they encountered more than a few infected.

Jon could kill a number of them but if they were overwhelmed…

No! He simply couldn’t think that way. He had to go back to the way he’d been before Sophie. The mission. He had to be all about the mission.

“Here.” Sophie handed him the scanner. “What does it say?”

He read the algorhythms and switched to visual mode.

“The swarm is almost past. It’s tighter than I dared hope.

” With his finger he dragged the visuals over a 500 meter radius.

“Your building’s clear. Once the swarm passes there are no infected in a 500 meter radius.

If we move fast, we can make it to the helo and in a couple of hours we’ll be safe in Haven. ”

His comm unit dinged. He switched the scanner to tablet and held it so Sophie could see. “Boss, what’s your news?”

Mac looked exhausted but his voice was clear, eyes focused.

“We’re in contact with five other communities that have assured us they can hold out until we can come get them.

But if we have the vaccine and we can bring it to them, they could do mop up operations themselves with our help and stay in their homes. How are things on your end?”

“Well, you can see for yourselves, right?”

Mac nodded, held his own scanner up. He was looking at the same image of the area around Beach Street as Jon was.

“You’ll have yourselves a window of opportunity real soon.

The lab is almost ready to start manufacturing the vaccine, or so Catherine and Elle tell me.

” He shrugged a massive shoulder. “When they discuss things between themselves they don’t speak English.

” An elbow appeared and jabbed him in the ribs.

“Ouch,” he said obediently. “Oh, there’s someone wants to talk to Dr. Daniels. ”

The image cut out and Elle appeared. A big hand was around her shoulder but Nick was off screen.

“Okay, Sophie,” Elle said. “Show time. Jon will take care of you. He’s the best there is…

” There was a murmur and she shot an annoyed glance to her right, then rolled her eyes.

“ One of the best there is, Nick assures me. Don’t pay any attention to him, the plague has accentuated his testosterone.

” She suddenly sobered and her eyes took on a glossy sheen.

“Be careful out there, Soph. We need you. We need you not only because you’re the best virologist I know but because we’re starting to think of rebuilding and we need you for afterward as well. I need you. Be careful and…Godspeed.”

“Thanks, Elle,” Sophie whispered and switched off the scanner herself. “Right,” she said briskly. “What’s the game plan?”

Jon could have hugged her right there. There was absolutely nothing in her body language or gaze that betrayed fear, though she must be terrified.

What was out there wasn’t anything like usual danger.

Hell, Jon would have preferred any of the hairy situations the team had been in to this.

Any other situation fit in their training.

They’d come up against some of the worst bad men on the planet but Jon understood bad men, how they thought, how they acted.

He’d understood since childhood and two years inside the drug cartel had taught him all about every wrinkle of a scumbag’s psychology.

He knew them, inside out. Knew how they thought, how they planned, how they acted.

This was without precedent in the history of the world and though he’d been thoroughly trained in escape and evasion, what was outside the confines of Sophie Daniel’s pretty little apartment was like some horror from the bowels of hell.

Coming in, his skin had prickled with terror and horror, an active revulsion the likes of which he’d never felt.

Sophie would be feeling that tenfold. But there she was in front of him, ready to face whatever was thrown at her, and do the very best that she could.

She was a scientist not a warrior but she had a valiant warrior’s heart.

For the very first time in his life as a soldier, Jon was terrified of dying.

On missions, if he died, his teammates could carry on.

Here, if he died, he would be leaving Sophie without a means of escape from the dying city.

He would be condemning her to a horrible death or, even worse than death, if she was infected but not killed, he would be condemning her to becoming a monster.

He knew that terrified her more than death but she wasn’t betraying anything other than determination on that lovely face.

He allowed himself exactly one second to be swamped with admiration, then choked it off. If they were going to survive this escape, they would need every single ounce of determination and focus he had in him.

“Right,” he said briskly. “This is how it’s going down.”

She nodded, eyes locked on his. She was listening to him so intently she was nearly vibrating.

“The helo is on the roof of the Ghirardelli building. Are you a runner?”

She thought her response over. “Not really. I exercise, sporadically. I’m not in bad shape but not in super good shape, either. It’s pointless lying.”

He nodded. Yes, it was pointless lying. He needed to know his resources and hers. He nodded to the case containing the vaccine. “Okay. Can you carry that case and run?”

She looked deeply in his eyes opened her mouth, then closed it. “Sophie?”

She sighed. “Coming here it was hard for me to carry that thing. It’s not only heavy it’s bulky. So I don’t know how far I can run while lugging the case around. I wish it were otherwise, Jon, but it’s not. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head sharply. He didn’t need her apology.

She’d already been heroic in getting that case and the promise it contained away from a building in flames with crazy infected running everywhere.

He remembered those first few hours; it had been a madhouse.

Instead of heading for safety right away, she’d gone back for the vaccine.

He worked solutions through his mind fast. There was basically only one way to do this. “Bring it to me.”

She nodded and headed for the case against the wall. She did her best but it was heavy for her. She was carrying it in her right hand and had to list left to balance the weight. She moved slowly. No way could she run with it.

Jon knelt and reached for a piece of material on a side pocket of his backpack.

He knew exactly which side pocket. He was slightly OCD when it came to gear.

Gear saved your life. He pulled the material out.

Dynapack. Infinitely tough, infinitely stretchable, infinitely strong.

He went down on one knee, bending his torso forward until his back was parallel to the ground.

He handed her the stretch of Dynapack. “Put the case on my back, then wrap this around it. If you pull the corners, they will stretch into ribbons. Pull them forward and help me tie them around my chest.”