Page 10

10

MAX

A s the van careened around a corner, tires screeching in protest, Max braced himself against the door. Through the windshield, Tehran's afternoon traffic parted like the Red Sea before Moses—drivers swerving frantically to avoid the three-vehicle convoy barreling through the streets with total disregard for traffic laws.

This would draw a lot of attention, but Yamanu couldn't shroud them when they needed people to get out of their way.

Centuries of combat experience had taught Max to use the moments before engagement to center himself and find that cold, clear focus that had kept him alive through countless battles, but this time it was personal, and getting into the zone was impossible.

Kyra was radiating barely contained waves of fury and fear that were impossible to block. They were affecting him as if he were connected to her with wires.

"Two minutes to target," Nadim said with a calmness that would have been enviable if it weren't fake.

Even without smelling the human's fear, Max could see the guy's white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel.

Yamanu activated his earpieces, linking with the teams in the other vans. "Listen up. We're approaching Yasmin's house. At least two hostiles were seen entering the house, but there could be more, and they are likely enhanced soldiers."

Nadim had no idea that the people he was dealing with were not human, so enhanced was the code word for Doomers. Still, he might notice things he shouldn't know about, so after the mission they would in any case need to scrub some of his memories.

"Remember, our priority is the safety of Yasmin and her children," Yamanu said. "Jade, you go in from the back with Dima and Anton. Rishba and Asuka, you protect our flank. Max, Kyra, you are with me through the front door. Nadim, you stay with the vans."

A chorus of acknowledgments came through the earpieces.

"I see smoke," Kyra said suddenly, leaning forward between the front seats and pointing toward a dark column rising in the distance.

Max's jaw tightened. Smoke could mean many things, none of them good. "Faster," he instructed Nadim, who nodded and floored the accelerator.

As they turned onto the street where Yasmin's house stood, Max caught movement at the far end of the road—two black SUVs speeding away.

"They are moving north," he called. "At least two vehicles, high speed."

Jade's voice crackled back immediately. "We see them. Permission to pursue?"

Yamanu's reply was immediate. "Affirmative. Jade, you follow these vehicles but do not engage unless absolutely necessary. Track and report position."

"Understood," came the terse reply, followed by the sound of an engine revving as the second van broke formation to chase the fleeing SUVs.

Nadim pulled their van to an abrupt stop half a block away from Yasmin's house—close enough for a rapid response but far enough to avoid a potential ambush. The second van, carrying Dima and Anton, stopped behind them.

"Dima, secure the vans," Yamanu said. "Anton, go around the back. Max and Kyra, let's go!" he said, weapon already in hand.

Regrettably, Yamanu's shrouding was useless against Doomers, and it didn't make sense for him to waste his energy on the humans.

The four of them moved fast while maintaining partial cover behind the cars parked along the curb. The neighborhood was eerily quiet—no pedestrians and no curious onlookers despite the smoke. People here knew to mind their own business or risk ending up in prison, or worse, at the end of a noose.

The city's modern appearance misled outsiders into thinking that the place was home to a contemporary society where people enjoyed human rights, but nothing could be further from the truth with the medieval regime in power that operated according to barbaric rules that hadn't been modified for modern times. If anything, they'd become worse.

The front gate of Yasmin's home was open, and so was the door to the house itself.

They walked through the gate, Yamanu taking the lead with his weapon drawn. The small front garden showed signs of struggle—overturned planters, a child's bicycle knocked on its side, and drops of what was unmistakably blood darkening the stone path.

That shouldn't have happened if the perpetrators were Doomers unless someone in that household was immune to their mind control. Then again, some Doomers were so inept at thralling that they couldn't take the family without using force. There was also a very high likelihood that they just enjoyed terrorizing humans.

As they reached the open front door, Yamanu moved to one side of the opening while Max took the other with Kyra. Extending his senses, Max detected no sounds of movement inside the house, only the faint crackle of flames from somewhere deeper within, explaining the smoke they'd seen rising from the structure .

He nodded to Yamanu, who nodded back, signaling for him to go in and for Kyra to stay put.

She didn't like that, but neither of them was going to argue with Yamanu, who as Head Guardian was the senior officer on this mission.

As he entered with his gun leading the way, the interior of the house revealed the grim story. The air hung heavy with the acrid smell of gunpowder and the coppery tang of fresh blood, and the entry hall and living room beyond had been trashed—overturned furniture, vases shattered, and walls that were pockmarked with bullet holes. A fierce battle had taken place there, and someone had paid with their lives for the brave defense of the family because it sure as hell wasn't the Doomers who had been left to bleed out on the floor.

As Yamanu and Kyra entered behind Max, he extended his arm to block them from going ahead of him.

The pair of legs sticking out from behind the overturned couch looked like they belonged to a man, but just in case he was wrong about it, Max didn't want Kyra to see her sister like this.

"We are going to secure the rest of the house," Yamanu said quietly behind him.

Max nodded and waited until he was sure that Kyra had followed Yamanu before moving forward to examine the owner of the legs.

The man, probably Yasmin's husband, had died fighting. A pistol lay beside his outstretched hand, its magazine empty. Multiple bullet wounds marked his chest and abdomen, the pattern suggesting he'd faced his attackers head-on.

"He tried to protect them," Max said, respect coloring his tone despite not knowing the man. "He fought until his last breath."

Kyra and Yamanu returned from inspecting the rest of the house and walked over to him.

Max could smell her tears even though she didn't let them fall.

"Is it only my impression or are the good ones always the first to die?" she murmured.

Yamanu draped a comforting arm around her shoulders. "If you asked Jade that question, she would have said that dying heroically in battle was the ultimate reward."

"Death is death." Kyra knelt beside the body, murmuring something in Farsi—a prayer, perhaps, or simply an acknowledgment of the man's sacrifice. "May his soul know peace in the presence of the Almighty."

Max wasn't familiar with that prayer or invocation or whatever that was, and whether the Almighty was the creator of the universe or the Fates, he had no problem echoing the sentiment.

"The house is secured," Yamanu said. "There are no other victims and no booby-traps, and it's safe to assume that Yasmin and her children were taken alive."

Max's earpieces crackled a split second before Jade's voice came through. "We've got a problem. Lost visual on the targets."

Max swore under his breath. "What happened?"

"They went into a tunnel," Jade said, sounding irritated. "We followed, but when we emerged on the other side, the vehicles were gone."

"Where was this tunnel?" Yamanu asked.

"Northern outskirts, heading toward the mountains."

That narrowed it down somewhat but still left hundreds of square kilometers of potential territory to search. They needed more information and fast.

"Return to the safe house," Yamanu instructed. "We'll regroup and?—"

"Wait," Nadim's voice interrupted through the comms. "I may know where they're headed. There's a facility in that area, officially a military research station, but my network has reported special units activity there for months. Some of the soldiers seemed foreign and enhanced."

Hope flared in Max's chest.

"Send the coordinates to everyone's phone," Yamanu instructed.

Kyra shook her head vehemently. "We don't have time for that. We need to follow them now."

"We rushed in here with minimal preparation, and they still escaped with your sister and her children," Yamanu countered, keeping his voice steady. "If we go after them ill-prepared as we are, we'll just get ourselves killed and help no one. "

"Every minute we delay?—"

"I know," Max jumped in, cutting her off. "But I am with Yamanu on this. We need to regroup and rearm. We also need to find more details about that facility, or at least its layout."

"What if they don't go to the facility?" Kyra said. "What if they are heading to the airport? We will never find them."

"That's not likely," Yamanu said. "Possible, but I bet Nadim is right. The enhanced soldiers are physically powerful, but they are not great independent thinkers. They do what they are told, and it makes sense that they were told to bring your sister to a nearby facility before she and her children were to be sent someplace else."