Page 143 of Storm Warning

He drew in a slow breath, walled off his fear for the love of his life, and gave Seth and Brent a slight nod.

His team leader studied him for a beat. “Ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Go.”

After a last scan of the guards’ positions, he and Elias left the safety of the trees and hugged shadows to help them cross 300 feet to the concrete wall surrounding the Storm compound.

They leaped high enough to grip the top of the wall with their hands and hauled themselves up and over the top to land in a crouch on the other side. Andre and Elias moved into tree cover near the wall and waited for the rest of their teammates.

While he waited, Andre kept tabs on Riley, listening for her voice and mentally tracking her movements inside the compound based on her reports to Iona. Like Seth, Iona had paired up the members of her team so no one worked alone. Since their numbers were uneven, Iona had joined Riley and Violet.

Soon, the rest of Echo plus Brent were inside the compound. Seth used hand gestures to signal the rest of his team to wait. Noah scowled and shook his head.

Seth rolled his eyes but gave a slight nod. With their weapons at the ready, he and Noah hurried to a building 100 feet in front of them. Seth pressed his back to the wall and peered around the corner while Noah kept watch behind him. Seconds later, Echo’s leader gave the signal for his team to join him.

They repeated the same process over and over as they worked their way toward the center building, where the lab was located. With the mission clock ticking in his head, Andre checked around the corner of a building near the lab and almost mashed his face against an enemy soldier’s back. Lucky break that he hadn’t. Andre signaled his teammates to freeze. He’d deal with this soldier so Echo could back up Artemis, who was ready to breach the target building.

Andre silently holstered his Sig and drew his Ka-Bar from its sheath. Two seconds later, he clapped a hand over the man’s mouth and plunged the Ka-Bar blade deep into the man’s kidney, twisting as he withdrew the weapon. After wiping the blade clean on the fallen man’s pant leg, he tapped his earpiece. “Clear.”

Seconds later, his team headed toward the lab, hugging the shadows to make their presence harder to detect. The most dangerous part of the journey to the lab was the last two hundred feet. They would be in the open with no cover.

Seth signaled the others to follow at two-second intervals. He peered around a corner, then walked in a crouch across the open space, followed by Noah, Andre, Grant, Elias, and Brent, all with their weapons up and ready.

When they were safely across, Seth tapped his earpiece. “Zane, do you have a live satellite image of the target building?”

“Negative. The last one was ten minutes ago.”

Andre’s hand tightened around the grip of his Sig. Looked like they would breach the building the hard way. Blind.

“Copy.” Seth tried the doorknob, then looked at Andre.

As the fastest lock picker in their unit, Andre had all the fun. Lockpicks in hand, he moved past his team leader and crouched in front of the door. Ten seconds later, the tumblers gave way with a tiny snick. He looked at Seth and nodded. Piece of cake.

Palming his weapon again, Andre pressed his back to the wall, twisted the knob, and opened the door wide enough to see inside the building. Perfect. The schematics Zane had scrounged up were still accurate at this entrance to the building. They would enter the building through a short hallway, giving them a few more seconds of safety.

He glanced at Seth and nodded, then slipped into the darkened hall. His teammates joined him in seconds.

Somewhere in the building, a door slammed and footsteps came closer and closer to their location.

Andre tensed. This wasn’t good. Echo was the backup to Artemis. They couldn’t back up the women unless they were with them. Another set of footsteps hurried in their direction. He frowned.

What was happening? Had someone discovered Artemis? Or perhaps they stumbled across Shadow unit or M team. The more he listened, though, the less he felt the others were in trouble. None of the teams had contacted Seth or Zane. No gunshotsrang out in the building yet. So if it wasn’t the discovery of the Fortress operatives, what caused all the excitement?

He froze, his blood running cold through his veins. Oh, no. Andre looked at Seth, whose expression was grim. People weren’t running scared. This was excitement, not fear. If soldiers and civilians in Obsidian Storm knew how dangerous this virus was, they’d be terrified and headed to the nearest hospital. Not that it would do them any good.

Seth tapped his comm device. “Iona, report.”

“We’re outside the main lab. Seth, they’re weaponizing the virus.”

Violet broke in. “We have to stop them. I heard one civilian say he would receive a shot in an hour and then he could cross the border to live his new life.”

Andre closed his eyes briefly. The poor sap didn’t realize he was being set up to die.

Seth glowered. “We must get into that lab. We’re on the main floor of the target building. Shadow, take control of the main floor. M team, take the second floor, then help Shadow prevent access to the building. Echo is going to the lab to back up Artemis.”

Nico and David acknowledged the orders.