Page 151 of Storm Warning

The sassy woman rolled her eyes as Seth pretended to consider negotiating with Obsidian Storm’s leadership. She gave the same hand signal, and he noticed a minor change in the rest of Artemis. They shifted subtly, but it was there.

“So, what is it going to be, Marsh? Watch your friends die or stay with your woman and watch your friends go free?”

“I pick door number three.”

The two men looked puzzled, while several of the Fortress operatives smiled.

“What does that mean?” Mendoza asked.

“It means I want another option, and I want it right now.” His voice rose on the last word.

Riley activated her wrist sheaths, changed her hold on the hilts and plunged the steel blades deep into Garcia’s thighs.

He howled with pain, dropping his gun and releasing her to clasp his thighs.

Startled, Mendoza turned toward his friend.

Andre covered the distance between them in one leap. He tackled Mendoza from the side, forcing him away from Riley. With his greater weight, he drove the other man into the lab floor.

Although stunned for a beat, Mendoza recovered quickly and retaliated by flipping their positions, ending with him on top of Andre. He grinned as he threw a roundhouse punch to Andre’s jaw followed by a punch to the left cheek.

Andre growled, wrapped his arm around Mendoza’s neck, hooked two fingers in his cheek, yanked his head in the opposite direction, bucked his hip, and followed the terrorist as he rolledover, ending up on top. Once there, he slammed his fist into Mendoza’s jaw and then his throat, crushing his windpipe.

While the Storm leader struggled to breathe without success, Andre jumped up to go to Riley’s aid and discovered she didn’t need his help. Of course not. She had Garcia trussed up like a turkey with zip ties around his wrists and ankles and a piece of duct tape over his mouth.

Teagan stood over the fallen leader with her weapon pointed at his head.

“Are you okay, Riley?” Andre raised his voice to be heard over the renewed gunfire.

“Never better. Take over here, please. I need to finish the last two computers. After that, we can use Garcia as a get-out-of-Izamal-free card. What about his partner, Mendoza?”

Andre glanced at his opponent. No movement. No breathing. Nothing. “Not a problem anymore.”

“Good. Help the others take care of business. I can handle the computers.”

“I’ll stick close if you don’t mind. The last time I turned my back, an enemy combatant got his hands on you.” He glared at the man who muttered behind the tape. Probably didn’t want to know what he was saying. “I still owe him for that, too.”

She flashed Andre a grin. “If you ask nicely, you might get a chance for payback.”

As Riley hooked her minicomputer to another laptop, the lab went silent. The lack of gunfire seemed deafening. She glanced around the large room, as did Andre.

No Storm soldiers left standing. Satisfaction eased the knots in Andre’s stomach. Fortress had taken care of business. The number of Storm soldiers still in the compound remained unknown, but Fortress had cut down the Obsidian Storm numbers drastically.

“How much longer, Riley?” Seth helped the others secure the last of the soldiers.

“Five minutes or less.”

“Make it less. I don’t want to battle the rest of the terrorist cell where we have limited space to maneuver.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Grant, set the charges. We need enough to destroy the lab.”

“Copy that, sir.” He grabbed his pack and got to work.

“Search for intel we can take back to the jet.” Brent directed the operatives to various stacks of files. “We’ll take as much as we can.”

David went to the closest stack, grabbed a handful and stuffed it into his pack. “The last thing we want is for what remains of Obsidian Storm to rise from the grave again and pick up where Garcia and Mendoza left off.”