Page 16 of The Team (The Milvus Files #3)

Rhett went back to the eldest scientist. “The vault. You said it was safe, then prove it.” He looked around at his team.

“Everyone out. Clear the room. Escort these two up to ground level, but don’t let them out of your sight.

” The two other scientists were helped to their feet, and almost everyone followed Rhett’s order.

Except Jay.

“Agent Lin,” Rhett tried, using his captain voice.

“I ain’t leaving you.”

“Jay—”

“My grandmother will kick my ass if I let anything happen to you, and I’m more afraid of her than I am of you, so I’m staying.”

Jay heard a quiet snort and turned to find Yin standing at the door. “I’ll stand watch. If our friend here tries something,” he nodded to the scientist. “I’ll drop him. If he releases a toxin, I’ll seal the room.”

Rhett gave a nod. “Okay.”

Jay grinned at Yin. “I like you, Fù-shé.”

Rhett rolled his eyes and sighed. “Jay. Then at least stand back,” he tried. “Please.”

“Is that an order, Captain?” Jay asked.

“Does it need to be, Medic?”

Jay levelled a glare at him and Yin snorted again. So then Jay shot Yin a similar glare. “I’m liking you less.”

But Jay did as Rhett asked, though he kept the scientist in his line of sight the whole time, his weapon aimed directly at his head.

Did Jay trust him?

Possibly.

Did Jay trust anyone when it came to Rhett’s immediate safety?

Not a fucking chance .

They got to the vault and Rhett nudged the man forward. “Open it.”

“It’s safe, I assure you,” he said, pulling the handle. “We are not permitted to hold any toxin above a category two here. We don’t have the facilities. See this.” He pointed to a small LED screen. “Readings are normal. No contamination.”

He swung the door open, and from what Jay could tell, it looked like a refrigerated storage unit. There were rows of vials and test tubes, like he’d seen in most labs he’d ever been in.

“See?” The man said. “Is fine.”

“Why is Askarov the only one with access?” Rhett asked.

“Because this is years of our work; research results are...” His words trailed off, and he turned to Rhett, pale and scared.

“Those,” he whispered, pointing to one section where there was a glass box.

Three small silver cannisters sat at the back, each not much bigger than a test tube.

“I don’t know what those are. I’ve not seen them before. ”

“Are they dangerous?” Rhett asked.

“I don’t know,” the older man said, beginning to panic. “Please step back.”

But then he reached his hand out, much the same way a father would do to protect a child. But Yin was suddenly beside Jay, weapon raised and aimed at the scientist. “Back away,” Yin barked. “Do not touch him.”

The man damned near shat himself, shaking, teary, and pale. “No, no. I do not mean?—”

“Stand down,” Jay said. “He didn’t mean it.”

Jay gave a nod to Yin and he lowered his gun. The older man sagged with relief, though Jay reckoned it took a few years off whatever time he had left.

Rhett spoke into his comms. “We have unidentified canisters in the vault. I repeat. Three unidentified small canisters... negative... Roger that.”

Then he looked at them each, his eyes going back to Jay. “A team’s on its way down now. We need to stay until we’re cleared.”

Fucking fuckity fuck.

“You shouldn’t have stayed,” Rhett hissed at Jay, angry.

“Well, I did,” Jay replied. “And I would do it all over again. You know that.” Jay wasn’t having this discussion with him right now, and not in front of others. Instead, he looked at the older man. “I can’t keep referring to you in my head as the scientist. What’s your name?”

Still with hands shaking, he turned his ID badge over. “Doctor Azad Heydari.”

Jay smiled at him. “Nice to meet you, Azad. I’m Medic. This is Fù-shé,” he gestured to Yin. “And Captain.” He ignored Rhett’s glare and gave Azad a shrug. “Helluva day, huh?”

By the time they were done with swab tests and given the all-clear, the rest of the team was already back at the base, and Rhett was pissed.

Today had been a failure on all counts.

He got out of the truck before it came to a full stop, stalking into the first admin building, and made a beeline for King .

“What the fuck kinda intel was that?” he demanded.

King glared at him, then looked at the others. “Give us the room.”

Rhett didn’t give a fuck who heard what he had to say.

“This was a waste of our fucking time,” Rhett added.

“Kowalski and Myles are still missing, and we find out that Askarov has a meeting with Gordian, time and location, from a scientist because she overheard a fucking phone call. Intel you should have known!” He pointed his finger at him.

“How did you not have this information? We’re supposed to have the best of fucking everything; the best intel, satellites, phone calls, CCTV access across the fucking planet, and you send us on a wild fucking goose chase. ”

King glared at him with as much distaste as Rhett had ever seen. “You’ll do well to remember who you’re talking to?—”

“And so the fuck will you!” Rhett pointed his finger again because gripping King by the throat wasn’t a good idea. “We now have a location, and I swear to fucking Christ, if we’re too late for my two men, I will hold you personally fucking responsible.”

“You’re not going?—”

Rhett took a step closer, his voice real low and lethal. “Just try and fucking stop me.” He turned for the door.

“I could ground your whole team?—”

Rhett spun around on him then, and King took a small step back. “And I will go over your head. You cannot run Milvus without me, but we can sure as fuck run it without you. So just fucking try me, I dare you.”

Rhett was so fucking mad. So fucking livid, he could barely see straight. He wanted to punch the ever-loving fuck out of King, but instead, he turned back for the door and decided that kicking a chair into the wall was better for everyone.

He almost took the door off its hinges and stormed out, stalking past his entire team, which now stood by the entrance, watching the whole thing.

He headed for the mess hall where they’d set up their bullshit camp.

He wanted to kick the shit out of the chairs and tables but decided against that too.

Instead, he put his fingers through his hair, keeping his hands on his head to try and get as much air into his lungs as possible and a rein on his temper.

He heard the door open, the quiet shuffle of boots on the floorboards. He knew his team was behind him, and Giardello’s team too.

“So that was fucking hot,” Jay said.

Rhett knew Jay would always aim for humour. It’s what he did. But this wasn’t the time or place for that. He turned around to find the two Alpha teams all standing there, with some variation of smiles across the board.

Coyote laughed, Azrael grinned, and even Echo gave him a smirk. “Probably not how I would have phrased it,” Echo said. Then he stopped. “I meant what you said to King. Not what Jay said.” He raised both hands. “No offence.”

“Well fucking said,” one of Giardello’s guys said. “Waste of fucking time.”

Yin walked over to his seat, and with a small nod to Rhett, he began to clean his gun.

The rest of the team filtered their way to a chair and began doing the same. Giardello came over and gave Rhett’s shoulder a bump with his fist. “Well said,” he murmured.

But Jay walked up, leaned his ass against the closest table, and looked at Rhett. “So what do we do now?”

“We have the location and the time,” Rhett said, checking his watch. “We have three hours.”

“No,” Jay said. “What do we do now?”

Rhett met his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“The intel here is shit,” he said quietly. “Either King is being held off, or he is compromised, or he’s lying to us. So what do we do? You said yourself that you’d go over his head.”

Rhett stared at him, realising what he meant, and then he smiled. “Echo?” he called out.

Echo stopped cleaning his weapon. “Captain?”

“I need to make a call. Off the record, untraceable. Can you do that?”

Echo smiled, reassembled his gun in about two seconds, and stood up. “Can I do that, he asks,” Echo said with a laugh. “Of course I can.”

Two minutes later, Rhett was in the latrine for privacy, a satellite phone to his ear. It rang three times before a gruff voice answered.

“Whassup?”

Rhett was immediately relieved. “Hey, big guy. Sorry for calling in the middle of the night, but shit’s going down and I need you to do something for me.”