Page 57 of Red Zone Awakened

CHAPTER23

“Mace.”Striker’s voice came from the datapad.“I knew you were too ornery to die.”

Mace angled the pad up to face the inbuilt camera.“Glad to see you too, brother.”

Striker was joined by Friday, who also looked relieved to see Mace.It almost made him feel bad about winding her up so much.Almost.

“Is it safe to talk?”she said.

“Yeah, we’re in Miriam’s panic room, up on the sixty-eighth floor.I’m using a wired connection point because Freedom’s still jamming the signals.Wait a minute—let me put you on the bigger screens.”

“Do you know how to do that?”Friday asked.

Mace just grunted and pressed the one button he did know how to use.Striker and Friday immediately appeared on the wall beside them, and the camera built into the wall showed them the interior of the panic room.When they spotted Keiko, Friday screeched before dashing offscreen.

“What the hell?”Striker growled.

Mace ran a hand through his hair.“Yeah, forgot to mention, Keiko’s here listening too.But don’t panic; she already knows all about Friday, so she might as well come back.”

The blond scientist reappeared and glared at Mace, which was pretty disconcerting given that her face was about four feet tall, covering all the screens on the wall.“You told CommTECH’s press secretary about me?Have you completely lost your mind?”

“Hey,” Keiko snapped as she pointed at Friday.“Don’t talk to him like that.When you’re in this situation, you can make the decisions; otherwise, you keep your judgment to yourself.”

Mace fought a grin.“You done defending me, tiger?”

She threw her hands in the air.“Well, come on, that was out of order.”

Striker cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him.“Right now, we’ve other things to discuss, but we’ll be talking about you breaking team trust once this is over.”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say in front of Keiko too.She shot to her feet, planted her hands on her hips, and faced off against his team leader.“No, you won’t.Not unless you want to talk about the trust issues you’ve steamrolled through.You kidnapped my parents without telling Mace.Where’s the team trust in that?And I’m still pissed about that too.At least I know they’re safe.That’s something.”

There was a long silence before Striker focused on Mace.“You told her about her parents?”

“She’s got enough to worry about without adding fear for their lives to the mix.”

His team leader pinched the bridge of his nose.“That’s not the point.”

“No,” Mace said.“The point is we need help getting out of here.Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this isn’t exactly Club Med.”

Striker’s shoulders relaxed, and he inclined his head at Mace.“You’re right.What’s your current situation?”

Mace hooked a finger into the back of Keiko’s shorts and tugged her back to her seat.She still glared at Striker.It was cute and kinda touching too.There weren’t many people on the planet who’d stand up for him.And even fewer who’d take on Striker to do it.

Mace looked at his friend.“The terrorists are pulling out all the stops searching for Keiko.My guess is they want to make an example of her.We’ve had to deal with a few of them already.Some permanently.And they’ve been”—he glanced at Keiko and saw her expression turn blank, because she knew what was coming—“assassinating the scientists.”

Striker’s and Friday’s faces softened as they looked at Keiko.

“We’re sorry about your friend,chère,” Striker said.

Keiko nodded and reached for her water bottle.

Mace guided the conversation away from her loss.“What’s the situation on your end?”

“It ain’t good.”Striker ran a hand over his bald head.“Enforcement has the building surrounded, and the Mercer twins are in town.”

“Damn.”Their situation just kept getting worse.

Keiko tugged on his shirt.“Why are you upset that CommTECH’s heads of security are here?We’re surrounded by Enforcement anyway.What’s two more on their side?”