Page 79 of Fury

Hollyn dropped to her hands and knees, dragging her hands over the floor, feeling dirt and rocks and food crumbs—gross!—but no chip. What’d happened to?—

She gasped, her gaze whipping to the door.

Archie.

Hollyn shoved to her feet and raced into the hallway. Nearly collided with Glace.

“You good?” the petite medic asked.

“Where have you guysbeen?”

Glace’s look hardened. “In a meeting. Why?—”

“He took it!” Hollyn jogged toward the command room and Davis. She couldn’t believe she’d just gotten played. Stupid,stupidgirl. “Archie’s got the microchip!”

* * *

DAMOCLES SAFE HOUSE

“I can’t believe I let him take it,” Hollyn murmured for the dozenth time since she’d rushed in to tell them Archie had stolen the microchip. Over and over she wrung the baseball hat she’d been given to wear.

“It’s done, Hol,” Davis said. “Don’t worry?—”

“Don’t worry?” she cried. “They’re planning a demonstration, and now that he has the missing code, they can do it!”

“We’ll stop them in time.”

Davis didn’t like telling her things he couldn’t actually guarantee, but she needed to hear that she hadn’t irrevocably screwed things up.

Not like he had, anyway.

He was livid—along with the rest of them—that Twerp had given them the slip. None of them could figure out how Archie had escaped undetected, but Davis especially felt the weight of their mistake. Should have chained the guy to the wall. Held him at gunpoint. Anything but let their guard down a fraction of an inch, even if they’d thought he was secure.

While Chapel had chewed them up one side and down the other, they’d checked through surveillance footage without unearthing any clarity on what’d happened, so they turned their focus to the footage from their raid. Time wasn’t on their side.

Davis and Hale had discovered a pamphlet for the Emirates Palace Hotel lying on the desk. On the whiteboard adhered to the north wall was written today’s date, along with a missile schematic that had been partially erased. A little online digging had revealed a high-profile gala with ranking dignitaries and their families being held tonight.

However, they’d also found out from dark web searches that a general in the UAE Armed Forces was recovering in a nearby hospital across town. The guy was waist-deep in some shady dealings. That paired with the volatile relations between the armed forces and local anti-military organizations made him another possible target—though not as likely since they hadn’t found anything pointing to him in the footage.

Davis secured more mags in the ankle holsters under his suit pants. While some of the team would provide cover around the Emirates Palace, he and Fury would go undercover as party security, so Fury would have full access for his EOD search. Davis tucked the forged security clearance Blank had created for them into his pocket.

Hollyn looked especially out of her depth, back in her ballistic vest with his KA-BAR strapped to her thigh. She, Bennion, and Glace would head to the hospital and away from the most likely target.

“Hey.” He tried to calm her. “It’s going to be okay.”

She nodded but continued to chew her lip. Kept shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She clearly wasn’t made for this, but he was proud of the way she was still holding it together after all she’d been through.

A realization he’d never thought he would come to slipped into his mind: This would be his last rodeo.

Soon as they were on the other side of this, he was making sure Hollyn had as much peace and quiet as she could handle. He’d gladly spend the rest of his life protecting her from having to deal with anything like this ever again. The internal calm that followed the decision was confirmation enough. Couldn’t have imagined living to see the day he’d willingly step away from this life.

She was worth it, though.

Hooah.

Chapel had decided that they’d cover their bases and have teams set up at both the hotel and hospital. But with one a more likely target than the other, Hollyn would go with Bennion and Glace to the hospital—the safer of the two. The rest of them would set up around the hotel and try to intercept Archie and whoever was with him.

Foregoing his M4, Davis checked his Sig and slid it into place on his waist holster. Grabbed the tuxedo jacket. The team had done a decent job finding a passable outfit for the black-tie gathering on such a tight turn around. He ran a finger along the neck of the dress shirt that squeezed tighter than he would’ve preferred. Tugged it from his skin. The ensemble was made even more uncomfortable by the low-profile Kevlar vest underneath.

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