Page 57 of Play the Game

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” He squinted his uninjured eye.

A cheer went up in my comms unit when they heard our civilian’s voice. Proof of life.

“Is that the best line you’ve got?” I asked as I cut through the zip ties on his wrists and ankles.

“You’re Brooks’s girl,” he said. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“AsJensenwould tell you, saving your sorry ass.”

“Okay,Jensen.” He laughed, then winced. “He got my message. Why did he send his girlfriend?”

“Tell him because no one else could have done the fucking job half as well,” Jason said in my ear.

There was a lot happening on my comms while I focused on freeing Pasco and checking to make sure he didn’t have any broken bones. Kessler was calling out the number of unconscious bodies in the house.

“Suits are unaccounted for,” Li said. That seemed to be part of a conversation I’d tuned out.

“Boss,” Kessler said, “we think we have runners. We heard a door slam earlier, and there are signs that some higher-level operatives were here. Everyone on the ground is a low-level guard.”

“On it,” Penn said. “We have eyes on two runners, and teams ready to scoop them up.”

“Are you alone?” Pasco asked as I checked his pupils with a penlight, by order of Bond.

“No. I have two friends with me in here and a lot more outside.” I spoke into my comms. “No sign of concussion, Doc, and I can’t feel any broken bones.”

“We have HEAT EMTs here who will bring him out on a backboard, just to be safe,” she told me.

Pasco tried to push to his feet.

“Whoa, whoa. No, you don’t. Stay still until the real medical experts arrive.”

He dropped the couple of inches back into his chair. He looked exhausted, but other than that, seemed no worse for wear. “Sitting tight, Jensen’s girl. Hey, I need to get in touch with some people.”

“I understand,” I told him. “You’ll probably be able to do that in about an hour.”

EMTs and agents swarmed into the house.

“Up here,” I called. I smiled at Pasco. “See? They’re here for you already.”

TJ and Hart joined Kessler, Li, and several other agents in carrying unconscious men out of the house. Two EMTs knelt by Pasco, one performing the same checks I just had, and the other putting an IV in his arm.

“Hey!” Pasco yelled. He tried to pull his arm away from the EMT.

“Pasco, Jack, it’s okay,” I said soothingly.

But he was looking at me. He was staring at the laptop on the table. The look on his face brought back the dread I’d felt all day, which had only dissipated five minutes earlier when the tactical crew had cleared the house.

“We have to get out.” Pasco turned to me with a wild look in his eyes. “Now! Get me the hell out of here!”

“TJ!” I called. I rushed to the computer. “Jason, Alder, I need your eyes on this.” I trained my phone’s camera on a square image with symbols along the edges and a timer in the middle. A timer that was set to a little over twelve minutes and counting down.

“We’re researching it now, Sparks,” Alder said, speaking calmly. “TJ, it could be communicating with an explosive device.”

“We don’t even know where in the world it is,” I said.

“It’s here!” Pasco yelled. “They were supposed to move it downtown tomorrow, but it’s here, in this building.

“Fuck me!” Jensen yelled into the comms. “Evacuate now! If Pasco’s right about the location, we’re screwed because that computer is communicating with a live detonator.

---