Page 49 of His to Take

“Where’d you find that?” I asked.

“It was on the counter in my apartment, so I thought I should grab it. I’m glad I did,” she winked, the glee written all over her face. I could hear the mechanisms working from behind the walls and the door slid open, allowing us to continue inside. It was clear that we were finally in the right place. I quickly collected several solar cells knowing that they’d be useful, keeping an eye out for any other tools we might need or want. We all continued the search for the fusion reactor. It definitely appeared that the equipment here was associated with assembling the components of one, at least.

There was a half staircase leading down to another locked door and my heartrate picked up. Naomi passed the plastic badge to me, and I waved it in front of the scanner. The door opened, revealing a compact nuclear fusion reactor at the center of the room. It was still humming, an endless source of power still to this day. Astounded, I just marveled at it for a moment before saying anything at all.

“There it is,” I murmured.

The sound of a gun cocking behind me made me freeze.

“The two of you have gone far enough,” Seth’s voice rang out.

Fucking hell. I hadn’t wanted to be right about him.

As swiftly as I could, I grabbed Naomi and pushed her behind me, shielding her from whatever this was with my body. All six men had guns pointed on us and I angled my arm behind my back, needing to keep my hands on her to ensure that she was still safe.

I guided her several steps back into the room, hiding the badge behind me. The team stepped forward, following us inside.

“What is this, Seth?” I said, wanting to delay him long enough so that I could come up with some sort of plan.

“My orders are to see to it that Pacifica never gets a hold of this technology and now that you’ve finally found it, it’s time to dispose of the two of you,” he explained further.

“I saved your life, Jamie,” Naomi blurted out behind me, her anger and shock bleeding through in her voice.

“Orders are orders,” the asshole shrugged. There wasn’t even a glimmer of regret on the man’s face as he said it, his previously guilty countenance notwithstanding.

There were no emergency exits from this room. There was one way in and one way out. We needed to get out of this room and fast.

Seth’s finger tightened on the trigger.

“Are your orders to secure the reactor and bring it back?” I asked haughtily.

“Yeah. Why?” Seth exclaimed. He was annoyed, but my question had been enough to give him pause.

“You need to cut the power before you move it. If you try that without knowing how, you’ll cause the whole place to explode, you lot along with it,” I was attempting a bargain banking on the fact that I knew as much about this technology as any living person, and he didn’t.

“How do I do that?”

I was right.

“We need to find the control room. I think it’s somewhere on this level,” I continued. I squeezed Naomi’s wrist, telling her in silence that she needed to trust me. Thankfully, she stayed quiet.

“Listen. I’ll help you. Just spare Dr. Vaughn. She has nothing to do with any of this.”

“Help me shut it off and I won’t hurt her,” Seth sighed. “Vince, keep her here. The rest of you, come with me.”

I wandered off into the hallway like I was a little lost, but I had a plan in mind. I’d seen another room off to the side with badgeaccess. I waved the badge in front of it and scuttled in first, slipping around the corner and taking advantage of Seth when he entered first.

I grabbed his gun and kicked his wrist hard enough to break it. He cried out and I quickly brought the butt of the gun down on his head. With a pained grunt, he slid down to the floor, knocked out cold.

Martin and Roger barreled into the room, and I took aim.

I couldn’t let any of them out alive. They’d come for us both, but more importantly, they would kill Naomi, and there was no way I could allow that to happen.

I pulled the trigger twice. I didn’t miss.

Three down. My heart was pounding, but I felt a calm determination wash over me.

After a few moments, Jamie and Brandon crept cautiously through the door. Poised behind the door, I was ready for them. My first shot caught Brandon in the thigh. In a panic, he swung wide and squeezed off a wild shot, but he was on the floor, dead, a heartbeat later.

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