Page 78 of Assassin's Game
Eli settled the tablet in the middle of the table and clicked Play on a video already queued up. “This is part of the surveillance the drone has captured so far. I have some detailed images of the grounds we can use, and the thermal has given us a good idea of the amount of resistance we will hit—on aboveground floors, anyway.”
“How do you know there are underground floors?” Titus asked, picking up on the hint the same as the rest of us.
“Because of this.” Eli paused the video at a particular point. “This is a hundred meters south of the complex. You can see the thermal camera is picking up heat signatures on the ground in human shapes, as well as diminishing signatures moving toward the complex.” He pointed to one yellow and red blob in the flat backdrop that seemed to resemble a full torso, then another head-shaped blob. “We know these aren’t on the surface because regular video shows nothing but woods. And thermal only penetrates so far into the ground. Which makes me believe there’s a tunnel here, slowly sinking farther underground the closer it gets to the main building of the complex.” Eli closed the video and brought up an image of a sketched map. He tapped his fingers on the largest building, situated closest to the south end of the complex. “Here.”
Curses rang out around the table.
Eli stepped back and mimicked Levi’s posture, hands on his hips. “I haven’t found the entrance, but I know about where it has to be, given these images. And I can tell you personnel there seems light.”
Monty spoke up. “From the images I saw, some of those buildings could date back to the fifties, maybe sixties. The Cold War was ramping up. Maybe they needed an obscured entry and exit for important officials?
“So we have a tunnel and general idea of how many guards will encounter,” I summarized. “What’s the plan to get in? And where do we go once we are in?”
“Patience, Beautiful,” Eli said, one side of his mouth curling up. “We’ll get there.” He reached for the tablet. “Let me work on cleaning some of this up so we can see how it fits together.”
For the next four hours we worked to hammer out a plan. With not enough hours of darkness left, we decided to make sure our plan was solid and hit the complex tomorrow after midnight, when the least staff would be on duty and most would be struggling with lethargy. That left us with almost twenty-four hours to wait.”
Usually, the waiting sucked. Tonight…
Maris moved to my side as the meeting broke up. “They’ve given me a room on the second floor we can share. Leah apologized for it being only one, but Geneva is staying in the only other furnished room on that floor.”
If they only knew. Real beds were often a luxury we couldn’t afford to indulge in, although lately my back had taken to protesting that. “I—”
Eli appeared at my side. “Don’t have to share, but thank you, Maris,” he finished for me, giving my sister a half-watt version of his flirty smile. “I think I can make sure she’s comfortable.”
In his room, he meant. That idea simultaneously heated my core with hunger and my cheeks with embarrassment.
Maris just smiled. “All right.” Her gaze shifted to me—no hint of teasing, thank God. “Your duffel is in my room when you want to grab it.”
“Thanks, Sis,” I said, then leaned in, lowered my voice, “for the info and for not making me feel put on the spot.” She winked as she turned toward the elevator.
“Nix,” Rhys said, appearing at my elbow. “A word, please.”
What the hell was he upset about? Given our situation, it could be any number of things, so I stayed quiet and followed him to a corner of the room, waiting for him to spell out whatever was riding his ass.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he hissed, his back to the room, broad shoulders blocking my line of sight.
I widened my eyes. “I would think that would be obvious given we just spent hours talking about it. If you had a problem with the plan…”
“What I have is a bad feeling about all of this, but especially Maris going off God knows where with these people without even a hint of protest from you. Why are you risking her safety for—”
“Because I trust them,” I said. “Maris trusts them. Look, Rhys”—I scrubbed my hands down my face—“we’ve been through years of combat together. You know my instincts; hell, you practically read my mind on ops. And I’m telling you, more than anyone I’ve ever met, I trust these men to be on our side.” Maybe it was the way Levi defended his brothers so ferociously. Maybe it was the way Eli had reacted to the loss of Abby’s baby. Whatever it was, I knew that us, together, as a team, was the right call.
“You’re only saying that because younger brother apparently has a magic dick.”
My gasp echoed against the concrete walls. Rhys stared down at me, unrepentant, a stubborn tension in his jaw.
“Did you really just fucking say that to me? Seriously?”
Blue eyes glared. “I did.”
I took a deep breath, searching for a calm amid the raging instinct to punch my teammate’s lights out. We fucking needed him, and not with only one good eye. I reminded myself where his head was, who he was worried about. Maris.
It didn’t work.
I got right in Rhys’s face. “Look, dickhead”—Rhys narrowed his eyes, but I ignored the warning—“if you think my actions as a woman undermine the safety of this team, you can fuck off.” I sure as hell wasn’t going to offer an explanation or defend myself—if Rhys didn’t know by now that I couldn’t be led around by amagic dick, after all we’d been through, how close we’d become over the years, he never would.
Another deep breath, just to keep my voice from shaking. “Take the time to think about it, Rhys. Think seriously. Because I’m with Eli, period. By the time we leave for this op, you better decide how you feel about it—and what you plan to do. It’s up to you.”
