Page 103 of Amethyst Flame
“We’re fifteen minutes out,” Dane said. “Jacob, connect me with the BantaMatrix team.”
Jacob tapped on his laptop.
A voice said, “Go ahead.”
Dane took command of the mission. “Teller and Ruskin are on site. We assume an ongoing hostage situation, with unknown multiple victims. Hostile is armed and dangerous. Useful intel is spotty.”
“Who is speaking?” BantaMatrix’s security asked.
Yeah, I wondered if that would come up. I mean, I knew Ruskin had probably had me followed to Dane’s rental house, but how much information could she have found on Dane, Mr. Secrets himself? I imagined a file with a blurry photograph of him in his spy sunglasses and no details.
I cleared my throat. “I asked a few friends to help me. This is Dane. He’s…um…law enforcement.”
“What branch?” Banta security asked.
“That’s need to know,” I responded. “And you don’t. Just do what he says.”
“Thank you, Ms. Taylor,” Dane said. “Additional specialized backup is en route, but ETA is forty minutes.”
Dane was talking about his own people with their Artemisia Protocol. If Will could just hold on long enough for help to come, then just maybe… But even I knew that he was too far gone.
“We can’t wait,” I said, my voice cracking with reluctance.
Dane looked at me, a slight furrow between his brows. “I’ll be right beside you.”
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Teller Laboratories was no BantaMatrix.Will’s dad’s lab was just a big ol’ ecru-colored warehouse amid a bunch of other drab warehouses behind a pastel strip mall. No wall of windows, no in-house coffee shop here. Only the hair salon at the end of the row had any style.
“Which reminds me,” I muttered as I reached for the door handle, “I haven’t got my dead ends trimmed in, like, forever.”
Dane tapped a button. “BantaMatrix team?”
“This is Drew,” came a voice on speaker. “Go ahead.”
“Follow us in, but do not engage. Extracting Ruskin without making sure Teller can’t hurt her from a distance would be unwise.”
“Copy.”
Dane glanced at Jacob in the rearview. “You stay here.”
Jacob grimaced but didn’t argue. “Once you go inside, I might not be able to reach you. There’s serious interference in the area. One of Teller’s tricks, I’m guessing.”
Dane gave him a curt nod. “See if you can find a way to break through so we can keep in touch.” He leaned toward me to flip open the glove compartment and grab a handgun.
I sucked in the sharp pine scent of his aftershave on a startled inhale. To think I coulda shot him anytime I wanted… And I’m sorry, since when did I notice Dane’s aftershave?
I hustled around to the back of the Kidnapper while he armed himself.
The BantaMatrix team fell out behind us, guns drawn.
Considering I’d deflected a bullet myself when I barely knew what I was doing, I didn’t doubt that a grenade would serve as little more than a brief impediment to Will’s avalanching hive. Not so much a distraction as an annoyance.
When we pushed through the front doors, a brief flash of blue shimmered around us.
“He knows we’re here,” I whispered. My fingers twitched with restless purple sparks.
Were my moths powering up or just nervous too?
