Page 29 of Red Zone Awakened

CHAPTER12

Downtown

Houston, Northern Territory

Sandi zoomedthrough the streets of downtown Houston on a bike that silently skimmed the road.It was fast and efficient, but she still missed the old Harley she’d helped Mace fix up in their early teens.She’d barely known him then, and he’d scared the life out of her.He’d been the massive, strange kid placed alongside her in foster care.Back then, she’d been a skinny teen who jumped at her own shadow and was afraid she’d get kicked out onto the streets if she so much as made a sound.

She would never have spoken to Mace if he hadn’t approached her first.But one day, he’d asked her to fix his bike with him, the bike he kept hidden from their useless foster parents in case they sold it.Some of the best times of her life were those spent working on that bike with Mace.It had turned them into family.Her only family.Mace was her brother, and she would die to save him.

“Cordon up ahead,” she told Gray through the comm unit installed in her helmet.“What’s happening at your end?”

They’d split up to come at the research facility from different directions.

Gray let out a huff.“Got a wall of cops blocking my path.I’m looking for an in.”

Sandi spotted an alleyway between two heritage buildings and nipped into it.It narrowed toward the end, but she skirted through the gap and turned her bike into the street behind.To her right, Buffalo Bayou snaked through the darkness, city lights glittering off the surface of the water.The old aquarium sat abandoned on the other side, destroyed in one of the many floods that hit Houston over the years, the same floods that turned the bayou from a lazy stream into a deep river.A lot had changed in the decades she’d been gone.

“I’m getting blocked at every turn.”Gray didn’t sound happy.

She sped between two more buildings, glimpsing the top of the research facility in the distance.If she was to have any chance of taking out that chopper’s light, she needed to get a whole lot closer than this.Trusting the sensors on the bike to keep her from hitting a wall, she did a visual scan of the area, looking for a building high enough to take her shot from.

Got it!

Sandi veered to the left, jumped the sidewalk with her bike, and headed for her target.The building she’d earmarked was an older skyscraper that rented its offices to businesses at the lower end of the market, which meant security wouldn’t be as tight as in some other buildings.Not that she cared.She’d blast her way in if she had to.

“I’m getting nowhere here.”Gray sounded disgusted.

“Think I’ve got something.Give me a minute.”She came to a halt, jumped off the bike, grabbed her rifle bag, and ran for the main entrance.

The area around the building was dead, and at the sight of the gun pointed at him, the lone guard on duty swung the door open wide.

“Do I have to shoot you to stop you from calling Enforcement?”she asked him.

“Lady, I’m happy to look the other way for a payday instead of a bullet.”

That was all she needed to hear.Sandi unzipped the pocket on the side of her pants and took out the credit chip she’d placed there earlier.She flicked it at him, and he snatched it from the air.

“There’s enough on there to make sure you forget me ten times over.If you don’t, I will find you and deal with you.That’s a promise.”She made sure he heard the conviction in her voice.

Sweat beading on his brow, he nervously swallowed as he motioned to the elevator.“Where do you want to go?”

“The top.”She stepped inside and watched as he pressed his palm to the access panel.

“It’s all yours.”He scurried away before she’d even pushed the right button.

As the elevator shot upward, Sandi took her old cell phone out of her pocket and sent a text to Gray.No one paid any attention to the old cellular network.The towers that were still around had been left to rot.But there were enough of them left to make it an effective communications network for their team.One that was under the radar in a country where pretty much all public communication was accessible to the government.

The elevator doors opened, and she ran for the stairs leading to the roof.She raced through the emergency door, out into a night where the sky was black and a gentle breeze cooled her cheeks.

Perfect conditions for a long-range shot.

She set up in the corner of the rooftop, keeping one eye on the helicopter hovering at the edge of the cordon around CommTECH’s research building.The powerful beam of light from the chopper was easy to make out, but she was too far away to see the object of its focus.Which meant there was no way of telling if Mace was still on that ledge.All she could do was take out the spotlight and hope it gave him enough cover to get out of the building alive.

As she lined up her shot, she took a slow, even breath.Everything within her settled.This was her comfort zone.Her calling.She was born to do this job.

“You owe me, big brother,” she whispered as she squeezed the trigger.