Page 3 of Red Zone Awakened

Why it irked him, he didn’t know.Probably because he’d screwed her, set her up, and now she had to put her life on the line so he could do his job.

Huh.

His sister was wrong—hedidhave a conscience.

He’d tried to slow Keiko down because he knew his team was waiting.Of course, at that point, he’d thought they’d just reason with her to get her to help, not kidnap her parents and use them as leverage.Either way, as soon as they got into the cab to go from the night club to the hotel, she’d been all over him.He tried distracting her, but would she listen?No.What was he supposed to do?Tie her up and gag her?That would have looked great when they walked through the hotel lobby.

Really, when you thought about it, he took one for the team.

Unfortunately, Keiko hadn’t seen it that way.

Weirdly, it bothered Mace that she didn’t.

Damn it.His brain was all over the place instead of on the mission he had to complete.In his line of work, being distracted could get you killed, especially when surrounded by the enemy.He needed to get his mind off Keiko and onto his job.

He scanned the surrounding area, making a note of all the exits.There were hand-painted Mexican tiles underfoot, full-grown trees offering shade above him, and strategically grouped seating areas of plush leather chairs for employees to use during their breaks.CommTECH had spared no expense in ensuring their scientists were comfortable—and monitored.The terrace was packed with surveillance tech, and there was a fine mesh grid several feet above them to stop any attempts to spy on the staff with drones or satellites.It was a pretty prison with a billion-dollar view of Houston’s skyline.

And he felt just as trapped as the highly paid scientists.

“I remember the good old days, when rich companies didn’t rule the country and people weren’t watched twenty-four seven,” he muttered.

“So you were alive in the eighteen hundreds, then?”Friday’s tone signaled she was about to launch into another of her unwelcome lectures.“Because from the twentieth century onward, democratic government was in the pocket of the rich.And your every move was monitored online and through surveillance for years.The system’s been flawed for a very long time.”

“Seriously?I’m getting a lecture?Now?Who gave Friday a comm in the first place?Isn’t it enough that I’m putting my neck on the line without having her in my head too?”

“Now you’re being deliberately rude,” she said, as though she thought he’d been making an effort until then.

Mace rubbed his neck.The sooner this assignment was over, the better.He just had to get near enough to the lead scientist to inject him with a nanobot-virus that would piggyback on his connection to the research facility mainframe and copy the information they needed to prove the latest data chip was flawed.That was it.One little injection, and then he was out of there.He looked down at his datapad and frowned.The injector had been built into it, but he couldn’t remember how to access the damn thing.

“How do I get the injector off this again?”Hell, he couldn’t even see it.All he saw was the slim silver casing of a state-of-the-art handheld device.

Hunter groaned.“Friday, can you show him?I’m busy monitoring Keiko.”

“I’m taking remote control of your datapad.”Friday’s image appeared in the top right-hand corner of his screen.

The blond was frowning at him.No surprise there.Ever since they’d helped her escape CommTECH a few months earlier, she’d glared, reprimanded, and frowned at him whenever she saw him.She was the icing on his turd cake of a life.

“Hurry up,” Mace said.“Looks like we might be starting here.”There was a ripple through the crowd as their attention turned to the stage area, but no sign of Keiko or her team yet.

“See this box?”Friday said as a dialogue box appeared on the screen.“You type in the release command, and the injector pops out of the datapad.From when it emerges, you only have about fifteen seconds to inject it into our target.Otherwise, it will be useless.So don’t release it until you know you’re going to use it.”She let out a long-suffering sigh.“When you get back to base, I’m making you take a technology for beginners course.Your ignorance makes you a danger to the team.And it’s embarrassing.”

“I know enough for what I need to do.”Generally.It wasn’t his fault he was a century out of date with the latest tech.

“Obviously not,” Friday said.“I’m finished with your datapad.You can have control back.Do you think you can manage to wipe its memory once I log out, or do I need to talk you through that too?”

“Why did we rescue her again?”Mace said.

“She’s great in bed,” Striker joked, appearing on his screen.That comment earned him a slap on the back of the head from his wife.

“Don’t screw this up, Mace,” Friday said.“People will die if you do.”

The screen went blank.

“Are you sure Keiko’s okay?”Mace asked their tech guy, again.“Security isn’t suspicious of her, are they?”

If CommTECH’s security team got wind of what she was doing, she’d be arrested and interrogated, possibly tortured.It wouldn’t take long for her to give up what little she knew about Mace and his Red Zone team—and they couldn’t let that happen.If one of the biotech companies found out how the experimental weapon used a century ago changed their genetics, they’d be captured, strapped down, and used as lab rats for the rest of their lives.

Which was another reason he shouldn’t have walked into the lion’s den.

“She’s fine.”Hunter sounded bored.“She’s where she’s supposed to be, and she hasn’t sent out any calls for help.”

No, she wouldn’t.She was far too worried about what they’d do to her parents if she did.Just thinking aboutthatplay made him want to punch his best friend—again.Striker had known how Mace would react, so they’d kept him out of the loop on the whole abduction part of the plan.Which pissed him off even more.“When this is done, Striker, you and I have a few things to settle.”

“Bring it on,mon ami,” his team leader drawled.

“Look lively.”Hunter was monitoring the feed from Mace’s cameras.They were props to help him fit in with the other reporters, but instead of broadcasting to a news station, his feed went only as far as his team’s van.“It’s showtime.”