Page 30 of The Lazarus Protocol

He didn’t like jogging down the hill with no weapon in his hands toward two burned-out upstairs windows trailing soot up the exterior walls and a black space where the back door used to be. Something about it just didn’t sit right, but this wasn’t a warzone—it was someone’s neighborhood, regardless of what this house had been used for.

“Barn to the left. That looks intact,” Dan said. “The house is giving off some serious heat. The fire hasn’t been out long. It’s probably still smoldering inside.”

“Let’s go all the way around. Then we can check out that barn.”

The front of the house didn’t look better than the back, except it explained the fire. As he rounded the front corner, Adam whistled. “The whole second floor is gone.” A burned corpse that used to be a person hung out one of the downstairs windows.

“Explosion. Not a fire.” Dan scanned the burned-out hole that used to be the roof and half of upstairs, his gaze avoiding the dead guy. “Gas leak?”

“Someone used whatever it was to destroy the house.”

“Hopefully our asset,” Dan said. “Guess we’ll have to catch up long enough to explain we’re the cavalry—and that’s a good thing.” He headed for the barn, using two hands to pull the door open.

A car turned off the road to their right, with the two of them in plain view.

“I’ll go see what they know.” Dan let go of the door.

“Watch your back.” Adam pulled his pistol and stepped into the barn through the opening. Giving himself a second so his eyes could adjust, he spotted a rusty old tractor that was just an engine and two wheels with a leather seat on top that had probably been in this barn for seventy years.

His feet kicked up straw and dust, which danced in the beam of light. Something skittered along the wall to his left, but that tiny creature had four legs.

She was also here. He couldn’t hear her breathing outside of his imagination, but the sense he wasn’t alone resounded in him like church bells.

Adam lowered the gun slowly and pushed out a long breath.

Two more steps, and she was on him—one arm around his throat to hold him steady, the other pointing a knife at the skin under his chin. No wonder Ice was so moody today. He’d been used as leverage by that woman, the one at the facility. Just like this.

“Steph?”

She clasped him tighter, and his throat closed.

Adam sucked in a breath, feeling the sting of a knife against his throat. It was the scent of her that told him she was the asset they’d come here looking for. “I’m a traveler from the north seeking that which was lost.”

He heard the gasp of breath rush past his ears.

“It’s hokey, but I like your style.”

ELEVEN

Steph slid her arms from around his neck and stepped back, relief shuddering through her.

“Aren’t you supposed to say something back? Finish the pass phrase.”

“If you’re here, you know who I am.” She lowered the knife, her fingers like concrete around the hilt. She couldn’t have given it up if she wanted to. But five minutes ago, the prospect of the blade being pried from her cold dead hands was just fine. Now? She might actually have a shot at getting out of here.

He turned to face her, but she didn’t look at him. Instead, she walked to the wall by the door and peered out between the slats. “That a friend of yours?”

The guy was dressed not too dissimilarly to this one with his bulletproof vest and his boots, but the one outside had a shaved head and a wider frame. He faced off with the two men who’d shown up in a white van. Men who would’ve killed her as soon as they discovered her.

“He’s about to get himself shot.”

Her operator swung the door open and strode out, leaving her in the barn.

“Yeah, makes perfect sense. Invite yourself to that party.” Her hands started to shake. She heard the knife clatter to the floor, and she lifted her palms to look at them. Blood on her fingers. The world swam around her.

They were talking, but she couldn’t hear what they said without going out there. Couldn’t look through the gap in the slats of the wall without…

Not again.