Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

The woman from the armory brought in a basket full of walkies and handed them out.

Jared paced. “What’s the holdup?”

Tyler, one of the tech wizzes, watched him curiously. “It takes a little while to reproduce fingerprints and apply them. It isn’t something you can rush.”

The other techs—Seong-Su, Ashley, and Amani—launched into an enthusiastic explanation of scanning and re-creating fingerprints using gelatin, a topic that fascinated Nicole.

Sean nudged her with his elbow. When she looked up, he smiled and whispered, “This is so cool.”

Grinning, she nodded and wished she were the one who got to use someone else’s fingerprints. She would love to see that entire process in action.

A man with graying blond hair suddenly entered. “Okay. Let’s do this,” he said in a familiar baritone voice that bore a British accent.

Her eyes widened. “Seth?”

He nodded. Thanks to his extraordinary shape-shifting abilities, his six-foot-eight-inch form now topped off at five feet eight. Narrow shoulders had replaced muscular ones. And his trim waist now bore a paunch that poked out between the lapels of his lab coat. His dark brown eyes were now blue and bracketed by lines and bags that hinted at years of too little sleep. Wire-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.

He arched his brows. “Everyone ready?”

Answering with various affirmatives, they crowded around him.

“I’m going to teleport all of us to a temporary FOB that Henderson and his crew have set up. From there, I’ll drive to the facility in a car I borrowed from the doctor I’m impersonating and pass through security. As soon as I’m able to enter one of the building’s empty conference rooms, I’ll return to the FOB and teleport you and your gear inside. Any questions?”

Head shakes.

“All right. Grab a shoulder. I’d grab yours, but I’m trying to use my hands as little as possible because I don’t know how easily these false fingerprints will come off.” When he held up his hands, Nicole could discern nothing odd about his fingertips. Whatever magic Henderson’s team had worked blended in well.

Seconds later, they all stood inside a large army-green tent. Through the open entrance, Nicole spied dense, dark forest. Warm, humid air wafted inside, ushering in a few mosquitoes.

Grimacing, Nicole swatted one. Clearly, cooler temperatures had not yet reached the outskirts of Houston.

Tables laden with computer equipment lined the walls of the tent with diligent employees parked in folding chairs before them. Though she didn’t look to confirm it, Nicole knew multiple solar generators rested along the tent’s exterior, silently powering everything inside.

Many heavily armed, black-clad special ops soldiers filled the tent and mulled around outside the entrance. Henderson apparently wasn’t taking any chances with backup.

Striding into the tent, Henderson swiftly divided Nicole and the others into three teams. “Okay. I texted everyone the specs of the building. Rafe, Seong-Su, and Amani, you’re Green Team. Your job will be to copy every bit of data stored in their system and in the cloud on the other research they’re conducting. I want everything you can find on every project, no matter how benign or unrelated it may seem. We’ve used green to highlight the data entry point you should focus on.”

Rafe and his team members drew out their phones and stared down at them, nodding as he continued.

“That area of the building shouldn’t have much activity this time of night. Rafe will hear everything taking place on your floor and give you a heads-up if someone approaches. A tip for the immortals and others who have never used this sort of subterfuge: Act like you belong there and most won’t question your presence. If you’re posing as members of the cleaning crew and hear someone coming, your best options are to either engage in rabid gossip while mopping or drink a soda and look like you’re slacking off while you discuss last night’s football game. The first will generate disinterest. The second will—at most—spark disapproval, especially if you hurry to put the soda down and start cleaning as if you don’t want to get in trouble. Both will lead whoever sees you to dismiss you as employees.”

He glanced around. “Where’s Jared?”

Jared raised a hand.

A slight smile curled Henderson’s lips. “Sorry. I didn’t recognize you at first. Jared, you, Cliff, Ashley, and Tyler are Yellow Team. You’ll infiltrate the soundproof lab we believe they studied the vampires in. We don’t think they currently have one in custody but couldn’t confirm that. Either way, the lab will likely be active if they’re pulling double duty to run tests on Tessa.”

Jared took a step forward. “I want to be on the team that rescues Tessa.”

Seth shook his head. “I need you in the other lab. You’ll have to sedate whomever you find in it fast enough to keep them from sounding the alarm. While Cliff and the others retrieve data from their computers, I want you to peruse the thoughts of the researchers and see if you can find something of use they might not have mentioned in their notes: the source of the sedative, hypotheses or half-formed ideas on methods they can use to prevent the madness the virus inspires, anything that Melanie may find useful.”

“Rafe can do that,” Jared countered.

“Rafe can read minds, but he can’t exert control over them should that become necessary. He’s younger.”