Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

And Nicole suspected Seth didn’t want Jared in the room if they found Tessa in unexpectedly dire conditions. She hadn’t realized Jared and Tessa had become friends, but they must have. He looked like he would burn the entire building to the ground if she suffered any harm.

Henderson glanced from Seth to Jared, as though waiting to see if Jared would complain further, then continued where Seth left off. “Melanie, Bastien, Darnell, Sean, and Nicole, you’re Red Team. You’ll infiltrate the soundproof lab Tessa is being held in with Seth. We expect that to be a hive of activity and a mother lode of information. They’ll want to learn everything they can before Benford arrives in the morning. Seth won’t cause a stir when he arrives. The doctor he’s impersonating has been called in and was getting ready to head back to work when we caught him. Melanie, Bastien, and Darnell all look like researchers, so it will take a moment for the others to question their entry. Sean and Nicole, though, may spark irritation and objections. That should buy you time until you’re all inside with the door closed.”

“After that,” Seth picked up, “we merely have to incapacitate everyone and keep them from triggering the alarm. If possible, I’d like to question them before they’re tranqed. Darnell may need special codes or passwords to retrieve the information Melanie wants from their computers. And getting those will be easier if I listen to their thoughts while he asks instead of sifting through every thought and memory in their head. But tranq them if you feel you must. Darts will work faster than autoinjectors, but I want you to be armed with both.”

A special ops soldier shouldered his way through the crowd and held out a box full of tranquilizer guns specially designed by the network to fire up to five darts.

Nicole took one and tucked it in her smock’s pocket. Sean did the same.

“Nicole,” Seth continued, “once we’re inside and have everyone under control, I want you to man the door and tranq anyone who opens it before they can shout a warning that one of the guards patrolling the building may hear. Henderson, did you send them the specs?”

Nicole’s phone buzzed with an incoming message.

“Just sent it,” the network head told him. “I’ve highlighted Seth’s designated room with red, Jared’s with yellow, and—just a reminder—Rafe’s with green.”

Nicole opened the enclosed images on her phone and thumbed through them, leaning toward Sean so he could study them with her instead of looking at them on his own phone. She and Sean would accompany Seth to a room on the fourth floor. The same floor as Jared’s. Rafe’s was on the second floor.

“Once the op begins,” Henderson told them, “we’ll shut down landlines, internet service, and cell service. If we need to communicate with you, we’ll use the walkies.”

“Any questions?” Seth asked. When no one voiced any, he nodded. “I’ll leave now and return once I’ve made it into an interior room.”

Henderson looked around. “Randy, show Seth to the car he’ll be driving.” He held a set of keys out to a man covered in tattoos.

Randy took them and motioned for Seth to accompany him. “This way, sir.”

Henderson addressed the rest of them. “Red, Yellow, and Green Teams, stay with me. Security monitors, remain at your posts. Everyone else, out.”

Murmurs arose as an exodus began.

Henderson crossed to a trio of techs seated in front of computers. “Have you recorded enough security footage to loop it?”

“Yes, sir,” a man responded.

“Any flies in the ointment?”

“No, sir.”

Sean nudged Nicole and raised his eyebrows.

Leaning closer, she whispered, “He means anything that might tip off bored security guards that they’re watching the same footage they saw an hour ago. Something out of the norm, like someone tripping as they exit the elevator and face-planting on the floor or someone surprising a fellow employee with a big birthday balloon. Anything you wouldn’t expect to see twice.”

“Ah.”

A network employee approached them and handed each an ID badge that doubled as a security card. “Clip this to your smock,” she instructed. “We encoded them with the same information on the Doc’s security badge, so it should get you into every room on the fourth floor. Rhodes, would you bring them their gear?”

Gear?

A man pushed a rolling cart full of cleaning supplies over to them.

Nicole grimaced at it. “Are there really weapons hidden inside that?”

Rhodes grinned. “A hell of a lot of them. Don’t let anyone else near it.” He delivered a second cart to Rafe’s group.

Nicole, Sean, and the others spent the next few minutes acquainting themselves with all the deadly goodies hidden inside their carts. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to use them.

Henderson pointed to a computer screen. “There’s Seth’s car. Once he’s inside, distracting the guards, loop the security footage.”

Footage from an exterior security camera showed a quiet, inactive parking lot peppered with vehicles. Seth’s car pulled in and parked. Nicole watched Seth tromp across the parking lot, irritation etched into every feature. She shifted her attention to a monitor that displayed interior footage from the lobby. Everyone seemed to hold their breath as Seth entered the building and exchanged a few words with the security guards. Nicole and Sean tensed as they waited to see if the scanner would accept his fingerprints.