Rogue Darkness by Dianne Duvall

She poked her head in the doorway.

A security guard lay unconscious on the floor several yards away. Two men in slacks and rumpled oxford shirts sprawled beside him in the same condition. Blood marred neither their forms nor the floor, so Rafe must have either tranqed or bit them.

Seong-Su and Amani sat side by side at a long table across the room, a briefcase full of computer hardware open between them. Cords stretched from the case to the two computers the duo manned.

“You almost done?” she asked.

Amani shook her head. “We need more time.”

Seong-Su nodded, never taking his eyes off the monitor. “There’s a shitload of data here. Transferring it is taking forever.”

Though the delay grated (Nicole would really like to avoid a firefight if possible), she understood. The network—and all of its employees—stored nothing in the cloud. They couldn’t risk the kind of data breach that might occur if an engineer at a public cloud server pulled down a firewall when pressured to provide faster delivery and then forgot to lock up again. So anytime she upgraded to a new computer, she had to copy everything onto an external hard drive and bounce it onto the new computer instead of transferring it via the cloud. Sometimes it took hours.

Hours they didn’t have now.

Moving to stand behind the tech wizzes, she peered over their shoulders.

That was moving a lot faster than it did for her at home. It must be whatever they’d plugged into the computers, because they had already copied many terabytes of information.

Rafe spoke from his position just outside the room. “Mercenaries are entering the building.”

Wishing she had preternatural hearing, Nicole patted Seong-Su’s shoulder and headed for the doorway. “Finish up as quickly as you can. We’ll hold them off.”

Sean strode up the hallway toward her. “It sounds like they’re tranqing security and any personnel they come across. A few mercs wanted to shoot them instead, but Benford didn’t want to kill off the staff. Replacing them would take too long. So he’s hoping to pass this off as a gas leak that made everyone pass out.”

Nicole arched a brow. “And if the mercenaries start shooting us? What’s the plan then?”

He shrugged. “There’ve been almost six hundred mass shootings in the United States this year. No one will question it if they claim this was another.”

Rafe shook his head. “All they’d have to do is say disgruntled employee.”

Unfortunately, that was true. Sighing, Nicole headed up the hallway. About midway, she found a restroom. “Once they realize they can’t use the elevators, they’ll take the stairs. I’ll duck in here and pick them off as they climb over the crap you piled in front of the stairwell.”

The elevators emitted periodic beeps when the doors couldn’t close.

She ignored it.

“Rafe and I can handle the mercenaries,” Sean said.

“Rafe should stay with Seong-Su and Amani,” she countered. “We don’t know how well-trained these guys are. As long as Rafe remains out of sight, the mercs won’t know what room their targets are in.”

Rafe leaned inside the room he guarded. “Work faster. Don’t open this door for any reason. When you’re finished, say done. We’ll be able to hear you, even over the gunfire.” Closing the door, he strode toward them. “Sean and I will handle the mercenaries.”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll draw their fire to this side of the building so they won’t accidentally shoot Amani or Seong-Su through the walls. Rafe, if these guys get frustrated and start spraying the place with bullets, get your ass back in there; grab Amani, Seong-Su, and their gear; and get them out of here however you can. If there aren’t any mercs below, break a window, jump, and run. If there are—”

“Don’t worry. I’ll get them out,” he promised.

Sean grinned. “He’s older than me and has done this a time or two, you know.”

Nicole sent Rafe a sheepish smile. “Sorry. Force of habit.” She jerked a thumb toward Sean. “This guy likes to throw himself headlong into danger.”

Rafe smiled. “So I heard.” News of their airplane exploit had traveled fast. “If I had a Second like you, I’d throw myself into danger for her, too.”

Her smile broadened.

Suddenly, Sean looked toward the stairs. “Here they come.”

Nicole backed into the restroom and propped the door open with her butt. Drawing a 9mm, she kept her finger near the trigger as she watched the stairwell door.

Thuds sounded as boots tromped up the stairs.

The stairwell door opened a crack.

Through the chairs and tables Sean had piled up in front of it, Nicole saw a small mirror poke out.

Aiming at it, she fired.

Her bullet shattered the mirror before whoever held it could get a good look.

Swears erupted. The door swung open.

“It’s blockaded,” someone snapped. “Buy us some time.”

An arm appeared and blindly tossed a small object inside.

Nicole didn’t even have time to call a warning. Spinning into the bathroom, she dropped her weapon, covered her ears, opened her mouth, and squeezed her eyes closed.

The flash-bang detonated in the lounge with a thunderous boom. The bathroom door bounced open and hit the wall.