Lethal Echo by Cara Carnes

20

Bree sipped on her coffee as everyone entered the whiteboard room. An unease pricked the air, but she ignored the what-if scenarios in her brain and the coiling tension. Nothing could bring her off the high that was Ram. They’d napped, then woken and made love in the shower.

He’d fixed them a dinner, then they’d snuggled up on the sofa and Netflix and chilled. They’d had the cottage to themselves all night and this morning, a fact she’d have to thank Mia for later.

Mary entered with three tall men who exuded lethal vibes. Jesse greeted them briefly, but everyone settled into an uncomfortable silence a few moments later.

“Everyone, this is Knight, Shadow, and Grim. They’ll be assisting us on the Facility Six mission,” Mary said. “Before we start brainstorming, we have a few items to discuss. First, Ryan and Ned Carew are both in Homeland custody. HERA found their hidden electronic files late last night. Zoey and Cord worked most of the night culling the data and forwarding it to Liam, so they will not be in today’s meeting.”

“Do we have enough evidence?” Dallas asked.

“More than enough,” Vi said. “Not only do we have proof of their involvement with Carlisle and the Russian terrorist cell, but we also found evidence that they orchestrated corporate espionage against their competitor.”

“Jud and I will be interrogating them the day after tomorrow,” Jesse said. “They’ve already started talking, though.”

“They’re hoping for a plea agreement but won’t get it,” Mary said.

“And the general?” Marshall asked.

“General Kroeger was arrested for high treason and a slew of other charges, including several related to ongoing investigations we were conducting on behalf of the Scythe MC operatives,” Mary said. “He won’t be seeing the light of day anytime soon. HERA is still sifting through data, so we expect more charges to be added soon. For now, he’s being detained by Homeland.”

“I’m surprised the military turned him over,” Nolan said.

“They weren’t given a choice,” Vi said. “There’ll be a committee formed to investigate all his crimes. We expect a lot of arrests once everything is exposed. The higher ups either cooperate or they’ll be in a cell next to him.”

“Liam is working with General Thorne and a few other trusted individuals to handle General Kroeger and anyone else who might be arrested,” Jesse said. “He won’t slither out of this one.”

“Fuck, you all do not mess around,” Grim muttered.

Bree grinned. No, her friends rarely did. Corrupt assholes never stood a chance against The Arsenal. Images flashed up on the screen. Facility Six. Her pulse quickened.

“This is Facility Six, one of the most impenetrable black sites in existence. It’s currently under control of Knightwind, or a part of the organization that has been divided by an internal war started by outside parties,” Vi said.

Bree knew they were debriefing the three new operatives but was thankful for another summary. There was a lot to remember.

“It’s only been breached once,” Mary said. Amusement glimmered in her voice. “By Mia.” She motioned to the woman sitting at the other end of the table. “Shortly after that breech, they hired Bree to overhaul their security measures. The majority of the work she did there was done under duress. What she installed will be our largest hurdle.”

“One of the targets we’re securing is a cryptologist who’s being held against her will,” Vi said. “She’s been forced to hack HERA. We’ve given her enough access to a cloned environment to keep her safe until extraction. In return, she’s provided us with current schematics of the facility and a log of her personal accounts. What she’s seen and discovered will hopefully give us what we need to form a solid strike plan.”

Schematics appeared on the screens.

“The facility is in the middle of the ocean with the closest land mass being China,” Jesse said. “The president has assured us there are resources within the region we can utilize. Facility Six has radar capability, which we can hack to prevent them seeing our approach.”

“They’d hear it, though,” Nolan said.

“Which is why we’ll be doing a HALO jump ten klicks from the target site,” Mary said. “I’m not gonna lie. This won’t be a fun experience. Waters are choppy and you’ll be doing a blind jump to coordinates where crafts will be waiting, along with a SEAL team. We’re primary, but they will assist if we wish.”

“Initial plans are for Gage and Ram to lead two teams. Gage’s will be Levi, Marshall, Nolan, Spade, Mia, and Fallon. We can replace him with Brooklyn, but we need ordnance.”

“Fallon,” Levi said quickly.

“Agreed,” Marshall said.

Levi seriously shot down Brooklyn at every discussion. Interesting. She couldn’t help but wonder what was going on there.

“Ram’s team will consist of Doug, Pierce, Knight, Shadow, Grim, and up to two other operatives of his choice,” Mary said. “Suggestions?”

Bree swallowed. It was now or never. “Me. I need to be there, Mary. There’s too much tech involved to do this remotely. I’d be ten times faster handling an issue if I was there.”

“Bree,” Jesse said softly. “Not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Talk us through the tech we’re dealing with,” Marshall ordered.

“It’s multi-layered. The entire compound is one giant faraday cage. The only tech that works is what’s tied to the power source I created for the island,” Bree said. “Each block within the prison is another faraday cage, with each cell being individual faradays run on separate grids. It was designed to mitigate escape attempts. A prisoner could possibly be good enough to escape their cell, but…”

“But they’ve got two more faradays to break,” Knight said. “That’s smart.”

“Then they’d have to combat the manmade island in the middle if the ocean factor,” Grim said.

“How do we take down the faradays?” Nolan asked. “Is it tied to the computer system?”

“Yes, but there are overrides,” Bree said. “If someone were to note a hack, they could activate a backup security system I designed. It’d lock each cell down to prevent computerized access. Only someone with the access code could open them.”

“Fuck,” Dallas muttered. “And they determined the access codes.”

“Yes, but I created an override code, something I learned from Vi and Mary,” Bree said. “And Shelly. She should be able to help us, but I’m not sure if we should use her. We don’t know what kind of security she has on her or what frame of mind she’s in.”

“How would you being there help?” Marshall asked.

“HERA should be able to mimic the system’s power grid easily enough,” Bree said, “but if that override is hit, we’re looking at a much higher challenge. Assuming the entire system is still operating as it should, that’d mean either breaching each cell we need to individually or destroying the entire power grid.”

“And I assume a bomb isn’t going to do the trick.” Fallon chuckled. “This is when I love and hate you in equal measure, Bree. You never make it simple.”

“It’s my superpower,” she whispered. Everyone laughed.

“So how would we take down the grid?” Mary asked.

“I’d need to access the primary power source, which is on the second sub-level, beneath the southern control tower. Destabilizing it would give us roughly twenty minutes before it came on, so we should probably blow it up completely. If I hook the power bomb up correctly, we can take the entire grid down in all the areas we aren’t hitting. The target area should remain powered, but under our control if I reroute the power source to HERA instead.”

“I didn’t understand a single word of that,” Grim muttered.

“Welcome to our world,” Gage said with a grin. “In English?”

“She’d hack the power grid at its source,” Vi explained. “She’d have to manually take it down, removing it from the computer system running it.”

Bree nodded. “Right. Instead of putting the entire thing online through HERA, I’d only put the area we want. The rest would remain locked, trapping everyone where they are.”

“And this can’t be done remotely?” Jesse asked.

“No.” Bree shook her head. “I could probably train someone, but it’s been a while since I’ve worked with that power source.”

“Isn’t it the same as HERA?” Knight asked.

“No. It’s much more simplistic. It’s like a line of generators versus a nuclear power plant,” Bree said. “But it can’t be destroyed by bombs or bullets, unfortunately.”

“What’s the power grid like?” Fallon asked. “Are we talking about a bunch of wires or something else?”

“Lots of wires, along with even more chips which need to be replaced if we’re rerouting to HERA. Those contain the coding we’d need to take computerized control. It needs the chips to think of HERA as its new remote. The two sides have to sync.”

She breathed a sigh of relief when everyone nodded. Good, she made sense.

“How long would that take?” Ram asked.

“At least ten minutes, closer to fifteen,” she said. “Assuming we don’t have any problems accessing it or securing the area for me to work.”

“Which means we’d need a separate smaller team for that part, then one team for clearing, and another for extraction of the targets,” Shadow said.

“Assuming we go that route,” Marshall replied.

“Not sure there’s a choice,” Nolan argued. “We can’t risk them hitting that kill switch.”

“Fuck.” Ram shook his head. “This is not a good mission for anyone not used to being in the field. I’m all for bringing her along because it’s the smart thing. I have zero doubt she’ll get the job done, but we’re HALOing into treacherous waters and hoping the boats are there. We could have a mile or more hard swim in rough currents to reach them. Then we have the penetration of the facility itself.”

Damn. That didn’t sound good at all. Dread filled her as she listened to everyone talk back and forth.

A loud whistle sounded atop everyone’s raised voices. Lexi shoved off the wall. “Okay, here’s option two. Bree isn’t with the HALO teams. Both teams breach the facility. I helo her in to an established drop zone the smaller team secures. That eliminates the higher risk facets for her.”

“And if they have RPGs?” Knight asked.

“Then you’d best make sure they don’t get the chance to use them,” Lexi quipped. “We have our teams and a rough idea what we need to do. I have two damned good pilots secured to assist me in raining hell down on the compound once you’re inside.”

Wait. Bree slammed her hand against her forehead.

“Our girl just had an aha moment,” Doug said.

“We have access to their system, right? Or partial access. Could we code in a kill switch? If we kill the computers, they’ll assume something went wrong with the power source. The computers run the faraday cages. We don’t have to worry about the actual power source at first. If we kill things one layer up, that’d get us in without them using any missile systems against the helos. Right?”

Vi nodded. “That could work, assuming we can get the kill switch activated in their system without them knowing.”

“That’s where we’d need Shelly,” Bree whispered.

“I thought using her wasn’t an option,” Marshall said.

“We may not have a choice,” Mary said. “Bree’s right. If we can override the computers, then penetrate the facility, Bree could reroute the power grid to HERA and bring it back online. Then we could use HERA to open the faradays we need and leave everyone else locked in.”

“Has Shelly responded?” Bree asked.

“She has,” Vi said. “She’s assured us she’ll help however she can. Once we have a plan firmed up, we can give her the details. I’d prefer not to do that until the last minute in case someone is watching and she doesn’t know.”

That was smart.

“Who’s on the small team with Bree if we go that route?” Nolan asked.

“Replace Mia on Gage’s team,” Ram said. “Add Addy. They cover Bree while Gage’s team does the extraction and mine handles clearing.”

“I assumed yours would be extraction,” Dallas said.

“The Triple Threat with Scythe’s ghosts is a kill squad,” Mary said. “It’d be easier for the enemy to take on an entire army. They’re clearing.”

Wow.

“Damn. I want to be on the kill team,” Mia muttered.

Bree couldn’t help but laugh. The woman was bloodthirsty. She thought through the plan a moment. “That still leaves a lot of potential issues once the teams arrive at the facility. Is that where my bombs come in?”

“Yes,” Jesse said. “How many do we have?”

“Rhea, Nikki, and I made another fifty this morning,” Bree said. “We loaded them with a more potent gas compound, so everyone hit should stay out for four hours.”

“And do we have a reversal if we need to wake someone up?” Vi asked.

“Yes, but it hasn’t been tested,” Rhea said. “Any volunteers?”

Everyone laughed. Jesse grinned. “We’ll find someone to do that today. Will we be able to fly them in on drones?”

“Yes,” Bree said. “We worked on installing clamps on six sets of full-sized drones. We’ll want to test those as well. They’ll likely fly a bit different with the added weight.”

“Good. We’ll grab Cord, Jacob, and Zoey and all practice with them this afternoon,” Mary said. “We might be able to use those for the interior as well, but we have to assume the guards will have masks.”

That made sense. If they had masks, the gas wouldn’t work. Bree hoped they didn’t.

“We’re pulling satellite imagery of the target site and will continue to do so,” Vi said.

“Wheels up tomorrow morning. It’ll take thirty-six hours to get into position,” Jesse said. “Bree, we need you to get trackers on Knight, Grim, and Shadow.”

She nodded. All three blanched. “Don’t worry. It won’t hurt. And I can remove them afterward.”

“Good.” Knight unfolded his arms. “We’d like to study the tech you all have so we’re up to speed.”

Ram grinned as he stood. “I was about to ask if you three wanted to join Doug, Pierce, and me on drills.”

The kill squad. Bree fought back the worry. They were good at what they did. No one had argued against her going, which was surprising. Even though she’d love nothing more than spend time with her family or Ram—or all of them—she knew there was work to be done.

She waited until everyone had greeted the three operatives from the Scythe MC. She hadn’t heard much about the group but knew they’d recently started working with Counterstrike, a nonprofit group based out of Austin who helped people in trouble.

Ram, Doug, and Pierce all approached with Knight, Shadow, and Grim. The nicknames suited each of the men. They were tall, muscular, and exuded badass in lethal doses. Yeesh.

“Bree, meet Knight, Shadow, and Grim,” Doug said. “Bree here is the brains behind the drones and a lot of the fun toys we’ll be playing with today.”

“Those drones are something,” Shadow said. “I may have shot one the first time I saw them.”

“Oh, I heard all about you. You somehow managed to avoid getting darted with one of the drones in Jen’s house,” Bree said with a grin. “I might have to see if we can speed them up if people move that fast.”

The man chuckled.

“Are we all headed down to my lab? It won’t take more than a few minutes.” Bree glanced up at Ram when he slid his arm around her. “I might have a few things you could play with.”

“Oh yeah?” Pierce asked. She didn’t catch the double meaning until Doug chuckled. She punched his arm.

They headed out of the building. Mia was waiting near the exit. “One hour, behind the mess hall. Does that work?”

“Huh?” Bree asked.

“Training. I want to show you a few things before we go wheels up. Wear something comfortable. It won’t be fun but could prove useful.” Mia walked away.

“Why do I get the feeling that woman can kill anyone here?” Grim asked.

“Because she can,” Pierce replied. “Remind us to show you the picnic table attack.”

Bree couldn’t help but laugh. Excitement bubbled within her. She was about to have her first ninja training class.

* * *

Sweat dampened Ram’s skin by the time they finished the final obstacle course run through. All three of the Scythes were damned good—easily as good, if not better, than any of the operatives on Arsenal teams. They’d taken to the tech well after a few issues with the headgear.

“We have a few more guys we could call if we need more operatives for this,” Knight said.

“Smaller is better for this,” Ram said. “But we can let Edge know. The tech should handle a lot of the initial combatants.”

Jacob had volunteered to be the guinea pig for testing the gassing antidote, with Logan observing. It’d taken three minutes for the injection to take effect. The poor guy had puked his guts out. Rhea had asked several questions and promised to have injectables ready for use in case they proved necessary.

Ram’s cell rang. He clicked answer. “Yeah?”

“Our girl’s about to have her first mock fight. Behind the mess hall. I figured you’d want to cheer her on,” Zoey said. She hung up.

He couldn’t help but grin even though he was worried about her going on the mission. While her presence might be necessary, he wished it wasn’t. “Bree’s about to fight someone. Guess Mia’s first training session is done.”

“Let’s go cheer your woman on.” Pierce clapped him on the back.

A large group congregated in a circle. The operatives parted to let them get closer. Bree stood in the middle of the circle in tactical pants and an olive-green T-shirt with The Arsenal logo. She walked over to the corner and donned a vest.

“Does that vest look different?” Doug asked.

“Yeah.” Amusement filled him. She was up to something.

“Okay, this is a friendly test fight to give Bree some practical experience against combatants larger than her,” Mia said. “Hurt her and I’ll hurt you. Who’s up first?”

First? Ram’s eyebrows rose.

Bree rocked back on the heels of her combat boots. “I can’t promise I won’t bite. She said I could.”

Everyone laughed as Dallas stepped forward. “What are we testing?”

“Breaking from a restraint,” Mia said. She motioned to Bree. “Go ahead.”

Ram knew Dallas was one of the best trained operatives at The Arsenal. All the team leaders were. Everyone cheered and clapped as he expertly worked several scenarios through with Bree. She did well in most of them and even managed to get him into a “kill position” twice. The crowd went wild on the second one.

Bree grinned as she offered him a hand up.

Thunder volunteered for the next round, which didn’t go as well at first because he was massive. Mia pulled Bree aside and spoke to her a couple minutes, then the battle was on once again.

Bree’s beautiful mouth shifted into a determined line as she maneuvered her way out of hold after hold. Whatever Mia had said had worked. She managed to get out of more than half, was damned good after only one training session.

Everyone applauded when it was over.

“Not sure about this next part,” Mia said.

“It’s fine. Logan’s here,” Bree replied as she waved at the doc.

“Oh boy,” Pierce commented.

“What does that mean?” Shadow asked.

“She’s up to something,” Ram said. He smirked. “This’ll be interesting.”

“Okay. This is probably going to be painful,” Mia said. “She’s got something she wants to test.”

“Not that you commandos would ever need this.” Bree donned a wrist apparatus and smiled at the crowd. “Anyone? Please?”

Amusement rolled through the crowd as several operatives shoved Raul into the circle. He glared at them. But his expression shifted when he looked at Bree.

“Be gentle.”

“We’ll see.” Bree nodded. “Okay. I’m ready.”

“I’m not. Does that count?” Raul chuckled as he grabbed her in a backward choke position. She tried to maneuver out of the hold at first, but he firmed his grip with his other hand, locking her into place against him.

A growl rumbled from Ram as he watched. Bree touched a button he hadn’t noticed on the bottom of the vest. Raul’s entire body locked. His eyes widened.

Then he was out.

He tumbled to the ground. Bree stepped away as Logan crouched beside him.

“Oops. The charge may have been a bit higher than I realized,” Bree said.

“I’m good,” Raul said, his voice pained. “Fuck. That was intense. Like taking a taser from the inside. What was that?”

“A shock vest I’m testing. That was the low setting.”

“Fuck.” Raul sat up. “I vote yes as long as I never have to do that again.”

Everyone laughed.

“Impressive. How does it work?” Nolan asked.

“A power source like what’s in the micro drones,” Bree said. “There’s a few prongs that shoot out and zap the target, which probably won’t work as well if they have a vest on. Though, I did factor in any metal they have on their person conducting the charge so…” She glanced down at Raul.

“No. Sorry, B. I’m tapping out.” He stood. “That’d take down an elephant if the charge is any higher.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t pass out. Would that even be usable in the field?” Her honest inquiry made Ram proud. She was in full-on scientist mode.

“Yeah,” Nolan said with a grin. “That’d be usable. Let’s pack that with your gear for our adventure.”

Thank fuck. Ram didn’t expect anyone to get close to Bree with Addy and Mia protecting her, but knowing she had that vest would go a long way to calming him.

“Too bad the vest isn’t longer. A few more inches and someone wouldn’t be getting up for a long time,” Mia commented.

Doug winced. “Damn that woman is terrifying.”

“She’s not wrong, though,” Grim said. “Getting a hit like that to the dick would fuck anyone up.”

“Hmm… I bet I could rig something.” Bree grinned. “Thanks, Mia. That’s a great idea.”

“You’re welcome. Okay, break it up. Show’s over.”

Mia and Addy pulled Bree aside. Ram watched the animated conversation a few minutes. He glanced over at Pierce. “Why don’t you show them the mess hall? I’ll be there in a while.”

“Sure.”

Ram made his way to the women. Wrapping his arm around Bree’s waist, he kissed her neck and hummed his approval when she relaxed against him. “Got a minute?”

“For you? Always.” She grinned up at him.

Mia and Addy both offered chin lifts as they left. He turned her to face him. “I know you’ve got a lot going on right now, but I think you should go and spend some time with Rhea and her kids.”

“It’s been so busy. There hasn’t been time.” Bree chewed her lower lip. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not. I know you’ve been wanting to,” he whispered against her cheek. “I’ll go with you if you want.”

“That’d be perfect.” She took his hands. “Maybe you could talk to Fallon. I’m worried about him with everything that’s happened.”

“Not sure I’m the best one to chat with him. I know Jesse and Nolan have both been working him through everything.”

“Yeah, but they’re Command.” She stroked his jaw. “Just be a sounding board for him. If you don’t mind.”

“This must be what he meant,” Ram whispered.

“Who?”

“Gage.” Ram chuckled. “He said there’d come a time when I realize there’s nothing I wouldn’t agree to if you asked.”

“Really?” Her eyes gleamed with delight. “I can think of a few things to ask for. Some very fun things.”

“Fuck.” He rested his forehead against hers. “Keep talking like that and we won’t get away from the compound.”

“Come on, commando. We’ve got a mission.” She took his hand and headed toward the parking lot.”