Code Name: Aries by Janie Crouch

38

Ian

I hadn’t done a lot of parachuting since my time in the Navy SEALs, but I still had the skills, despite the pain from the burns on my back. Parachuting into the mountains under the cover of night in the rain was not my forte, but if it meant getting Wavy back, I was willing to do it.

The timing of this operation was delicate. Our biggest advantage was that Erick didn’t know Wavy’s subconscious had sent us clues about this location. We needed to keep that advantage for as long as possible. That meant me getting into place well before Sarge and his team started making their moves to draw Erick out.

My landing wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, but I had to admit I was reaching the ends of my reserves. I hadn’t slept in more than fifty-two hours, and the stress and fear of Wavy being held, not to mention the deaths and injuries of my team members, were certainly taking their toll. But I made the landing without breaking anything, so I would call it a win.

Despite the storm around me, I pushed hard the five miles to the compound. Every minute that I could gain was another I could use to get Wavy out. I had no idea what condition she was going to be in. But I would take any condition, as long as she was alive and she was here.

I moved silently through the wilderness. I couldn’t deny the effect this place had on me as I caught sight of the compound in the moonlight. I had died here multiple times. Everything in my psyche demanded I not go back, that this was a place to stay away from. But I kept moving forward.

I had weapons this time, and a team that would move heaven and earth to come get me if I needed them to. I also had a tranquilizer—not for use on any of Erick’s men, because any Mosaic guard I saw was going down for good.

The tranquilizer was for Wavy. If she was in some sort of catastrophic state, I had to be prepared to render her unconscious to carry her out. That wouldn’t be easy, but I had the equipment and was prepared to do it. I’d strap her onto my back like a damn Sherpa if I had to.

I cut around the south end of the compound. I found the tunnel I wanted, glad Grant had been such a paranoid bastard. It allowed me to come up through a grate inside the main wall of the compound. Now, all I had to do was not get killed and find Wavy.

There was a lot that could go wrong here. I couldn’t communicate with my team because any signal coming in or out would be caught by Mosaic’s defense system. I had forty-five minutes remaining to find Wavy and get her out before Sarge and his team made their move. Once they did, there would be chaos, but we would also lose the element of surprise. Erick might not move Wavy immediately, but he would certainly sic a shit ton more guards on her.

I made my way on silent feet into the living quarters. It was almost too much to hope that Erick would be treating Wavy like a guest, but they were the closest and the easiest to eliminate as a possibility. I took out two guards on my way, dragging their bodies into the dark so they wouldn’t be found until after I was gone.

That gave me free access to the living quarters’ control room. There were cameras in all of the bedrooms here. That was how Grant had discovered I had been an undercover operative. I’d thought I had dismantled the camera in my room, but they’d placed another one I hadn’t found.

I ran through the cameras in each room. There was no sign of Wavy. But I did spot Erick. He was playing cards with a few of his men in the main living room. The fact that he wasn’t asleep wasn’t good, but it didn’t look like he was on high alert.

That also provided me intel about where they might be keeping Wavy. They didn’t have her hidden away, because they weren’t expecting an attack, at least not yet. I knew by looking at Erick’s smug face that it would suit his fancy to put her where they’d kept me when they found out I had betrayed them.

In the cages.

* * *

Wavy

I should be happy I wasn’t in the agonizing pain I’d been in the last time Erick Huen had kidnapped me. I had some bruises and probably a broken wrist from when I had tried to fight back once whatever trance he’d had me in wore off. Nothing compared to trying to rip my own skin off like last time.

But all I could think as I lay here in this metal cage was that I’d killed Landon.

The past few hours—God, I wasn’t sure how many—were a blur. The last things I remembered clearly were my art show, then almost making love to Ian.

Then Erick’s video.

Somewhere in the middle of that, everything had changed, and I’d been watching a movie starring myself.

Drawing a church I’d never been to.

Letting Ian leave me and not being concerned in the slightest.

Being compelled to come to this place, to rescue Janice.

I’d killed Landon to get here to rescue someone Erick had taken great delight in telling me had never existed. Mosaic’s protocol hadn’t worked correctly on me, and they hadn’t been able to make me into Ian’s assassin as Erick had planned.

So, they’d stopped trying to make me a killer and made me someone’s savior instead.

A small sob escaped my throat. The fact that I’d killed one of Ian’s closest friends to get here and save “Janice” had been a mere bonus.

I had no idea where I was. I couldn’t expect anyone to come rescue me. Even if they knew where I was, why would they bother after finding Landon dead in the penthouse when it had only been the two of us there?

So what if I had shot him in the chest rather than the head? I’d still shot him. He was still dead. Maybe I deserved to die in this cage. I couldn’t be trusted anymore.

Whatever compulsion I’d been under had ended once I’d arrived, but what if it came back? What if I tried to kill Ian?

That’s why, when my name came from the darkness surrounding my cage in Ian’s soft voice, I scampered away.

“Wavy, it’s Ian. It’s okay, Rainbow.”

“No,” I said, holding out my good arm in front of me. “Stay away from me.”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “I’m here to get you out.”

“No, Ian, no. You have to stay away from me. I killed Landon. They might be using me to kill you.”

He stepped forward, placing his hands on the bar, bringing his face close enough that I could see him. “No, listen. Landon is alive. Remember, you took the chest shot rather than the head.”

“So?”

“That saved his life. I spoke to him a few hours ago.”

“We don’t know—”

“Think about it. Really think about it. Were you trying to kill Landon? Is that what you were trying to do?”

I rubbed my eyes with my good hand. “N-no. I was trying to save Janice. All I knew was that I had to get into the elevator, and he wouldn’t get out of the way.”

“Exactly,” Ian said. “You weren’t trying to hurt Landon. You’re not going to try to hurt me now. And when I get you out of here, we’ll make sure you can never be triggered like that again.”

I didn’t know whether to believe him or not. My brain was still muddled. I started to cry. I felt so stupid.

“Hey Rainbow, come on,” he said. “Be strong for me a couple more hours. Let’s get out of here. I promise you Landon will be very happy to see you.”

“You’d say that even if it weren’t true. You’d do whatever you had to do to get me out of here.”

He leaned his head against the bars, a smile pulling at his lips. “You know me well. But I promise Landon is alive. Right now, we’ve got to go. How badly are you hurt?” He gestured at my wrist.

“I’m pretty sure it’s broken. I tried to fight some of Erick’s men.”

“I hope you gave as good as you got.”

“Well, I’m the one who ended up in the cage. So, not exactly. But a couple of them probably have broken noses and boy parts that won’t work right for a while.”

He chuckled a little at that. “I love you, Rainbow. Let’s get out of here.”

He grabbed the key for the padlock that the guards had left just outside my reach and unlocked the cage. I was stiff after being inside it for so long and everything ached, but I pushed it all down and followed Ian into the night.

He kept hold of my good hand as we moved through the rainy night, only letting go when he had to eliminate a guard. At first, he dragged the bodies out of sight. But once we got farther away, he left them as they fell.

He took me down into a tunnel and then out the other side, which brought us into the wilderness. We hadn’t gotten very far before it became obvious that the Mosaic guards were aware there was a problem. Lights went on all around the compound behind us. There were shouts.

“Shit,” Ian said, “I was hoping for more time. It’ll still be another fifteen minutes before Sarge makes his move.”

“What move?” I asked.

“We’ll know it when it happens. Right now, we’ve got to move faster. It won’t take them long to figure out which route we took, given the trail of bodies we left.”

We ran through the woods. I kept my broken wrist close to my chest, trying to brace it as much as possible, ignoring the throb. It wasn’t long before there were shouts behind us.

“Isn’t this how we first started?” I asked him between breaths. “Running through the wilderness with Mosaic guards chasing us?”

He squeezed my good hand. “Almost exactly, except for the rain. They would have had me that first day in Reddington City if it hadn’t been for you. So let’s call this returning the favor.”

We continued to run in silence. An explosion in the distance caused my head to pivot in that direction, but Ian didn’t slow down.

“That was Sarge,” he said. “It will get the attention of some of Erick’s men, but not the ones on our tail.”

Even with Sarge’s distraction, we weren’t going to outrun the men behind us. I wouldn’t be able to keep up this pace much longer.

Ian pulled me around a boulder that gave us a little bit of shelter. “Rainbow, I need you to listen to me. I want you to keep following the river straight south. It’s getting light now and that route will take you toward Sarge and then into the next town in a few miles.”

“Okay,” I said. “We can make it.”

“I’m not going with you.”

“What? I can’t go by myself. You have to come with me. We have to stay together.”

He cupped my cheeks. “I can handle these guards, but it will be much easier for me to do it on my own. I’ll catch up with you.”

That made sense, but I didn’t like the thought of him going back into the fray just to save me.

He leaned his head against mine. “Let me do this for us, Rainbow. I can make it. You can make it too. You know how to navigate wilderness. Just keep going, make it to Sarge or make it to the town. Either one will keep you safe.” He pressed one of his guns into my hand. “Take this. I have another one.”

“You’ll catch up with me, right?”

“Absolutely. But you have to go now. Run.”

His lips brushed mine, and then he turned and ran back toward danger as I made my way toward safety.