Elite Metal-ARE-epub (89 page)

“I didn’t. I asked you for help.”

“Chrome needs to know what’s going on.”

“Yeah. I expect you to report in.”

“Me? Why do I have to do the paperwork? This is your bitch.”

“You got an address on Baradies?”

She sighed. “I knew you were going to ask for that. Don’t you think he might be expecting a visit from you?”

“No. He expects me to still be worried about Hazel. He expects me to be working on that vax.”

“If we’re right, he killed an entire think tank just to see what would happen.” Her tone carried a warning. “You’re not invincible, Mercury.”

“I know that. That’s why I want to ask you to look out for her. In case.”

“Don’t make me hit you again.”

“I’m not on some kind of suicide mission. But I am going to kill him.”

“He’s protected.”

“Fuck him. Fuck the CIA. What are they going to do? Take away my birthday?”

“I knew you’d say that too. His address is in the file.”

“Thanks, Copper.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I haven’t yet begun to vet your Witch Hazel.” She grinned.

“You don’t need to. She’s not staying.”

“Her choice or yours?”

“Mine. Look at what she’s already been through just because I liked looking at her? It’s not like my circumstances, my job, are going to change any time soon.”

“Do you want them to?”

“Hell no. I love my job.”

“Let me come with you,” she said suddenly. As if the idea were a new one and not something that had been brewing on the tip of her tongue.

“Not a chance.”

“You don’t get to do this alone. Period.”

“Fine. I’ll take Danvers.”

“The hell you will.” Copper narrowed her eyes. “Maybe you didn’t hear me. I’m coming with you.”

“Fuck,” he sighed.

“That’s better.” Copper crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.

“Danvers is going to be pissed.”

“He sees it coming, I’m sure.” Copper grinned. “I packed us a goodie bag.” She nudged the black canvas bag under the table with her foot and unrolled a sheaf of paper. “And here are the plans on his estate.”

“You’re the shit,” Merc said. “Security detail?”

“A company called Standard Solutions. They only have one client. It’s probably a bunch of cartel. With how much money he has rolling through his hands every day? They wouldn’t leave him unsupervised.”

Merc studied the plans. “He’s going to have security here and here.” He pointed to the easiest access points. “But I don’t think that should stop us. It’ll be a bottleneck and the two of us can easily handle whatever he has. We’re not going to have to worry about police.”

“Exit strategy?”

“Same way we came in. Back up: here.” He pointed at the garage. “A garage this size? You know he’s got some toys.”

“I think maybe I like the backup strategy best.” She grinned.

“Where are we going?” Hazel asked as she sat back down next to Merc.

“You’re going to the compound. Copper and I have some business.” Hazel opened her mouth, but he didn’t let her speak. “Don’t even try to say you’re coming.”

“I wasn’t. This is what you do. So, go do it. But come back to me.”

He didn’t know how to process that, but Gabriel seemed to. “That seems reasonable,” the other man said.

“I need the ladies,” Hazel said.

“It’s over there.” Copper pointed.

“Can you go with me?”

Copper raised a brow as if she couldn’t believe she had to deal with something so banal. But she looked at Merc, then back at Hazel and got up.

“So, you know that whole not being used to things? I’m not used to this. To seeing the woman I love go off on missions where she could die. I don’t think I ever will be,” Gabriel confessed as soon as they were alone.

“You know that’s part of it, though, right?”

“Yeah. I get that. I do. And I want to tell you to take care of her. Not because I don’t think you will, or I don’t think she can take care of herself. But because that’s all I can do.”

Mercury understood that. He really did. But he didn’t know how to articulate it. So he shoved the whiskey toward him with a grunt.

After tonight, he was going to need about a week in a sensory deprivation box. He had too much stimuli after going so long with nothing. Too much emotion, too many sensations, too many things to think about.

The possibility that the accident at Shadowfain hadn’t been his fault was devastating. He’d wished it for so long. But he’d accepted things couldn’t be any different and built his life—his whole world—around the way that incident had defined him.

He didn’t have to do the job he did. He’d always thought there was nothing else for him. No other use.

But there could be.

He liked what he did. Felt good about it, even the bad things.

Did that make him more of a monster, or less?

He didn’t know.

Chapter Six

“So, you probably know that I didn’t really need you to walk me to the bathroom,” Hazel confessed. “But I wanted to talk to you alone before you go.”

“I really hope you’re not going to give me some girlfriend talk about caring about him and how I have to make room for you. Because I don’t.” Her tone wasn’t venomous, it was just matter of fact.

Hazel gave a half smile. “No. You don’t.” She knew as soon as this was over, he was going to put as much distance between them as he could. Knowing it and why didn’t make it sting any less, but there it was. “But he was worried about me. He thought you might want to debrief me about Lakos and was concerned the questioning would be… strenuous.”

Copper watched her and waited for her to continue speaking.

“I wanted you to know that if you want to question me, I’ll submit to it willingly.”

“Do you know exactly what you’re agreeing to?”

“I figure if I tell you the truth, you don’t have reason to hurt me, right?” She met Copper’s gaze evenly.

“If Merc trusts you, I trust you,” the other woman said after a long moment.

Hazel bit her lip. “How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Make him understand you can handle it? That he doesn’t have to save you.” She wanted more than anything for him to believe that she could do this, be with him. She wasn’t going to break.

“But he did have to save you,” she pointed out.

“Maybe. But it could go both ways, you know. There are things I can do. I don’t have to be a handicap.” She did, but maybe she’d saved him just a little bit, too.

“If that were true, you wouldn’t have cornered me in a bathroom before a mission. You’re worried about you while his head isn’t in the game.”

“I—” Hazel realized she was right. “What do you want me to do?”

“Go with Gabriel. Give Merc his space. You don’t know what this—”

“Look, I may be new to his life. But even I can see what this means to him. What that guilt has done to him and I think I see the other man inside of him too. The one who thought he was going to change the world. I understand that he’s Mercury. But I understand that he’s John, too.”

“Do you really?”

“How could I not? He’s a dark, complicated man, to be sure. But he’s also kind, gentle… Although, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.”

“Or anyone else. Did you notice the looks you got when you walked in this place with him?”

“Not really. I was paying more attention to you.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s really something to make love with a man while he’s wearing another woman’s name around his neck.”

Copper’s hand went to her tags and patted them. “Package deal.”

“I gathered.”

“So are we done here or do we have to go get pedicures or some shit?”

Hazel laughed. “We’re good.”

“Good.” Copper studied her. “I might have to take you up on your offer, though.”

“That’s why I made it.”

Hazel wasn’t afraid. She had nothing to hide.

They went back out to the table and Mercury’s gaze bored into her like a drill. “You all good?”

“Yeah.” She smiled at him.

A couple of the other patrons in the bar kept staring at them until Merc fixed them with a hard stare and they looked away.

“I want you to go with Gabriel. Stay in my quarters. They’re off my lab. Can you draw your own blood?”

She nodded.

“I want you to draw a CMP and check your liver and kidney function.”

“Got it.”

“Draw enough for serum testing as well. We need to see how well you’ve  purged and how your hormones are reacting.”

“I’ll do a full workup.”

“And—”

“I have this. You don’t need to worry about me. Take care of business and I’ll see you soon.” She looked at Gabriel. “You ready?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Be careful,” he said to Copper and headed for the door.

Hazel looked at John for a long moment. There was so much she wanted to say, but Copper had been right. This wasn’t about her right now and she didn’t need it to be. She told him she’d see him when he came back and they could talk then.

And if she never got to say those things, she’d just have to live with that. Speaking her peace wasn’t as important as John surviving this. She bit her lip and then stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.

“Come back to me. I’ll be waiting.”

She didn’t wait for a response, but instead followed Gabriel outside and into a non-descript black sedan.

“I haven’t decided if you’re brave or stupid,” Gabriel said when he opened the door for her.

“Me either.” She sighed.

“So are you in love with that scarred, surly bastard, or what?”

She leaned back against the seat. “It’s too soon to say that. I’d rather imagine my tomorrows with him than without him.”

“Would you take a bullet for him?”

“Yes.” She didn’t hesitate.

“I’d call that love.”

“I don’t think he wants me to love him.”

“Maybe not,” Gabriel turned to her. “But they don’t get to choose that. Are you ready?” He held out the black cloth.

She nodded and allowed him to secure the mask over her eyes.

They rode in silence to the compound. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed and she didn’t want to know. Hazel knew this was a big show of trust, on both of their parts.

It seemed like forever, but when he removed the blindfold, she was in a lab that was set up just like any other lab she’d ever been in.

There was nothing that marked it as John’s.

“His quarters are through that door. You need anything?” Gabriel asked her.

“I should be fine.”

“Do not leave the lab. If you need me, call me on this phone.” He handed her what appeared to be a burner phone. “It’s programmed in. Number 2.”

“Okay.” She accepted the phone and he exited without a backward glance.

Hazel familiarized herself with the lab, vowing to do as he’d asked before she intruded on his personal space. Although, this was probably more personal to him than where he lay his head. This was where he created, where he spent most of his time and energy.

She ran her hands lightly over the pristine surfaces, wondering just how his mind worked when he was here. She rather imagined working with diseases and viruses to be a little bit like being an artist.

Just speaking to him, she knew he was intelligent, but he was in genius territory to have graduated MIT at such a young age. It was said that brilliance often led to madness.

Serum 17 had to be madness, didn’t it?

He’d said it had a scent like roses and burnt paper. That triggered something in her memory, something forgotten and just out of reach. But it disappeared when she grasped at it.

Hazel set about drawing her blood as he’d asked, but decided while she was at it, to give him a few vials to work with to see if she’d begun to develop any antigens toward the derivative.

Having completed the draw, she placed the required vials in the AutoAnalyser and cleaned up her mess.

It was strange, but she just knew that she was okay, that there wouldn’t be any long term effects from whatever she’d been dosed with. Or maybe that was just her brain’s way of coping. There was nothing she could do about damage already done anyway.

Instead, she was worried about him.

And grateful that Copper was with him.

She didn’t want him to be alone.

While she waited on the machine, she looked through the books on the spare, metal shelf. She saw some of the usual suspects like
Taber’s Medical Dictionary,
but she was most interested in the spiral bound book with the ragged edges. He’d obviously spent long hours with it, the corners dog-eared and the cover barely hanging on.

It was all his research about Serum 17.

After reading a few pages, she realized she needed to draw more blood.

It appeared as if he’d already designed some kind of neutralizing agent for various other incarnations, but not a vaccine. She found it fantastically interesting because it had really been a war with herself choosing a specialty. She’d been torn between going into immunology research and emergency medicine. Emergency medicine won because she thought it would be the most rewarding, seeing her impact on her patients whereas with research would take years.

The virus, or whatever it was, it had a ridiculously short half-life. It was engineered to do the most damage, and then dissipate so ground troops weren’t exposed.

The key to the vaccine might be dying in her blood as she sat there.

She prepped and did the draw, freezing the samples. They were possibly worthless, but she had to try.

Hazel went into the small quarters off the lab.

It was sparse, and bare. It looked like a seldom used storage room. A couple boxes she found had his diplomas, and honors. His doctorate from MIT was in a cracked and battered frame.

So was a picture of him with a young girl.

They had their arms slung around each other in the bold way of youth that said “I dare you” to the whole world.

He was so skinny there, about half the size he was now. But there was something hungry in his eyes. Something haunted, even then. The girl, too. She was tiny, delicate, but the eyes that stared back at the camera were impossibly old and hard in comparison.