Mercury's War (45 page)

    “Stay still, mate, I enjoy caring for you.” He laid a kiss against one rounded cheek of her rear before nipping the other gently and straightening.

    “You’re very strange then.” She rose, straightening her clothes without looking at him. She felt too vulnerable right now, too off balance.

    The sex was one thing; the way he touched her, the way he had cleaned her-that was something else entirely.

    “Independent little cat,” he growled as he moved to the small attached bathroom.

    Something caught her gaze then, had her eyes narrowing and a snarl pulling at her lips as she looked up.

    Mercury reentered the room, looked up and froze. The covering they had placed over the camera, which had still been there when they left the office earlier, was gone.

    “The door was secured when we entered.” His voice was hard, vicious as he stared into the lens. “There were no unusual scents, nothing to indicate anyone else had been in here.”

    “Someone was obviously here,” she murmured, moving around the desk, running her fingers along the edges and the drawers.

    Narrowing his eyes on her, Mercury grabbed her jacket, tossed it over the monitor then pulled the small electronic detector from one of the pockets of his mission pants before flipping it on and beginning to run it over the room.

    Ria continued to run her fingers under the desk, working from top to bottom.

    “The room’s clean,” Mercury announced.

    Ria paused. She had found what she was looking for.

    “Is it?” She pulled the small device from beneath the bottom edge of the desk and held it up for his inspection. The indicator light was silent, the device deactivated, for the moment.

    A growl rumbled from his throat.

    “Stop growling,” she muttered, looking over the tiny receiver carefully. “This isn’t a Vanderale design, nor is it anything Lawrence has. Do you use any other companies’ devices?” She knew Sanctuary had agreements, contracts, with Vanderale and Lawrence Industries only.

    “Not to my knowledge.” He moved to her, took the box, inhaling slowly, his eyes narrowing. “It has a scent overlay, but I can’t pick it up.”

    “It’s warm,” she pointed out. “It was active.”

    “Until I covered the camera,” he snapped. “Let’s go.”

    She knew where they were going.

    Ria quickly adjusted her top as Mercury stalked from the office, his hand on his weapon as he spoke softly into the link he had reactivated at his ear. The small mic lay along his cheek as they moved quickly through the hallways, heading for the security room.

    As they neared the heavy steel door that protected the sensitive security monitoring equipment, Jonas moved quickly from the other end of the hall, a six-man enforcer unit following closely on his heels, weapons drawn.

    Jonas swiped the secured pass card through the security lock, waited for the retinal scanner to engage, then pressed his palm to the palm plate and waited for the green light.

    When it lit the panel, he jerked the door open. The scent that met their senses was unmistakable. Jonas bit out terse orders as he entered the room, moving slowly, carefully around the body spread out in the floor, intestines displayed, horrified eyes staring sightlessly up at the ceiling.

    Austin Crowl. His blood stained the metal floor, congealing, the stink of death surrounding him as Ria stared at the sight.

    “Where are his assistants?” Jonas moved through the room, paused at the door to another section of the room and opened it carefully.

    They were there. One shot, the other with his throat sliced end to end.

    “Contact Pride Leader Lyons. Initiate Alpha Direct, and begin placement. We’ve been compromised.”

    By one of their own.

    Ria stared up at Mercury, watching as the mate and lover turned into the enforcer. Hard, cold eyes, savage features.

    Jonas turned to Ria. “Can you work this equipment?”

    She nodded. “I can.”

    “Get in here and pull up the security discs. I want to know what the hell they were looking at, who was here and how someone managed to kill my men.”

    She moved slowly into the room, staring down at Crowl with a sense of anger and sadness. He had been a nasty little bully, but he hadn’t deserved this.

    “Lyons is initiating Alpha Direct. Dane Vanderale is moving to our locations; Leo Vanderale, his wife and babes are secure in the labs, their security force moving in.

    “Get to work.” Jonas stabbed his finger in the direction of the monitors. “We have four hours before this fucking party, and I want to know what the hell is going on. Now!”

    He wasn’t the only one.

    Alpha Direct would pull all the mates and children in the ruling family to one secured location, known only to Callan, Jonas, and the security force assigned to the initiative. If Jonas decided it was needed, he could force Callan into the same secured perimeter. The protection of the ruling family fell under his designation and he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.

    “This is Vanderale equipment,” Ria murmured, her fingers racing over the keyboard, attempting to code in the special security protocols the equipment had established when it was first initiated. “I need Dane in here. This is one of his babies. You have a backup, but you also have a set of protocols set to maintain security, no matter what. Protocols the techs were unaware of. Only Callan knew what they were.”

    Jonas gave her a sharp, brooding look. “Why wasn’t I aware of this?”

    “Need to know.” She shook her head and smiled tightly. “Whoever did this, they’re caught, Jonas. Sanctuary is one of Leo’s priorities. You have the best, all the way around, and this baby.” She entered the commands into the system program, watching the coded display as it came up. “This baby rocks!”

    And there it was. Level five security active, recording now. She just needed Dane to help her finish the final sweep.

    The monitor flickered, images of the last sweep coming up. Her office, transmission recorded. Callan’s office, showing Dane, Callan and the males of the ruling family heavily into conversation over his desk, as of an hour ago, displayed, recording received, though the rooms weren’t set for recording.

    And the children. There, the room where the children of the pride were secured was displayed.

    “Move on Alpha secured three point seven,” Jonas ordered as Ria worked furiously, pulling up present security.

    “Children are accounted for. Leo, Elizabeth and the twins are currently there. I need Dane on the line immediately.”

    Mercury attached his headset to her ear.

    “Report.” Dane’s voice was hard. “I’m on my way to your location. Alpha one and parties secured.”

    “I need you in here. No transmissions out, only in. The equipment has been tampered with, but security protocols are still in force. I need you to find out where the transmissions are set to go. They’ve been rerouted.”

    “Execute a full sweep of the system and it should be displayed as I arrive. We’ll track it and burn the bastard responsible.”

    She entered the command, working furiously as she kept her eyes on the security monitors that began coming back online. Each room of the mansion was programmed in, except bedrooms and bathrooms. Sitting rooms were displayed, the ballroom, main grounds and hallways.

    She saw Dane rushing for the security center, Leo’s security force inside and outside the room where the Leo, Elizabeth and the children were being held. Mates were being escorted into that room now, the females mothers to the children and as much in danger as the children themselves.

    “This isn’t about the children, its about information,” she bit out, speaking more to herself as she continued to tap into the alternate system the computers held. “Why take the children if they have the information they need? Why take this risk? Why? Patterns,” she continued to mumble to herself, barely aware of the silence in the room as she began to read the information racing across the computer screen. “Always patterns. Where are you? You’re here, baby, I feel you moving. Come on. Give it to me.”

    Mercury listened to her, leaning close. The whisper of the accent, the curiously sensual tone of her caressing voice as she pounded out commands and worked the system, amazed him.

    He had never heard anything like it. As she worked, caressed, cajoled, information began popping up on the screens-transmissions, commands entered and, finally, display.

    They watched as the Breed moved down the hallway, lab coat hiding the weapons that were shoved beneath it.

    The door to the security center opened.

    “There you are, come in. We have the card table set up in the back. I’m getting my cash back out of you tonight,” Austin crowed.

    The Breed smiled, stepped inside, and the monitor showed the bloodletting that began. Dane stepped into the room, stepped over the body and sat down at the control center beside Ria.

    “Are you ready, love?” he asked her gently.

    They paused. “One. Two. Go.”

    Their fingers hit the keys at once, in identical commands, and then simultaneously hit “enter.”

    “Sweet God,” Jonas whispered at the information set to send in less than seconds. “Holy Mother of God.”

    Dane and Ria ignored him. They worked their keyboards, fed in commands, rushed to delete information coded to be impossible to delete, transfer or intercept.

    They weren’t after the children. They weren’t after the Leo. This information was much more destructive. Source files fed directly from the lab computers were set to process and feed to another location: matings, testing protocols and results-every file, every ounce of information dealing with mating heat, the aging decrease and findings on the hybrid children, including genetic workups and full genetic testing.

    “Fucker!” Dane cursed.

    “Watch your language,” Ria muttered, and worked.

    Their fingers flew through commands, and as they worked, information was deleted, page by page, wiped clean,
Transmission failed
displayed.

    The ultimate betrayal, by one they’d all trusted.

    
Transmission failed. Please check network settings.
The message displayed a second before the screen went blank.

    “Your system has officially crashed,” Dane drawled, though his voice was savagely hard as he pulled a cigar from his shirt pocket, lit it and narrowed his eyes against the monitor, where the face of the culprit was displayed. “Do I get to do the killing do you think? I’d enjoy it.”

    “So will I,” Jonas snarled. “So will I.”

CHAPTER 27

    The guests at the party had no idea the undercurrents moving beneath the Breeds on duty, or those circulating through the large ballroom and buffet room. They had no idea the danger that stalked within them, or the treacherous games a few would play to destroy the many.

    The plan to capture those few Breeds was simple, yet so much depended on the coordination of everyone involved. If they missed a suspect or conspirator, then the whole plan could be screwed. They couldn’t afford that. They couldn’t afford to allow so much as a single traitor to be left unaccounted for when it was over.

    Leo and Dane had accounted for Council-trained traitors within the rescued Breeds. The Council was always big on placing traitors among the small packs and prides, Breeds specially trained, specially brainwashed and treated with care to ensure they did as they were programmed. As those now attempting to betray Sanctuary were doing.

    Except it wasn’t for the Council. It was for greed. For the money they believed they would gain, and the dishonor of having destroyed their own community without Council help.

    Callan and Merinus stood at the only entrance into the ballroom, calm and to all appearances unaware of the deception brewing within Sanctuary. But they knew, and Callan had already passed sentence once the Breeds were caught. They would die. No exceptions, even for the woman.

    Merinus Lyons was as graceful and gracious as always, her brown hair upswept, displaying her slender neck and the pearls that circled it. She wore a ball gown that managed to be both fanciful and elegant, the sweep of bronze material floating around her.

    Roni Andrews was with her mate and husband, Taber. Taber was dressed in a black tux, but Ria knew the weapons concealed beneath it.

    The entire ruling family was there, including Dawn Daniels and her fiancй Seth Lawrence. They moved through the guests, smiling, chatting, laughing, but the tension was there. The scent of it would have been detectable if it weren’t for many of the guests being nervous, some of them meeting the Breed ruling family for the first time.

    Ria curled her hand on Mercury’s broad forearm, moving along the perimeter of the crowd in the emerald sweep of her velvet ball gown, her gaze spreading out over the room, finding several of the security personnel Leo had brought with him as well.

    “You look too hot,” Mercury complained with an amused growl as male eyes turned to her, glinted with interest and then flickered in fear when her Breed mate growled at them.

    But she heard the pride in his voice. For some reason, it pleased him that the animal genetics she had tried so long to fight were impossible to suppress since he had mated her.

    “It’s your fault,” she reminded him, her voice low as she almost laughed at the tiny, warning pat just above her rear.

    “Don’t remind me. I’m ready to explode the way it is.”

    And he was. He was hard beneath his new dress uniform, and ready for her. He was always ready for her, just as she was for him.

    She smiled at the thought of that, warmed to it as she tried to concentrate on the security placed around the room.

    There were Breed Enforcers in the expected places for such events, but she knew there were even more ready, heavily armed and waiting.

    Horace Engalls was there with his wife, on the dance floor sweeping through the crowd, his expression smug, arrogant. Brandenmore was dancing with none other than Alaiya, the Breed determined to take what Ria had decided there wasn’t a chance in hell she was taking.