Body Thief (10 page)
Authors: C.J. Barry
Wilson scanned the blueprint and nodded once. “Got it.”
Aristotle smoothed the White Plains area and pointed to a transportation center. “Mitchell, I want your team on a truck coming in from California. It’s a very large superconducting magnetic energy storage system. Steel construction, practically impossible to damage, and it weighs a few tons. I figured you’d appreciate if it was already on wheels.”
Michaels moved forward to get the transport documents from Aristotle and grinned. “Thanks, boss. What do you want me to do with it once I get it?”
“Dump it in the Hudson. That should ruin it for good.” Then he addressed the group. “Those are our big targets this week. Anyone who’s not on one of these teams is on surveillance duty.”
Someone piped up. “Who are we surveilling?”
“XCEL.”
A groan filled the small room, and Aristotle waved a hand. “We knew it would happen eventually. They aren’t
all
stupid.”
all
stupid.”
That got a few snickers.
“We have two XCEL agents snooping around our targets. One of them is a Shifter. You might know her as Cala. Came over with her father and brother.”
Someone swore, and Aristotle concurred. “Exactly. For now, I just want them watched. See where they are going, what they are looking for. But don’t get too close and don’t engage. I don’t want any wild car chases.”
“Aw, man,” Red said. “I thought you were going to let us have some fun for a change.”
“What? Blowing up buildings isn’t enough fun for you?” Aristotle asked.
Red shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“Good, then go blow up some buildings. We meet next Saturday at midnight. Greenwich room.”
Everyone nodded and dispersed quietly. Red stopped in front of him as he collected his map. “Do you need anything?”
“No,” Aristotle said. “Go have fun.”
“Where’s the fun for you?” Red asked.
Aristotle gazed at the young man. “This is fun.”
“No,” Red said. “This is work. You wanna come hang out with me and my friends for a while?”
Oh yes, an old Shifter and a bunch of kids. That would last long, but he loved Red for asking. “I think I’ll get some sleep, but thank you for the offer.”
“Suit yourself.” And with that, Red was gone.
Aristotle shook his head and laughed at the kid. He reminded him so much of his son. He was about Red’s age when he was slaughtered by the government on the last planet the Shifters had tried to build new lives on. They hadn’t wanted Shifters. No one wanted Shifters. But that didn’t mean that Shifters didn’t deserve to live peacefully like other races.
It just meant that Shifters had to work harder at it.
CHAPTER SIX
“H
ow in the hell can you tell me that this is right?” Cam yelled at Mercer. He stood stoically in front of her in a warehouse where one corner had been blown to bits. The rest of the place was untouched. And he still wouldn’t admit that she had a valid point.
ow in the hell can you tell me that this is right?” Cam yelled at Mercer. He stood stoically in front of her in a warehouse where one corner had been blown to bits. The rest of the place was untouched. And he still wouldn’t admit that she had a valid point.
He put his hands on his hips. “Not part of your job. And keep your voice down. We’re trying to be quiet. Think, stealth.”
“Think,
kiss my ass
. I know you’re smarter than this. You can’t tell me you don’t see it.”
kiss my ass
. I know you’re smarter than this. You can’t tell me you don’t see it.”
She turned her back and kicked a metal can as hard as she could. It launched across the warehouse, trailing dust behind it before hitting an I-beam and ricocheting loudly. The clattering sound echoed from one end to the other of the football-sized warehouse. She yelled at the top her lungs, “Harding has us on some stupid wild-goose chase, Mercer, and you are too chickenshit to find out why!”
“Don’t kick—”
She nailed a paint can and it flew over a pile of crates, landing loudly on the other side. She didn’t know what else to do to get through to him.
He put his hands on his hips. “Cam, this is a dangerous neighborhood.”
“Do you recall the history of my people? Refugees escaping persecution on another planet and crash-landing here only to be hunted down by the likes of you? Do you really think a bad neighborhood scares me?” She picked up a chair and tossed it through a window. Glass shattered and rained to the floor. Then she turned to him and grinned in challenge.
Mercer raised his eyebrows. “Are you almost done?”
“No. And I’m not going to stop until you agree that something is very wrong here. There’s a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of supplies and equipment in this place, ripe for the picking. Just like the other places.”
Cam grabbed a length of pipe and hurled it. It hit the steel siding and stuck, making a powerful vibration that reverberated through the rest of warehouse. “They aren’t stealing stuff. And they could. So why aren’t they?”
“Lazy?” he suggested. “Stupid?”
She rounded on him. “Have you reported this to Harding?”
Mercer’s expression was blank, and that was her answer. He hadn’t. They were all the same. Why would she think that he’d be any different?
Cam said, “You’re good at following orders, aren’t you?”
“I don’t have a choice,” he replied, his jaw clenched.
“Luckily, I do.” She was about to throw another pipe when Mercer grabbed her arm. The shock jolted up her arm as she spun to face him. He was inches away from her, quiet and furious. “That’s enough.”
Cam glanced down at his hand around her arm. “Don’t touch me.”
Mercer’s eyes narrowed, and then he released her. She stepped back, rubbing her arm where he left heat. The memory of the fear and futility she felt when he’d paralyzed her returned. He couldn’t be trusted, not with her, not with finding answers.
He frowned. “I didn’t hurt you.”
“I know,” she snapped. Damn him and his super-Shifter-whatever grip. “Just don’t touch me.”
“Then don’t throw things,” he came back.
“It relieves stress,” she snapped. It was partly true. “You’ve had me locked up tight. I have to do something—”
Then her senses refocused swiftly and instinctively to danger. Every part of her being went on high alert. Something moved toward them. Her hearing focused on the creak of a door and footsteps on concrete. “Company.”
She spun around to find a gang of young men approaching and blocking the main exit. They moved in with supreme self-importance and menace.
“What do we have here?” the one in the front said with the cocky attitude of a man holding a big gun. Tattoos marked every part of his body. A red bandana wrapped his head and closely cropped hair underneath. His dark features were surly and arrogant.
“Trespassers, looks like to me,” another one said.
Griffin didn’t move. In a few moments, he assessed the situation. The gang members had four guns and a few knives that he could see, and there’d be more tucked into pockets and waistbands. All of the men could handle themselves. Not a runner in the bunch, which left Cam and him against six. Or maybe just him against six. Who knew what Cam was going to do?
Either way, he was going to have a few words with her if they survived this. He replied, “This is private property, and I don’t think it belongs to any of you.”
Laughter rang through the structure. The leader stepped forward, eyeing Cam the whole time. “You don’t know who you’re talking to, do you? We
own
this territory and everything in it. Including you and the little lady here. So put your hands out where we can see them.”
own
this territory and everything in it. Including you and the little lady here. So put your hands out where we can see them.”
The other members gathered around them, looking more than ready to rumble. Must be a slow night in the neighborhood. Griffin raised his hands. “I’m warning you. Leave now while you can.”
That got another round of laughs and shaking heads. He cast a glance at Cam. She was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
Terrific
. He had a bad feeling this was one way Cam relieved stress.
Terrific
. He had a bad feeling this was one way Cam relieved stress.
The leader nodded at his minions, and they searched Mercer roughly, relieving him of his Glock and then throwing him a couple elbows as a warm-up. His gun was passed around like a trophy.
Cam scowled at the leader. “What about me? I could be carrying.”
Griffin had just lost his gun, they were outnumbered and surrounded by armed thugs, and she was more worried about her rep.
The leader smiled at her, and gold teeth gleamed in the dim light. “Why don’t you come over here, and I’ll pat you down myself.”
“Don’t do it, Cam,” Mercer warned.
She ignored him and walked up to the leader. He grinned wider and lowered his gun. “Well, well. You want to play?”
She smiled. “Oh yeah, I want to play.”
“Christ,” Griffin said. It was like watching a cat toy with a mouse. “How long are you going to let this go, Cam?”
“Don’t ruin my fun, Mercer.”
“Quit playing already,” he said and eyed the three guys closest to him. “I’m getting tired of holding my hands up.”
She slid him a glance over her shoulder, and he caught a glint of fluorescence in her eyes. That was his signal. Mercer tensed, mentally counting his targets and moves. When it happened, it’d have to be quick. Cam might be indestructible, but he wasn’t, and he’d sure like to live long enough to enjoy the new life he was earning.
Adrenaline flooded his senses; time slowed as the leader reached out, grabbed her forearm hard, and yanked her toward him. Griffin fought the sudden urge to move. She hadn’t sprung the trap yet.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Griffin said, flexing his hands. “She doesn’t like to be touched.”
Cam came nose to nose with the leader. “I really don’t.”
Then she grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a brutal head butt. His skull cracked against hers, and the warehouse went dead silent. Then the leader stared at her in shock as blood gushed out of his nose and he dropped to the floor.
Cam shifted to her big bad Primary Shifter form and let out an inhuman growl. Griffin grabbed the two closest gang members and bounced their heads together. They went down in a heap. The other one attacked him from the back, and Mercer elbowed him in the face and threw a right to finish him off. From there, it was all instinct and training. He ducked, swung, and punched as the rest of them converged on him.
He glimpsed Cam tossing gang members around like they were rag dolls. Then someone fired a gun, and Mercer grabbed one of his guys with an arm tight around his neck and used him for a shield. Twenty feet away, one of the men was firing a revolver at Cam point-blank. Griffin marveled at the way the bullets passed right through her body.
She calmly walked up to the goon, yanked the pistol from his hand, and tossed it aside. Griffin was about to tell her not to kill the guy when he sensed movement behind him and saw the flash of metal.
The blade slashed his shoulder even as he tried to swing his human shield between them. Blood spattered, a strip of his flesh burned, and Griffin dropped the guy he’d been holding. A second attacker grabbed Griffin’s throat from behind. Griffin wrenched around, trying to break the headlock as the other gang member drove the blade toward his gut. Then there was a puff of black and suddenly the knife attacker was flying across the warehouse, screaming.
Griffin spun, kneed the second attacker in the balls, and then in the face when he doubled over. He dropped like a rock.
When Griffin checked the scene, everyone was either down or gone. Cam stood next to him in Shifter form, looking like a meaner, leaner, far scarier version of Catwoman. The warehouse fell into a mix of moans and running feet.
Cam shifted back to human and assessed the carnage. “Not bad, Mercer.”
“We could have avoided this,” he said as he scouted the bodies for his Glock and found it in one of the pockets. “They’ll be back with reinforcements. We can’t stay long.”
Cam rolled her shoulders. “I needed that. Kinda like Pilates.”
“You and me are going to have a little talk about how we operate,” he told her, trying to sound mad. The truth was, he’d just found out exactly how she’d operate when there was trouble. First, she’d play with her food, and then she’d kill it. She was getting to be more like Catwoman every minute.
“You’re bleeding,” she said suddenly. She was staring at his shoulder. The look of concern on her face surprised him.
“Is it serious?” she asked.
“It’s nothing.” Actually, it hurt like hell and would require a few stitches. He hated knives. He hated people who used knives. And more importantly, he hated people who used knives on him.
“So.” Cam studied him. “I guess I just saved your life.”
Hell, she was up to something. He said, “I could have handled them.”
She leaned on one hip, looking more like a sexy gambler than a ruthless fighter. “Really? Because I could have sworn you were about to be filleted. But if you insist, next time I won’t bother.”
Sirens wailed in the distance. Time to move on. If he could get Cam to move. And he only knew one way. “What do you want?”
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