“Absolutely, it’s almost impossible,” Clary noted.

  “You’re not getting anything?”

  “Gage’s fine. That’s all I can tell you.”

  “Well, that’s good.” Lorelei sighed. “As long as he’s fine, then nothing else is blowing up. I’ll head back to my work.” Then she turned and disappeared from the doorway. Clary wanted to know what that work was, but then remembered something about Lorelei still working with the US government, like with the CIA or something.

  As soon as she was alone, Clary closed her eyes and sent out a probe toward Brody. It was one thing to say that all was fine; it was another to loosen up the guard. She needed to know for sure that he was okay because she knew that he was in a stressful scenario that could go either way at a moment’s notice.

  Once she reconnected with his energy, she saw it flowing steadily. He didn’t appear to be under any undue stress. As their connection was made and their energy interacted, she saw something happening, something that had his energy flaring.

  She just kept a calm eye on it.

  As long as he didn’t utilize too much energy, he would be fine, but, as soon as he got into trouble, there would be no end to it. She could feel her own muscles tensing, as he exerted himself more.

  She could only do so much from a distance like this, however, so she just sat here tense and aware that whatever was happening out there was not getting serious. She didn’t know how to stop it or what she was supposed to do about it anyway, except sit here and wait. There was a hope that the team would solve any problems on their own.

  It wasn’t something she particularly wanted to be involved in, partly because she knew she wouldn’t come up with the same kind of solutions that they would, and any intervention by her during one of their ops would put them in more danger. She wanted to be part of a solution, not causing more problems in the midst of heavy fire.

  While she struggled with the idea of doing nothing, she finally eased back ever-so-slightly, then got what almost seemed like Thanks.

  Something that said she was valuable and recognizable, from Brody. She smiled at that and sent him a wave of smiling energy. Almost at the same time, she felt his energy hit a hard wall or like something had hit him, and then his energy level dropped and kept dropping.

  She poured her energy toward him and bolted to her feet, turning to look around the area, wondering just what was going on. It was way too intense for some kind of feedback and too early to assess what was going on.

  All she got was nothing, no trouble in sight hitting the fan. She didn’t have any visual on this. She noted that Brody’s energy was depleting at top speed, as if he were under extreme pressure or anxiety.

  Any kind of attack would send him running for cover. It would send anybody running for cover. Who was she kidding? The last thing she wanted to do was go up there and deal with that kind of crap herself.

  She closed her eyes and sent calming and focused energy his way. She wasn’t sure it would do any good, but she would take what little bit of progress she could get.

  Almost immediately she sensed some of Brody’s energy calming down. Yet she wasn’t sure if it was his energy or the effect of hers. She thought it was probably from the calming effect.

  The learning curve was steep with Brody. He had abilities that she hadn’t even considered when mixed up in a personal relationship. He could be doing some of this himself.

  In fact, she might be counteracting what she was hoping to accomplish, what Brody was hoping to accomplish. Frowning, she sensed still more shit happening, as his heart rate picked up and his pulse took off. Then she felt some erratic energy pattern throwing her off-balance.

  She didn’t know what the hell was happening, and she needed more information. Just as she started to panic, the door opened, and Sophia came racing in.

  “How is he?” she cried out. “How are any of them?”

  “Wade’s fine,” Clary stated.

  “Tasha’s monitoring it on the satellite,” Sophia said.

  “What’s going on? What’s happening?” Clary bolted up to her feet and raced over to Sophia.

  “By the looks of it, they’re under attack.”

  “In that case,” Clary stated, “I’m heading over to be with Mariana and Calum.”

  Sophia looked at her in shock. “Do you think somebody is inside?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, “but protecting them, as I support Brody, is my best role. You go back and see if you can hold steady with whatever is coming.”

  “Shit.” Sophia stopped in the doorway. “Do you have a weapon?”

  “No, of course not.” Then seeing the look of dismay on Sophia’s face, Clary continued. “Sophia”—she sent a wave of calm over to her—“I don’t need one.”

  Sophia’s eyebrows shot up. “Okay, we’ll so have to talk about this later.”

  “We definitely can. I promise. But, right now, we’re under attack, and we’ve got jobs to do,” Clary murmured.

  “Let’s see if we can put a stop to this. I’ve already had about enough of this bullshit,” Sophia said.

  “Hey, I’m all for that,” Clary agreed softly.

  “I don’t mind doing various missions,” Sophia stated, “but this kind of stuff gets old real quick.”

  “It gets old because we’re desperately trying to get to an end point we haven’t been able to see yet,” Clary replied.

  “Got it,” Sophia muttered, and, with that, she was gone.

  Clary took a deep breath and walked herself down to the bedroom door, where Mariana and Calum were resting. She wanted to open it and see if they were okay, but she could already sense the two bodies inside.

  Only two. And that was the part she needed to know.

  She sat down in the hallway on the floor, closed her eyes, and worked hard with her energy to camouflage anybody on the inside.

  Their attackers would be coming in through the other entrance, and it would take them past her to the offices on the other end. She was hoping she could neutralize whoever was coming before the bad guys got that far.

  She needed to; somebody needed to stop them. Just way too much was going on here for the group to keep going in a frenzied fear.

  She could do this.

  Thinking over and over in her head, her heartbeat slowed. She’d never utilized energy as a weapon but only as a healing tool. Yet, as soon as she realized how much danger they were in, she had no problem turning that healing tool into something that could kill.

  She just hoped she didn’t have to use it in that way.

  She knew such an event would be a stain on her soul that she would have a hard time dealing with. But to protect others, there was absolutely no doubt. She had gone to the other side and had crossed over, with her foot straddling the abyss. If she were to do it protecting them, she would.

  She couldn’t stand the thought of living without them. So it wasn’t all that far off to contemplate this. The thought that she could drop somebody over on the other side wasn’t as shocking as it seemed. She sent out a probe for her sister and immediately found the answering probe waiting for her.

  I’m in the computer room, she heard Cara say. You protect those two, and I’ll protect the ones here. Join our energies as a shield.

  With that, connected as always, they both waited.

  *

  Brody hid behind the wall and poked his head out once to check where the sniper was.

  The outline of a figure disappeared behind a wall again. The snipers could keep them pinned down for hours at this rate. Just then the sniper fired again, the shot hitting the cement in front of his head. It had to come from the opposite direction, so he ducked, pulling back even farther out of harm’s way and hopefully out of both snipers’ line of sight.

  Terk called out, “You okay?”

  “Yep. Second sniper at nine o’clock.”

  “Yeah, I see him.” Terk swore. “How many more do they have?”

  “You’d think they would have run out of assholes by now.”

  Just then, one of the snipers yelled, “Give it up, Terk. We’ve waited a long time for this.”

  Everyone froze. Talk about making it personal.

  Terk called back, “Too bad I don’t even know who you are. Doesn’t that take all the fun out of it?”

  It was smart of Terk to engage him.

  “Well, you know what? … Maybe some of it.” He laughed. “Just not all of it though. We got your girlfriend too.”

  Terk froze. “Are you sure about that? Seems odd since I don’t have one,” he called back in a calm, steady voice.

  Brody always appreciated that about his boss. Nothing seemed to ever set him off. Although Brody imagined that finding out about Celia for the first time would have thrown Terk off his game. At least as much as anything would.

  “Well, well, she’s in Texas. Just thought you should know,” the sniper said, “but we also know where she is. We let her go, but she is close enough. We wanted to make sure that we knew where she ended up. And you can bet that we’ve got a plan in action for her too.”

  Brody swore in his head. He knew that Levi and Ice’s compound would be ready for any attack, particularly if they were still looking after Celia. But Brody also knew this was deliberately geared to pull Terk’s attention off the ball here and in a whole different direction.

  “That’s nice,” Terk called back in a bored voice. “Haven’t you guys run out of assholes to do your dirty work yet? Killed any of them recently?”

  “Nope. But you know something? … There’s always enough stupid idiots out there in the world,” he snapped, and then went on to add, “Just like you guys.”

  “Yeah, well, we also know you’re tied to the Iran operation,” Brody yelled.

  At that came a shocked surprise before the sniper replied again. His tone was furious, ugly, and almost gargling. “You think you know something, do you?” he asked. “You don’t know jack shit. You took out my brother in that little fiasco of yours. And, for that, I’ll make sure I take out your brother, Terk. An eye for an eye, bitch.”

  “Apparently you want to take out everybody,” Terk corrected, “every team member, every relationship, everything.”

  “Yep. You do it to me,” he replied, “and I’ll do it twenty times worse to you.”

  Just then, several more shots were fired, and Brody could only hope that none of them found their mark. When Terk called back again, Brody realized it had just been random fire from a pissed-off gunman.

  Those were always the worst—and the most dangerous too.

  “Now what? What do you want?” Terk asked.

  “I want you dead,” the gunman yelled. “How could you possibly think it was anything other than that?”

  “No can do,” Terk noted. “You have gone through a lot of hoops to get here. Made a lot of trouble trying to take us out, but so far it hasn’t worked.”

  “That’s because I’ve been hiring idiots,” he grumbled in a disgusted tone. “Who knew they could all be so bad?”

  “I don’t know about that. I think your drone operator was pretty decent, but then he had to be taken out. Why was that? You can’t manage to keep one person safe? And then you had the punks and the IT people who had second thoughts about what they were doing. You should have seen their faces when they finally realized what they could get arrested for.” Terk laughed.

  “You know that it just makes our paychecks so much bigger when you don’t have to split them.”

  “Ah, paychecks,” Terk noted. They were pinned down at the moment, but getting the information seemed a good bargain for their trouble. “So this is more than just a vendetta on your part. You’re getting paid to do this.”

  “Hey, two birds with one stone,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I suppose,” Terk shouted back. “You want to tell me who it is who wants us all dead so bad?”

  “Nope, I think not,” he replied. “Something in the contract about not telling too much. Not that I give a shit. I just think it’s better for you to keep worrying about it.”

  “Hardly worrying, when it’s all your own men lying dead all over,” Terk noted. “MI6 is quite pissed at you.”

  “I’m sure they’re quite pissed at you too.” He laughed again. “It’s only because you’re here that they are having to deal with all the bodies.”

  “Maybe.” Terk’s voice was calm, sounding almost disinterested.

  Brody searched the horizon, looking for any sign of the other sniper. This time he was armed and not with a pistol. He raised his rifle and searched ever-so-slowly through the scope. There wouldn’t be much chance to react, and, when he got the opportunity for a shot, he would take it. He was the only one on this side of the building who could.

  He heard Terk call out, “Besides, what’s the fun in that? Surely a man deserves to know who’s trying to kill him.”

  “What? You don’t know me?” he asked.

  “Yeah, of course I do,” Terk replied. “You’re Yousef.”

  Again came more silence and then a bitter laugh. “Well, at least you know my name.” He didn’t seem to worry about any repercussions.

  “Your brother was creating a weapon to take out a large portion of the US and had created a group of men like us, but with mass annihilation on their mind. Plus had also created a machine, modeled after your brother’s special team. So that men like that—like you—couldn’t have such unholy power,” Terk explained. “What were you expecting me to do? Should I have slapped his hand instead? What were you expecting the government to do, for that matter?”

  “He hadn’t gotten far enough to even be called dangerous,” Yousef yelled, “so it’s hardly likely you guys were even aware of what he was doing.”

  “We were aware,” Terk admitted, “but it sounds like maybe you weren’t aware of how far down that pathway your brother was.”

  “Zaid was not a terrorist!” Yousef cried out in fury. “He was a genius and gifted.”

  “Maybe, if that’s the word you want to use,” Terk replied, “but you know perfectly well that his invention was functioning at a preliminary level because you used it against us.”

  “Of course I did,” Yousef yelled. “You deserved it. You took out an innocent man. A man with a family. You took him from his wife, and you orphaned two boys,” he cried out. “Why should you decide they would be left without a husband and a father? Who are you to make that choice? He was a good man.”

  “A good man in the wrong field,” Terk noted. “Just like all of you.”

  He laughed hysterically. “Absolutely. Do you like your little present?”

  “If you mean the woman,” Terk replied, “not particularly. And it’s not certain that the child is mine. It could be anybody’s for that matter.”

  “Nope, it’s yours,” Yousef declared. “But that of course … that was all something I owed my brother.”

  “What are you talking about?” Terk said.

  And for the first time, Yousef said something that threw Terk off-balance, and it showed in his tone. There was something about this conversation that was getting to Terk, and that was not good. Brody immediately sent out a message, warning Terk to stay calm.

  “That sperm,” Yousef stated, “you’re probably thinking that your brother, … that maybe he got a little careless and had an affair, but that’s not what happened. It’s your sperm, your child.” Yousef’s tone was menacing.

  “How can you be sure?” Terk asked.

  “Maybe I’m not. So let’s just talk hypothetically.”

  “Sure. What do you have in mind?”

  “Suppose a guy donates his sperm or maybe a sample is obtained.”

  “Obtained how?”

  “That’s not part of the story, is it?” He continued. “My guess is that the sperm samples were on ice for future use.”

  “But what if the sperm came from nobody? What if no one gave a shit about the sperm donor?” Terk asked.

  “What if the guy was the leader of a black ops group?”

  “So, you’re just fishing. Anybody’s sperm could have been used. Drop the hypotheticals. You sure didn’t need mine.”

  “Nope. That’s true. We could have just said it was yours, but you know it’s much nicer this way,” Yousef said, “because it is yours, and she has no idea what happened to her. She wasn’t part of your world at all, which is even more fun.”

  “How so?” Terk asked.

  “Because she’s a complete innocent. Although she was someone my brother picked, so maybe she wasn’t completely innocent. And that’s even better too if she was.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Something about needing to test her. He’d picked her up and was doing tests on her. That’s when he realized that he had something he could use to pressure you long enough for them to finish this weapon of theirs.”

  Yousef was sharing more than they could handle from here, but it was something.

  “How is it that Zaid knew about the weapon?” Terk asked, calm again. “You said it yourself. He wasn’t a terrorist.”

  “Because he wasn’t. He was working on a harmless project and rushed to complete it because the word was out that something was coming. It was you who made this nightmare. He figured you were after him too. When you took out the entire team, he was proven right. I should tell you that he didn’t live very long, and he wasn’t in great shape, but he lived long enough to set his revenge plan in motion.” Yousef’s voice was cracking. “And then Zaid died. And I took over to make sure my brother was avenged.”

  At that, Brody winced because that meant that the poor woman, Celia, had been picked up, held against her will for a long time, and then, as a final trick, they had inseminated her.

  She had no idea what the hell had prompted this attack on her.

  She was a victim in all this, proving again that these people didn’t care about hurting more people. His heart went out to the poor woman who was unaware, innocent, and dragged into a mess not of her making. Even now, a full-on attack was coming her way that she had nothing to do with.

  Brody hoped Terk could keep his cool long enough to get as much information as they could. He wasn’t doing bad so far, but they needed so much more.