Hostile Ground (The Arsenal #7) - Cara Carnes Page 0,55

let them get in that cell. To her. To Kristof.

“Stay close,” she ordered Kristof. “If we get into trouble, let me handle it.”

“I’ll try, but I won’t stand back and watch you get hurt,” Kristof admitted. “That isn’t about me being a tough guy who can’t let the girl handle a fight. I just can’t stand on the sidelines.”

“I might work with one or a hundred or so men like that,” she said with a chuckle. “I’ll let you know when I need help. Hopefully we won’t run across anyone except my team, but someone came with that interrogator. I figured we’d best have this conversation now rather than out there if it happens.”

“You were always ten steps ahead,” he whispered.

“And you were twenty.” She noted the blood stains along the shirt he’d just donned. The sooner she got them to The Arsenal teams, the better. They’d have med kits and could get his bleeding stopped. Fortunately, it didn’t seem that bad right now. “Let’s go.”

Addy stepped into the hallway. Weapon drawn, she looked right, then left. And froze.

What the hell?

Carnage.

Five bodies strewn about the hallway in a river of blood pooling beneath them. Her pulse thudded hard in her ears. “Get back inside the cell!”

“What? Why?” Fatima asked. She stepped past Addy and froze. Eyes wide. “Was this your people?”

“Was what your people?” Mary asked. “Trying to be quiet and patient here, but I’m sensing something just went very wrong. You shouldn’t have left that cell.”

“Not wrong. Just…” Addy forced a breath. “Unexpected. ETA on the team?”

“Three minutes, maybe less since they’re hauling ass way faster than they should,” Jesse said. “What’s wrong?”

She paused a moment and stepped over one of the bodies. Leaning down, she touched his face. His entire neck gaped open. “We exited the cell. Five targets, but someone beat me to them.”

“Repeat the last,” Mary said.

“Five dead targets in the corridor leading toward the exit,” Addy said. “Very dead. Very bloody.”

The woman?

Why?

“The woman is still AWOL. This must’ve been her, but why?” Addy ran her hand down her face. “Something’s not right here, Edge.”

“Stay where you are,” Mary ordered. “The team will clear the area and assist with an exfil. We need to find whoever did that. If we have a third party involved, we need to know now.”

“Copy,” Addy said. She stood and looked at Fatima and Kristof. The latter wore a grim expression. “We need to remove their weapons and any additional ammo. We’ll stage ourselves in the cell until my team arrives.”

Kristof nodded. Pain flashed across his face when he took a step forward.

Addy touched his forearm. “Go back to the cell. Fatima and I can handle this.”

“I’m not leaving you out here if whoever did this is still around,” Kristof said.

“Fine. Then lean against the wall and guard us. We’ll clear the weapons.” Addy motioned toward the nearest men. “Fatima, you handle these. I’ll take the others toward the ladder.”

Unease quickened her pulse as she cleared the weapons and checked for pulses. The latter was a formality since most had the same violent strike to the throat. Only one had a different wound and that was the one nearest the ladder.

Whoever had hit had likely struck him first.

No.

Bullets made noise. Knife wounds didn’t—not if properly executed. Whoever did this had struck from near the cell and back toward the ladder.

“We’ll need facial scans on these guys in the hallway,” Addy said into the com.

“What are you thinking?”

“This was an inside job. We’ve got a security team of five laid out in the hall. Only the interrogator and his personal guard entered with the first three targets.”

“And she’s not one of the five in the hall,” Mary said.

“No, she’s not.”

“Addison,” Kristof said. He ran his fingers down her hair. “Tell me what troubles you.”

“Not now.” She stood. “The team’s almost here.”

“We’ll burn the bodies once we’ve done facial scans,” Mary said.

That’d protect whoever the woman was—assuming she’d come with this Mandrake group. Why would she help them?

Addy swiped her hair from her face and shook her head. Something wasn’t adding up. Who the hell would’ve taken out five Mandrake operatives and vanished? “This means there’s a possible third party involved. Maybe Sidorav.”

“He’s a possibility,” Jesse said. “Though, I’d expect he would’ve had enough people there to take control of the situation. He wouldn’t have left.”

No. The bastard didn’t retreat.

13

Kristof kept his gaze on the door leading into the cell. Addy had told them to return to the cell and wait for The