Hostile Ground (The Arsenal #7) - Cara Carnes Page 0,86
Olaf.
To Kostya.
To the end of this freaking nightmare.
The black drone moved ahead of them, sweeping the area without restraint. Any enemy who saw it would assume it was an ally. Or so Addy hoped. Four shapes appeared in the heat signatures indicator. Gunfire sounded from behind her.
Kristof’s team was taking fire.
Damn.
The four shapes ahead came closer. So much for the element of surprise.
“Go,” Beast ordered. “We’ll handle them.”
We. Her team had divided themselves into groups of three enough times for her to know Beast’s we meant him, Thunder, and Cracker. The three took primary position against the four combatants. Addy, Shep, Johnny, Maksim, and Kristof surged forward and to the side as the firefight shifted from the now dead enemy near them to a surge of gunfire from their previous location.
Kristof’s team needed backup.
Addy trusted the other half of her team to help as she and Shep took primary positions and continued forward. Her breath quickened as they quickened their progression and entered another tunnel. Voices echoed from ahead of them. Wall sconces along the area offered the same low-level lighting as the previous corridors, but bright light reflected from up ahead.
Anticipation quickened her pulse as their two zinger drones surged forward. Unlike the drug-filled ones they’d used before, these would zap targets with a taser-like charge. The drones struck four targets toward the back of a cluster of soldiers huddled outside of the well-lit room. Addy focused on the two leftmost targets, while Shep took out the two rightmost. Which left Johnny, Maksim, and Kristof with those in the middle.
Kristof fell into step alongside Addy as she continued forward and entered the room.
Addy froze and assessed the situation. Kostya Sidorav pressed a blade against a man’s throat. Red filled his face as he gripped his captive’s hair and drew his head farther back.
Olaf.
Kristof shifted his stance and took a step forward so he was half-covering Addy. “Let him go.”
19
Blood trickled from a cut along Olaf’s throat. His cousin’s wide gaze slid from Addy to Kristof. His emaciated frame trembled.
“Let him go,” Kristof repeated.
“You’d betray me!” Kristof’s father thundered the words. Red rose in his face as a menacing smile formed.
No. This man was no father. He was an evil, sadistic bastard who deserved a slow, painful death. He wasn’t the papa he’d once been. He was Kostya Sidorav, leader of the Sidorav syndicate. Yet he was no leader either.
“You betrayed me long ago,” Kristof said. “When you slaughtered Mama and Uncle Kir.”
“That whore deserved what she got.” Kostya sneered as he forced Olaf’s head back and peered into his eyes. “So did your papa.”
Olaf’s lips thinned.
“What? You have something to say?” Kostya laughed. “Go ahead. Try. I wish he could see you now, see how dumb and worthless you’ve become.”
Anger rolled through Kristof, but he couldn’t risk firing because the bastard kept the knife pressed against Olaf’s jugular. “It’s over. Your men are all dead.”
“No, they aren’t. You think this is the limit of my power?” Kostya laughed. “You always were stupid, just like your mama. The whore.”
A group of men entered from a back room behind Kostya. Weapons raised, they clustered around their leader. Two wore different outfits, black with a green logo of some sort.
“Two Mandrake and three others in play,” Jesse said. “Get a drone into that back area. Is there another way into that room?”
Addy cursed beside him. Her stance shifted.
“What?” Edge asked on the com. “Your pulse just skyrocketed. What are you seeing?”
Addy’s gaze shifted, settling on the two Mandrake operatives standing at the far back. Both had weapons trained on her.
“Fuck,” Jesse said in the com.
“Spade is not Arsenal. Do not hesitate to take the bastard down,” Edge said.
Which was Spade? Kristof kept his attention on his father but realized the situation had somehow shifted. Who was Spade?
Wait. He remembered someone from Fallon’s team leaving The Arsenal after the Cuba incident. It’d been mentioned briefly in a couple of the meetings they’d held when they’d first arrived in Russia.
“Confirm for me,” Edge ordered.
Addy expended a breath heavy enough for Kristof to hear from where he stood. “Confirmed.”
“Confirmed,” Shep replied.
“Confirmed,” Johnny said.
Kostya’s eyes widened. He looked at the three operatives, then back at the two men they were focused on. “What is this? Who are they, Kristof? Who have you crawled into bed with like the whore you are?”
“They’re Arsenal,” one of the two men said as he took a step closer and aimed his weapon at Addy. “Hello, Addy. Fancy seeing you here.”