door in front of them opened with a hiss.
She’d half expected the corridor beyond to be filled with commandos armed to the teeth. Instead, it was empty. Deserted. They stepped from the airlock, turning in concert to cover both directions. No one shot at them. No alarms went off.
“Nothing doing,” Sparky murmured. “Okay. Going left, heading for the lab. Use this as the RV point if we get split up.”
She nodded, but he’d already turned away. Conversation dropped off after that as they made their way through the corridors of the lab facility. Mostly it was deserted, but several of the labs they passed by showed signs of occupation. One had a scientist sitting at what looked like the bastard love child of a microscope and a cannon array. They’d been forced to bend almost double to scuttle by, just in case he should happen to turn around.
Finally, they turned the last corner, the small red dot on her wrist display telling her Eric’s lab was just up ahead on the left.
“Easy,” Sparky warned as she took point, entering the code that had been in Eric’s message. The door slid open in front of them and they stepped inside, Sparky sweeping the corridor outside with his rifle before backing in.
“Lights,” she ordered, squinting to try and make out details in the darkness. She should have kept her suit helmet up. It had night sight capability. When the lights began to snap on in sequence, starting at the door, she wished she hadn’t bothered.
The lab was trashed. Equipment had been ransacked and shattered, glass and metal parts were strewn over the counters and floor. She stepped back with a gasp… Blood pooled on the floor and splattered over the countertops and walls.
“Hey, boss,” a familiar voice said from the darkness ahead of her. “Good of you to finally join us.”
The rest of the lights snapped on to reveal Officer Mills, but not as she remembered him. The happy-go-lucky, charming smile was gone, replaced by a harder, more dangerous expression. Likewise, his station uniform was gone and in its place was the black-on-black combat uniform of SO13—the same uniform the armed men emerging from the darkness behind him wore.
But those details paled into insignificance to the gun he had pressed against her twin’s temple.
“What are you doing, Mills?” she barked. “Let him go.”
She snapped her rifle to aim at the small patch of skin between Mills’ eyebrows with her finger on the trigger. Just one little squeeze. That’s all it would take. A slight tightening of the muscles in her hand, as natural as breathing, and her former security officer’s brains would decorate the counters behind him.
Her gaze slid downward, to the gun Mills held against Eric’s head. Mills’ smile broadened.
“Release trigger,” Sparky warned in a low voice. He’d taken a few steps to the side as much as the space in the narrow lab would allow, but it wasn’t going to be enough. There was no cover. One burst from an assault rifle would take them both out.
“Yeah.” Her voice was sharp. Clipped. “I see it.”
Shit. She couldn’t fire. Rather than pulling the trigger, all Mills had to do to send a bullet through her twin’s brains was let go.
“Eris.” Eric’s face was pale, his voice shaky. “I’m so sorry. I didn—”
“Shut it.” Mills shoved his muzzle against Eric’s head, and her brother winced. “And keep shut unless you want your sister to see what the inside of that egghead brain looks like.”
Eric nodded, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. He fixed his gaze on her, as though she were the only thing in the room. She understood that response, her expression calm and reassuring as she met his eyes.
“Now we all know where we stand,” Mills grinned again, his jovial tone making Eris wish she’d shoved his fucking coffee mug where the sun didn’t shine back on the station. “How about you put those rifles down before I have the boys here fill you with more holes than swiss cheese?”
There were too many of them to take on. Eris bit back her growl of frustration and lowered her gun. At Mills’ gestures, they both crouched to place their weapons on the floor at the same time. Two troopers moved forward at Mills’ nod.
Sparky sighed as he put his hands behind his head. “Swiss cheese, seriously? Mate, if you’re going to issue bad-guy-level threats, you really need to up your game.”
Mills flicked him a hard glance. “I’ll take it