No Turning Back (38 page)

"Wouldn't want you to take us for granted, Kade," the woman said lightly, and I was surprised to hear her speak with an accent. Irish, maybe?

"Who's your fine friend, Kade?" the black man asked. I turned toward him and looked up, and up some more. He was huge, and although he was smiling, his eyes were calculatingly assessing me. I decided right then and there that I would never want to be on his bad side. His chest and arms were massive and I bet he could squash me like a bug.

"Ah yes, I should introduce you," Kade said smoothly. "Kathleen, this is Terrance and Branna."

"Nice to meet you," I said automatically, watching as Branna ate another fry. She sat very close to Kade who didn't seem to mind.

"Terrance and Branna are going to help us out tonight," Kade explained. Turning to Branna he asked, "Were you able to tie in to the cameras?"

Branna nodded, smiling slightly. "Of course. I'm now able to control them remotely. They'll only see what I want them to see."

"You never disappoint," Kade murmured, and Branna seemed pleased with his praise.

"How are you getting in?" Terrance asked, and Kade swung his gaze to him.

"It's not the getting in I'm worried about," he said wryly. "Where's Rusty? Didn't he come with you guys?"

Branna rolled her eyes. "He's outside with the van. Said he didn't want to leave it alone in a bad neighborhood."

"Bad neighborhood?" I asked, confused. We were actually in a nice part of town. Kade sighed.

"Same old paranoid Rusty, I see."

"You got that right," agreed Terrance with a huff.

Kade signaled for the check and tucked some money into the small leather folder when it came. We climbed out of the booth and surreptitiously I looked over Branna. She had a figure any woman would envy, tiny waist and rounded hips, encased in skin tight black jeans and heeled leather boots that went to her knees. Her hair was thick and wavy and she wore it unbound. A green shirt the same color as her eyes was molded to her chest and she wore a black vest over the top. As she walked away from me, I saw a telltale bulge in the small of her back that told me she had a gun.

Outside, Terrance and Branna led us around the corner to a van parked on the side of the street. Terrance knocked on the side door sharply. When nothing happened, he rapped again, calling out in an irritated voice, "Open the fucking door, Rusty."

The door cautiously slid open to reveal a slight figure wearing glasses and a ball cap as he leaned out the opening. "You're supposed to use the code knock, Terrance," he argued in a petulant voice. "Three short, two long, two short. Then I know it's you." He pushed the glasses further up his nose.

"Fuck that stupid code," Terrance groused. "I ain't doin' that."

I watched Branna and Kade exchange a look of mutual understanding as Terrance and Rusty continued to bicker. They were obviously familiar with this scene. I felt uncomfortably like an outsider and shifted nervously from one foot to another. This drew Kade's attention to me and his amused smirk faded.

"If you two are done," he interjected, effectively silencing Terrance and Rusty, "let's get on with it."

With a final huff of disdain, Terrance moved around and got in the driver's seat while Branna climbed in the passenger side. Kade motioned for me to climb in the van as well.

"Who's she?" Rusty asked, staring at me as I settled myself inside and Kade slid the side door shut.

"She's our ticket inside," Kade answered.

"You got a keycard?" Rusty said in disbelief.

"Give it to him," Kade ordered me and I did as he said. "Rusty, we need this to be someone other than Stephen Avery."

Rusty took the card eagerly, turning it over in his hands. "Why?"

"Because Avery's dead," Kade replied. Rusty didn't seem surprised by this.

"Then he can't very well go running about the datacenter, can he," Rusty asked rhetorically, taking the card and disappearing into the back of the van. Twisting around in my seat, I saw the back had been torn out and replaced with a shelf bolted to the side that held computer equipment. A folding chair sat in front of it. I watched as Rusty sat down and put the card into some type of device.

"What's he doing?" I asked Kade in an undertone.

"Changing the base code so it will still open the doors, but not as Stephen Avery," he answered.

Turning back around, I saw Branna was watching me. I met her stare.

"You're not taking her inside with you?" she asked Kade disapprovingly.

"Was planning on it," he answered shortly.

"That's foolish, Kade," she said with a snort. "She'll get herself killed and maybe you along with her." I decided I didn't like being talked about as if I weren't there.

"'She,'" I interjected forcefully, "won't be getting anyone killed."

Branna's eyes narrowed at me. "So why are you here, sweetie?" The way she said "sweetie" dripped with condescension and made me want to grind my teeth.

"She's my backup," Kade answered evenly, surprising me. "And she knows which server we need to target," Kade added. "Something we haven't been able to figure out." Branna's face flushed with anger before she quickly turned away. When we were no longer being watched, Kade leaned over toward me.

"You do know which server it is, right?" he whispered in my ear, his warm breath tickling my skin. I smiled and nodded.

"Good." He settled back in his seat. I wondered what he would have done if I'd said I hadn't the faintest clue which server it was.

A few minutes later, we pulled up to a large, squat building. The lights outside shining on the sign proclaimed it to be "TecSol – DataCenter Midwest." I took a deep breath.

Climbing back across the van toward us, Rusty held out the security card for Kade to take.

"It should still get you where you need to go," he said as Kade pocketed it. He handed Kade a small earpiece. "I'll guide you through the building with this for as long as I can. The shielding might be too great to receive a signal once you're underground."

"Understood," Kade said, fitting it to his ear.

"I can get you into the perimeter of the building through a side door," Rusty continued, "but you'll need to use the keycard from there." Kade checked his gun and ammunition while Rusty talked then tucked it in the small of his back.

"Give me an extra gun, Rusty," Kade said, and Rusty obediently handed him one. Kade held it out, grip first, to me. "You know how to fire a gun?" he asked.

Before I could answer, Branna burst out. "What the hell are you doing? She's a child! Don't give her a gun! She'll likely shoot herself or you." Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, I thought grimly.

I took the gun from Kade, sliding the magazine out to make sure it was loaded before locking it back into place. I checked to make sure the safety was on and shoved it in the back of my pants. I silently thanked my dad for teaching me how to use a gun.

"Yeah, I know how to fire a gun," I said, ignoring Branna. No one said anything but I thought I saw a flicker of appreciation in Kade's eyes.

"Branna," Kade said, turning toward her and I noticed she looked furious, "keep the cameras covered and Terrance, be ready to split should it go bad. Cover your own asses." All three nodded, their expressions serious.

Kade and I exited the van and I watched as Branna climbed into the back with Rusty. Rusty checked to make sure Kade could hear him on the ear piece.

"Good luck, Kade," Branna said, her eyes glued to him. He didn't speak, merely acknowledging her with a curt nod. She completely ignored me. I knew then, by the look in her eyes, that she was in love with him. I couldn't tell if he knew or felt the same. I would have almost felt sorry for her if she hadn't been such a bitch to me. The van door slid shut and it slowly rolled away.

"They'll just go a few streets over and set up," Kade assured me. "Let's go."

The street was deserted and quiet. Kade took my hand in his and led me behind the building into the shadows. I stayed quiet, assuming he was listening to Rusty direct him in his ear. We reached a door and, with a quiet click, it unlocked. Kade opened it and we slipped inside. The door shut behind us, the lock clicking back on, and I tried not to think of how ominous that sounded.

We were at the end of a hallway, a door to our right proclaiming an entrance to a stairwell. The building was well-lit and quiet. There was a constant thrumming of sound just below my range of hearing which I could feel nonetheless. My blood was racing and fear lapped at me. I tried to concentrate on breathing. I was Kade's backup. I couldn't, wouldn't, let anything happen to him, not least of all because he was Blane's little brother.

Dropping my hand, Kade pulled out his gun and I copied him, thumbing the safety off. Target practice was one thing but I didn't know if I'd be able to actually shoot someone, should the need arise. I hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Going into the stairwell, we quietly made our way down three flights. When we reached the bottom, Kade flashed the key card in front of the lock on the door and it clicked. Easing the door open slowly, Kade made sure the hallway was deserted before entering. I hurried after him.

"Just lost the signal," Kade muttered. "The shielding down here is thick enough to withstand explosives, bombs," he explained. "We're on our own now." I swallowed nervously. His eyes flicked to me and they were bright with excitement.

I followed him down the hallway, bypassing several locked doors on the way. Nervously, I glanced at the numerous cameras in the ceiling as we passed.

"Are you sure Branna's going to be able to work the cameras?" I asked.

"Absolutely," he answered. "She's the best." I wondered, a little snidely, what else she was "the best" at.

"So what's the name of the server?" he asked quietly as we walked.

"EVE0928," I answered. "What are you going to do when you find it?"

"Find out who's really running this operation," he said curtly and offered nothing further.

We reached the end of the hall and a large double door barred our path. Kade looked at me.

"Beyond this is the main datacenter," he said. "There are going to be guards and workers we'll need to neutralize."

"By neutralize, I hope you don't mean what I think you mean," I said warningly. "These people aren't the ones responsible for all this. They don't deserve to die." Kade just looked at me for a moment, his expression unreadable.

"At least try to remember I'm on your side," he said finally. I flushed and nodded.

Flashing the key card in front of the lock, the door clicked open and Kade pushed through it quickly, me hot on his heels.

Surprisingly, only one man was there, sitting behind a counter in front of a bank of computer monitors. He turned to see who had entered the room. When he saw Kade pointing a gun at him, he jumped to their feet, lunging for something behind the counter.

A gunshot rang out and the man yelled in pain, clutching his arm where Kade's bullet had hit him.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Kade said calmly. I watched as the man eased backward, away from what I now saw was a button on the wall. His hand was now crimson with blood.

"Back away, against the wall, and toss your cell phone on the floor," Kade ordered. The man did as he was told. Kade looked at me pointedly and I scooped up the phone, my hands shaking. Glancing around, I saw a door to a restroom and hurried inside, dropping it into a toilet. When I came back out, Kade motioned me over to him.

"Keep your gun on him," he said. I obeyed, trying to steady my hand as I lifted my gun.

"What are you going to do?" I asked, watching him as he rounded to the other side of the counter and bent over a computer monitor and keyboard.

"I'm finding our server," he said, his eyes on the screen. Beyond him was a labyrinth of row upon row of server racks. Suddenly, I was really glad he was here. There was no way I could have found the server on my own.

"Got it," he said. I expected him to head towards the server racks, but he didn't.

"Well, where is it?" I asked impatiently. I didn't know what Kade was doing but I still knew what I had to do. The thumb drive was burning a hole in my pocket. I debated whether or not I should tell Kade, but opted to keep quiet.

"Rack 518," he answered distractedly. I watched as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

A click behind me made me turn, then I watched in horror as the door flew open. I dived in front of the counter just as gunshots rang out, the tile where I'd been standing chipping from the bullets. A hand clamped around my arm and I looked up. It was the guy Kade had shot and he was wrestling the gun out of my fingers. I panicked when I lost my grip on it, sure he was going to shoot me, and raised my knee with all my strength. It connected and he doubled over in pain, cupping his crotch.

Scrambling to my feet, I crouched low, running in front of the counter toward the server racks. Behind me, I heard voices shouting and more gunshots. I couldn't see Kade anywhere and I was terrified he'd been hit.

Running toward the racks, I made it into a row just as I heard more gunshots hitting metal. The sound abruptly stopped.

"Don't shoot at the servers, you moron!" a man shouted. I kept running and now I heard footsteps following me.

Running down the row, I saw it was an even larger room than I'd thought. The racks were over six feet tall and, for once, I was glad of my short stature. Seeing an aisle to my right, I turned, running a short distance before turning down another row. I did that a few more times, then stopped to listen, my chest heaving.

I could hear running footsteps, but couldn't tell exactly how far away or from which direction they were coming. My heart was racing and blood thundered in my ears. Looking across the row, I saw the rack had a number on it. 407. With a start, I remembered the number Kade had told me. If I was lucky, I might be able to find it. I covered my mouth with my hands, trying to quiet my breathing.