“You’re taking the word of someone capable of all this?” She swept a hand out to encompass their surroundings. “I thought you were smarter than that.”
He glowered at her. “I’m smart enough to know not to give the enemy an unfair advantage.”
Toro leaned close to her and dropped his voice. “I think we should tell them.”
Toro wanted to reveal that she was an undercover FBI agent. Nemesis already knew that fact but hadn’t told the others, which meant he didn’t want them to know. Was he afraid they would side with her? Protect her? Not hardly. These were hardened criminals. Mortal enemies to law enforcement.
So why hide her status?
Dani considered whether doing the opposite of whatever Nemesis wanted might improve her situation—or at least thwart his plans. Up to this point, she’d been in reactive mode, forced to deal with each threat as it came. Time to go on the offensive.
“That’s a big gamble,” she whispered to Toro. “It could backfire.”
He had suggested the move, but she felt the need to warn him anyway. There was no going back from this decision.
“Everything and everyone in this place is actively trying to kill us.” Toro rested a hand on his hip. “How exactly is our situation going to get any worse?”
Point taken.
For the first time, her position as a law enforcement officer could work in her favor. Unlike the rest of them, she had rules to follow. Rules that prohibited her from killing in cold blood. They would instantly understand her limitations.
“I’m not a spy,” Dani said. “I’m an FBI agent.” She allowed a moment for them to digest the information before elaborating. “Nemesis found out a while ago but didn’t want you to know.”
The Colonel narrowed his eyes on Toro. “You sold us out to the Feds?”
She found it interesting that he didn’t question her claim. He was ready to believe it without proof. The others would likely follow his lead.
“You would have cut bait if you knew I’d gotten caught,” Toro said to the Colonel. “Like everyone down here in this hellhole right now, I did what I had to.”
“Maybe we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you,” the Colonel shot back.
Now they were getting somewhere.
“What if it’s your fault?” she said to him. “Maybe you and your band of merry men took out the wrong person. Ever stop to think that’s why you’re here?”
The Colonel crossed his arms. “Of course I have.”
She pushed harder. “Only you have too much blood on your hands to know which assignment—”
“I know which assignment,” he said, then seemed to recall himself and snapped his mouth shut. “For all the good it does us.”
So Nemesis hadn’t targeted them because they were paid assassins. The Colonel had just admitted that this was retribution for a specific case. Perhaps determining what case that was would lead her to learning the identity of their captor, and that knowledge might help her escape. Or not.
“Maybe we can figure out the pressure plates on our own,” Jock called out to her. “Then we don’t need you or your fucking badge.”
“You don’t have a chance.” She let out a derisive snort. “You’ll die trying.”
Everyone remained in a silent standoff for a long moment as they recalibrated their options based on the new information. That, and they were each trying to figure out a way to double-cross her after she led them safely to the other side.
“Deal,” the Colonel finally said.
One by one, the others echoed his agreement. She waited until each one of them made eye contact with her and acknowledged them in turn. Aware this was a temporary cease-fire rather than an alliance, she proceeded to the next plate.
Slowly she made her way to the side that connected with the Colonel, Guapo, and Jock, who fell into line behind Toro. Her balance and coordination were excellent, and she was pleased to see the others had no trouble trailing her. She reached the side with the man who had pushed his comrade to his death, and he joined the growing line after Jock.
They were nearly to the exit side. This would be the most dangerous point of the crossing. Dani jumped over the last plate to get to the bare cement floor, rushed to the ladder, and spun to face the others, who were leaping one by one onto the floor close by.
The man who had pushed his partner was the last to step onto the closest plate. He had started to make the jump when Guapo turned and lashed out with his booted foot, kicking the man’s chest. The look of shock and dismay at the betrayal was the last thing Dani saw before he flew backward, landing on the squares behind him.
“That’s enough,” Dani shouted over the crackle of forking electrical currents doing their work. She bent to pull her gun out and leveled the sites on Guapo. “One more move and you’ll join him.” She made the rules clear. “Stopping you from killing others qualifies as justified deadly force.”
Guapo raised his hands in mock surrender. “Just thinning the herd a bit. The guy was an asshole anyway.”
The cold brutality of his comment disgusted her, as did the certainty that Nemesis had enjoyed the show. Two more of their number were dead, and the air was redolent with the scent of charred flesh. To make matters worse, she had showed her hand to the Colonel, who now knew she had a sidearm.
“Toro and I are leaving,” she announced, covering the others with her weapon. “Give us a sixty-second head start before you leave this room. While you wait, you can decide whether you’re going to kill each other.”
There would probably be more of what Guapo called “thinning the herd” after she left, but there was nothing she could do about that. If they had no honor, she could not force it on them.
She turned to Toro. “Let’s get out of here.”
They had both defied Nemesis. First, Toro chose not to take him up on the offer of a bounty to kill her. Next, she had revealed a secret about herself that he had kept hidden. The question in her mind wasn’t whether they would be punished, but when and how.
CHAPTER 43
Wu saw the same exhaustion he felt reflected in Patel’s features. Normally smooth, the cybercrime specialist’s youthful face bore lines of fatigue. Apparently Wu wasn’t the only one who had spent the night at his desk.
“Give me your report and then go home and get some rest,” he said to Patel. “You’re dead on your feet.”
Wu had called another “all hands on deck” meeting at the JOC, anxious for updates from agents assigned to run down leads. He wanted to hear from Patel first because the cybercrimes team had been watching Vega and Toro in the game, upvoting both at every opportunity, using numerous fake profiles designed to look like they originated from different countries.
Patel began with the most critical information. “So far Vega and Toro are okay,” he said. “But remember that the game isn’t being livestreamed. We can’t tell what’s going on at any given moment.”
“So we don’t really know anything about their status,” Flint said, turning toward Wu. “It’s like you said before: we see what he wants us to see and hear what he wants us to hear.”
There were times the avatars must have been speaking to each other, but their faces didn’t move and there was no sound. They must have been saying something the game’s developer did not want the audience to hear. At other times, everything the characters said could be heard, but through a synthesizer that altered the voices beyond recognition.
“We’ve made progress.” Patel’s air was defensive. “Have a look.”
They all turned to the wall screen, which flipped to display footage captured from the game.
Three men dressed in armor straight out of ancient Sparta strode down a corridor.
“The one in the center is Ares,” Patel said.
Wu had no trouble recognizing one of the most famous Olympians. “The god of war.”
“We did some digging,” Patel said. “You remember that Vega’s avatar is Athena?” At Wu’s nod, he continued. “There’s an important distinction between the two. Athena is the goddess of war and wisdom. She is an expert strategist and leader. Ares, on the other hand, represents the sheer violence and brutality of war. She’s all about discipline, and he’s all about bloodlust.”
“I wonder if the game’s creator knew how close he was to the truth about Vega,” Flint said to no one in particular.
“What about the two avatars with him?” Wu asked. “They’re identical except for the color of the crest on their helmets.”
The pair of soldiers flanking Ares had similar armor, complete with breastplates and metal head coverings obscuring all but their eyes and mouth. The top of their helmets had a spiked row of dyed horsehair down the middle. One of the soldier’s crests was solid black, the other red, and Ares’s crest was striped red and black.
“That’s one of the reasons we’re sure this is Ares,” Patel said. “He’s often shown with his twin sons, Deimos and Phobos. Deimos is the god of terror, and Phobos is the god of panic. When they march into battle with their father, the enemy breaks ranks and runs.”