“Go away,” Dave mumbled behind the door. “I’m fine.”
“Man, you can’t stay in the room forever. Just open the door so I can come in.”
“I don’t wanna talk. I told you I’m fine.”
Chad propped his back up against the door, looking at his phone. Five-thirty. The others were probably already on the ground floor, waiting for him.
“Dave, I got a job tonight, so I’ll be out for a few hours. Just come out and talk to someone and eat something, okay?”
He heard Dave’s half-hearted reply, “All right, all right…”
Biting his lip, Chad got in the elevator with Pain and took it to the ground floor. The unfamiliar uniform and the absence of weight on his back and in his pockets added to his anxiety. He felt exposed, and his mind was occupied by all the wrong things, like worrying about his best friend and what he was thinking, staying locked in the room like that.
They weren’t allowed to take their cell phones, only the small black phones the Commandos had provided. The badge in his uniform’s inner pocket was his ticket to the Commando bus, but they would scan him for any other electronic devices before allowing him to pass, might search him if they found anything suspicious. And since no one had been eager to jam a camera up their ass, Peter had sent Mark, Rooney’s protégé, with them. Aside from having a photographic memory, the man could get a better scope of the Commandos’ tech than Chad, Tyler, Patrick, and Luke combined.
The four Commandos their squad had captured last night all belonged to the same small group, with no one left to notice they were missing. And while HQ could replicate the badges, they didn’t know how many there were, and it was pointless without a number. So they’d stick to the stolen uniforms for now.
The elevator doors slid open, revealing a group of people by the far wall.
“Everything all right?” Peter asked as Chad joined the group.
“Not sure. He won’t open the door.”
“He’s fine,” Pain cut in wearily. “I’ll check up on him later.”
Chad looked at her with doubt. “Yeah, I don’t think so.” He turned to Peter. “Will you check up on Dave in an hour or so?”
“Sure.”
Chad nodded, ignoring Pain’s annoyed stare, and zipped up his jacket. It hung too loose on him, since they’d ended up giving the other uniform to Tyler, who was smaller in the shoulders. But with the harsh weather out there, having some room for layers was good.
“Everyone’s got their cell phones?” Peter asked, looking them over.
“Yep.”
“All right. See you in a few hours. Come straight to my office.”
Chad turned to the hatch when Peter’s fingers closed on his elbow. He looked up in surprise as his boss said in a low voice, “Whatever you do there, don’t sabotage the operation. We need you guys back to tell us what you’ve seen. All right?” Peter looked him in the eyes, demanding an answer.
Chad swallowed hard and nodded. “I’ll be careful.” He wasn’t sure why Peter needed assurance from him in particular. He was the most unskilled of them all. His training up until then had been focused on defense, both with blade and shield. And being able to put up a mean shield didn’t exactly make him a loose cannon.
He squeezed Pain’s hand and slipped down the hatch, avoiding her worried gaze. The tunnel door swung wide open, Luke and Patrick leading the way with flashlights, and with a deep breath, Chad followed them.
Everything was exactly like the captured Commandos had said—ten minutes after they’d arrived at the place, a big black bus pulled up to the curb. No license plate, naturally, so Chad switched his gaze to the two men who stepped out of the vehicle.
They were in the middle of nowhere, literally, with no streetlights and not a soul nearby, except for the fifty or so men that now moved closer to the bus. They seemed excited, shifting on their feet and chatting in low voices. According to the first captured Commando, the job was kind of a hunting party, where only the team that had successfully tracked down a target and helped the officers capture them got paid. The money was good, and the folks desperate. A nice urban game, nothing more.
To the humans, anyway.
All Chad could see from the distance were the same uniforms with tactical vests over them, masks, and AKs. The first Commando stood by the door with his arms up so they could scan him.
“Let’s wait until everyone’s inside,” Luke whispered next to Chad. “If anything goes wrong, we won’t be surrounded.”
“Okay.” They followed the others, keeping to the back.
An eerie silence had set over the gathering. The men with the guns quietly scanned the Commandos, who got on the bus without a sound, as if the process was perfectly familiar to them.
“Hold your phone up,” one of the men said as Chad stopped by the door. He took the phone out of its pocket and held it up as they scanned him from top to toe, then brought another device to his chest. It blinked green, and they waved him forward. The lights were dim inside the bus, allowing him just a glimpse of his surroundings, and he kept walking until he saw a few empty seats in the back. Patrick gestured at him, taking a seat by the window.
“I can’t see shit,” the young man muttered, pressing his forehead to the tinted glass.
“I guess that was the idea,” Chad whispered back.
In a minute, Luke, Tyler, and Mark joined them in the back, and the bus door closed. No one said a word as it started moving—no instructions or announcements, just a silent silhouette of an armed
