Her arm joltedas she fell, and her knees knocked painfully against the metal bars. Adelecursed wildly beneath her breath, slamming her forearm against her mouth tostop the flow of sound.
Adele glaredthrough the gate at John, who was chuckling now. He kept his arms crossed as heleaned against the alley wall, waiting. Adele’s eyes narrowed even further.Propelled by nothing more than a desire to wipe the smirk off John’s face, shetook another running start, breathing out at the last moment and then jumping.
This time, herfingers scrambled on the metal lip of the fence again, but instead of beingdiscouraged by the sudden strain in her arms, she locked her elbows.
With an exertedgrunt, far louder than she would’ve wanted, she pulled herself up, strugglingand kicking her legs for momentum. The whole process was less smooth and muchlouder than John’s had been.
He watched,amused, as she kicked, the metal gate creaking and shuddering beneath her. Atlast, she managed to pull herself on top. Gasping, her hair disheveled and inher eyes, she stared down at John in triumph.
“The look suitsyou,” he said with a smirk.
Vaguely, Adelewished she’d worn sweatpants, or something a bit easier to move in. With asigh, she threw a leg over the gate, sat for a moment, then dropped into thealley.
John caught herarm as she fell, giving her something to grab to soften the fall. Her handcaught his shoulder, and he hunched just as she hit the ground, absorbing someof the impact.
Adele stood, dustingherself off. Old dumpsters rested against cracked stone walls. Piles of trash,which someone couldn’t be bothered to place in the adjacent dumpsters, layscattered on the ground. Adele stepped over broken bottles and a low wall thatsmelled distinctly like human feces. The odor of garbage and old rot met hernose, curdling the air around her. The sounds had been louder than she’dwanted. Hopefully, it hadn’t alerted anyone to their presence.
In near perfectsynchronicity, both agents’ weapons appeared back in their hands, and theybegan to move down the alley in the direction of the warehouse. John took thelead in a hunter’s crouch, his gun raised, his eyes unblinking, fixed ahead. Hemoved in such a way that turned his body to present as small a target aspossible.
Adele adjustedher own posture. Together, they crept around the edge of the alley and emergednear a white drainpipe with two busted fixtures of silver wire circlingplastic.
Ahead, an old,worn warehouse sat on the lot behind the auto shop. Dark, brooding windowspeered out into the gravel courtyard. Adele felt a chill creep up her spine,but then she set her grip on her weapon and moved toward the warehouse withJohn.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
John kept hiseyes forward, his mind fixed on the task at hand. A sudden crack! Heglanced sharply over, noticing a glass bottle and an alley cat looking up athim, the creature’s eyes glowing in the dark. John flicked his attention to thewindows of the warehouse once more. He rounded the edge of the alley, bracinghis shoulder against the drainpipe in case he needed a stabilizing lever. Hiseyes switched from the windows up top down to the ones below. Up to down,tracking them as he’d been trained. Clear, he thought to himself.
He held hisfist, gesturing for Adele to stop. He paused, shooting a look toward theAmerican agent.
She really wasquite beautiful. Perhaps not in a traditional sense, but there was an exoticallure to her. She came from France, Germany, and the US. A strangecombination. She had long blonde hair, and skin weathered by sunlight. She alsokept in good shape—a fact not lost on him.
Her eyes zeroedin on him, following his every motion.
John felt asudden burgeoning anxiety in his chest. Quickly, he shrugged it off. He preferreddoing missions like these on his own. Having someone like Adele along onlycompromised things. He would have to look out for her, to keep her safe. And asfar as John was concerned, that was a nearly impossible task with this manyvariables. He gave another quick scan of the windows, never letting fiveseconds pass between attending zones of control. Outlooks from an enemyposition could shift every few moments. Attentiveness was key. Eyes forward.
Ripping his gazeaway from Adele, he looked back at the building, gesturing for her to take theleft approach. No sense splitting up now. A pincer movement wouldn’t work here.It would only isolate and allow the enemy to contain faster.
Surprise then.The only advantage they had. He hesitated, wondering if they should wait forbackup.
But he gave thefaintest shake of his head. Backup would only result in more people he had tolook out for. The kind of backup that arrived this late wouldn’t be useful in afirefight anyway.
John felt thesteady weight of his weapon in his hand, and he inhaled through his nose,calming himself. He quickly moved across the courtyard, into the shadow of thewarehouse behind the autobody shop. The shade from the building obscured themas they moved around the edge of the red brick.
His skin tingledas he maneuvered. He felt alive. If Adele hadn’t been there, this would havebeen as easy to him as a dance, as beautiful as making love. He’d been in thisposition before; he adored it. Others complicated such matters, like voyeurs ina bedroom.
He could feelthe bulge in his shirt from the rolled up bills he’d taken from Francis. Hehadn’t done it out of greed so much as a desire to punish Francis. John hatedthat man. He hated how he’d gamed the system. He’d been allowed to escape withhis crimes. John had seen firsthand what Francis and his crew had done to theirvictims. They had preyed on the homeless, and those with little more than theshirts on their backs. They had taken the bloody organs, and then refused topay the money they’d promised. Half the people they’d operated on had died. Notthat they had cared. They’d made their profit regardless, selling the organs onthe black market to
