I checked the time again. It had only been twenty minutes since Siren and the others left. This didn’t bode well for the future. Would I feel this way every time she was on a mission and I wasn’t?
I walked down the main stairs and noticed Gene was no longer sitting in the chair. Maybe he was in the bathroom. That was another thing. Didn’t men have to take a piss more often the older we got?
I decided to make some lunch and was about to round the corner to the kitchen when I felt the muzzle of a gun press against my back.
In front of me sat Gene O’Brien, bound and gagged, with a gun pressed into his temple.
“Smoke,” said Daniel Byrne. “How nice it is to see you again. Unfortunate circumstances, as they say.”
“What the fuck, Byrne?” I motioned toward Gene, whose face was bright red; sweat ran down his forehead.
Whoever held the gun behind me, jammed the barrel harder into my back. The pain of it pressing against my burn was so intense, I almost passed out.
“What do you want?”
“I’d let ol’ Gene here tell you, but since I’ve gagged him, he can’t. He knows why I’m here, though. Don’t ya, Gene?” The old man shook his head.
32
Siren
By the time we reached the location where Decker believed Byrne was with the safe, he was gone.
“We just missed him,” he muttered into the headset to inform Casper and Hughes, who’d followed in Hughes’ SUV. He pulled out his phone and punched the screen. “Goddamn motherfucker,” he spat. “He’s on his way to your place. Move out.”
I threw my car in reverse and sped away from the back of the barracks.
Whatever Byrne thought was in the safe, must not have been. Since he’d been tracking me, he either thought I had it or Gene did.
“You were able to track him.”
“Hughes took care of it.”
If anything would prove his loyalty wasn’t with Byrne, that should’ve been it.
“How many have you got that you can trust for backup?” Decker asked Hughes through the headset.
“I’ve got four heading over now.”
“That you trust?”
“Affirmative. I don’t need to tell you there is a group inside IMI who believes Byrne is dirty.”
My eyes opened wide. Why had I never heard this? Was it because those same people believed I’d be loyal to the man? Given he’d recruited me, I supposed that was a logical assumption. I’d also officially been “on loan” to MI6 for the last few months, even though the mission I’d been on was for the Invincibles. But regardless, I’d been out of touch with IMI.
“Pull over,” said Deck. “I’ll go in with Hughes and Casper. If Byrne is there, Smoke hasn’t managed to neutralize him, or he would’ve been in contact. I want Byrne to think you’re arriving on your own.”
“Roger that.” I pulled off into a parking lot.
“Hughes?” said Deck.
“Copy,” I heard Casper respond at the same time Hughes pulled in behind me.
“What is it with IMI not giving proper response?” he asked, hitting the kill switch on his mic before he spoke.
“Hey, now.”
“You’re definitely the exception, Siren,” he muttered before turning his mic back on. “Remove your headset.”
“Why?”
“Because I asked you to,” he answered without looking up at me. “Here.” Decker handed me something flesh-colored and not much bigger than the head of a pin. “What is this?”
“Put it on the tip of your finger and then insert it as far as you can into your auditory canal. Casper?”
“Testing, test, test, test,” I could hear her say inside my ear.
“Copy,” I responded.
“Copy back,” said Casper.
“You amaze me,” I mumbled.
“Why, thank you,” said Casper, although I was sure she knew I was speaking to Deck.
“By the way, no one outside of the Invincibles knows about this technology. Except you and now Hughes.”
“Understood.”
He showed me something on his phone. “Is this a back entrance to the complex?”
“Yes.” I pointed where they could enter and park without being seen from my house.
“Wait for my signal,” he said, climbing out. “Head out in five, and I’ll see you on the other side.”
“Roger that.”
“We’re in position,” said Deck.
“Doppler indicates a count of six,” Casper reported.
Smoke, Uncle Gene, Byrne, and the other three had to be muscle.
I was little, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t take even the biggest guys. It was all about where, when, and how I struck. Casper outweighed me by at least a stone and a half.
With the four agents Hughes had delivered from IMI, we had Byrne far outnumbered. It was just a matter of striking in such a way that the hostages—which we had to assume Smoke and Uncle Gene were—remained unharmed.
“Move out. We’ve got your six,” said Decker.
“Roger that.”
When I pulled up in front of my place, the first thing I noticed was one of the doors on Gene’s car was partially ajar. Second, there were no other vehicles in sight.
When I walked inside the house, the first face I saw was Smoke’s. He made brief eye contact, then his eyes went left.
“One, one, one, five,” I whispered as quietly as I could without moving my lips.
“Siren,” said Byrne, who stepped out from where Smoke had indicated at the same time another man approached from my right, frisked me, and took my weapons. “So glad you could join us.”
“What are you doing here, and what in the hell is this?” I motioned with my hand toward Smoke and Gene, both of whom were gagged and bound to chairs.
Byrne smiled. “Don’t play coy with me. You know very well that there’s something I need your help with.”
“There are far easier ways to ask. No need to hold my friends at gunpoint.”
“So amusing,” he said, motioning to a terrified-looking Gene. “Don’t you find her amusing?” Byrne said to Smoke, whose only response was a growling sound that emanated from his throat. It got louder when Byrne put his arm around my shoulders.
“Have you ever wondered why I recruited you,
