46

“Did she like it then?”

“Jag seems to think so.”

“I knew it.”

“Sid, Kal, focus.” Jag spoke up, interrupting his best friends’ conversation.

It wasn’t that he wanted to be the serious one right now. He too wanted to discuss how their surprise for Camille had gone but, they had a job to do.

In just a few minutes, they would have apprehended Nathan and this whole ordeal would be over. This mission was no doubt for the greater good but this time it felt personal. Jag had no illusions that when he finally came face with Nathan that it would take everything in him not to tear the piece of shit limb from limb. And it wouldn’t even be about what the man had been involved in. Not entirely. No, this man had laid is hands on Camille. He had hurt her, abused her and then turned her into his unwitting spy. He dreaded to think what would have happened if Camille hadn’t met them.

“Alright, we are approaching the target.” Sid spoke up, taking on a slightly more serious tone. “All units are in position.”

“Switch to visual and maintain radio silence until the breach is successful.” Jag ordered.

On the outside he was stoic, amber eyes watching the screen like a predator surveying his territory. Their technology meant they had a 360 view of what was around each soldier. There were no blind spots and so Jag was comfortable know his best friend was protected. That didn’t change the fact that his heart rate picked and his muscles tensed. None of them could breathe a sigh of relief just yet. Jag still missed the thrill of the hunt though. Sure, being promoted was an honour but it also meant less time in the field so he was left living vicariously through Sid.

“We’ve disabled the compound’s security.” Kal reported to Jag. “We have also picked up a couple of heat signatures specifically one in the master bedroom. Looks like we caught our target sleeping.”

“Good.” Jag replied.

Sid and his men moved through the darkness in silence. It had been pissing it down with rain since they had landed which served as camouflage but also reduced visibility. They moved as one though, gliding through the night like ghosts while everything was picked up by body cameras and the several drones currently hovering around the compound. They were leaving nothing to chance.

For Sid, this was what lived for. From an early age he had been trained to be a fierce warrior and hunter. Much like Jag, Sid’s life had been mapped out based on his family rank as the leaders of their tribes but, unlike Jag who would become leader of his people, Sid would eventually serve his oldest brother. Well, he would have if Camille hadn’t come into their life. That certainly had created an interesting conundrum. But, none of it would mean anything if they didn’t put a stop to Camille’s ex.

It was what spurred him on, yellow eyes keenly taking in everything around him. They had mapped and planned out every little detail and while they had more eyes on this than any other mission, that didn’t mean any of the soldiers currently taking up position around the house could relax.

In the seconds leading up to the raid, the silence felt like it swelled like a balloon. Suddenly, it was viciously ripped apart by the sound of the front and back doors on the house being smashed in. Just like that, everything descended into noise and yelling. They had caught the occupants of the house off guard. Not a single one of the men on the ground floor had chance to react before they were being hauled off their beds by giant Draygonians and forced face first into the floor. But the remaining suspects on the next floor were a little luckier as gunfire began ringing out.

Sid managed to avoid a direct hit to his armour before returning fire up the stairs. Ideally he didn’t want to be the reason one of these men ended up dead instead of answering for their crimes but, if it came down to it, he would rather it was one of them leaving in a body bag, not him.

Almost as quickly as it started, it was over.

“You’re not going to like this.” Sid spoke into his comms when all of the suspects were handcuffed. “But he’s not here.”

“What? How?” Kal snapped, eyes flaring with anger.

“I don’t know.” Sid replied, unimpressed. “All our intel told us he was here. We are still sweeping the place so maybe something will come up. For now we have six in custody. They will be on their way to the Ark soon for questioning so maybe one of them can give us something.”

“Seven.” Kal corrected.

“What?”

“There are seven suspects being picked up on the heat sensors.”

“Uh, no.” Sid frowned turning to look at the row of prisoners counting them again. “I have six.”

“Kal is right, Sid.” Jag spoke up. “There is a seventh suspect. They’re heading towards you right now.”

Sid tensed, eyes flicking around to take in the scene around him in the front yard of the property. All he saw was his men and the suspects. There were a couple of human soldiers with them and one of them was wandering around but otherwise...

No, that wasn’t right. The human soldiers were hanging back about quarter of a mile away. So why was one of them here?

Sid focused on the man. At first glance, his uniform and armour looked normal but the more Sid focused on the man, the more discrepancies he noticed. The colour wasn’t quite right and there were no unit patches. The armour was ill-fitting as well, as if it had been stuffed with newspaper. Also, the guy looked extremely nervous, brown eyes darting about like a fly trapped in a jar.

“Hey you!” Sid instantly raised his rifle, muzzle pointed right at the man’s heart. “Hands where I can see them!”

But the man didn’t put his hands up. His eyes darkened when they locked with Sid’s and the male could feel the pure hatred that came from the man like a punch to the chest. Sid had seen so many emotions on the faces of the people he had apprehended or fought against. Anger, fear, determination, even indifference but never had he seen such raw disgust in the eyes of any human or Draygonian.

It was for this reason that Sid knew things weren’t going to end well.

His eyes caught movement in the periphery before snapping to the man’s right hand. Only now did he see that the human was holding something and his fingers were gripping it tighter and tighter.

A dead man’s switch.

“Sid, what’s going on?” Jag’s voice was level but Sid picked up on the tenseness in it.

“I have a single male suspect with what appears to be some sort of explosive device.” Sid replied, rifle and eyes trained on the man who met his gaze head on.

By now the others had cottoned on to what was going on. The atmosphere shifted quickly. It was easy to assume that when faced with a dozen giant soldiers, the man would consider his options and surrender. Perhaps if it has been any other person, they would have but Sid could tell that wasn’t the case.

“Everyone move back.” Sid spoke calmly despite his heart hammering in his chest. “Let’s give the man some space.”

“Fuck you, scum!” The man snarled, muddy brown eyes flashing in rage. “If anyone moves, I’ll blow you all to hell where you belong.”

“Sid, try and keep him talking.” Kal spoke through the comms. “I have one of the drones scanning him now to try and work out what he’s packing and if we can disarm it remotely.”

“I’ll try.” Sid murmured before raising his voice to speak to the armed man. “Okay, we won’t move but how about you disarm that thing, yeah? No one needs to get hurt.”

“No way. The minute I do that, one of you will put a bullet through me and then use my body for your weird experiments.”

“No one is going to do that.” Sid replied, trying to remain passive. “But if you’re not going to do that, how about letting us move your friends? Do you want them getting hurt if something goes wrong?”

Sid was surprised by the fact the man seemed to consider this, muddy eyes darting to the six other men currently kneeling on the soaked ground with their hands behind their heads. He didn’t think loyalty was something these people were capable of except to came to people like Nathan Reeves. He could throw them under the bus again and again and they would still come flocking to him like sheep. Regardless, it had the man distracted, hesitating even. Blowing himself and a handful of visitors up was one thing but killing his own comrades? Surely that was treason.

Right?

“I think I can jam the signal between the switch and the explosives.” Kal spoke up through the comms. “but, it won’t be permanently. I can give you twenty seconds to get to a safe distance.”

“Do it.” Sid replied. “I’ll distract him to give everyone time to back up.”

“You need to back up too, Sid.” Now it was Jag talking, the tension in his voice rising. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’m not.” Sid kept calm. “Once I know everyone else is safe, I’ll move.”

Neither Jag nor Kal replied but Sid saw his colleagues slowly starting to back away while the man with the bomb was too busy trying to figure out what to do next. It was obvious the man was torn between whatever cause he believed he had to help fight and killing himself. It always baffled Sid that humans had a history of taking their own lives in the name of their beliefs. Then again, they weren’t the only species that he had encountered that did something similar. One life for a greater purpose was considered honourable.

“Look, I know you don’t want to do this.” Sid finally spoke up to get the man’s attention again. “I think we both know that there are only two ways this is going to go for you. One is with you alive and the other ends with you becoming nothing more than a pink mist.”

“Shut up!” The man snapped but it wasn’t anger that fuelled the outburst.

Fear tainted the stranger’s aura like poison. Sid had to wonder if these people knew what Draygonians could see. The man could lie to himself all he wanted but Sid could see the truth.

“Look,” Sid pushed on. “You are on your own now. You don’t want to do this.”

“Don’t I?”

“No. This cause isn’t worth your life.”

The make let out a humourless chuckle, droplets of water spraying from his hair.

“I’m a dead man either way.”

“Sid, the signal is jammed so move damnit!” Kal barked into the comms.

And just as Kal spoke, the man lifted his hand and released the dead man’s switch.