Bad Nerd Falling (45 page)

That was a relief. Ben and Shively had
planned to do that, but this left them free to complete other
tasks. DuBois’s calm voice transmitted through his headset.
Communication was fully up and working.

As soon as that thought entered,
another voice he recognized but couldn’t pinpoint filtered over the
line. He was in place in Aleksi’s office. That was another good
move. The tangos were sure to use his mother and Helena to gain
entrance into that space. They had a female police officer, a sharp
shooter, acting as Aleksi’s personal assistant. That way the tangos
wouldn’t grow suspicious.

Right now they thought they were the
ones hunting.

He smiled grimly.

***

The leader turned to another man. “Did
you find Barstow?”

Helena, recognizing that name,
started.

“
She is in custody, as we
heard.”

“
Can we break her out? I
still have plans for her, as do you.” The leader turned to the man
still stroking his gun.

“
Her training is not
nearly finished,” Crazy Gun Stroker crooned. “She will object
because her aunt did not survive.”

Her stomach heaved at what these
brutes had done to Anna and her aunt, whoever she was. A tiny spurt
of sympathy undulated through her at what the other woman must have
endured at these fiends’ hands. She shivered.

“
Perhaps our little Anna
will fight, just as she always does, and then she will not live
either.” The leader sounded pleased by that thought.

“
It is best when they
object.” Gun Stroker nodded. “That is part of her
allure.”

“
She has proven to be an
excellent source of information.”

Crazy man shifted his gun. “A fine
little traitor.”

Stomach roiling, she exchanged a
terrified glance with Maria. There was no doubt in her mind what
these men now intended for them. Without speaking, she and Maria
worked out their plan. They both knew they had to douse the
commander and the gun stroker with the alcohol. If they could set
both of them on fire, it might create enough chaos to allow them to
escape into the hall and hope help arrived.

There were no guarantees help would
arrive, but both of them were willing to take their chances.
Maria’s eyes narrowed as she lifted the wide mouthed container of
rubbing alcohol. She hefted it and stepped closer to the men
invading their lab. Once in range, Maria tossed the
liquid.

In one sure sweep she managed to wet
both with the entire contents of the jar. Hopefully it was enough.
In sync with her, Helena struck the first match. She tossed it at
the man closest to her, the one with the huge weapon he continued
petting.

His clothing erupted in flames so fast
that she stared open mouthed. The flames leapt from his clothing to
the man beside him. Maria grabbed her and yanked her down behind
the bench.

The men they set on fire screamed as
the flames flared and ate through the cloth to lick at their skin.
An acrid cloud of smoke drifted toward them. Bringing with it the
scent of burning cloth.

Maria, ducking low, ran crouched
around the next lab bench, hand tight around hers. The open doorway
was close. But it was soon filled by a man in the same uniform who
heard the shrieks of pain from the burning men. She snagged the
syringe Maria had set ready for the next day. Next she grabbed a
bottle of sulphuric acid. She ripped the packaging off the syringe
and then paused long enough to fill the syringe.

Maria grabbed several sharp tipped
pipets off the bench as they passed. They had to stop on the far
end of the bench because of the foreign men crowding the lab. They
spoke in loud, abrasive tones in a language she didn’t recognize.
There was something that sounded like panic in the room as they
rushed to the aid of the burning men.

One man broke from the pack though and
circled around to box them in. He was grinning and it wasn’t
friendly. She handed the bottle of acid to Maria who dropped the
pipets in favor of this better weapon. With precision, she popped
the air out of the syringe and aimed it at the man. Some of the
syringe contents flew from the needle and landed on the advancing
man’s clothes. It didn’t take long before the acid droplets ate
through his clothing. This was pure stuff.

And very, very scary all in its own
right.

Maria popped the stopper out of the
bottle neck before wielding her new weapon. It was evident by the
chemical symbols to any scientist what it was, although she doubted
these men could read.

The man stopped advancing, and glanced
at the label. Apparently he could read the contents. His hand
hovered over his gun, but she pointed her syringe at him. Exactly
as she had done yesterday when facing Frederic and the other jerks,
her backbone stiffened as resolve spread through her.

No more.
No more giving in to bullies
, or in this case, these terrorists who planned to torture
them before they killed them. She planned to go down fighting. At
least until their weapons gave out.

Their would-be attacker showed he
wasn’t brainless. He halted his advance when he met her war face.
He must have read her intent because he remained where he was,
still and watchful.

Beside her, Maria turned and tossed
some of the bottle contents on the man sneaking up behind them. The
neck of this bottle was small, because the bottle contained a
harmful acid. She did manage to hurtle some of the caustic liquid
on the man and it burned through his clothes in an impressive
manner.

She kept her attention on the man in
front of her, and back to back with Maria, they stood their ground.
Their only weapon a bit primitive, but effective.

“
We just have to hold the
line until help arrives,” Maria whispered.

“
It can come any time
now.”

As though their words conjured up that
very thing, the man in front of her jerked and then crumpled to the
floor. A pool of red collected beneath him. The one in front of
Maria collapsed in the same manner and was still. A red puddle also
formed under him. Instinct sent her and Maria to a crouching
stance.

Eyes wide, she goggled the room,
trying to identify their protector, but there was no one there. She
was certain she hadn’t done this with sheer mind power, despite her
new resolve. Still, she wielded her syringe, and noticed Maria kept
a tight grip on her bottle of acid.

They remained back to back, but
hunkered, staring at the chaos around them. The two men in the lead
were still on fire, with several of the men working to beat out the
flames. Their screams seemed far off. They yelled something while
the aflame leader gesticulated toward them. She narrowed her eyes
and showed off her syringe. Maria let them see she was also
suitably armed.

By the time they finished brandishing
their makeshift weapons, Vlad and several other men erupted on the
hazy, smoky scene and dropped every single fatigue clothed male in
the room. And they did so in a matter of seconds.

With her heart lodged in her throat,
she noted various thuds and grunts as she and Maria slowly stood.
The men worked as a team, there were four of them. A fifth man
joined the fighters but he veered off to head toward her and Maria.
He didn’t stop until he grabbed Maria and squeezed her tight. With
his other arm he wrapped her close too.

She finally identified him as Graham,
although with that helmet, vest, and huge gun, it took a few
terrifying moments. It was daunting to realize again how big he was
and she was grateful when he released them to shove them behind him
as more men poured into the lab. Graham raised his impressive
weapon.

None of the new men wore the terrorist
fatigues so he soon lowered the massive gun. She didn’t argue when
he stayed planted in front of them nonetheless. The men spread out
and bound the living terrorists. Those with the blood pooling
beneath them they ignored. She tried not to think about
them.

Vlad seemed to be everywhere, binding
the living, kicking over the dead to collect identification and
hidden weapons, talking to the other men. He was fast and utterly
capable. Confidence didn’t ooze out of him, it just was. Clearly in
his element, he rapped out orders, assisted the others, and piled
lethal looking items she wouldn’t have recognized as weaponry. He
was at ease with himself and the situation; there was no hesitation
as he moved from one group to the next.

Even the way he treated the grenades
he removed from pockets, and after being called over to consult on
what appeared to be a bomb, there was no fear in Vlad. He was a man
confident in his abilities and skills. All those years of training
had shaped and molded the man into a superhero.

His friends, also obviously in their
element and also superheros, stayed busy assisting him. Someone
must have called in the authorities because the police arrived and
soon there were as many people in the lab as there had been when
they gave away that equipment. The main differences were there
wasn’t a lab coat in sight, but quite a lot of weapons.

“
I prefer the lab coats,”
she said out loud.

Maria sent her a speaking look. “Me
too.” When she gaped, Maria smiled. “I was thinking the same thing.
It was much less scary with the scientists than all these
soldiers.”

She nodded, and then swallowed.
Watching Vlad in action showed all too plainly there was no way she
could compete with this. The adrenaline high, the utter danger, him
saving the day. That all had to be addicting.

She could never come close to
competing with it. A superhero would find her incredibly boring.
Compared to this she found herself incredibly boring.

It wasn’t right to leash a
man with Vlad’s capabilities. It was okay before, because her
knowledge of what he did was vague at best. Now she
knew
. Seeing him in his
element like this… Tears welled and she ruthlessly blinked them
away. She would not think of this.

She would
not
.

The unhappy thought that she might
have been better off dying was unwelcome. Yet it echoed with
truth.

At least her heart
wouldn’t be breaking like it was now. She couldn’t hope to hold
Vlad,
there was no way
. The tears surged again, and when Vlad finally grabbed his
mother in a quick hug and then her for a much, much longer one and
a thorough examination, she couldn’t stop them.

This was an acceptable time to cry.
Now, while she still held him in her arms.

Later, there would too many questions.
For all her new bravado, she still lacked bravery. She didn’t have
the guts to try to hold onto this man. Not when she was now
absolutely certain where the relationship was headed. She wondered
if this was why he was hesitant to discuss their future.

Holding onto Vlad was like holding
water. Maybe she could contain him for a time, but eventually that
precious element would trickle away and leave her with nothing.
Nothing but a broken heart.

The police moved toward her and for
the second time in as many days she gave them a
statement.

It helped her to not think.

Chapter 36

They were nearly finished, finally.
The police were wrapping up their questions and all the tangos here
were gone, even the dead ones. He stepped into the passage and
helped as the last of those men were hauled off. All of these were
alive, but still out from the gas bomb. It would make them really
sick once they came to. Hopefully sick enough to confess everything
his side needed to know.

They had discovered a dead Rurikstani
woman in the tunnels. She had obviously let the terrorists in as
she was part of the housekeeping staff, and from the state of her
body, had suffered greatly at their hands. From something Helena
and his mother mentioned, she might be Barstow’s aunt. They had to
look further into that situation.

The first man with the huge gun had
not made it either. Whether the tangos or his side had done the
deed he didn’t know, but there was no doubt the terrorist was dead
by the time they arrived. He was still impressed with his mother
and Helena for using available resources to defend themselves. If
he had been in their shoes, he wasn’t certain he would have thought
to set the enemy on fire.

The second man, the leader, was badly
burned, but he lived. For now. He would likely die of his wounds,
so he had taken some time with the man before the police arrived to
question him.

Due to his questioning, they had a lot
more information than before. He sent military teams across the
city and they countered the planned attacks on some of the
government buildings with only the loss of two tangos. It was a
huge victory for Rurikstan.

It wasn’t the only victory he expected
today. He turned and scanned the lab before his eyes settled on
Helena. Her gorgeous green eyes were huge in her pale face, and the
resultant violence had left her shaky. Yet this amazing woman kept
it together in the face of danger, and used her brain to save
herself. And his mother.