Agent Rogue: Espionage

Chapter 2

The bracelet did not necessarily mean she was alive, but it offered hope. I counted on Marcus keeping her, Jade, and whatever poor souls he stole locked away for constant use, so the jewellery appearing in the middle of a corridor struck me as odd. It suggested she may have been moved along with the other resources, seemingly in a hurry. Apparently, Marcus received whispers of Tyler and I's arrival, but not fast enough to stage a complete evacuation of the property. Every resource was sucked dry by the doctor – to leave many behind exposed panic.

          The conversations I overheard on my manoeuvring through the corridors confirmed this theory. The men and women packing boxes worked for him – some possessing weapons with others unarmed – but I was unsure what their specific jobs entailed. Were they mindless workers, or did they hold people down while the doctor's conducted torture? I could not decide which option was preferable considering the ends two of them met at my own hands.

          As I dug deeper into the lab, more and more corridors broke off into smaller caves cornered off by fogged plastic curtains. I checked the junction for any other workers and crept over to investigate.

          Devastation. Signs of complete devastation littered the limestone walls and metal panels spread over the floor.

          An aluminium table stayed behind; the copper splatters told me of its use. I reached for my throat, sour antiseptic burning my windpipe.

          Restraints, knives, broken glass... All of it turned my blood to ice, making the veins in my neck pulsate, heart drumming wildly.

          This was not a nightmare, nor a memory, but reality. For Gabby and Jade, this had been their daily routine... for a year.

          I swallowed. If Derek saw what his sister was going through... I didn't want to imagine the terror.

          With a shudder, I moved on. There was nothing left to look at.

***

The lab was more crowded than I had anticipated.

          Sienna's funding appeared to stretch through more than just the doctors' research. I thought, since we stole 10 million euros back in Cyprus, Marcus's resources would have become sparse, but his benefactor had grown cautious. Between our last encounter, there had to have been at least a few more bulk payments to afford the extensive security – not officially registered, but underground gangs looking for hefty pay checks and zero restrictions rather than honest work.

           I turned into a shadowed tunnel, and jumped as a shot reverberated through the walls.

          I looked down – I was unharmed.

          "Bloody hell, Barnes! Do you want to alert every bugger in this damned facility?" Scotty?
"Stop shouting otherwise you'll do that yourself." I breathed a sigh of relief at the second voice.
"You've already done it for me!"

          I followed the voices, debating whether to hug or throttle them.

          They argued before the body of a worker, a gun clutched in his own limp hand.

          "He jumped out on me. What was I supposed to do?" Derek snapped.
"Not shoot him."
"I could have died."
"I fail to see the—Amber!"

          Their jaws dropped as I shook my head from the glacial archway.
"I'm gone a couple of hours and you threaten to kill each other already?"

          Before either could answer, a sharp-eyed Derek had enveloped me in a hug, lifting my feet off the ground. I ignored Scotty's scowl as I leaned into the soft wool of his scarf, my cold cheek brushing his constantly-warm skin. His heart was beating fast, the muscles in his arm shaking against me.