There was a small silence. Kadan’s voice was very calm. Negative, Gator, stand down. That parking lot funnels directly into the street. It’s a natural corridor for sound to travel.

Then f**kin’ do your job. You’re shielder, throw up a shield at the far end of the lot because I’m taking them down. You have about ten seconds to get everyone clear.

Kadan didn’t bother to argue, reading the tone and knowing it was useless. Move them out of there, Tucker. You too, Ian. Send them to the far end of the compound and tell them to take cover. S when you’re all clear. And Gator, I’ll need more time to seal the place off. It’s not that damned easy.

Rage was boiling. Gator couldn’t have stopped it if he tried. His body trembled, broke out in a sweat with the effort to contain it. His vision narrowed, tunneled, until every detail of the northern side of the building was etched into his mind in vivid imagery. He saw the men as shadowy targets, nothing more. They had come for one purpose. To take Flame back to a cage where Whitney could torture her, infect her with diseases. God only knew what he would do next. Impregnate her? Take her child from her? The man was capable of anything.

He snapped his teeth together, biting down hard as the sounds welled up, demanding release.

Maudit! What the hell is taking so long? I’m not going to be able to hold back.

Damn it, Gator. Have you even thought about what you’re doing? You could be blowing your entire career.

I’m taking out his army. I can’t get him, but I can hurt him, put him back several years. I don’ care how much money the bastard has, it takes time to build up manpower.

The general isn’t going to be happy about this. Kadan gave it one last try.

Where the f**k is the seal?

The soldiers are clear but the seal isn’t finished on the street. A couple of innocents driving by. We can’t take the chance. You have to hold. Kadan’s tone said he expected it, didn’t like it, but knew he couldn’t stop the inevitable.

Ian’s voice broke in. I’m taking out the four in the front.

Wait for backup, Ian, Kadan instructed. Tucker’s on his way to you.

Gator’s gut churned, knotted, the rage moving through him like a living entity. It was rising, much like lava needing to spew forth, impossible to contain. It was all there, swirling like a tornado inside of him. Flame believing he’d betrayed her. Whitney’s atrocities. The terrible deeds done to Joy. The dead soldier.

You have a go.

The note burst out, a low-level wave of infrasound invisible to the human ear. It traveled the corridor along the north side, slamming into everything in its path. It traveled through a small structure, flattening it as the sonic wave struck. It hit living tissue, vibrating internal organs. The wave remained at seven cycles per second, corresponding with the median alpha-rhythm frequencies in the brain.

They’re down. They’re down. Back off.

Like hell. I’m going to the south side. Eight came in that way. Let me know if our soldiers are in the clear.

Gator took a breath and let it out, trying to calm the seething rage as he surveyed the downed targets. Infra sound waves stayed close to the ground. They traveled long distances through just about anything in their path and were considered unstoppable. As the GhostWalkers had discovered in earlier field tests, without Kadan’s shields, the sound waves continued to travel, destroying everything in their path.

There were eight downed targets with eight more on the opposite side of the building. If the other Ghost- Walkers were able to take down this sizable force, it would be a significant blow to Whitney. Even paying for an army meant finding good men and if Whitney was enhancing some of them, that took time.

Gator began moving around to the other side of the building. Moving through the front area. Don’ mistake me for a target. He crouched low, rifle in hand, and eased his way through the wide row of trimmed bushes.

Go in close to the building, Tucker advised.

Gator worked his way to the southern corner of the building where the other eight mercenaries were closing in. I have a visual. I count eight You have a shield up?

It won’t work on this side. The opening is too large and the sonic wave will break through. You have to narrow the corridor, Kadan answered.

Gator studied the layout of the buildings and fences. It looked like a maze and Kadan was right. He not only would flatten several buildings, killing anyone inside, but they would be unable to contain the infrasonic wave. It would travel through the streets smashing everything in its path with the force of a volcanic eruption. He pushed back the need to strike, to neutralize the threat against Flame instantly, and forced his mind to think logically.

The best bet is to push them toward the maintenance yard. We’ll have to go in and take them out.

Gunfire erupted around the front of the building. It acted as a signal and immediately the eight men on the south side began spraying the area around them, moving in a much tighter and faster formation toward the building. Four gained the wall and flung what appeared to be grenades into the bank of windows Gator knew were offices. The explosion blasted the smoke into the air, obscuring vision.

Ian? Tucker? Check in, Kadan demanded.

Two down in the front. Two to go, Ian reported.

Tucker interrupted. He’s hit.

I’m not hit-well, maybe a little hit, but no problem.

Gator swore under his breath. He’d been the one to pull the soldiers back. He had eight men swarming one side of the building with at least six more front and back. Ian was hit and there were men on the roof. For one brief moment insanity rode him hard and he contemplated wiping them all out. One long pulse would do it. Whitney’s army would be gone and Flame would be safe, at least for the time that it would take Whitney to rebuild. In the meantime, the GhostWalkers could actively search out their enemy.

He brushed away the idea, refusing to give in to temptation. He couldn’t hurt innocent people, not even to keep Flame out of the hands of a madman.

Tucker, stay on Ian, take out the other two and get around to the back. Gator and I will work our way to the southern side.

The four men at the windows, threatening to gain en trance to the building had to be removed. Gator moved like a silent wraith through the tall hedges, utilizing the cover to get close to the first of the two-man teams. One man dressed in black signaled his partner to come forward to use him as a human ladder to gain entrance into the building. Gator took them both, two shots, two kills. A bullet spit into the wall next to his head and he spun around, spraying covering fire as he dove toward the ground behind a two-foot wall of cement.

Corning up behind them, Kadan informed him.

Gator held his fire, afraid of hitting Kadan. He waited, eyes searching out the second two-man team nearest the building. They’d gone to ground at the first gunfire, but at least they hadn’t gotten into the building.

Kadan moved like a phantom, so fast, so silent, he was a blur as he crossed Gator’s line of vision. Gator blinked twice wondering if he’d really seen him.

You’re clear. Two down.

Tucker reported in. We’ve got two more down here and are going around to the back. Ian’s bleeding like a stuck pig.

It’s a scratch.

Tie it off, superhero, Kadan ordered.

Gator crawled through the shrubbery, careful to keep from moving any of the foliage. He could just make out a boot and part of a leg. In the shadows it looked like a fallen log. The leg moved as the enemy propelled his body forward toward the building. Gator heard the whisper of an order on a radio. He only caught three disjointed words, but it was enough to have him rolling to his right. Bullets thudded into the ground right where he’d been. The shots came from above and the fire continued, pinning him down.

They’ve got a sniper on the roof of the laboratory. He warned the others. He’s using infrared.

I’ve got him, Ian said confidently.

A single shot rang out and Gator saw the sniper fall. As the noise cleared away, he heard another sound and his heart nearly stopped. Maudit, Kadan, I hear them going into the vent. Warn Flame. I’m going in after them.

Flame. Kadan reached for her immediately. Gator hears the enemy in the vents. Can yon hear them?

Yes. We’ll take care of it.

Gator’s coming in after them. Don’t shoot him, no matter how angry you are with him.

I can handle this myself. She didn’t want Raoul risking his life for her. She didn’t want any of them to do that. Flame turned to Nonny. “I want you to get into the bathroom and lock the door. Don’t open it unless you hear either Gator or me tell you to, understand?”

“I can use a gun. I’ve been hunting all my life,” Nonny said. “I don’ want to be in a bathroom hiding when they come. I wouldn’t know what was going on.”

Flame handed her the semiautomatic. “Have you ever used one of these?”

“Gator showed me how. If it’s a gun, I can shoot it.”

“Then you get into the bathroom and stay there. Leave the door open if you prefer, but stay undercover. It will be easier for me to consider everyone in the room an enemy. Don’t fire unless you have to because you might hit me.”

“I’d rather stay out here with you and just gun them down as they come.”

“I’ll have the advantage, Nonny. They don’t want to kill me. That’s why it was so easy for me in the swamp. Raoul told me the sniper had tranqs in his gun. If some one tranqs me, feel free to shoot them.”

Nonny took the gun. It looked too big and heavy for her but there was a no-nonsense air about her that gave Flame added confidence.

Flame rolled the blankets in the bed and jerked the top sheet over them to make it look as if a body were asleep in the bed. She waved Nonny to the bathroom as she plunged the room into darkness. She went to the wall with the ventilation opening and crouched down, listening. It always amazed her when sight was taken away how acute all other senses became. She faced the grate as she detected the sliding of clothes along the inside of the ducts.

She sent a single note through the grate, a low pulsing wave that raced through the ducts. She kept it nonlethal, not knowing who else might accidentally be in the way of the sound wave. Stepping back against the opposite wall, she waited, knife in hand. Gator had provided her with an array of throwing knives, and she was grateful. She was accurate with them and trusted them much more than she did a gun.

Nausea came in waves, cramping her stomach. She broke out in a sweat, weak and sick. Chemo had a very bad effect on her; it always had. It didn’t make sense to go through it all again if the cancer was going to return.

Maybe she’d have to talk to Lily and ask a few hard questions.

The sounds coming from the air duct were getting louder. Whoever was in there seemed pretty sick and disoriented, thrashing wildly at one point. She held the gun against her thigh with her broken arm and the throwing knife clear of her body with her good arm. Maybe she’d get lucky and not have to kill him, and they’d have a chance to find out where Whitney was hiding out.

The grate was pulled off from the inside and the muzzle of a gun appeared, a small red dot shining around the room, searching the corners, the door, dwelling on the bathroom door. Flame willed Nonny to stay very still. Finally the red dot went to the bed and the stranger slipped into the room, gun held steady.

For the first time, Flame was unsure of herself. She thought there were three men in the ducts, but she couldn’t be certain. She was too sick to be able to concentrate properly. She was fighting the dry heaves and even her vision blurred. She felt behind her for the wall and the hilt of her knife scraped against it.

The man spun back, the red dot centered on her chest. “Drop it.”

She swayed. She wasn’t going to be able to do this. She couldn’t bring up the gun or the knife, She didn’t drop either weapon. Two men wiggled out of the duct behind the first one. They trained their weapons on her as well.

“Put it down,” the first man repeated. He held up one hand, softening his voice. “No one wants to hurt you, ma’am. Just put down the weapons and come with us.”