Roth(Hell Squad 5) Page 9

  Avery nodded. “Not sure we should be discussing Roth’s boxers right now.” She went back to fastening her armor.

  “Well, you have them good and twisted. Man is driving us all insane.” Cam’s white teeth flashed in a beautiful smile. “You’d do us all a favor if you put him out of his misery and in doing so, put us out of ours.”

  “Cam, enough,” Mac warned.

  Cam held up her hands. “Just telling the truth. Besides, my guess is that the boss man would give you a mighty fine ride.” Then her gaze sharpened on Avery and her smile widened. “But I think Secret Agent here has already taken the stallion for a spin.”

  “Oh, ew.” This from Taylor. “I feel like we’re talking about my brother having sex. Stop it.”

  “My eyes, my eyes,” Sienna cried.

  Avery fought a smile. “So…none of you have ever—”

  “No!”

  “No way.”

  Cam shook her head violently. “But we know the man is made the way a man should be.” She studied Avery’s face until Avery wanted to squirm. “Yep, you did the dirty with the boss. Hallelujah.”

  Avery felt a flush of color in her cheeks and mimicked zipping her lips sealed.

  “Roth is important to us.” Mac’s voice was quiet and her gaze just a little scary. “Just so you know…you hurt him, we’ll hurt you.”

  “And we know a lot of ways to hurt people,” Taylor added.

  Avery raised a brow. “I was an agent with the CCIA. I bet I know more.”

  “Hoo…a challenge.” Cam winked. “Nice to see you have balls.”

  “Pretty, girly ones, of course,” Sienna added with a smile. “My mother was Italian and said they had a saying in her village—”

  The other three women groaned. Cam slapped a palm over her eyes. “Not one of your village sayings.”

  Sienna ignored her squad mates. “Le armi delle donne sono la lingua, le unghie e le lacrime.” She spoke in a beautiful, lyrical lilt. “The weapons of women are words, fingernails and tears.” Sienna’s smile turned a little mean. “The old men who came up with that one got it really, really wrong when it comes to Squad Nine.”

  And with that, the interrogation was over.

  They all finished dressing. When Avery hooked her combat belt around her waist, Mac stepped forward, holding out a carbine. “Used one?”

  “Yes.” Avery took it. Checked it. The laser charge pack was showing full. “I preferred a plasma battle rifle, but this will be fine.”

  “Good. Come on, we need to get to the hangar. We’re taking the Darkswifts in.”

  As they moved through a short tunnel, Avery felt a rush of excitement. Going on a mission. Finally. The chance to fight back and be useful.

  And on top of that, she was about to get to ride in a Darkswift.

  They entered the hangar and her gaze fell on the crafts she’d heard about. Avery felt as though time suddenly slowed. “God, they are gorgeous.”

  She heard the other women chuckling, but she ignored them and ran her gaze over the sleek, dark lines of the craft. They were built for stealth and speed.

  Mac pointed at the first one. “That’s your ride. You’ll be with Roth.”

  Avery moved closer and ran her hand over the smooth metal. “I only ever saw prototypes of these babies. I’ve never flown in one.”

  “And you won’t fly one today.” Roth’s voice echoed in the hangar as he strode up to them. “Passenger only.”

  Camryn sniffed. “Men. Can’t ever let a woman drive.” She gave Avery a side glance. “Does he let a woman drive in bed?”

  “Cam, focus on the mission.” Roth’s gaze drifted down Avery’s form, taking in her armor. She barely stopped herself from fidgeting. Did no one else see that hot blaze in his eyes? It made her think of the things they’d done to each other throughout the night. Finally, he nodded. “You ready?”

  “Ready.”

  Roth touched a panel on the side of the Darkswift and the black cockpit screen slid back. There were two body-shaped spaces on the craft. Roth gestured to the left side and Avery stepped up, lying down on her belly. The seat was molded, and she shifted a bit until she got comfortable. The controls sat directly in front of her.

  Roth lay down smoothly beside her and started tapping at the controls. Avery glanced over and saw the rest of Squad Nine climbing into their Darkswifts. Mac with Sienna. Taylor with Camryn. Avery frowned. “There should be one more on your team. Who’d I displace for the mission?”

  “Theron.” Roth smiled. “At six foot five, he was more than happy to stay behind. He finds the Darkswifts a tight fit. He’ll be sitting with our comms officer, Arden.”

  The cockpit screen slid closed, enclosing them in a dark cocoon. A heads-up display flared to life in front of both of them, and Avery studied everything on it.

  “Initiating launch,” a steady, feminine voice said through the comm line.

  Roth touched his ear. “Arden, meet Avery. Avery, Arden…she takes very good care of us while we’re in the field.”

  “Hi,” Avery said.

  “A pleasure to meet you, Avery. Good luck out there and if you need anything, just let me know.”

  “Got it.” Avery heard a siren and watched the hangar doors slowly open.

  “There’s a launch mechanism in the floor,” Roth said. “It’ll shoot us out into the air.”

  Ahead, Avery saw a beautiful valley stretched out below them. It was covered in a sea of trees, and for a second, the beauty of it caught her and her chest swelled. Since her rescue, she’d been stuck in the base, with only a few nocturnal visits to see Dino. Before that, she’d been locked in a tank in the lab.

  She’d almost forgotten that beauty still existed in the world.

  She turned her head, her gaze tracing over Roth’s rugged profile. He wasn’t beautiful by any stretch of the definition, but he was a healthy, attractive male in his prime.

  “Launch in sixty seconds,” Arden said.

  Avery savored the excitement singing through her blood. She listened as Arden counted down to launch, heard the quiet chatter from the rest of Squad Nine.

  “Ready?” Roth asked.

  She nodded. “Let’s do it.”

  Arden finished her countdown. “Three. Two. One. Launch.”

  The catapult mechanism released, and sent the Darkswift shooting out of the hangar.

  With breathtaking speed, the Darkswift sped into the sky.

  Chapter Ten

  Exhilaration fizzed in Avery’s blood. That anticipation she felt, heading off on a mission—a feeling she’d missed so much. She also felt so…happy. The only other time she’d felt like this, Roth had been kissing her.

  Beside her, Roth turned his head and smiled at her. His hands were moving smoothly over the controls. The Darkswift banked to the right, the move making her stomach dip, and she had a fantastic view of the scenery below. She saw some magnificent rocky outcrops at the edge of the mountains. And trees, so many trees. It was stunning.

  Moments later, she saw the other two Darkswifts move up on either side of theirs.

  “Good hunting, Nine,” Arden said. “And be careful.”

  “We will, Arden,” Roth answered.

  Through the comm, Avery heard Mac and Taylor answer the woman as well.

  “All right, illusion systems up. Let’s head south,” Roth said. “Keep your eyes peeled. Arden’s monitoring the drone feed and will let us know if she spots any alien activity.”

  Soon, they moved over the outer suburbs of Sydney, and all the thrill of the ride was sucked out of Avery. As signs of the city’s awful destruction came into view, she felt like she’d swallowed a stone and it sat heavily in her gut.

  God. She saw entire swathes of houses—full neighborhoods—razed to the ground, nothing left but rubble, like a tornado had ripped through. But she knew it had been alien bombs, raptor troops, and rampaging rexes who were responsible for the devastation. In other places, the buildings were just burnt-out shells, surround
ed by overgrown grass and vegetation.

  She didn’t spot a single living thing—human or animal.

  Avery pressed her fingers to the cockpit screen, her heart so heavy in her chest. If she’d been smarter, worked harder, done something more, maybe she could have prevented this.

  “Not your fault, Avery. It’s stupid of you to take the weight of this on yourself.”

  She glanced at him, swallowing to wet her dry throat. He wasn’t looking at her. “I was head of the team—”

  “Team. Not a single superhero. You represented the Coalition. Besides, no one’s at fault.” He scowled. “Although Howell needs to be hung up and left for the raptors.” Roth stabbed a finger at the devastation below. “Only things to blame for that are the damn raptors who invaded a planet that wasn’t theirs.”

  She nodded, but a part of her wasn’t convinced.

  Strong fingers wrapped around her arm and she jerked her head back.

  Ice-blue eyes blazed. “Avery, they were going to invade, no matter what you did. You have to work the guilt out and move on to beating their scaly asses now.” He let out a short breath. “If you keep blaming yourself, that guilt will eat you alive. You have to accept they died and there wasn’t anything you could have done.”

  Those words steadied her. Or maybe it was he who steadied her. His strength, his determination, his solidness. An irresistible combination. She pressed her hand over his. Or maybe it was what she heard buried in his voice. “That’s how you felt…about your family?”

  “Yeah.” He stared straight ahead, lost in his thoughts. “I felt like I’d failed them. I had these dreams for months after they died…that if I’d been with them, I could have saved them.” He looked at her again. “I learned to blame the terrorists who killed them.”

  “And you joined the Army to fight the terrorists.”

  “Yes. I won’t lie. It helped.”

  And now he was giving her the chance to fight back against the aliens. “How come some pretty young thing back at base hasn’t claimed you?”

  He grinned. “Pretty young things can’t keep up with me.” His voice lowered. “And I seem to have a thing for strong women who get off on trying to beat me up.”

  “You have a team of those.”

  “But I also like women who have dark hair, beautiful hazel eyes, and fiery, independent dispositions.”

  Avery opened her mouth to respond, her body tingling, but Arden’s urgent voice cut through the line.

  “Ptero ship, three klicks to the east. It doesn’t have a bead on you, but I suggest you move away from it. Illusion systems will keep you undetectable unless you get too close.”

  Roth’s face turned serious and he tapped the controls. “Got it, Arden. Thanks. Nine, adjust heading away from the ptero.”

  Avery looked to the east and saw the ptero in the distance. She’d seen the ship that had brought the Gizzida to the meetings—an incredible, fluid design. The ptero was smaller, and looked like the flying dinosaur it had been named for. It had large, fixed wings, sharpening to a pointed cockpit at front, and a long, tail-like back end.

  Soon, the ptero slipped out of sight and Avery focused back on the ground below. They moved over green, overgrown farmland, and the remnants of small towns, and ahead, she saw the ocean.

  “What are we looking for?” Avery asked.

  “Any sign of regular movements. If there are people in a bunker around here, they’d be coming up, maybe for food, or intel, or just to get outside. We might see regular paths or disturbance.”

  Avery nodded, looking down at the ground.

  “The comp’s running scans. It’ll mark anything interesting.”

  “Boss?” Mac’s voice. “If we spot anything promising, we going down to have a look?”

  “Not this trip. We mark it, take the info back to base, and then we’ll come back if we have to.”

  A large escarpment dominated the area. In parts it was sandstone cliffs, and in others, a wide plateau covered in trees. She saw the glint of a large dam. It would have given a beautiful view of the sea.

  “The Illawarra Range,” Arden informed. “It was a mix of conservation areas and private property owned by the mining companies.”

  They flew over several mine locations, but since they were underground mines, there wasn’t much of interest on the surface, just a few dilapidated buildings.

  After twenty minutes of flying, they had a handful of potentials marked, but nothing Avery thought was a shoo-in. She tapped a finger against her seat. Maybe Howell never made it to his bunker? Hell, maybe he never got the bunker made in time. Who knew what had happened while she was locked in that cage?

  “Moving onto what was the location of the Saddleback mine,” Roth said.

  Avery spotted the mine’s offices, as well as a coal preparation plant for washing the coal. The steel framework of the plant was still standing, but vegetation was doing its best to overrun it.

  There was no sign of life. Nothing that made it stand out.

  She eyed the ruins of the prep plant for a long moment. It took her a second to realize what she was looking at, but when she did, she blinked. “Roth. Take a look at the top of the plant.”

  He frowned and wheeled the Darkswift around the structure. “Shit…is that an antenna?”

  It was well-hidden, made to look like junk. “Looks like it. And it looks like it is in perfect working condition.”

  “Damn. This could be it.”

  Avery searched the ground harder. “Look. I think there are some pathways through the grass, but they’ve stuck to the trees in an effort to hide them.”

  “Hot damn. Nine, I think this is it. Mac, you have the camera, snap me some pretty pics.”

  “You got it, bossman.”

  “Taylor, circle out and see if you can pick anything else up around the edges of the mine property.”

  “On it,” Taylor replied.

  His team respected him. Avery wasn’t surprised. She’d already guessed he was an excellent leader. “Can you take us in any lower?”

  He nodded. “Increases the risk of being spotted, but I think it’s worth it. Mac, I’m heading in for a closer look.”

  The Darkswift dipped and Avery had to swallow back her laugh. God, she loved these things.

  Suddenly, Roth pushed them into a hard dive, and when she glanced over at him, he was smiling. She realized he was doing it for her. For the first time in a long time, Avery laughed, hard and loud.

  But soon, they were both focused on the ground below.

  “Can you see anything else?” he asked.

  “No.” If Howell and any human survivors were indeed living here, they were being careful to keep themselves hidden.

  “Roth.” Arden’s voice. “The drone is picking up a faint heat signature on the ground. Ten meters southwest of the coal prep plant structure. In what looks like trees.”

  “We’ll check it out.” Roth turned the craft.

  “There are the trees.” Avery pointed to a large, lone stand of trees surrounded by thick bush.

  Roth cursed. “If anyone’s in there, they’re too well-hidden. They picked their spot well.”

  A flash of something caught Avery’s eye. “I think I might have just seen a reflection off binocs.” She stared, trying to spot something through the foliage. Her eyes watered from the strain. “Can’t see a damn thing.”

  “We’ll mark it and come back with a couple of squads to take a look around.”

  “Roth.” This time it was Mac on the comm. “Sienna and I are headed a little farther west. Thought we might have spotted something there.”

  “Go,” he said. “Avery and I will swing around for another look at the mine, then we’ll all rendezvous at the meeting point.” He rattled off some coordinates. “After that, we’ll head back to base and take a look at everything we’ve got.”

  “Got it,” Mac said.

  Avery stared at the space where she guessed Mac’s Darkswift was hiding, imagined it peeling aw
ay. “You really aren’t going to let me have a go flying? I’ve piloted gliders before. They’re sort of similar.”

  “A glider is nothing like a Darkswift. And no, you can’t fly until you’re qualified.”

  She poked her tongue out at him.

  His eyes darkened. “Careful. I might take that as a challenge.”

  Avery felt a hot rush flash through her. She liked challenging Roth Masters.

  They did another circle of the mine, lower this time. Everything remained quiet and still.

  “Roth!” Arden’s voice broke through, loud and urgent, and made Avery jerk. “I have some strange heat signatures heading your way. They’re airborne.”

  “What?” Roth arched his neck looking out the cockpit screen. “I don’t see anything.”

  “There are four of them, and they’re big. Not pteros, though.”

  Avery scanned the area as well. She didn’t see anything.

  Then something slammed into the cockpit.

  “Fuck.” As the Darkswift veered to the right, Roth grabbed the controls, struggling to get them level. “Illusion system’s down.”

  Another…thing slammed into the cockpit, and Avery grabbed onto the handholds built into the molded seat. She caught a glimpse of a long, black body and…wings.

  “It’s some sort of flying creature,” she called out. As the animal flew over them, she tried to keep it in sight.

  Bam. Another hit. This time the creature didn’t fly away, but pulled back, hovering in front of the cockpit screen.

  “Oh, my God,” she murmured.

  “What the hell?” Roth was staring, too.

  It was some sort of giant, alien insect. It had a long, elongated body, a head topped with huge, multifaceted eyes, and a large mouth with serrated mandibles on either side. It had two sets of large and strong-looking, transparent wings.

  The creature rushed forwardand slammed into the Darkswift. The strength of the hit knocked the craft to the side again.

  Another alien insect crashed into them, and another.

  “Dammit.” Roth was fighting the controls. “We can’t get out of here if they keep this up.” He rammed down on the throttle.