Page 13 of Russian Rescue

I followed orders, yanking the dark blue t-shirt over my head and smoothing it down. “I’m certainly not going to win any fashion contests today.”

“As long as you are alive at the end of the day, I’m gonna call that a win.”

“Valid.” I grinned. “Thank you for saving me, Piper. I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

She lifted her dark eyebrows. “You’re not saved yet, so don’t jinx it. I’ll consider mission accomplished when we’re safely back on US soil.”

I nodded my agreement. “So, what’s the plan?”

She waved at a cab passing by, but it just kept moving. While she flipped the driver the bird, she responded, “The plan is to get to our safe house in Moscow. We can lay low for the night. Tomorrow we’ll get out of town and get to the airstrip.”

I was going to fly with Knox. Crazy. I’d been a virtual passenger on his flights before, and the dude put the Top Gun guys to shame with his skills. Every member of an Elite Stealth Force team had a special skill set that, when joined together, helped the team excel in any situation. Knox was the pilot and the heavy hitter... the explosives guy, and the guy who came in with guns blazing when shit got real.

Marcus was the brains and the sniper of our operation. He could smoke a target from over three thousand meters. With his stealthy moves and calculated planning, more times than not, he made his kill and got out without ever needing to call Knox in for backup.

And then there was Piper.

I looked over at her, still shocked to see her in the flesh.

Piper was the deadliest weapon of us all. She could seduce her way straight into the arms of her target and take him out without leaving a trace of evidence. Many “heart attacks” and “accidents” that took out some of the world’s biggest and baddest were, in fact, Piper’s victims. Stealth was the operative word in our organization’s name, and she was as stealthy as they came.

Then there was me. The computer guy. The eyes in the sky. I’d never gotten involved in the action until today, and as much as I enjoyed being at Piper’s side, I was also wishing I was sitting on my couch at home in my underwear hacking the street cameras to keep Piper safe. Sure, we had Brooks helping us along the way, and though he was doing a good job, there wasn’t anyone on this planet as good as me.

Which was exactly why the Russians had taken me.

“Shit,” Piper whispered.

I spun to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

“Brooks got ahold of a traffic cam nearby and picked up guys on our tail. We need to move. Now. Brooks, we’re heading into the Metro. Try to get ahold of the cameras there.”

“I’ve hacked this Metro before. I can walk him through it if you give me the comms,” I said quickly.

Piper paused and lifted her finger, then a few moments later, she shook her head. “He says he’s got it. He’ll let us know if he loses visual inside.”

She grabbed my hand, and we rushed down the stairs to the Metro entrance. We pushed under the red “M” above our heads and into the wooden doors. Once inside, Piper quickly purchased tickets at the automated kiosk.

She paused, someone saying something into her comms.

“Shit. They’re coming. We need to move. Now.”

We hurried to the turnstile and swiped our passes. As soon as we were through, we got to the top of an escalator that seemed to go on forever.

“Holy shit,” I said as I stared down at the never-ending line of people riding up and down.

“Yeah. It’s one of the longest escalators in the world. And we need to get down it fast. Follow me.”

We moved to the left, hurrying past all the stationary riders lined up on the right. When I glanced back over my shoulder, I saw some large men dressed in the same dark clothes my guards had worn.

“We’ve got company,” I whispered.

“I know.” She picked up her pace as we moved farther down.

“What happens when we hit the bottom?”

“We hope a train is waiting. They come like every sixty seconds, so if we’re lucky, we can jump on before they get there and be gone.”

I bumped a guy to my right and apologized quickly, then asked, “And if we’re not lucky?”