Julian took a step back, momentarily stunned, but then he gripped Cameron’s hand harder and pulled him, turning and running, leaving Ty behind them to stem the tide of the oncoming suits. Cameron managed to glance back in time to see Ty launch himself into the first man; then they were obscured by the panicking crowd around them.
“But… Julian! They’ll kill him!”
“They’ll kill us, Cam!”
Stopping him was impossible against Julian’s size and determination. They darted in and out of pockets of confused people, weaving their way through the masses and finally finding a side hallway that had an emergency exit at the end. Julian started toward it, but he hesitated, glancing over his shoulder. Cameron jumped on the vacillation.
“Julian, I know you two didn’t get along, but please! He and Zane could have just given you to them, but instead they’re trying to help us,” Cameron said, pulling on Julian’s hand, the upset getting stronger the longer they were away. Every second was a second Ty could be dying. “He doesn’t deserve to die for trying to help us.”
Julian met his eyes, and Cameron could see the indecision there. Then he shook his head and turned for the exit.
“Please! He’d come back for you, and you know it!”
Julian stopped and turned again, an anguished expression passing over his face. “Goddammit all to hell, Cam,” he finally growled, the words rolling out beautifully in his Irish accent. “Stay here.” And with that he launched himself back into the crowd.
Now both desperately afraid and insanely relieved, Cameron followed despite what Julian had said. The concourse had cleared some, but the space where they’d left Ty to make his last stand was a jumble of people and suitcases and café chairs. Tables were overturned, magazines littered the floor, and the contents of suitcases were strewn about where they’d been dropped.
Two men lay on the floor as well, one bleeding and motionless, the other writhing and screaming as he held his arm at an odd angle.
They reached the melee just in time to witness an impressive roundhouse kick to a charcoal suit’s head that sent the man sprawling. But then a gun was pulled behind Ty, drawing his attention long enough for two more suits to swamp him. He disappeared under a hail of fists and expensive wool and silk. Cameron could see Ty lashing out, being held down and fighting like a wild horse trying not to be roped. He was kicked in the ribs, stomped on the side of the head as he tried and failed to roll away. Another gun was pulled and put to the back of his head.
“No!” Cameron yelled just as Julian went for the gun, knocking it and its owner to the ground. Zane appeared on the other side of the dog pile, wading in as if they weren’t outnumbered and weaponless.
Julian’s movements were quick and efficient, hands grabbing the suit’s neck and chin and twisting with a vicious, sickening crunch. He shoved the man aside and reached to the bottom of the pile, pulling Ty out by his collar like he was scruffing a kitten.
“How did I know this commotion was your doing?” Zane yelled at them.
“Come on!” Cameron called. Before he could get more words out, he was shocked into crying out when someone grabbed him from behind. He immediately started to struggle against whoever held him. “Julian!” Cameron called out in real terror.
Julian looked up, dropped Ty’s nearly limp body back into the fray, and raised the gun he’d confiscated. The shot was deafening, and the warm spray on Cameron’s ear and cheek was evidence that Julian’s aim was true. The hands released him, and the bulk that had been behind him fell away. Cameron reflexively lifted his hand to wipe at the splatter across his cheek.
Then Julian reached back down and grabbed Ty again, jerking him off the floor. “Come on!” he shouted at Zane. Zane knocked down the man with whom he’d been grappling with a vicious punch to the midsection, grabbed a gun off one of the unconscious men, and was only a couple of steps behind them as they ran toward Cameron, Julian dragging Ty with him.
The gunshot had caused more panic, and now TSA and other airport security were starting to appear, rushing into the wrecked causeway, trying to get people out of the way and assess the situation.
Julian wrapped his arm around Ty and supported some of his weight, ducking his head and hiding his face as they made their way past the overwhelmed security checkpoint. They followed the crowd, letting it sweep them toward the exits. Cameron ducked under Zane’s arm to hide as they shuffled out. Zane flashed his badge at the man who tried to stop them to hasten their exit.
“There. Government-issue SUV at the curb,” Julian said as he pointed through the glass doors. “I managed to get the keys off one of them.”
Zane headed that way without even questioning it, and he went to the back door to try the handle. It popped open, and Julian shoved Ty inside and then climbed in after him, leaving the front for Cameron and Zane. Cameron scrambled in through the driver’s side and over the console. Zane glanced around them before climbing in, calmly shutting the door and driving away into traffic.
Cameron turned in his seat to look at the two men in the back. “Ty? Are you okay?”
“Feels like somebody shoved a boot between my ribs,” Ty answered, voice strained.
“That’s actually exactly what happened,” Cameron told him.
Ty hissed and then growled at Julian. “Quit touching me.”
“I’m trying to make sure you’re not dying,” Julian shot back.
“Well, that hurts!”
“All the more reason to poke it!”
“Play nice,” Zane said, but there was too much edge in his tone for it to be funny.
Cameron watched how he kept checking the rearview mirror. He wondered if Zane was checking for a tail or trying to get a look at his roughed-up partner.
“Will we get away?”
“For now,” Zane said. “It’ll take them some time to figure out who’s where and what’s missing, enough time for us to get somewhere and disable the GPS in this thing. But it won’t last.”
“That was fucking stupid,” Ty muttered from the backseat. “I told you to go.”
“Yes, well, unfortunately my conscience is a little more willful than most,” Julian grumbled, and Cameron knew his lover was talking about him.
“They were CIA again, Zane,” Ty said, voice soft and hoarse. He pulled a badge from his coat, waving it at them. He had lifted it from one of the men in the airport. “I identified myself and they didn’t care.”
“Rogue cell,” Julian murmured. “They’ve got to be acting under his orders.”
“Whose orders?”
Julian took a moment to explain what was going on to Zane, and it was mostly news to Cameron too.
“Burns must be protecting someone,” Ty said, voice still strained. “Or investigating on the down low.”
“Rogue or not, they’ve had the resources and the manpower to stay on us this long. I don’t see that mess stopping them from keeping after us,” Zane said as he shifted his attention back and forth from traffic and the rearview.
“We need to get somewhere safe. Unexpected,” Ty said. Cameron couldn’t see him, but he sounded worn and beaten.
“And soon. Your partner is bleeding,” Julian informed Zane without a hint of sympathy.
Zane finally looked over his shoulder back at Ty. “How serious?”
“Shut up, that’s not my blood,” Ty murmured. His voice sounded weak.
“Ty,” Zane said, his voice brooking no humorous pushover. Cameron heard leather squeak, and when he looked, he saw Zane’s hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white.
“What? It’s not my blood!”
“Let me see it,” Julian demanded, and a moment later there were sounds of a scuffle from the back seat.
“I am AB positive and this is distinctly type O blood!” Ty finally shouted at him. “Look at the little Os!”
“Jesus Christ, Grady, can you not take one fucking thing seriously?” Julian yelled back in utter frustration. Cameron wondered what it was about Ty that made Julian lose his composure so easily. If he weren’t so secure in their relationship, he might actually be jealous of it.
Cameron gasped as the SUV jerked over to the shoulder of the road and came to a sudden stop. Zane threw it into park and turned in his seat. “Enough!” he shouted, grabbing Ty’s wrist when it flailed within reach. Cameron shrank back, leaning against the passenger-side door as Zane growled. “Grady, give me a clear answer, dammit!”
“I’m not bleeding!” Ty insisted, sounding a mixture of exasperated and hurt that Zane didn’t believe him. “Would you put the car back in drive before we’re strafed by CIA fighter jets or something?”
“I swear to fucking God,” Zane cursed under his breath as he let go, turned back around, and got the SUV moving again.
Cameron leaned his head back against the leather headrest and closed his eyes. This was like National Lampoon’s Vacation, but with death, property destruction, and an Irish accent. He groaned and covered his face with one hand, only to touch sticky blood all down his cheek and jawline. He groaned again. The second time it sounded pitiful, even to his ears.
There was a tense silence for several seconds, and then Ty opened his mouth one last time. “I think the kid is bleeding.”
“WHO are these people?” Agent X asked his superior in utter frustration.
“We’ve finally discerned their identities. They’re FBI.”
“Real FBI?”
“It would appear so. Richard Burns is pulling no punches when it comes to old friends.”
“Do you wish us to continue? They killed two of my men.”
“And stole two of your vehicles.”
“I don’t mourn the cars.”
“Now that we’re certain we know the names of the men involved, it will be easier to find them.”
“If you say so, sir.”
“Keep on them.”
“Yes, sir.”
He hung up and looked around the concourse of Pittsburgh International Airport. FBI agents. They had done this with two prisoners in tow and no weapons. He was beginning to wish he’d been sent to Alaska instead of this assignment.
“OKAY, if this is the CIA, what else are they doing?” Ty asked Julian as soon as they were satisfied that they’d lost any tails and disassembled the GPS in their stolen car.
“What do you mean?”
“We know they were pinging the GPS in the bureau car.”
“Wait, I thought you dismantled that,” Cameron said as he turned around.
“Bureau issue vehicles have two types of GPS. The backup is covert, meaning it’s passive,” Ty said.
“The Agency was pinging us with their remote systems,” Julian explained.
“You knew,” Zane said as he looked in the mirror at Julian.
“Well, at the time I was hoping to pit the sides against each other and escape.”
“At least he’s honest,” Ty grumbled.
Zane glared at both of them for a moment.
Cameron waved a hand. “Okay, I get how they found us in the car you stole.”
“Borrowed,” Ty said.
“Whatever, psychopath. But how did they find us after?”
“Any number of ways,” Julian said in a troubled voice. “Credit cards. The tolls when we passed through. Our cell phones. Depending on how high this goes, they could have even diverted a satellite.”
“How high does it go?” Zane asked.
“I don’t know his name, I just know his voice.”
“You said cell phones,” Ty murmured
“Yes. You turned the GPS off, but again, if it goes high enough, they can turn it back on remotely.”
“Right. But do they have the firepower to listen in on calls?” Ty asked.
“Yes,” Julian said with a simple nod.
Ty looked from Julian to Zane, and Zane had to take his eyes off the road long enough to meet Ty’s eyes in the mirror. He could tell Ty was formulating a plan, and the fear behind those hazel eyes told Zane that Ty didn’t like what he was thinking.
“What?” Zane asked with a growing sense of dread.
“If they’re picking up on our calls, maybe we can call for help.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry, I believe you lost me as well,” Julian said.
“At least I’m not the only one,” Cameron muttered.
“They’re big, we’re little. Their strength is the information they gather and how they do it. We have to turn that against them.”
“A skewer,” Julian said in a surprised voice.
“A what?” Ty asked.
“Chess. A skewer is a chess move. Use their strength against them. Their queen is opposite our rook. They’re supported by their knight, and we only have a pawn. But if their queen takes our rook, our pawn takes their queen.”
“I’m sorry, was that English?” Ty asked in exasperation.
Zane looked up at the mirror to see Julian again. He was a fascinating person once he opened up enough to allow them insight into his mind. Zane was glad he was on their side now.
“I’m agreeing with you, you wanker,” Julian snapped.
“Well, stop, it’s weird.”
Julian grunted and sat back with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I have no idea how to play chess,” Ty said in a flat voice. Zane glanced at his partner. Talk about fascinating, though, Zane didn’t have to go further than Ty. Zane would never get tired of watching the way Ty’s mind worked. “But yeah, I guess, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. We need a pawn.”