Fire and Ice (Guardians Book 1)

“They took her! God damn it to hell! They fucking took her!” Jack roared when his friend showed up at the scene of the abduction.

A paramedic loaded Lee Isaac into the ambulance. He had taken a bullet to the shoulder and had lost a lot of blood. They had refused to let Jack question him which contributed to his outburst.

Derek got into Jack’s face. “Man, I need you to get control of yourself or I’m going to have to lock you down.”

He glared at his friend. “If that motherfuckin’ Isaac hadn’t played the lovesick fool, Maia wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“That’s hardly sympathetic, Jack. The man got shot.”

“Fuck that!”

A Baltimore police officer approached them and said tentatively, “Gentlemen, I need a statement.”

“This is a federal matter,” Derek told the cop. “You’ll need to talk to the DEA representative in Baltimore.”

“Do you have a license to carry that, sir?” The police officer asked as he eyed the 9mm tucked behind the waistband of Jack’s jeans. He had thrown on a long-sleeved henley over his jeans after he got the call from the surveillance team that Maia had left the hotel with Lee Isaac. He had not bothered to wear a jacket to conceal his firearm.

Jack scowled at the cop.

“Maryland is a licensed open-carry state, sir,” the cop added uncomfortably.

“I’m under the jurisdiction of the DEA on this assignment,” Jack said impatiently. “Wouldn’t that give me license?”

“I’m not sure…”

“Let’s cut the crap, officer. An agent had been abducted by the Russian mob,” Jack said forcefully. “I’m sure you’re aware of the raid last night at Addison Music Hall. Well, this is the mob paying us back.”

“Jesus Christ,” the police officer muttered.

“Anything else?” Jack asked curtly.

The officer shook his head and stepped aside.

Jack turned on his heel and stalked back to the hotel. Derek sighed and followed his friend.

“We’re fucked,” Jack ground out. “Maia and Rick were the leads on this case.”

“I’m calling Viktor.” Derek pulled out his phone. “He needs to know about this ASAP.”

Scott jogged up to the two men. He had been trying to track Maia’s phone. He handed Jack the device.

“They got rid of it a mile from here. Sorry, Jack.”

He accepted the phone, a lump forming in his throat as he remembered how pissed he had been Maia left the hotel with Lee. He sent that angry text with a mixture of jealousy and worry. He felt his eyes sting as he recalled their unforgettable moment the night before. Sex was sex with anyone else, but what he felt for Maia went beyond anything he had felt for anyone. Consuming passion and intense need: he knew right then and there that he had fallen in love with her. Deeply. Irrevocably.

And now she had been kidnapped by the man who wanted to cause her the most harm. Jack didn’t believe in fate, he believed a man made his own destiny. But somehow, if fate was real, it was really cruel. Giving him Maia for a short time only to take her away in the blink of an eye, he could just howl at the injustice of it all.

He must have made an anguished sound because Derek immediately grabbed him around his shoulder and pulled him aside.

“Get a grip, McCord. This isn’t over yet.”

“I love her. Fuck. I’m in love with her.”

Derek stared at him, obviously stunned by Jack’s sudden confession. “Oh, man.”

“What did Viktor say?” Jack cleared his throat as he tried to keep focus on finding Maia.

“What they got from Colt was useless. Reznikov had already abandoned the warehouse. Forensics is at the site right now gathering evidence.”

“I’m surprised he talked at all. According to Maia, he was spitting in the face of his interrogators yesterday.”

“They tracked down his wife and two-year old daughter.”

“Christ, what did the DEA do?”

“I didn’t ask. I don’t wanna know.”

“Jack,” Derek continued, eyeing him carefully. “DEA is calling this a dead end.”

“What are you saying?”

“They’re abandoning the operation in Baltimore. They have no new leads. Addison is shutdown and the owners are being held for investigation.”

Jack stared at Derek, incredulous. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you saying they’re abandoning Rick Grayson?”

“No, they’re forming a smaller team to look for Rick. I think they’ve established that they’ve disrupted Reznikov’s operation and he’s on the run.”

“They can’t just finish this half-assed!” Jack said angrily.

“I’m with you on that, man.”

“And Viktor?”

Derek clenched his jaw grimly. “No way Viktor is abandoning Maia. I can assure you of that.”

Jack, at least, felt a degree of consolation in that.

“Wake up! Wake Up, Maia!”

The voice dragged her from the depths of unconsciousness into a dimly-lit room and the worried face of Rick Grayson.

“Rick?”

“Hi, sweetie.”

“Hi sweetie?” Maia muttered as she struggled to sit up. Her hands were bound behind her back and her feet were also tied together. “That’s all you’ve got to say? We were worried about you! If you have asked me to back you up I would have …”

“Whoa! Whoa!” Rick chuckled. “I didn’t know you missed me that much.”

“Glad you find that amusing,” Maia retorted and winced at the ache on the back of her head. She looked at Rick: his face was bruised so they must have roughened him up a bit, but at least they didn’t …

“My fingers are all there,” Rick said reading her mind.

“Any idea where we are?”

The room was small and dank with no furnishings but there was a toilet attached to the room. A lone incandescent bulb in the middle of the ceiling was the sole source of light. There were some basement windows near the top of the ceiling which gave them an idea as to what part of the structure they were in. Basement. Rick and Maia were sitting on the cold cement floor, not exactly the luxury-hotel treatment.

“No,” Rick said, his face turning all serious. “But I know you guys got him running scared after blowing up his operation at Addison’s. And I heard you got the bastard Colt too. Now he’s working blind since Colt took care of most of his contacts. Some of his men had lost confidence in him and had scattered. He still has his chemist working in a lab somewhere in this place although I have a suspicion he is working under duress.”

“Oh my God. Lee!” she exclaimed.

“What happened?”

“They shot Lee Isaac. I’m not sure if he’s okay.”

“Is that how they caught you?”

“Yes, I broke protocol and left the hotel with him.”

Rick snorted. “Bet Jack was thrilled with that.”

“Shut up! This isn’t funny. Reznikov double-crossed me.”

“You trusted him?”

“Not really. But I didn’t have a choice.”

She could worry about Lee later. For the moment, she needed to figure out how to use their current situation to her advantage. There was a silver lining in this after all. No more looking for Reznikov, she was exactly where he was. And he was on the run and desperate.

“So how many men do you think he has left?” Maia asked.

“I would say six mercenaries and two regular soldiers.”

“How well armed are they?”

“Carbines and semi-automatic pistols from what I’ve seen.”

They both fell silent when they heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

The door to the room swung open and Sergei Reznikov walked in, flanked by two guards.

“Good, you’re awake.”

“What do you want, Sergei?” Maia asked acidly.

The Russian exploded in anger and walked up to Maia and backhanded her viciously.

Rick tried to lunge at Reznikov but was held back by the barrel of an M4.

“I ask the questions, suka!” Sergei spat out the Russian slang for bitch.

“Where’s Peter Coltrane?”

“The DEA has him.”

“How did you manage to capture him?”

Maia laughed mockingly even as Rick looked at her like she had lost her mind.

This infuriated Reznikov even more and he hit her again, at the same time kicking her repeatedly.

“You’re pathetic, Sergei,” Maia sneered. She had collapsed on the floor from the blows and spat out the blood that bubbled up to her mouth. “Didn’t you know Gavlik sent some men after you?”

Maia noticed how Reznikov’s two guards exchanged uncomfortable, frightened glances.

“Yes, I have to thank them for working Colt over for me so I could wrap him up prettily and hand him over to the DEA,” Maia said.

“You’re lying. Where are they now?”

“I killed them. But don’t worry, I’m sure Gavlik will send some more.” Maia looked at the guards. “If I were you, I’d get the hell out of here …”

“Enough!” Sergei screamed at her, drawing his pistol from its holster.

“No,” Rick shouted as he freed himself from the guards to shield Maia with his body.

“Hold him!” Reznikov ordered as his goons pulled a struggling Rick off of Maia. Sergei bent and pointed the muzzle of his gun at Maia’s head. He racked the slide, his hand trembling as Maia regarded him mutinously, daring him to pull the trigger.

“I should kill you now and get it over with,” he snarled. “But something tells me I still have use for you.”

He uncocked his gun and looked at one of the guards. “Stepan, guard the door.” And then he left the room.

Rick wiggled over to Maia, an incredulous, pissed-off look on his face.

“You’re crazy, you know that?” Rick rasped. “What the hell was that? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Reznikov is a coward,” Maia explained. “He doesn’t know how to do his own dirty work.”

“Doesn’t mean you should try to piss the guy off enough to shoot you.”

“Trying to rattle his cage is all,” Maia said, but grimaced as she tried to smirk. Sergei had a mean backhand.

“Are you all right?”

“I’ve been better. My insides are burning,” Maia admitted as she started coughing up more blood.

Rick grunted.

She lowered her voice further. “I have a plan.”

“Hurry up, Rick,” Maia whispered. She kept a blade under the sole of her shoes for situations exactly like this. Rick had been working on her restraints for over twenty minutes. Since the blade was small, it was taking a while adding to the fact that with his hands tied, the whole task was challenging. “Ow, ow, that’s my arm.”

“Fuck, sorry,” Rick said apologetically.

“I got it, I think I can work them out,” Maia rubbed her hands free and quickly took the blade from Rick to work on his ties. Once free, they both worked on their foot restraints, loosening them but not quite removing them.

“You ready?” Rick asked.

Maia nodded. She lay down on her side in a fetal position with her front facing the door. Her unbound hands were hidden behind her back.

Rick sat back against the wall also with his arms behind him.

“Hey, you out there! I need some help!” Rick called out. “I think something’s wrong with her.”

Stepan poked his head through the door. “What do you want?”

“I think Sergei kicked her too hard. I think she has internal bleeding.”

Maia moaned softly but remained very still.

“We don’t have a doctor, there’s nothing we can do.”

Stepan closed the door and walked away.

The two prisoners looked at each other, chagrined.

“Okay, that didn’t go over very well,” Maia muttered.

“I guess that old trick had been overused,” Rick replied dryly.

Just then they heard footfalls shuffling quickly back towards their room and they moved back into position again. The door opened. Stepan walked through with another guard. They spoke in Russian, but Maia understood.

“Maybe the doctor can help her.”

“She’s a chemist not a medical doctor.”

“Let’s just take her, huh?”

“Shouldn’t we ask Sergei first?”

“He’s in an important conference call and asked not to be disturbed. If she dies, he won’t be happy.”

The other guard gestured for Rick to move back. Stepan bent down to pick her up. When he was close enough, she struck. She flipped into a push up position and swept her feet under him causing him to fall on his back.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Rick had surprised the other guard.

Not giving Stepan time to recover, she bore down on him with the weight of her body and jabbed her elbow into his larynx. While he gasped for breath, Maia got on top of him and broke his neck.

Rick, in the meantime, had subdued the other guard by rendering him unconscious.

“You can’t leave him alive,” Maia said flatly.

“Sorry if I’m no cold-blooded killer,” Rick snapped back testily.

Maia shook her head in annoyance. “Look, you have a problem with my methods, suck it up. If you tie him up and he gets loose and we’re still around, that’s another hostile we’re up against, you get me?”

“I’m still in charge here,” Rick reminded her.

“Fine, let’s tie him up,” Maia retorted.

They used the ropes that had been their foot restraints to secure the remaining guard. Maia tore a strip of cloth from the guard’s clothing to gag him. They took an inventory of their arsenal: two carbines, two 9mm, two extra magazines.

They also took a set of keys. There were no cellphones on the guards. Maia grabbed one of their radios.

Rick poked his head through the door and checked out the hallway.

“It’s clear.”

“Question is, which way is out?”

“Footsteps keep coming from the right so I guess it’s that way.”

“This looks like a big old house.”

The two moved stealthily along the passageway until they saw stairs leading up. Maia saw an opposite hallway.

“I wonder what’s over there. I see light shining under one of the rooms,” Maia murmured.

“We do not have time to explore,” Rick hissed.

Suddenly the guard’s radio crackled.

“Stepan, come in. You forgot to check in.”

Rick and Maia looked at each other with an identical “Oh shit” look on their face.

“Let’s go!” Rick urged.

Halfway up the basement stairs, they heard the thundering of footsteps above; they were heading their way fast.

“Prisoners have escaped! They’re at the basement stairs.”

Too late they saw the camera that was mounted at the top of the steps.

“Goddamn it!” Rick cursed as he shot out the surveillance camera. “They’re almost on top of us. We need to retreat.”

“Over here,” Maia said quickly as she bolted down the hallway where she observed the lit room.

“Damn it, Maia,” Rick growled as he ran after her. A hail of gunfire peppered the ground behind them as Reznikov’s men appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Go, go, go!” Rick barked.

Reaching the room, Maia hurtled through the door, startling a young woman dressed in a lab coat.

She immediately hunkered down with her arms up.

“I’ll be damned,” Maia said as she surveyed the laboratory before her. Reznikov was closer to producing the Rave-IX than she thought. There was medical equipment and boxes of raw material stashed almost to the ceiling. A couple of steel tables, high-swivel chairs, metal book cases and an old wooden table were arranged throughout the room.

“Who are you?” Maia asked the young woman who right then looked scared shitless.

“My name is Lizveta,” the woman said in an accented voice. “Please, do not hurt me. I only do as I’m told.”

“Maia!” Rick yelled. “Some help here! I’m almost out.” He was taking cover behind a door frame while keeping the Russians at bay with a torrent of bullets.

“Here,” Maia said as she tossed one of her magazines to him. Rick gave her an incredulous look as she continued to interrogate Lizveta.

“Where is the formula for the Rave-IX?”

Lizveta’s eyes grew wide and her lips trembled. “Reznikov will kill me if I tell you.”

“I will kill you if you don’t tell me.”

“Maia, what the fuck?” Rick snarled in disbelief at her methods.

Lizveta immediately unlocked a safe, took out a binder and handed it to Maia. She fingered through it quickly and tore some pages off, folded and tucked them behind her jeans. She then gestured for the other woman to move to the far side of the room.

“We can’t outgun them,” Maia said as she did another scan of the room.

“You think?” Rick retorted. There was a lull in the gunfire.

“You two can’t escape!” Reznikov shouted from the other end. “There is no way out. Surrender now and we will make your deaths quick.”

“The guy really hates you,” Rick said sarcastically.

“Don’t know why? I’m so lovable,” Maia quipped as she rolled a tank of pressurized gas towards the doorway. Illeoic gas was a recently discovered compound that was used largely in pharmaceutical companies. It was lethally explosive and had zero burn.

“What are you doing?” Rick asked in alarm.

“What do you think? We’re running out of ammo. Unless you have a better idea, get the other two tanks. I’ll hold them off.”

“You’re fucking nuts, you know that right?” Rick said but he did what Maia told him to do.

Maia swung the carbine from her shoulder and leaned out to rake the base of the stairs with some gunfire.

“Come and get us you Russian A-holes,” Maia shouted as she shifted the carbine to single shot and took out one of his men who had dared to poke their head from behind the walls. She looked back to see how far along Rick had gotten.

“Rick, tilt the wood table. It’s heavy and thick enough to use as a shield. That should absorb and block the blast energy.”

“I’ll take the shot.”

“No! I need you to take Lizveta to safety or to dig me out in case I get buried. You’re physically stronger, and I’m a better shot.”

“I don’t think I can miss a tank of illeoic gas, Maia,” Rick snapped.

“We don’t have time to argue. Do it!”

Rick grudgingly followed her instructions. After a few minutes, he gave the signal that everything was in place.

Maia ejected her magazine and gave the sound of an empty chamber trigger sound.

“Shit, I’m out!” Maia yelled dramatically, loud enough for Reznikov and his men to hear.

She slammed the door shut and secured it with a metal rod. She arranged the gas tanks at the base and scrambled behind the wooden table directly in front of the door.

Running footsteps echoed down the hallway and bullets started puncturing the door. “Get it open!” Reznikov screamed, his voice vibrating with uncontrolled fury.

Maia smiled; she could taste the end of her ardent adversary. She looked over at Rick who was huddled in a corner behind some metal bookcases with Lizveta. He was looking at her with a mixture of dread and worry. She gave him a salute.

When bullets pelted the edge of the table, she peeked out from her cover, took aim at the gas tanks and fired.

The tank exploded. The massive shockwave knocked the table against Maia and blasted her straight into the shelves behind her causing them to collapse on top of her. She tried to move, but her limbs felt weighted with lead, her hearing was shot, and it felt like she was being dragged into the depths of a black hole. And then suddenly, there was nothing.

The DEA district office in Baltimore was crawling with agents following the drug bust at Addison Music Hall the previous night. The Rave-IX and cash recovered amounted to more than 10 million dollars.

Jack and Derek arrived with a few AGS Guardians to receive new directives following the loss of the two leads from both agencies. A silver-haired, stocky man greeted the group and introduced himself as Joe Kennedy—Rick Grayson’s supervisor. He led them into a conference room occupied by around eight other people who appeared to be talking or arguing at the same time.

“Jesus,” Jack muttered to Derek. “Cut off two heads and you’ve got chaos.”

“We’re almost all here, we are just waiting for …” Joe Kennedy started to say.

“I’m here,” a familiar voice spoke from the doorway.

A tall, European-looking man with very light blond hair stepped into the room. His glacier blue eyes glanced briefly over Jack before settling on Derek.

“Derek.” He nodded to the other AGS agents.

“Viktor,” Derek replied in greeting. Before he could introduce Jack, Viktor moved further into the room and took the seat beside Joe Kennedy.

“He’s not one for chit-chat,” Derek murmured to Jack.

“I don’t think he’s very pleased with me at the moment,” Jack replied. He observed the other man in Maia’s life, the seemingly constant force in her existence. For him to show up personally in this meeting only underlined the gravity of his concern of the current situation.

“So far we have no leads on the whereabouts of Agent Grayson and Miss Pierce,” Joe Kennedy said. “Forensics have gone over every strand of hair and fiber in the warehouse and have confirmed a DNA match that Richard Grayson had been in the area.”

“Are you sure you have extracted everything you can from Peter Coltrane?” Viktor asked in an authoritative voice.

“Of course we have,” Joe Kennedy replied, not appreciating being questioned by his AGS counterpart. “What I do question is how one of your agents got nabbed?”

“Might I remind you how my agent was instrumental in the bust last night, not to mention the capture of Colt?” Viktor’s eyes flashed with anger.

“Can we just focus on how to find them?” Jack interrupted impatiently. This blame game was not helping.

“That’s just the problem, McCord, we are at a dead end. The warehouse was it,” Joe replied.

“Bullshit,” Jack said. “The warehouse was what Colt gave up. Have you gone through the list of properties that Peter Coltrane owns? Or maybe they’re under his wife’s name?”

“Someone is going through that right now. We’ve only had Colt for less than 24 hours. It will take time to coordinate raids.”

“So it’s not a dead end,” Jack said with a degree of satisfaction. The problem with Federal agencies was the red tape. And the higher the position, the more likely it was to embrace the bureaucracy and slow things down.

“Has anyone checked the container at Baltimore Harbor?” a DEA agent spoke up.

“Yes, Colt gave up the container number but it was empty. There were some traces of the drug so we know it was the right container,” Joe said.

“Do we really know how much was floating around?”

“No. Right now forensics is going through Colt’s laptop to figure out who his clients were. If they are outside our jurisdiction, we will send it to the appropriate DEA district office. According to Agent Grayson, he was allotted 100,000 pieces at fifteen bucks each.”

“I want a crack at interrogating Colt,” Viktor spoke up.

“Absolutely not!” Joe said emphatically. “He is in our custody, I’m not sure your methods are … what we call … legal.”

Jack was losing patience. This meeting was going nowhere.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!”

A woman burst through the door, her face brimming with excitement. Everyone in the room tensed.

“There was a report of an explosion in a subdivision just outside of Baltimore. We were able to get the address from the 911 dispatcher. The house belongs to the parents of the wife of Peter Coltrane. We’re trying to get more information from the first responders.”

The room erupted in chatter.

“Oh my God,” Derek whispered as his eyes met Jack’s. Jack couldn’t form a coherent thought as multiple scenarios played through his head. All he wanted to do was get to the scene of the explosion immediately. He forced himself to wait patiently. The minutes ticked by torturously.

Finally another person entered the room.

“The details are hazy but we have confirmation that it’s Richard Grayson, he doesn’t appear to be injured badly” the man said as cheers and high-fives went around the room. “We have multiple fatalities in a basement explosion.”

Jack felt his stomach plummet.

“What about a Maia Pierce?” Viktor asked as he stood up.

The man shook his head, more as a sign that he didn’t know, than an outright no. “There was a woman reported to be in critical condition…”

That was enough to send Viktor tearing out of the room, Jack and Derek at his heels.

Viktor, aware that they were following him, said over his shoulder. “I have a chopper on standby, we can take that.”