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Fear and indecision flashed through the woman’s teary eyes. “I can’t?—”
Garin dropped the barrel of his gun to the woman’s leg. “Take us to your data center on your own two feet or I’ll blow out your knee and you’ll have to point as we drag you.”
“Garin,” Dom hissed, horror in his breath.
Garin felt that horror deep in his soul. Fuck, he hated this. He’d always hated this. There was a reason he’d gone into protection instead of classic mercenary work when he’d finished his service.
“Please don’t.” The woman burst into sobs, the tears trembling on her eyelashes spilling over her cheeks. “I’ll take you. I’ll take you. It’s this way.”
This was protection, Garin told himself as he and Dom followed the sniffling woman. This was protecting Dom as he made a colossal life decision and supporting him in his mission to make the world a better place. And if Garin had to break a few knees to make that omelet, he would.
But he really hoped he wouldn’t have to.
They reached a heavy metal door without an alarm sounding, but the hairs rose on the back of Garin’s neck.
“No guards?” Garin raised an eyebrow as he raised his gun to point at the woman again.
“No.” The woman lifted her hands and shook her head. “No, every scientist that has access is accompanied by a guard from the moment they set foot on the station to the moment they leave. So the doors aren’t guarded. But you—” the woman choked up. “You—Mine?—”
“Just open the doors.” Garin steeled himself against the onslaught of guilt. He didn’t have time to hope the scientist and her guard hadn’t been close.
The woman clasped her hands together, bit her lip, and glanced at the keypad and scanners beside the door.
Dom made an urgent sound from behind Garin. “Just open it so he doesn’t tear your eye out. No one wants that.”
No one wanted that indeed, and also Garin wouldn’t have to do that. A little thing like her he could grab and force to look into the scanner, no eye-plucking required. But the woman made a horrified gasp and turned to the keypad. She quickly typed in her code, slid her keycard, and stood on her tip-toes to stare into the retina scanner.
So, there had been a password. It was a good thing they’d run into a scientist that was so easy to intimidate. Garin winced. Two weeks ago, all he’d been dealing with were geysers and critters and none of those he’d had to scare within an inch of their life. Hell, the critters had even liked him.
Dom dashed into the room as soon as it slid open, and Garin’s heart stopped as he disappeared.
“Wait!” Garin rushed after him, but, fortunately, the room was empty except for rows and rows of humming electronics and various screens with which to access them. Footsteps echoing behind him yanked Garin back again. “Shit.”
He lunged into the hall, but the woman had made the most of her three second head start, sprinting away as fast as her legs could carry her. Garin could catch her, but that risked leaving Dom uncovered for too long.
“Okay, I can access everything I need from here.” Dom’s voice floated out from inside the room. “They’ve got some security, but they stole their algorithms from us anyway and implemented them worse, so I already know how to get around them. If I’m too heavy-handed, I’ll set off the alarm, but I can disable it?—”
“Don’t bother, the alarm’s already been raised, or will be as soon as that woman finds a panic button.” Garin returned to the room and planted his back to the doorframe. “Just wipe that data as fast as you can before you get locked out.”
“Shit. Okay. Okay, I’m going.” Dom’s fingers shook as he typed. His whole frame shook, but he didn’t take his eyes off the screen and his lower lip stayed firmly between his teeth.
That was more composure than most people would have in this sort of life-or-death situation. Though if Garin were honest with himself—which he could be, even if he wasn’t ready to be honest with Dom—the outcome was looking more and more likely to be of the death variety. At least for him, the bodyguard, if not for the financially valuable son of an oligarch.
Garin swallowed as a mass of black emerged from around the corner at the end of the hall. Speaking of death… “We’ve got company.”
“I’m not done.” Dom’s voice spiked an octave. “Garin, I’m not done! What do I do?”
“You keep going.” Garin fired off a shot into the center of the mass of guards to let them know he was there, and they all dodged to the side and slowed their advance. “I can hold them off.”
For a while.
Garin saw the flash of light glinting off the barrel of a rising gun and ducked into the server room in time to avoid the hail of bullets that followed.
“Okay, I got it!” Dom shouted, triumph in his voice. “What can I?—”
“Get this door closed!” Garin shouted back before Dom finished. He leaned into the hall to fire two shots down the corridor, catching one man in the knee and another in the shoulder. He tucked in before they answered, bullets whizzing past the open entrance. Damn, they were closer than he’d expected.
“Closed?” Dom’s voice jumped with panic. “But we need to get out!”
