Free Defector by Susanne Winnacker Page B

grabbed her, and they vanished into thin air.” A hysterical laugh burst out of me.
    “Hey,” Alec said softly as my legs buckled and he picked me up. I wasn’t sure if it was the gas or Holly’s disappearance, but I was cracking up completely. “I caught one of them. He’s over there.”
    Alec carried me to the back of the building, where I’d seen the man with the sunglasses. He stepped over unmoving bodies without stopping to check if they were alive. “Are they dead?” I whispered. The taste of blood was overwhelming.
    Alec’s grip on my legs tightened. His fingers felt hot against my naked legs, and I shivered in only the thin dress shirt. How could I have thought it was sweltering just minutes ago? “I didn’t have the time to check them all. But the ones I did were alive, just unconscious. We have to hurry. I already called Major to tell him about this. He has to make sure that law enforcement doesn’t get wind of it. We can’t risk them finding out about us. We should be gone by the time they arrive.” I could already hear sirens in the distance.
    Alec stopped beside a body on the ground. “Can you walk?” he asked quietly. I nodded, though I wasn’t sure. My legs shook when he set me down. He didn’t let go of my arm.
    “I’m okay,” I said firmly.
    “I need to carry that guy toward the helicopter so we can get away,” Alec said with a nod toward the unmoving form.
    “Is he Abel’s Army?”
    “It seems that way. What else would he be doing here? And he tried to kick my ass with two other guys.”
    He was right, then—we’d need to bring him back to headquarters for questioning. Maybe the guy knew where Holly was. Alec wrapped his arm around the man’s back and hoisted him to his feet. I gasped. I knew him. It was the last agent who had been kidnapped, formerly one of our own. Agent Stevens.

CHAPTER 10
     
    I ’d never seen Major this furious. His entire face was twisted. The blades slowed down, and Major ripped open the door of the helicopter before it even stopped moving. Two older agents were at his side in a blink, and they helped him heave Stevens outside.
    “They took Holly,” I said again, my voice muffled by the blood in my nose. I’d said it out loud at least a dozen times, but it still didn’t seem real.
    “Alec already informed me,” Major said distractedly. “This isn’t the end of it. I’ll demand an explanation from Senator Pollard.” His scowl was fixed on Stevens, but the agent wasn’t intimidated. Something was different about him. When I’d last seen Major and Stevens in a room together, Stevens had cowered under Major’s stare and tried to make himself as small as possible, but not today. He held his head high and returned Major’s gaze without hesitation. He looked confident, defiant, completely at ease with himself.
    “Why did you take Holly?” I shouted at him, taking a step in his direction. He opened his mouth, but before he could reply, Major raised a Taser and stunned him. He sacked to the ground, face slack. I was frozen. Why had he done it? Stevens wasn’t being aggressive or struggling against his restraints. There was no reason for the violence.
    Major’s face was a mask of stone as he bagged the Taser again and straightened his collar.
    “Sir, what about Holly?” I asked as I watched two agents pick Stevens up from the ground. He hung limply in their grasp. I could feel Alec’s hand on my shoulder, steering me away from the helicopter. It had started raining again. I couldn’t stop shivering.
    “We’ll talk later, Tessa. I don’t have time for this now. Return to your room and try to get some rest,” Major said sharply.
    “But I want to be there when you interrogate Agent Stevens,” I insisted.
    Major shot me a quick look, his eyes lingering on the blood on my face and shirt. “That isn’t your place, I don’t think that would be wise. You heard what I said. Get some rest.”
    I stared at his back as he followed Stevens and