Page 120 of Alpha Awakened

Ortiz stopped directly in front of him.

“Ice was taken on our last mission,” she said quietly.

His heart unfroze, only to start pounding with fear and adrenaline. Ice wasn’t dead, but he’d been captured.

“What? Then why the fuck are we sitting here on base? Let’s go get him!”

Ortiz shook her head.

“We can’t yet. Unfortunately, we don’t know who took him or where they are. We have to wait on intel before we can begin the rescue operation.”

“Did anyone try to scent track him?”

Jax stood and answered.

“We both did. Ortiz and I tracked Ice to where they put him in a vehicle. We lost the trail after that.”

“Fuck.” Hazard strode over to his room. He threw his bag inside, uncaring where it landed. Then he turned around and headed for the front door.

“Where are you going?” Ortiz called out.

“To gear up,” he said as he yanked the door open. “I want to be ready to move the second we find out where he is.”

* * *

November 29, 1982

Time: Unknown

Location: Unknown

Ice expected to be tortured by his captors. And he was. Number Five doled out vicious punches to his gut and zapped him a couple of times with a stun gun while the leader asked him questions. No matter the pain, Ice gave nothing beyond his name, rank, and service number, as he’d been trained to do if captured.

But he noticed something was off about the interrogation. The punches and Taser shots hurt like a son of a bitch. But they could have done much worse. He’d been trained in deep interrogation techniques and he knew the terrible methods that could be used in order to pull info out of someone. So why weren’t any of those techniques being used on him? He was damn near insulted at the weak effort they were putting in. Did they really expect him to cave and talk so easily?

Regardless, he’d given up nothing. His captors hadn’t seemed all that disappointed at his silence, leaving him to wonder if the interrogation was a front and something else — something worse — was coming.

Currently, the lackluster interrogation was on hold. The leader and Number Five had left some time ago. Ice was being watched by two guards. Numbers Two and Three. He was in thesame room he’d been in since he’d been brought to this location — which appeared to be an abandoned corporate high rise. His wrists and ankles were both bound with duct tape, his wrists behind his back.

Going by the alternating sunlight and darkness peeking around the corner of the shade in the room’s single window, he’d been here for two days. The mercs had escorted him to the bathroom several times a day. They also brought him food that he refused to eat. He only drank the water provided after sniffing it to make sure it wasn’t poisoned.

Now, he was sitting here waiting for whatever was to come next. As he waited, his mind turned to plotting out his escape. He had no doubt that his squad was looking for him. But he had to try and get out on his own. He just needed to be smart about it to make sure the attempt was successful.

He flexed his wrists. He’d need to get loose first. Take out the guards second. Third, get his hands on the door key and a weapon. He’d worry about the next steps once he was out of this room. The best time to act would be during his next bathroom break. It’d be better if there was only one guard instead of two. But two was better than the six who’d originally captured him.

On the other side of the room, Numbers Two and Three lounged in their chairs, weapons across their laps. They were still in their balaclavas and goggles. Number Three stared at Ice. Ice stared back, but while he was still, Number Three restlessly drummed his fingers on top of the barrel of his rifle.

“Big bad wolf, huh? We should find out what’s behind that wolf mask.”

Number Two barked a hard laugh. “Probably an ugly motherfucker.”

“Has to be.” Three kicked at Two’s chair. “Go over there and take it off.”

Number Two shook his head. “Hell no. You take it off. I’m not getting any parts of me that close to his teeth so you can see what he looks like.”

Ice watched their back and forth. If one of them did try to remove his mask and balaclava, maybe he would take a bite out of them just for the hell of it.

Number Three scoffed. “Coward.”