Enemy Mine (The Base Branch Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

pistol drawn. She relieved them of several weapons and their communication devices. Since neither would likely die from the wounds, she restrained the moaning man with zip ties.
    After removing the women and child, Ryan restrained the unconscious one. When it was done, he spoke into his coms. “Confirming A10 as the location of shot origin. Just took out two of Kendrick's hostiles in the lobby. Requesting back up.”
    Tucker replied, “Affirmative, Alpha Team. Were shots fired?”
    “Negative.”
    “Proceed. Dispatching all teams to your location. If possible, report as you advance.”
    “Affirmative, sir.”
    Sloan broke in. “Sir,” Ryan’s gaze shot to hers in question, but she continued, “requesting permission to split and search.”
    Ryan growled, “No.”
    She shook her head and whispered, “No time.”
    The commander replied, “Affirmative.”
    The golden boy cursed. She ignored him, turning her vicious expression on the man at her feet. “Where is he?”
    The man whimpered and tried to hide his face in the floor. Sloan wrapped her slender fingers around the cool metal handle protruding from his gut. He jerked back against the wall. “No. Please.” His Xhosa accent rounded the words. He looked to Ryan, eyes pleading. “No.”
    She pulled the knife from his flesh, and stifled his scream with her hand. The blade showed crimson in front of his sweat-slicked face. She held it there, letting him study it for a moment, his eyes as big as matching moons. “Where is he?”
    Expelling a ragged breath, he said, “Roof.”
    Sloan pulled the knife from the other man’s belly, wiped them both on her pants, and put them back in the sheaths as she moved toward the corridor. She handed Ryan one of the still-quiet coms she’d taken off the men and lightly punched his shoulder.
    “You too,” he said, before turning and heading up the east stairwell.
    She sprinted up the west.
    A few flights up, she spoke into the coms. “At least we know he’s not on the roof.”
    “Yeah,” Ryan said. “So where the hell is he?”
    “Twelve or eleven. He needs the elevation to make the shot.”
    He used his authoritative voice, deep and oh-so-manly. “I’ve got twelve. You take eleven. Affirmative?”
    “Negative. Whoever gets there first takes the top floor.”
    Ryan clipped out an agreement. Certainly, like her, he’d already ramped up his effort to reach twelve first. Neither wanted eleven, when it was possible, but highly unlikely, the shot would be taken from the lower level. It would make a tricky shot, near impossible, except for those highly-trained few who graduated from the likes of SOTIC. Could Baine be that good?
    Much remained a mystery about the man being groomed to take over a war profiteer's army. On the surface, he appeared to be an average guy. A lawyer with dual citizenship and a healthy bank account living in London and the States equal parts of the year. Nice, but nothing too catching to a layman’s eye. But put on diving gear and plunge below the surface with a Base Branch expert and his records fuzzed around the teenage years and all but disappeared after the death of his mother. Untraceable travel. Little movement of personal funds. No love life to gossip about.
    His cover was good and many layers deep. So deep, even The Base’s analysts hadn’t whittled it into a discernible creature.
    Sloan had an advantage though. She knew Baine. Not what had become of him, but she knew the core of his being. She’d thought she’d known him enough to bet her life on the fact that he’d never become the soulless mirror of his father. As it turned out, she’d been wrong. So very wrong. Strategic bombings, assassinations, and choking other weapon runner’s supply routes had been attributed to his hand. Those Sloan couldn’t get worked up over. Bad guy deaths didn’t count in her book. But killing peaceable leaders to maintain regional unrest and bump demand, she couldn’t abide. This wasn’t his first