But there was no time to mull. He grabbed his rifle off his back and ducked down, waiting for the count while he got the guard tower in sight. Thor was supposed to kick them off and as soon as he called it, Dice and Price would storm the other two and take out the guards as quietly as they could. He'd never been so damn jittery before a mission, but then again, it wasn't always that the state of the mission was reliant on the safety of his mate.
"Lynx Six. Going in on three … two … one."
Dice could only barely hear it, the soft thuds of two bodies falling on the ground as Thor took them out, smooth and efficient. No human could have heard the almost inaudible noises, but then again, the compound was guarded by werewolves. Possibly genetically modified, bordering on super soldier werewolves, if they got unlucky. By the lack of movement up in the tower, which was really just a platform hooked on a wide, sturdy tree, Dice figured they'd gotten lucky on the super soldier side of things.
He climbed up quietly, his knife between his teeth, stalling with his fingers holding onto the edge of the platform as he waited for the footsteps above him to pass. Then, fast as lightning, the large werebear commando threw himself over the side with the grace of a predator on the prowl.
Dice grabbed the man by the shoulder and before he could do so much as grab for his sidearm, Dice had shoved the knife into his neck, severing his windpipe and making sure he wasn't screaming for help any time soon. He dropped the man to the wooden floor of the platform, pulled the knife out and then shoved it in his forehead, ending the wolf's misery. Blue-eyed and blonde. Must have been hoping to move up in life by hanging out in the dregs for a while.
"Lynx One, south tower clear."
"Lynx Four, east tower clear," came Price's melodic voice over the comms, followed by Thor's earthy drawl confirming that he'd cleared the remaining two.
"Lynx One, all units move in. Lynx Five, are we secure?"
"Tucked in like pigs in a blanket," Prowler said, cackling his disconcerting chuckle at the end of it that made the hairs on Dice's neck still stand up after a good ten missions together with the man.
"Lynx One, Lynx Five, callsigns," he reminded tersely, privately rolling his eyes as he scooted down the tree and put his knife away on his hip, slinging the rifle back into his arms.
"Yeah, well, whatever," Prowler said with a sigh. "I mean, Lynx Five, yeah, well, whatever."
Smartass.
Dice threw himself against the outer wall of one of the three buildings that made up the inner circle of the compound, knowing his men would be taking up similar positions right about now. He counted to ten slowly, knowing that Thor would need some additional time to get there as Prowler was going to stay out of the fight due to having to monitor the transmissions. Dice was in no hurry to be made into Swiss cheese because he couldn't lay back and wait a couple of minutes.
There were supposedly about ten more men in the buildings, seven or so of them armed with a couple of lab geeks, which was what their intel coming in had said and which they'd confirmed over the past week as well. It should have been a fast job and that was what Dice was banking on.
He took a deep breath, finding his thoughts going to Meredith every few seconds unless he was actively focusing on the mission, rather than her. He had thought- …
It doesn't matter. Focus.
He gritted his teeth as he moved now, pressing past the corner and bringing his rifle up. His steps were sure and quiet, a silencer on the rifle in hopes of keeping things at least reasonably quiet since there could be other patrols in the area that weren't necessarily part of this compound. They knew of two locations that The Arctics kept here, but the bastards were crafty with their camouflage and it wouldn't be the first time for The Firm to get it wrong.
Dice had taken a few steps towards the front door when a guard came into his sights. His finger twitched on the trigger and the man fell into a crumpled heap on the ground, caught in the throat, as was Dice's personal style. He ran to the man, grabbing him by the arms and dragging him out of sight behind the corner he'd appeared from before moving further.
"Lynx One, taking building one," he spoke quietly, touching his earset as he swiped a code card he'd taken from the guy at the tower against the electronic locks.
He shouldered his way in and found the first room empty. Pushing further back, he came face to face with a lab tech who screeched in fear, only to be silenced a moment later. His friend suffered a similar fate, having come running to see what the fuss was about.
Dice shook his head, pressing his lips thin.
What a fucking waste of shifter life, he thought, catching the second guy's eyes flash from blue to gold for a moment before they became perfectly still.
Even a man's animal couldn't heal a through and through bullet wound to the throat.
He scoured the rest of the building, finding it empty, while Price and Thor called in their own kills. By the time Dice made it out of the building, Prowler was already strolling leisurely through the compound, looking like he owned the place. He might as well have, since no Arctics remained on the sight. At least not ones who could object to what they were doing there.
"Do you have an ETA on the convoy's arrival?" Dice asked raggedly, pushing up the thermal goggles he'd been wearing.
They were all dressed pretty casually for a major operation, wearing jungle camo pants and bulletproof vests, but otherwise all decked out in gear that they personally preferred. While Dice was a rifles kind of guy, Price seemed to be more about the sidearms and Thor, other than the sniper rifle he wielded like it was the sole means of bringing forth the Reckoning one day, he was very partial to his knives.
When Thor strolled out of the main building, wiping his bloody blade on his pants and grumbling to himself about how skull was a bitch to clean out of the ridges of the braided handle, Dice couldn't help but sigh mildly.
His happy band of misfits. No better now than when he'd met them the first time, but now at least their insanity seemed to be targeted in a direction that was wanton destruction, but with palpable results, not just the joy of mayhem.
"Should be here any sec now, Slicey," Prowler said with a wide grin, surveying the wolf Dice had taken out after the guard tower.
They'd taken to calling him Slice'N'Dice, or variations of that lately, after a particularly brutal show Dice had put on when they needed to torture an Arctics' informant who looked a smidge too much like Spade. It had been the first time Dice had really let the crazy shine through, but apparently it had made his men trust him. Crazy knew crazy, after all, even if it sounded particularly dark when put that way.
"Good," Dice said, crossing his arms over his chest as Price appeared as well, twirling his handgun around his index finger, whistling something while his face was speckled with blood.
"We all clear?" Dice asked.
"As clear as we're gonna be," Thor said with a shrug.
"Go do a sweep then. I want to be sure. Prowler, set up two rooms, one for your comms haul, one as our hub."
"What do I look like, your maid?" Prowler huffed, poking at his tiny handheld laptop with a quirked brow.
"Do it."
The way Dice's voice lowered and seemed to resonate with a growl had Prowler and Price both snapping their necks up to stare at him, eyes squinted. Dice could practically feel the threat bubbling beneath the surface and his muscles flexed.
For the past five months, running Shifter Squad Nine had felt like corralling wild dogs and then playing a game of 'Who's the biggest, baddest Alpha?' Dice had been winning so far, but it hadn't come without a couple of tense moments. But Prowler should have remembered the tooth he lost the first time he gave lip to Dice and by the looks of him, and the fact that he wasn't snarling yet, the wolf remembered.
"Fine," he snorted, nodding at his brother to go with him.
Thor watched the twins pass with an impassive look on his face, sticking a cigarette in his mouth and lighting it slowly.
"You know you're playing with fire, right?" he asked casually, flicking a look at Dice that the werebear met with a nod.
"I know. But I don't think they'll be the ones I really need to worry about."
"I think you're right about that," Thor said with a wink. "I think your girlfriend's about to get here."
Dice heard it too now, the ominous rattle of two large vehicles drudging through the jungle. His stomach twisted and he must have looked like a lovesick puppy there for a moment, because when Thor turned around to go stalk after the wolves, Dice heard a very obvious chuckle pass over his lips.