Daddy Defender - Janie Crouch

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If they’re going to use force, I’m not going to hesitate to order you all to do so, too,” Derek said.

      It was over less than two minutes later.

      Ashton and Liam picked off three more of the six—five had been bad intel from the beginning, a nice little twist in the game—Lillian was able to take the other two from where she’d successfully sneaked around behind them.

      The lights came up, and all mechanical bad guys stopped moving. The good guys had won that particular scenario.

      “Alright, people, we’re going to need to debrief. Not just our actions but how everything worked in here,” Derek said. “Meet in the control room in fifteen minutes.”

      Ashton took off his gas mask now that overhead ventilation units were sucking all the residual tear gas and smoke out of the building.

      He stood up and looked around the room he had crawled into to take his shots. It looked just like an apartment living room. Maybe the room would be part of another scenario—domestic hostage-taking or something.

      He turned to walk to the window so he could crawl back out and find a way to the ground when metal shutters suddenly dropped from the ceiling, covering the window, blocking his route.

      Great. There went that exit. When the scenario finished, obviously everything shut down. Literally.

      Ashton turned toward the door on the other side of the room; the only other exit. He’d find his way back down using that.

      But the metal shutters dropped from the ceiling there, too, covering the door.

      “Um, Derek, I’ve got a situation here. I think Big Brother just locked me in the apartment building room I was using as cover.”

      Liam laughed. “I guess they don’t have all the bugs worked out.”

      “Roger that, Ashton.” Derek responded. “The control room should be able to hear this conversation and let you out soon.”

      “But until that time,” Roman piped up, “please use your isolation to reflect on how you plan to move yourself out of the friend zone with the lovely Ms. Worrall.”

      Ashton rolled his eyes and gave a mock laugh. “You know what? You guys can kiss my—”

      His words froze up as every sensor on his clothing and gear began to jolt him repeatedly. Ashton dropped to the ground, his muscles seizing up from pain, as almost every inch of his body was bombarded by a near constant flow of electric shock.

       Chapter Four

      All Ashton could do for the first few moments of the shocks burning throughout his body was survive. The pulse faded and he struggled to heave breath into his lungs, cursing through gritted teeth as the shocks amped up again.

      “Fitzy, what’s going on?” Ashton could hear Roman’s voice but couldn’t respond, unable to unclench his jaw. He could feel his vision begin to fade but knew if he lost consciousness he’d die here in this room.

      Ashton slid toward the metal shutters that had covered the window he’d climbed in and slammed against it with his foot as hard as he could.

      “Ashton, report.” Derek was in full team leader mode, but Ashton couldn’t speak. He slammed his foot against the shutter again. Vaguely he could hear orders barked over the comm unit.

      The shocks eased again. Ashton reached for the light netting-like material that covered his SWAT garb. The sensors, like the ones that had shocked Roman when he’d been “shot,” were giving the shocks. Although obviously malfunctioning since Ashton didn’t think death by electrocution was supposed to be part of the training simulations.

      “Sensors malfunctioning. Shocks.” Ashton barely managed to get the words out before the voltage cranked again.

      Through the agony coursing through his body, Ashton could hear Derek demanding that the control room shut off all the suits since they seemed not to be able to isolate Ashton’s. Could hear Roman and Liam attempting to get under the metal shutters at his feet.

      And a whole lot of cursing from just about everyone.

      They weren’t going to make it to him in time.

      Ashton tried to pull the netting holding the sensors off of himself, but they just snapped back into place like they were supposed to, designed to keep from hindering any movement.

      Too bad they could work that detail out but not halt the overloading of electrical voltage that was going to kill him right here on the floor. Ashton reached for the knife in his boot—almost from a distance, he could hear everyone screaming in his ears, the team, the control room, telling him to hold on—but he knew he was going to lose consciousness before he could cut the netting off himself. Not to mention sticking a metal object into live voltage probably would compound the about-to-die problem.

      Damn it, he did not want to die in this simulator. The voltage amped up again and Ashton didn’t even try to stop the deep grunt of pain that fell from his lips.

      Then everything fell into complete blackness. Every light blacked out, every sound stopped.

      The voltage stopped, too. Had he passed out? No, he could still think. Could still feel the pain echoing through his body even though the sensors had stopped their attack. He rolled over onto his back, too exhausted to even remove them in case they switched back on.

      Lillian’s voice came over the comm unit. “Main power outside completely cut.”

      Now that an electronic lock wasn’t keeping the shutters closed, Roman and Liam were able to use their strength to open the one over the door. Liam held it open and Roman rolled under, shining his flashlight onto Ashton. He nodded his head toward the other man.

      Roman knelt down next to Ashton, knife in hand and began cutting the netting material that held the sensors against their clothing. “Ashton is down, but alive. I’m getting these damned sensors off of him. I suggest everyone else do the same.”

      “Roger that,” Derek said. “Steve has a medical team on the way.”

      “I’m okay,” Ashton finally managed to get out. “I can move everything, at least, and don’t seem any more brain-damaged than normal.”

      “Just sit tight,” Derek continued. “It’s going to take a minute to get to you since we’re in complete blackness out here.”

      “Hey,” Lillian huffed. “I didn’t have time to finesse it. I just shot the hell out of the whole power box. I’m probably going to get fired for this.”

      “Thanks, Lil,” Ashton said. Her quick thinking—shutting down all the power rather than trying to isolate the problem—had probably saved his life.

      “No problem, Fitzy. How else am I going to get homemade muffins if you’re not around?”

      It wasn’t long before people swarmed the training warehouse. Temporary lights were set up and a medical team got Ashton onto a gurney and out of the building. They took him back to the main Omega building where he could be thoroughly examined.

      He had two noticeable burns—one on the back of his shoulder and one on his waist—and generally felt like he’d been hit by a truck, but he would live.

      The entire SWAT team, plus Steve Drackett and the lab coat guy from the control room, was now crowded into the medical holding room with him.

      “We’re glad you’re okay, Ashton,” Steve said, leaning back against the wall.

      “What the hell happened in there, Steve?” Derek asked. “That was well beyond not having the kinks worked out.”

      Steve gestured to the glasses lab coat guy. “This is Dr. Castillo, one of the main contracted developers of the training facility.”

      Dr. Castillo cleared

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