Read The Midnight Watch: A Sigma Force Short Story for Free Online

reproductive lab was directly ahead of him at the end of the hall.
    That’s where Sara said the department’s main server was located. He hoped it was the correct networked computer. He had one in eight odds of being right.
    He edged down the hall, sticking to one wall.
    His ears strained for any sign of an intruder—then he heard glass break, followed by a shout from outside. A loud gunshot exploded from inside the lab ahead.
    Kowalski rushed forward, hit the swinging set of doors, and slid low into the room. Skidding on his knees, he took in the view while bracing his Desert Eagle. The reproductive lab looked more like an operating room, with a pair of stainless steel hydraulic tables, overhead swing-arm lights, and banks of glass cabinets.
    Between the tables, a computer rested on a large desk.
    At the station, a small, wiry figure was detaching a palm-sized drive from the back of the monitor, while on Kowalski’s left, a man who matched him in size and muscle stood bathed in the moonlight flowing through a shattered window. The guy held a smoking pistol in hand—likely used to fire at the officer outside. The weapon whipped toward Kowalski and fired.
    Unable to get clear fast enough, he took the round square to the chest. The impact knocked the air from his lungs and exploded his rib cage with fiery pain. He dropped to his back—and returned fire from under the table on that side. The cannon boomed deafeningly in his hand. The plaster exploded behind the man’s legs as the shot went wide. Still, Kowalski took advantage of the moment to roll behind a steel medical cart. The man fired after him, rounds pelting the side of the cart, keeping Kowalski pinned down.
    He patted his chest, expecting to find blood, but instead he felt the dented steel plate in his front pocket. It was the nameplate he had unhooked from Elizabeth’s office door earlier. He had forgotten he had stolen it, absently slipping it inside his jacket. It had saved his life—at least for the moment.
    Sirens sounded in the distance, racing closer.
    Must be the reinforcements sent by Director Crowe.
    Kowalski gripped his pistol and risked peering past the edge of his shelter.
    The small figure by the computer—a young woman—also recognized the approaching threat and called to her partner while pointing to the window.
    “ Kwan, zǒ u! ”
    The man grimaced, clearly being ordered to leave.
    With the portable drive in hand, she headed over to her partner’s side, ready to make their escape. She had her own pistol out and fixed toward Kowalski’s position, as if daring him to show himself.
    But Kowalski wasn’t the only one irritated by the intruders.
    Farther to his left, a tall, shadowy cage door swung open with a creak of heavy steel hinges—and a massive beast stalked into the lab. It seemed Jason’s release of all the building’s electronic locks had included the tiger’s cage. A snarling hiss flowed from the cat’s throat, and its fur bristled in stripes of black and rust. Paws the size of dinner plates padded across the floor in slow, determined steps, drawn by the figures standing in the moonlight.
    The woman backed fearfully from the sight. She tried to pocket the bulky drive, but it slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor. Clearly panicked, she gripped her pistol with both hands.
    Her partner also kept his weapon upon the beast. “ Bù, Shu Wei, ” he whispered to the woman, warning her not to shoot or risk antagonizing the tiger, who was still plainly confused by the noise and commotion.
    Instead, he scooped his free arm around the small woman’s waist, lifting and drawing her to his side as easily as if she’d been a doll, then the pair fell backward through the open window. The tiger stalked over, drawn by the motion. It sniffed at the breeze, then stretched its neck to a jaw-cracking yawn.
    Kowalski used the distraction to back slowly out of hiding—but his knee banged against the corner of the metal cart. The