NOTE FROM MEGHAN: Here it is! The first chapter of the third Raven Files Book! Keep in mind, that while I truly believe this will be the first chapter of book three, this is still a draft and things can change. I hope you enjoy jumping back into this world as much as I have! đź’š
Chapter One: Back At It
January (Two Months After France)
I bounced on the balls of my feet, taking in the city of Dubai stretched out in front of me. The cool breeze was harsher from the roof of the sky scraper than it was on the ground, but it still beat the snow we’d left in England.
“We’re on the count,” I said into my comm. “Thirty seconds.”
I could see Centipede through my binoculars, sitting at a table just outside a tall building a couple miles away, not-so-patiently waiting to make her move. Misty was over a few blocks farther. She was the one I couldn’t put eyes on, but she’d been the least of my concerns so far. On top of the building across the street, Venom paced the roof, a harness secure around her torso, waiting to pounce.
“Fifteen seconds.”
The mission was more or less straight forward, but it had a lot of moving parts.
“Ten seconds.”
Without waiting another beat, Venom came flying from the other end of the roof and swan dived over the edge of the building.
“Goddamn it!” I pushed my comm in and hissed after her, “That wasn’t part of the plan!”
Travis let out a small laugh next to me. “What do you know. A KATO agent who does her own thing. I have no idea what that’s like.”
I glared at him, the smirk on his face nearly earned him his own trip over the ledge. “You’re not helping.”
The pulley anchored to the roof clicked to a stop, with Venom hanging fifteen feet below the roof. A second later, her Turkish accent was in my ear. “You were taking too long.”
I could hear her cutting into the window through the comms.
“And you thought I was the flight risk,” Centipede muttered.
Under other circumstances, I might have laughed. Instead I said, “The rest of you can move in.”
I watched Centipede moved swiftly, standing and maneuvering around the table in one smooth motion. She’d gotten herself inside—without a security badge—in under five seconds.
“I’m in,” Misty said into her comm.
“So am I,” Centipede said.
“I’ve been in for a bit now.” I could hear the smirk in Venom’s voice. “The rest of you are slow.”
I rolled my eyes, and Travis outright laughed. “You know,” he said. “I’m really starting to like her.”
I caught his eye, in a slight state of disbelief. “For someone who thought it was ballsy to do this in the middle of the day, you’re certainly enjoying yourself.”
He nudged my shoulder. “Maybe I’m just happy to be back out here with my partner.”
I smiled at that. “Yeah, it’s good to be back.” I pushed my comm in. “Command, you got eyes on them?”
“I’m sending the footage to your screen now,” Sam said. Travis unlocked the tablet as the security feed came up. The top footage had Centipede, who was wearing so much make up she looked like an entirely different person. I suspect not even her KATO handler would recognize her. Since she worked out of KATO HQ, she was the one I was most concerned about being recognized.
In the middle was Misty. She’d donned a wig, glasses and custodian’s uniform, which changed enough of her identifying features to keep her hidden.
On the bottom was Venom with her own wig and custodian’s uniform, circling the edge or a conference room like the predator she was.
They each had a variation of the same task. Locate the KATO agent they were assigned to and get their biometrics. This included a picture of their face, a close up of their eyes, voice recordings, and finger prints. Then keep the agents in their locations for as long as possible.
I didn’t like leaving them in there, so close to KATO agents, but they agreed. They were keeping as much distance as possible, and we’d disguised them well.
“We should head out,” Travis said.
I nodded. We really should have been on the road sooner. We had a job of our own once they got the biometrics we needed, but I wanted to keep an eye on things as long as I could.
I monitored the feeds from the car while Travis drove us to a more residential area of the city.
“How do they look?” he asked as he put the care in park a block away from what our intel said was a KATO safe house.
I shrugged a shoulder. “No issues so far. Misty’s really got a knack for this. The others are channelling a lot of patience.”
He nodded. “That’s good.”
A minute later Sam was in my ear. “All right, I got one set of biometrics from Misty. I’m converting them for you to use to access the house. I’ve got a partial set from Venom, and I’m just waiting on the voice recording from Centipede. At the rate they’re going, I’d say you’re about five minutes out.”
Travis caught my eye. “You ready to get back at it?”
I bit my lip, completely failing to hide my smile. “I think the only reason I’m not more afraid of breaking into a KATO safe house in broad daylight is that it feels so good to be doing something to stop them after being sidelined for so long.”
We’ve been calling this a KATO safe house, but from what we could tell, it didn’t seem like the house was used for people or agents. Our intel suggested this was a place where they stored secrets. That’s why it took the biometrics of three KATO agents to enter.
We were also sure it wasn’t luck that brought the three of them here at the same time. We suspected that when they were all done with their meetings—which we believed to be a part of their covers—they’d likely be heading to this house. This meant our window was incredibly limited.
“All right,” Sam said. “We got what we need. I’m converting the last of the biometrics and I’ll have it to you in a minute.”
I thanked Sam, then pushed my comm in to talk to the others. “Good work you guys. Stay out of sight and keep eyes on your targets. Buy us as much time as you can, and I’ll let you know when we’re out of the house.”
It was Centipede who answered first. “Copy.” The others echoed seconds behind her.
“The infrared shows the house is empty,” Sam said. “You guys are clear.”
I looked to Travis who was going over the converted biometrics on a synced device we’d been given just for situations like this. I didn’t fully understand how it worked, I just knew it would get us through the door. “I got what we need,” he said. “Let’s move.”
The walk between the car and the door brought that all to familiar fear back just enough to kick up my heart rate and have me glancing over my shoulder. It was a little unnerving how centrally located this house was, but it also made sense. Since it was more of a storage house, there wouldn’t be a ton of people coming and going, looking to lay low. And being in a city like Dubai, it gave the necessary agents easy cover and access. It was KATO’s version of hiding in plain sight.
We hurried up the stone steps to the door, moving as if we belonged there. Sam’s device did the trick. We were through the front door in under ten seconds.
I braced myself of some kind of alarm or the hiss of some kind of gas being flooded into the room, but there was nothing. It was almost eery how quiet it was. Despite that, I couldn’t help but notice that I had to be standing in one of the nicest KATO safe house I had ever been in. They’re usually big on hole-in-the-wall types, but this was more of an upscale townhouse. Though, I guess that made sense when you consider the fact that it was mainly for KATO’s leadership.
“I’ll try to find the office,” Travis said. “There’s got to be a safe somewhere in here.”
I nodded. “I’ll check the basement.” It wouldn’t surprise me if KATO kept their secrets underground.
Based on our intel, we believed this house held some mid-to-upper level KATO secrets. Nothing that would completely destroy them, but just enough destabilize them. These secrets likely prevented their operations from being too centralized. And while we would take anything from KATO we could get, we knew, almost for a fact, that this house held the location of KATO’s largest weapons stash. If we could get that location, it would cripple them.
Travis called me to a backroom, off the gorgeous, but surely little used, kitchen. “I found the safe,” he said. “Do you know how to crack these things or do you want me to play around with it?”
“Let me try,” I said. “I’ll be there in a second.” Knowing KATO, they likely had the same safes installed across all their facilities. I didn’t know the code, but I was pretty sure I knew enough about the safe itself to crack it.
I was two strokes away from popping it open when Centipede cut in. “I don’t know what’s going on, but my guy’s looking panicked and he’s pounding his phone pretty hard.”
I froze. “Is he saying anything?”
Travis, looked at me sharply, waiting to see how I wanted to play this.
“Nothing I can make out,” she said. “It looks like he’s muttering, but he’s too far away. I’ll get closer.”
“Be careful.”
She didn’t answer, and the quiet of the house seemed even louder. Except—it wasn’t quiet. There was a faint, muffled beeping I hadn’t noticed before.
“Do you hear that?” I asked Travis.
His eyes darkened a fraction. “Yeah. And it definitely wasn’t there a minute ago.”
I followed the sound to the center of the room. It was coming from the floor boards underneath me. It didn’t take much to figure out the boards were loose, and I didn’t hesitate to rip them up.
Staring back at me, nestled just below the surface, was a ticking bomb with just over seventy seconds on the clock. “Shit!”Â
© 2025 Meghan Rogers
