by Dale Mayer
Levi said to Ice, “We’ve taken down the three at the compound, and we’ve got seven hostages here, two down and several more vehicles. I don’t have a clue what’s going on or why.”
“I know,” she said. “We haven’t had an attack like this in forever.”
“Yeah. We need to get to the bottom of it—and fast.”
But, from the looks of it, nobody would talk. Levi walked away, out of earshot, and hit his headset. “Stone, we’ve got this under control, two down and seven prisoners. We’ll bring them in under their own power, then sedate them. What the hell’s happening with Merk and Dakota?”
“Merk’s taken over the vehicle full of weapons to the north, has one prisoner down and tied up, and he’s looking for the second one. With those two we’ve got a dozen prisoners. As for Dakota, he’s still chasing the other vehicle.”
“Do we still think it’s involved, or maybe it’s a decoy?”
“No way to tell, but he’s not giving up.”
Levi nodded. “It’s not like Dakota—or any of the men—to give up with something like this. Never.”
He motioned to all the captives and called out to his men, “Have them taken back to the compound. All the vehicles go too.” Levi’s men split up, bound the shooters, securely placing hoods over their heads, then loaded them up. All the vehicles slowly progressed back to the compound. It wasn’t very far, and, once they were all inside, Levi sent two more men after Merk. “Help him bring the two gunmen and their vehicle back.”
As soon as this second round of captives were inside the compound, Levi locked the main gate to the compound, knowing Merk and Dakota would get back in again on their own. “Stone, we’re in.”
“I saw you,” he said. “I think Merk’s okay, but it didn’t hurt to double up on the manpower there.”
“I just don’t get this,” Levi said. His voice was harsh as he watched the men being unloaded. They were led down to the compound’s jail and locked up in their own community cell—but not for long. Levi looked outside, swearing at them. Everyone had been searched and checked, but not one had an ID. He turned to his men and said, “Two on shifts steady. They’re never to be left unguarded.”
No one argued. The fact that this many had been involved in an attack on the compound was serious because everybody had somebody special here they were interested in protecting.
Levi headed upstairs to their bedroom, angry, fed up, wanting to get to the bottom of it. But, so far, he didn’t have anything to go on.
Ice was up there pouring coffee and held one out to him. He took it, hating to see his hand shaking. She nodded, smiled and said, “I’m okay, you know?”
He leaned over, gave her a hard kiss and said, “You damn well better be.”
She beamed a smile at him and said, “I don’t get this. Why now?”
“I don’t know. The problem is, we’ve pissed off a lot of people, and we’ve accumulated a lot of enemies. This one was way too organized.”
“Like a miniwar,” she said. “A lot of manpower, a lot of money and a lot of weaponry went into this.”
“The men are doing a search on the vehicles. I’m heading back down there.”
“I’m coming,” she said. “Don’t you worry. I’m coming too.”
And the two walked downstairs to the garage to figure out what the hell was going on.
Chapter 2
Ice watched as Levi commanded the search of all the intruders’ vehicles. They were waiting on Dakota, who had taken off after the first vehicle, and Merk, who was on the second one, the fully armed Jeep. Just then, Levi got a call from Stone. “Dakota’s on his way back. He did stop the other vehicle but has determined they are not related to this incident. He’s turned around and is coming back.”
“Well, that would be nice for a change,” Ice said.
Levi nodded his head, responding to Ice. “Good. So, what we’ve got is what we’ve got.” Then he turned back to his phone. “Stone, do a full satellite sweep and see if anybody else is shaking out of the dirt up there. They might think, now we have everybody locked up and secure, that they can make a move to rescue their friends.”
“I’ll go up to security and take a look myself.” Ice grabbed her coffee cup, turned to take a stroll by their captives in the compound’s jail facilities. After processing each, the intruders were kept in single cells, set up like solitary confinement, with only eye slits to peer in or out of. Regardless the whole jail facility was under surveillance. She shook her head and headed upstairs. She gave a rap on the door to the control room and told Stone, “Let me in.”
“The least you could have done was brought me a cinnamon bun and a coffee,” he said in an aggrieved tone.
“Go get your own,” she said as she sat down. “I want to make sure nothing’s happening on a wider satellite search.”
“I’ve already got it running. I don’t know what’s going on, but this is big.”
“It’s too big,” Ice said. “It makes no sense. Who the hell have we pissed off this time?”
Stone chuckled and said, “Everybody. Remember that old saying about being judged by your enemies?”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to get judged at all? I’m getting fed up with this whole thing.”
He smiled. “Well, you are, and you aren’t. It’s frustrating as hell to be under attack at our own home turf. Plus we haven’t had an attack on the compound in a long time.”
“I know,” she said, “and I want to get to the bottom of it now, so I can sleep tonight.”
“Especially so you get up again tomorrow morning to put our intrepid leader out of his misery.”
“Ha,” she said, “He’s only half of the leaders’ team.”
“The thing is,” Stone said quietly, “you’re just as miserable. Because you want to be married to him as well.”
She shot Stone a searching look.
He nodded and said, “We all know it. You were thrilled when you got engaged. So I’m not sure why you’re trying to slow him down now.”
“I’m afraid he was just caught up in the moment,” she said slowly. “And I don’t want to push him.”
“In this case, you’re better off to push him,” Stone said. “Push him and lock it down. He’s always been yours. You’ve always been his. You don’t need a ceremony to make it official, but, as long as either of you want it, then you should do it and move on.”
She chuckled. “I agree, but, for right now, we’ve got more shit happening, and a wedding is not part of the program.”
Stone gave her a secretive smile and said, “Maybe not. But just like Badger didn’t have a clue what hit him, you might not be aware of what’ll hit you.” At that, he stood and said, “I’ll leave you, our intrepid leader’s other half, and go get my own coffee and a cinnamon bun.”
Ice leaned back in her chair slowly. Badger was their friend, and his group wedding had been a hell of a lot of fun. But no way did she want to get blindsided like Badger had been. She understood why those women had done it, and Ice had agreed at the time to help with the secret marriages ceremony, but hers was a very different case here. She’d been wanting to get married since forever. Yet maybe Stone was right. Maybe it was time to stop looking for reasons not to and just get the job done.
*
Levi had two of his men bring out the still-hooded prisoners one at a time. The hoods had to be removed for photos to run facial recognition programs on, but they were quickly replaced. The intruders were fingerprinted, checked for chips, cheeks swabbed, ear printed in a move similar to finger printed, and then moved to a different cell. There was complete silence—none of the prisoners made a sound as they were processed. Levi realized this was a well-trained group of men who were either expecting a huge payout or were terrified of doing something wrong and paying the ultimate price.
Except … he didn’t see fear in any of them, and that concerned him. A huge payout was hard to argue with. … He didn’t have a clue who could possib
ly be involved, but, as soon as he had the prisoners’ data, Levi reached out to his contacts and ran fingerprints through as many databases as he could. One of the first people he contacted was Bullard. He reached out by phone and started sending images.
Bullard answered, “Can’t a guy get any sleep?”
“When you’re dead,” Levi snapped. “We’re in a full-on siege here. We’ve taken twelve prisoners, and we’re not sure how many more are out there to take down.”
Bullard snapped to attention. “That’s a lot to take on the compound. What’s up?”
“I don’t know,” Levi said. “Stone saw the first ones coming through our hidden cameras. They had several vehicles and a command station set up around the corner. But don’t kid yourself, this isn’t government-based, anybody’s government. This is a full-on heavy-military op, with top-of-the-line gear, and no one’s saying a word. They’re well-trained.”
“Interesting. Who’d you piss off?”
“Half the world,” Levi said, cracking a grin. “You pissed off the other half.”
“Well then, together we’ll rule,” Bullard said. In the background, Levi could hear him clicking buttons. “I’ll run these faces through the database,” he said, “but so far I’m not seeing any …” His voice trailed off.
“What’d you find?”
“I have a hit on one. He’s bad news. Private Soonson turned mercenary. Works for a private army out of Guatemala, which pays huge money, and they’ve been slowly building a bigger army.”
“Through what source?”
“Mexico.”
“These guys here are all white, although several are of European descent,” Levi added.
“Yeah, I think we’ve got Juan, the Colombian drug lord, who’s trying to get out of his family business and get into something a little more to his liking. I heard rumors the little shit had big plans. Guatemala is close enough for him to raise Cain. But then so are Mexico and several other countries.”
“So why did Juan come here is the big question?” Levi said.
“You working for any South American governments right now?”
Levi closed his eyes and thought about it. “Four.”
Bullard gave a bark of laughter. “Then I highly suggest you take a look at those four governments and see if this Columbian guy’s got anything to do with them. His name’s Juan Pickonous,” he said. “Your guys all look like mercenaries.”
“It’s funny how they have a type, isn’t it?” Levi said. “Stone-cold killers with dead eyes.”
“Physically fit, lightning-fast reflexes, no family—or none they care about—and the only God they know is money.”
“And power,” Levi clarified. “Lots love their work because it’s the only job that lets them terrorize and kill.”
“Yep, fewer rules and a lot more leeway for shitty behavior.”
“Okay, put your ear to the ground to see if you hear anything,” Levi said. “My grocery bill is about to go through the roof just keeping these assholes here for the next few hours.”
“You can expect a call pretty soon from this Juan character, if it’s the guy I’m thinking of. He’ll want his men back.”
“And he can have them,” Levi said in a harsh tone. “In a box.”
He went to hang up when Bullard called out, “Hey, when’s the wedding?”
“If I knew I’d tell you,” Levi growled. This time he did hang up. The last thing he wanted was the wedding brought up again. He knew Bullard expected an invite, and Levi and Bullard appeared to be on good terms now that he’d finally accepted that Levi and Ice would be together forever.
Just then he got a text from Bullard.
Getting word something’s happening in Guatemala. This Juan guy’s involved.
Levi started tapping his sources. He could see this coming from Guatemala. A lot of big business for Legendary Security had happened thereabouts. Plus that country was a mess, but the wealthy were definitely getting wealthier, and that meant the rest of the peons were getting poorer. Prime for revolts. Levi hated to say it, but it was all too possible this unrest had led to his compound’s siege.
He’d been working for the Argentinean government lately too, trying to find these terrorist cells intent on taking down their government. It looked as if maybe one of the groups from Guatemala had figured out what Levi was up to in Argentina and had come here to hit him at home—and the fact that they’d actually found him concerned Levi. He didn’t like being blindsided, nor did he want anybody to have intel on his place.
If there was a way to hide his compound with stealth technology, he’d have paid for it ten times over.
But it wouldn’t be available anytime soon.
So somebody had found out where he’d gone to ground and had decided to come after him. And that was fine. He was okay to have a few come after him.
But they wouldn’t do it twice.
Chapter 3
Ice and Levi called a meeting in the kitchen. They’d left six men on guard downstairs in the jail facility and kept Stone stationed in the security room with Merk, adding extra eyes as they brought in more satellite feeds. With fresh coffee, Ice explained what was going on.
The men and women nodded but stayed quiet until Rhodes asked, “So we’re going after them?”
“In a way, that’s probably the best,” Levi said. “But we have to take them out permanently one way or the other. Because, if we don’t succeed, they’ll come back again.”
“Well, that’s easy,” Flynn said. “We always look after our home base first.”
Levi nodded. “We’ll also be short-staffed here, if I send out everyone who’s due to go out next to hit back at these guys.”
“They must have known that,” Bailey said, standing against the corner, a cup of coffee in her hand.
“Exactly,” Levi said, giving her a gentle smile. “But you’ll be fine.”
She shrugged. “I really don’t give a shit. They come close to me or Alfred, I’ll take the cast-iron frying pan to them.”
That got a bark of laughter out of her partner, Dakota. He got up, kissed her soundly and snagged a cinnamon bun hiding behind her back. She tried to swat his hand, but he wasn’t having anything to do with that. Dakota sat back down with a big grin and said, “So, we need eight men, or do we want to go in smaller?”
“Eight men,” Ice said. “Four on the ground, four on the move. On the ground, it’ll be backup teams, two plus two, to stay in touch with command at all times. And I think we’ll need to bring in four more, just in case.” She watched as everyone processed that strategy.
“If we go in too big,” Flynn said with a cautionary tone, “that’s not good either.”
“I know,” Levi said. “The bigger we are, the harder it is to hide. But we have to go in, and we have to go in hard and fast.”
“None of these guys have anything on them. What do you want to do with them?” Flynn asked.
“I’d take them out and deep-six them,” Dakota said. “But that won’t work, so … suggestions?”
“We can hardly turn them over to the local cops,” Levi said. “They’ll have themselves out in no time.”
“Time to call in a couple favors from the brass,” Flynn said.
Levi nodded. He turned to Ice, who was already busy writing notes. She waved her hand at him. “Keep talking. I know who I’ll call. Don’t you worry. The garbage will get taken out pretty damn fast.”
“Do you need help with that?” Sienna asked.
Ice looked at her, smiled and said, “Maybe. I’ll get your help in the office.”
Sienna nodded, while the others went back to discussing how and what.
Ice listened with half an ear. She knew this was what had to happen, but she also hated that this had come home to them. Though it wasn’t the first attack they’d had by any means, it was the largest. It was too much like a military operation. These men were well-trained.
“Or we use them as bait,” she said suddenly and looke
d up.
Kai sat in the corner, looking at her with interest. “Or as a bartering chip.”
Ice nodded. “We can take them back, dump them in their own backyard, incapacitated. Drug them for at least twenty-four hours, so we can go in and take care of business and get out again.”
“But when they wake up,” Dakota protested, “you know they’ll come after us again.”
“Maybe not,” Levi said suddenly. “Where are their bank accounts? If we could take away what it is they really want, or at least let them know we can take away what they really want, chances are they won’t come back.”
“If we took away their paychecks,” Kai said, “at least for now, … they won’t work for nothing. Not this group of mercs. So, if there’s no money, they’ll just find another boss.”
“Correct. Which means we have to take out their boss and stop the money from flowing.”
“We need names. We need a location,” Ice said calmly. “I’m taking several women up to the office. We’ll get started.” She stood and looked at Levi. “And, if you’re going on this trip, you better make damn sure there’s a spot for me too.” And she marched out.
*
Levi shook his head. “I am going on this damn trip,” he announced, “but she’s not.”
The group all raised an eyebrow, but no one said a word.
Levi groaned. “Except we’ll need her helicopter skills, won’t we?”
The men shrugged. Dakota said, “Unless you want to do a ground convoy. Depending on our destination, flying directly to Columbia would take like six hours one way. To Guatemala, more like three hours one way. But driving? … Figure roughly a week, what with the border crossings. Unless we do a combo, driving partway, flying partway.”
“We need to set up an operation, and it needs to be fast, and it needs to be now.” They sat down and started on a plan, and, after a couple hours, the men switched guards with the six downstairs. Rhodes walked back there too, just to see them all for himself.