by Liliana Hart
“This is the location Willa chose,” Audrey said as she steered the golf cart while the men shoved it backward into a cluster of trees and brush.
“It looks secure. Water below this cliff behind us, a clearing in front of us, and the narrow access road that passes just in front of us,” Brady observed as he helped Elena over to a flat spot beneath the thick foliage. “The girl done good.”
“How about we get camp set up so we can get some rest? This has been one hell of a day for us.” Archer carried his weapon over to his sleeping roll.
“Agreed, Archer. This was just the audition. Tomorrow is the big show.” Brady also laid out an arsenal of weapons.
The overnight spot might have been geographically tactical, but had seemed to stop the cartel when they wanted to get their hands on them. They’d take hourly turns on watch, but sleep was a commodity they’d need.
“Willa just messaged. She said Declan wants to have a quick conference call.”
“Well, Declan is the boss, Brady. Who are we to say no?”
“She’s right.” Elena chuckled.
Brady punched in a number sequence on his secure satellite phone and set the receiver in the middle of their group. A dim green glow cast a faint hue on the rock. Soon a young but exhausted voice came through the speaker.
“Hello, everyone.”
“Hi, Willa. It’s Uncle Archer. Will you connect us to Declan?”
Elena’s soft eyes shifted between Brady and Audrey. Her smile shone bright but also tired. She giggled.
“What?” Archer laughed at himself.
“Uncle Archer? Seriously, dude. We’re fighting the arch forces of evil and you’re worried about playing Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
“Well, I am her uncle.”
“Okay, Mister Brady, go ahead for Declan.”
Archer shot him a middle finger and mouthed silently, Mister Brady.
“Thanks, Willa. Hi, Declan. We’re all here.”
“Thanks. I know you’re all whipped but this will only take a moment. First, I want to tell you, Elena, that what you did back there was nothing short of brilliant. Not a single one of us could’ve ever pulled that off in a million years. Of course, Cade claims he once got naked during a negotiation, but that was sex and Bourbon.”
“Cade’s there?” Archer asked.
“Yes. This freaking wild man jumped out of a freaking airplane without telling the crew. He’s lucky to be alive, but said he wouldn’t miss this party for the world.”
“We’re glad he came.”
“Okay, this is the game plan. For now.” Declan laughed. “I’ve got the entire crew right here with me. We’re going to stage in Guatemala until sunrise. There’s no need trying to cross into Campeche to meet y’all unless you feel you need the support.”
The four looked at each other.
“Declan, I think we’ll be fine. We eliminated some of Toro’s serious muscle tonight. He’ll be short staffed but his goal is the flash drive. Since Marguerite won’t physically be part of the exchange, it takes a lot of pressure off both sides. Once we get the call from her that she’s safe in the US, then Elena will gladly give them the disk.”
“It’s a flash drive,” Elena mouthed.
Brady whirled his index finger. “Flash drive.”
“I hope it goes that easy. The two most likely contingency plans are that they will not release your niece or once they release her, they will kidnap you. Either way, I think this crew is better off focusing on a raid of their compound than covering a negotiation that Elena is obviously very capable of handling.”
Elena leaned into Brady’s chest. He sensed it—Declan’s words, though carefully spoken, had shaken her confidence.
“What do you mean they will kidnap me?”
“Think about it. Once they release Marguerite, they lose their bargaining chip. What do they get in return, a disk?” Audrey asked.
“It’s a flash drive,” she insisted.
“Whatever,” several voices said in concert.
“What happens if they get back to base and the disk is only a picture of snow, or it’s a corrupted file or it’s blank? They’re not letting you off that easy. I’m sorry, Elena, but you’ll become the collateral. And I don’t see them letting you go.”
She collapsed into Brady’s arms.
“In the beginning, I didn’t care about surviving. I only wanted to save Marguerite. But now, who would want to die at the cartel’s hands? What can we do to fix this?”
“Declan, what are the chances of infiltrating that Mayan temple before they return to it with her? A rescue from the inside out?”
“Good thinking, Brady. That’s exactly why I wanted Darcy to join us. She’s the world’s foremost authority on the Mayan culture. Of course, they didn’t fortify the temples in 200 AD the way the cartel does today, but I think she’s got a good idea for infiltration.”
“Hi, guys. This is Jade.”
“Hi, there and welcome to the party. Where’s your lazy husband?” Archer kidded.
“Right here,” Max replied in his typical drawl.
“Elena, couldn’t you upload the data from the flash drive into a secure cloud account? Let the cartel download it remotely under your guidance, and once the data integrates into their RMS, they release you? Sort of like a foreign wire transfer of money.”
“Thought of that, but I’m not giving them actual data.”
“What?” Max gasped. “That’s risky.”
“I cannot risk the lives of brave security agents. What I’ve created is a program that combines the cannibal virus we secured from Tehran.”
“Are you nuts?” Max whistled. “They’ll kill you for that, Elena.”
Brady squeezed her tighter in his arms.
“Once that flash drive is plugged into their network’s port, it auto-activates by capturing their data and transferring it to a very secure server back in Surrender and to the DOJ mainframe. Simultaneously, the bug is permanently destroying each data byte inside their network. They’ll be rendered helpless.”
“It’s suicide, girl.”
“Jade, I can’t help it. At the time, everything seemed like a good idea.” Elena peered at Brady. “Now, not so much.”
“Elena, I want you to try getting some rest tonight. I promise by morning that we’ll have a plan to ensure you and Marguerite come back to Surrender safe and sound.”
“Thank you, Declan. I trust you.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Anyone thinking this is a bad idea?”
Declan paced the burned-out hull of what once was a thriving, legitimate manufacturing facility. The ravages of time and corruption had been too much for the property. Declan had become aware of the abandoned location a few years ago after the giant warehouse and assembly plant became the unofficial home to another of South America’s notorious drug processing plants.
“I do,” said Cade. “But what choice do we have?”
“Darcy, you probably know more about Guaxaca than any of us. What’s it like?”
“Well, Declan, I wouldn’t say that. I wasn’t on the raid seven years ago that actually rescued Elena. But what I can tell you is that while they may have built walls or other structures inside the temple, there is no way the cartel has changed anything structural about it.”
“So what does that mean for us?”
Darcy popped open the top on a long tube before spilling its contents onto the ground. She rolled it out flat. It was a detailed map of the Guaxaca temple as created by the Campeche’s National Historic Preservation Society. The federal government’s stamp of authenticity was affixed to the front and then each page in the roll up.
Declan held one end down flat. “Government issue? How’d you get this?”
“When the cartel assumed control of the property, the government figured they had no use for documents about the property. I’d helped develop the mapping and excavation processes, so they offered me first dibs. This document is actually quite val
uable. Other than the ones scanned back at my office, this is it.”
Max reached out. “The original?”
“Are you nuts?” Darcy laughed. “But as good as it gets.”
“So what’s their weakness?” Declan peered over the papers.
“Not much. Except two things.”
“Yeah?”
“Water and waste.”
“Okay, I can see that. Go on.” Declan shot a thumbs’-up.
“Many people died of dysentery back then, and even still today, thanks to water and waste. Unfortunately, in third world countries and poverty stricken regions, the two things are interchangeable. Trust me—they’re not.”
“It’s disgusting, but true. I still treat little kids while I’m volunteering with Doctors Without Borders,” Tess added.
“How does this help us?” Cade, who was half asleep and nursing a swollen knee suffered from his skydiving adventure, asked from across the room.
“Even as far back as before Christ, this advanced civilization knew to separate the two. The easiest way to accomplish that, and to provide for a free flow of air to circulate inside the temple, was to create duct trenches.”
“No, Max. Not d-u-c-k-s. Ducts, like your air conditioning unit,” Brant said.
Darcy’s husband, Brant, who was Brady’s brother, had often accompanied his wife to ancient sites under the guise of wanting to learn about the regions. Truth was, he didn’t trust most foreign locations and mostly, he missed being with his wife.
Max chuckled. “I guess it took becoming a Navy SEAL to figure that out, right, Brant?”
“Hey, leave my hubs out of this,” Darcy kidded.
Declan remained quiet, but he noticed the closeness of the group. They’d had their up and down times, but it was good to see that when the chips were down, they clung together—family. It had been tough since his mother, Mary, was murdered. Even the retaliation against her attackers had failed to ease the pain of loss. He also knew that Elena’s father had been murdered by this very same cartel who was now threatening her niece. Declan couldn’t bring the dead back from the grave, but he sure could help send those who killed there much earlier than they expected.
“All right, team. Let’s start getting a plan laid out. Morning’s light comes hot and early. We’ve got to be ready to move.”
“I’m not sure the cartel even realizes how much they have going on at the site, but these points are the most obscure and remote to their main areas of operation.” She pointed out red markings on the map.
Darcy continued, “As you can see, the clearings around Guaxaca remain today as they did thousands of years ago. They were strategically cleared out zones then and now. But the good news is, these locations have been allowed to overgrow, thanks to shoddy landscaping and the underground tunneling that remains. We conducted sonar echograms during our study of the area years ago for the government and discovered these series of accesses that lead into a thicket not far from the Guatemalan border.”
“Why would you suspect the cartel hasn’t discovered them?”
“I’m not certain they haven’t, but I’d be surprised if any of them was skilled in the science of cartography or the interpretation of archeological markings and designations. But, I could be wrong.” She snickered.
“Are they big enough for us to access?” Declan had his doubts.
“It depends. There’s not much upright walking through these. Remember, the Mayans were not very tall to begin with. But, yes, they can be navigated.”
“How long are we talking about? A couple of feet, maybe twenty yards, tops?” Max leaned close to the schematic.
“Sorry, Max. More like a mile at shortest.”
“Damn. I knew there was a catch. Jade, looks like you’re going in first.”
His wife, Jade, rolled her eyes.
“Seriously, other than ramming through the front door, this is the best way in. Especially if you’re wanting to go in unnoticed and wait for Elena to arrive in captivity.”
“Shane, you’re mighty quiet. What are your thoughts?”
“This is how I see it, and some of you may disagree.” Shane, who looked to still be suffering from the exhaustion of the across-the-globe flight, sat up and brushed the map aside. “We have two objectives—one is to grab and erase their network data, and two is to rescue Elena. The problem is, in order for us to grab the data, Elena has to be kidnapped and made to input the flash drive into the terminal port. To save Elena once that happens, we’d almost have to be sitting at the terminal with her. I see this as a big possibility of things going to shit for her and us.”
Shane peered at the others while he waited for a rebuttal.
The room was silent.
“Then what do you suggest?” Brant asked.
“Honestly? If Toro refuses to put the niece up in the air, then we let the kid stay in the castle and kill Toro and everyone with him. Next, we drive their vehicles back to Guaxaca with Audrey, or someone pretending to be Elena, in the convey. We pull the old Trojan Horse to rescue the girl.”
“That’s too damn risky, Shane. We’re talking about an innocent young girl,” Jade said emphatically.
Her black eyes peered at Shane. Sweat glistened over her caramel complexion and Declan noticed that the emotion in her response and the tension in her frame implied that there was much more to her objection than an alternative suggestion.
“Jade, is there something else going on here?” Declan asked quietly.
“It’s just… It’s, you know, those girls.” Her eyes filled with wetness and she turned away from the table.
She dropped her face into her open palms. Max leaned toward her, but Cade wrapped his arms around her. Max moved close to whisper he loved her.
“It’s okay, Jade. That wasn’t your fault back then, and neither is this. No matter what happens, we will do our best to protect everyone.” Cade continued to comfort her.
Declan knew everyone in that room carried emotional scars. Max, Jade, and Cade’s role in a human trafficking investigation had led to the tragic deaths of twelve young girls, who had suffocated inside a collapsed tunnel below the US and Mexican border.
Declan checked his watch. Sunrise about three hours away. Everything would change at that point.
“I’m looking for suggestions. This isn’t going to be easy, but there has to be a lesser of two evils scenario. I’m tending to lean toward Shane’s proposal. Any objections to fleshing it out and seeing what it might look like in reality?”
No one objected.
The group of usually super-alpha heroes was peculiarly docile. Declan couldn’t put his finger on it, but he had the suspicion that it was the first time they’d all come together since his mother’s funeral.
The discussions and debates continued over the next three hours. By the first ray of light to breach the rusted, deconstructed ceiling, the team had come to an uneasy consensus. Everyone understood that there were so many contingencies when it all hinged on someone else’s decision. And it never helped when that someone was an irrational, psychopathic murderer like Toro.
It was zero six thirty hours when Willa connected Declan’s base camp to Brady’s location via satellite phones. It was obvious no one at either location had slept a wink.
“You ready to rock this?” Declan asked.
“Yeah, sure. What time is it?” Brady asked.
“It’s time to get moving, my man. We’re sitting ducks in this jungle. I’m sure you’re no safer.”
Brady sat up. His eyes opened and he scanned the area. Something was wrong. Elena had begun to stir, Archer was still out cold, but no Audrey.
“Dec, Audrey’s gone. Let me wake Archer and call you back.”
Archer jolted up at the sound of Brady talking and passed his arms across the bedroll where Audrey should’ve been. He too sprang up in a state of panic.
“What the fuck, Brady?”
“Not sure. Maybe she went to hit the head.” Brady shook Elena’s right foot. “
Hey, Elena. Get up, we’ve got a situation.”
“What? Hey, where’s Audrey?”
“Don’t know. Archer, do you recall her getting up in the night?”
“Yeah, this was her one-hour rotation to sit watch, but she shouldn’t have moved beyond the perimeter we established.”
Archer rolled to his knees and went to stand up.
“No. Stay down. We might be watched for movement.”
Elena’s eyes were big and afraid. “Guys, this is scaring me. Tell me what’s going on.”
“Just stay calm.” Brady slid a pistol over to her. “It might get crowded real quick, so watch your shots.”
Archer craned his neck to look Brady in the eyes. Brady shrugged.
“Why wait until we’re awake?” Her voice trembled.
“Mind games—intimidation.”
“It’s working. Please, let’s find her and go.”
Archer motioned for her to hush.
Brady strained his hearing in hopes of capturing a sound or a hint about what or when it was about to happen. It was silent—too silent. Whoever had nabbed Audrey damned sure wasn’t a local farmer. Brady pointed to his own eyes with two fingers and then toward Archer. His fingers swept the ground around where Audrey had been sitting watch.
Archer crouched down close to the ground. He lightly swept his palm across the moist earth. Carefully, he retrieved something with his thumb and index finger. He shook his head and held it up. Damn it. It was the guided end of a blowgun’s dart. Just as he suspected, it was a professional. They were next.
Brady tapped the earpiece. Willa’s tired, weakened voice greeted him again.
“Get Declan,” he said.
“He’s already on. Go.”
“Big change of plans.” Brady gritted out “They took Audrey in the night.”
“Fuck,” Declan said. “That means y’all are next.”.
“I know. Get the girl. It’s the least we can do for Elena.” Brady’s words came through his teeth that were clenched together so tight, he thought they might snap.
“Damn, Brady,” Declan said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. This fucking cartel has caused more hell for our family than imaginable. I promise, I’ll get Marguerite, and while I’m at it, I’ll kill every last one of them for you.”