His dad came to stand in front of him. “Did you kill that woman?”
TJ straightened his spine. “No, sir.”
His father ran his finger across the scratch on TJ’s cheek. “Sonofabitch almost took your eye out.”
TJ flinched. He’d forgotten about the wound from the ricochet.
“I’ll talk to them eventually,” his father said quietly. “I’m waiting for the right moment.”
“When do you think that will be?” Malcolm asked, recovering from his distress about the sat phones.
“When I’m good and ready.” His father raised his voice, which he rarely did, but these were not normal times. “In the meantime, we make sure our home is secure both physically and electronically, agreed?” Tom gave Malcolm a nod which the other man returned slowly.
TJ walked back to his chair and picked up his soup. It was cold now, but he realized he needed to be ready for whatever happened. He ate the meal mechanically though he wasn’t hungry. And he watched the TV though he didn’t want to be constantly reminded of everything that had occurred. And he thought about Kayla and where she might be and what she might be doing. Was she scared? Did she believe he’d killed this Brenna woman? The idea soured his mood. He needed to set the record straight. He just wasn’t sure how.
Chapter Thirteen
Novak used the opportunity of having escaped his pretty shadow for a few minutes to catch up with the rest of the guys. The first sniper teams had set up a live feed of the compound, but no one was moving around outside. The second sniper teams were now in position, waiting until dark to switch out again. He and Romano planned to head up the mountain to see if they couldn’t get a little additional, much-needed information regarding the insides of that facility.
“Let me know how it goes,” McKenzie said, striding through the barn, having dropped his belongings on a spare bunk.
“Will do, boss.”
The IC stopped mid-stride and Agent Fontaine, who was working closely with him, almost crashed into his back.
“Where is SSA Blood?” McKenzie asked.
Novak felt his skin prickle. “Still at the campsite.”
“Don’t forget to pick her up on your way out,” McKenzie said pointedly.
“No, sir.” Novak and Romano exchanged a glance. Shit.
Thirty minutes later, Novak strode over the grass to where Charlotte was orchestrating the systematic questioning of the environmentalists in their ramshackle camp. “Time to go.”
“I’m busy.” She frowned at him and looked away as she ordered one of his guys to question another group of people.
“McKenzie’s orders.”
Her spine snapped straight. “Shoot. I’d forgotten about that.”
“Tell me about it. Anyway, we’ve spent the morning doing your thing, and now it’s my turn.”
She surveyed the area with frustration. His Charlie team of assaulters were busy taking statements, and an Evidence Recovery Team was processing the yellow tent and the blue Toyota in the makeshift parking lot on the opposite side of the road. He knew it made sense for his guys to do this—they were all former field agents—to save the Bureau having to send out another bunch of people. But anything that prevented his men from training or took their focus off what they were here to do could cost someone their life. The fact he wasn’t grinding his teeth or yelling at them all to get back to the Command Center showed a massive amount of restraint on his part, restraint Charlotte Blood wouldn’t even realize he was exhibiting.
“McKenzie seriously made you come get me?” She climbed to her feet. “He isn’t over his stupid idea yet?”
“Not even close to being over it.” Novak was getting kind of used to having Charlotte at his side. Work wise. He was a lot less disappointed than she seemed to be.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“For a hike.”
She nodded without asking more questions and followed him back to the Chevy. She addressed all his guys by nickname as she passed them. She was fast at assimilating information, but then so was everyone at CIRG. He thought about opening her door for her but climbed into the driver’s seat instead. It wasn’t that he wasn’t a gentleman. This was work, and they were equals, and others needed to see her as such.
Romano sat in the back with his boxes of tricks on the floor beside him. Out of sight.
“What’s going on?” Charlotte asked, buckling up as Novak put the car in gear and pressed his foot on the gas.
“Romano wants to take some toys for a test drive, and I want to get a look at the mountain in daylight.”
“Sounds reasonable. Any word on Kayla’s condition?” Charlotte rubbed her hands together then picked up her gloves from where she’d left them earlier in the console. Little good they’d done her there.
“One of my guys is a former combat medic, and he put her on a drip to get her hydrated, and a local doctor is on his way to see her ASAP. General assumption is she has the flu.” He tossed her a small bottle of hand sanitizer.
She sighed and removed her gloves and applied liberally.
“McKenzie wants to treat her at the ranch.”
Charlotte bit her lip. “Obviously, if she’s seriously ill she’ll need to be hospitalized.”
“Yeah. But this way we don’t risk losing her.”
Charlotte huddled into her fleece. Dammit, she needed something warmer than that. “It’s a good solution. It’s not as if she has anywhere else to go right now anyway.”
He nodded. Yesterday they’d have been fighting over this decision but somehow, over the last eighteen hours, they’d fallen in sync. Maybe McKenzie had been right about forcing them to work together. Not that Novak wasn’t itching to get back to HRT.
He scratched his shoulder then caught Romano’s smirk in the rearview and narrowed his eyes at the man. Novak knew what the smirk meant, and he was not rising to the bait. The guys all thought it was hilarious he was being forced to partner with Charlotte and were probably placing highly inappropriate workplace bets.
He drove back toward where they’d started their hike with Agent Fontaine yesterday. Parked a hundred yards from two sheriff’s cruisers.
Charlotte waved a cheery hand, and one of them even waved back. The news media had been moved back another mile down the road and aircraft banned so they couldn’t report on the FBI’s activities.
Novak climbed out and scanned the area. Didn’t see another living soul. Didn’t mean they weren’t out there though.
“Wear a ballistics vest under your fleece,” he instructed Charlotte, then winced as he remembered he wasn’t her superior.
She shot him a look but grabbed what she needed out of the cargo area. At least she was smart enough not to fight him on the common-sense stuff.
He grunted to himself.
Did she think the same about him or not? He knew she thought he was a meat head. It really shouldn’t matter what other people thought of him outside his team, but for some reason it did. He needed to get over his fragile ego.
Romano slammed the door and handed Novak one of the metal cases. Romano carried the second larger case.
“Can I take something?” Charlotte asked.
“This from the woman who has wheels on her luggage,” Novak teased.
She put her hands on her hips. “I knew you had an issue with that.”
She was still wearing the bobble hat, and it was hard to take her seriously and yet, he suddenly realized, he did. Despite being soft and fluffy on the outside, she was a damn good agent.
“You can carry this if you don’t mind.” Romano offered her a laptop bag, and she slung it over her shoulders.
She grinned at the man, and Novak felt a swift kick in the gut. She smiled at everyone like they meant something to her. Everyone except him.
He had to stop taking everything so damn personally.
“Sheriff’s deputies are supposed to have the place sealed off, but I’m not convinced someone couldn’t slip in or out without notice,” Novak said quietly.
“The snipers haven’t seen any movement, but their line of sight is limited to the west of those trees. Keep your eyes wide and let’s keep the volume down. I don’t want anyone paying attention to what we’re doing.”
They hiked silently, Novak leading the way, avoiding the cameras that his team had mapped out that morning. They’d also found a series of laser tripwires that presumably set off alerts inside Harrison’s bunker. Novak wasn’t going anywhere near those suckers.
They found a spot near the creek, out of visual range of the cameras he’d stripped in front of last night. No one had ever accused him of being modest. If it saved lives, he’d walk around naked all the time. He didn’t care, except his skin wasn’t well camouflaged and certainly wasn’t bulletproof.
There were some low scrub bushes and a downed tree that provided good cover. They placed the cases on the ground, and Romano flicked open the catches on the lids.
Charlotte’s eyes lit up when she got a look inside.
Romano sat cross-legged on the frozen grass as he started warming up the miniature drones.
Charlotte knelt at his shoulder, watching as the camera went live.
Novak scanned their surroundings for danger. At least he tried to but kept getting distracted by the way Charlotte’s lips curved in delight as Romano launched the first machine, something about the size and shape of a hummingbird.
Novak heard the soft whirr of mechanical wings followed by Charlotte’s delighted gasp as her grinning face appeared on the small monitor. The camera could be swiveled from side to side or up and down, which Romano demonstrated.
The machines were pretty damn cool. Space-age gadgets that the public knew little about. The guys in the FBI’s tech department were working with the military on a bunch of Top-Secret shit. The machines had tiny solar panels all over their surface to help supplement battery power which was the major limiting factor to size reduction. Power could prove an issue when flying long distances or if below ground for too long—hence getting as close as they could to their target rather than flying the drones in from the ranch. The drone transmitted data using technology a physicist in DC had been developing that was virtually undetectable. As long as someone didn’t actually see the drone or hear it, they’d never know it was there.
Romano flew the machine straight up in the air until it was clear of the trees. Novak took a knee on the other side of Charlotte and got a whiff of her scent which, despite the lack of a morning shower, still made him want to breathe deeper. Romano flew the drone west, fighting a gusty breeze.
“Oh my god, that is so cool,” Charlotte whispered. The hard-assed HRT operator grinned at her like a little kid.
“Keep your eyes on the monitor,” Novak growled. The last thing they needed was to crash million-dollar tech because Romano was distracted by a woman.
Romano winced and went back to flying using the joystick.
“All those years of playing video games finally came in handy for someone,” Charlotte commented wryly.
“Sure did.” Romano took an overarching view from above, one they’d already assessed from larger drones flown at high altitude. Then he flew it slowly down, hovering about twenty feet above the concrete structure. There were holes in the concrete, probably ventilation and drainage related, but they could be defensive like the arrow slits of old medieval castles. Nothing large enough that they could use to get inside, unless they stuffed the cracks with plastic explosive, which was a possibility. Romano zoomed in on the front entrance. The reinforced door looked like it was made out of armored steel. It would probably be easier to destroy the walls. The small door within the frame though… if they could blow those hinges, they might be able to get inside fast.
The problem with Harrison having been an engineer for the Corps was he knew how the military thought. He could boobytrap all the entrances and exits. Novak wanted to get a look at the insides of these structures to check that out before anyone attempted to gain entry via those portals. And these drones were his best chance.
“Go around the whole thing and then head to the rear.”
Romano flew a little higher, traveling slowly enough that the onboard cameras could clearly capture every inch of the outer fortifications. The feed was being relayed straight back to the Incident Command center via military satellite.
The drone circled once and then focused in on the rear door that was a lot less intimidating than the front but equally fortified. It was a double-garage-sized portal made of solid steel. Novak suspected it would be braced on the inside.
He frowned. The concrete construction, combined with the razor-wire topped fence, meant it was a heavily fortified position. No doubt HRT could get inside if they launched a full-scale assault, but it would take time, possibly hours, and who knew how many people inside would be injured in the process. Surprise and speed and overwhelming force were part of the Special Operations playbook to achieve rapid dominance, but he wasn’t yet sure how to achieve that.
He needed to figure it out.
Romano flew over the middle of the compound, which had been half filled with soil to grow vegetables. The other side was basically a parking lot and animal holding pen.
Movement caught his eye.
A young boy, about eight years old, darted from the hen house carrying a bucket of eggs. The kid looked up, and Romano held the drone steady. The machines were quiet but not silent. The kid looked terrified, searching for signs of the coming apocalypse. Poor little bastard.
He started running again.
“Follow him. Let’s see how he gets back inside.”
Romano swooped down after the kid. The boy dashed to the west wall and down a side corridor not readily visible from above. After about fifteen feet, the kid slid through another large metal door that was being guarded by a man with an assault rifle. The door slammed shut before Romano got close.
Novak swore under his breath. It was probably just as well. The drone was bound to be noticed if it had flown inside at that moment.
“Park this somewhere unobtrusive so it can watch that entrance without being seen. Then let’s go see if we can find the opening to that ventilation shaft with the other one.”
Romano did as instructed. They’d pre-programmed the GPS coordinates, and Romano simply had to avoid any obstacles and surveillance along the way, so he flew above the tops of the trees.
“We’re supposedly right over the shaft now,” Romano announced twenty seconds later.
“I don’t see anything,” whispered Charlotte.
“Fly lower. Aim the camera at the ground,” Novak instructed. Sure enough there was a small indistinct path through the foliage which had excitement sparking through him. “Follow it.”
Romano went to almost ground level and then hovered and followed the path. He came to something that looked like a drainage culvert.
“Bingo,” said Novak. “See how far we can get our friend here inside.”
Romano’s expression was a mask of concentration. Although the drone had sensors that should prevent it getting too close to the sides, the slightest miscalculation by the operator could mean crashing the expensive machine straight into a wall.
Novak switched on the infrared camera so Romano could see better.
The agent dipped the tiny drone inside the metal tube, and the hum of vibration grew louder on the monitor. Novak turned the volume down and hoped there was no one inside the tunnel. After about ten feet, the metal tube opened out into a concrete passage three-foot wide by five-foot tall.
“Looks like a secret exit to me,” said Novak.
“Damn straight,” Romano replied.
“A bit of a tight squeeze for HRT to maneuver,” Charlotte noted.
“We’ve worked in worse.”
At the end of the tunnel, twenty yards in, they came to a steel door. Presumably locked. They had no idea if it opened inside the actual bunker or inside the perimeter of the fence, which would leave them no better off than they were now.
“What
do you want me to do?” Romano asked.
Novak thought about it. “Land the drone in the tunnel, and we’ll watch the feed from the IC. If and when that door opens, we will have eyes on it. It might be our best opportunity to sneak inside.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Romano landed softly and then walked the machine to a position against one wall, pointing the camera toward the closed doorway and switching the machine to dormant mode with legs and wings retracted. As soon as the machine sensed any vibration, it would automatically wake in stealth mode.
It was a cool piece of kit.
The hairs on Novak’s nape stood up. He glanced around, placing a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder to stop her from standing or making a sound.
Romano instantly sensed the change in the atmosphere too. The guy had been a Navy SEAL and knew when to trust his instincts.
“Pack up. Take SSA Blood and the equipment back to the SUV. I’m going to take a quick look around.”
Chapter Fourteen
A bullet took out a piece of bark a foot over their heads, and they all scrambled behind the fallen tree for cover.
Charlotte unclipped her weapon. “What’s the plan?”
Novak looked irritated. “We can’t sit here. They might change position and get a bead on us. We cannot afford to lose that kit or for the people holed up inside that bunker to suspect what we were doing out here. I’m gonna get eyes on whoever took that shot and coordinate the appropriate response. You two head back to the vehicle until backup arrives.” Novak didn’t wait for an answer but took off through the trees.
Charlotte was torn. The technology was important, but Novak needed backup. As the other Hostage Rescue Team member in the group, she knew Romano was better trained at these sorts of scenarios than she was, but she didn’t like admitting it. “You assist Novak. I’ll take the cases back to the vehicle and alert the sheriff’s deputies. Hand over the keys.”
“Novak told me to stay with you.” Romano’s expression looked determined, but she knew he’d want to be part of the action.
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