Chapter 26 Doc #2
Especially ones that had something to protect.
“Deep breath, Captain,” I said as I puffed out my chest with an overexaggerated breath that I took in through my nose.
He followed my instincts, breathing with me for a while until I watched his shoulders drop as well.
“All right,” Cap said as he turned to face us.
“I like Doc’s idea of continuing to patrol with drones to try and get some answers on transportation and movement rhythms. But with the buildings so spread out, we’ll have to choose one to infiltrate and set up all of our surveillance shit in.
With how spread out all of these places are, we’ll just have to choose the one we feel is right and focus on it. ”
“Let’s go with the one with the most heat signatures in it,” Brutus said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “More people equals more chances for someone to fuck up and do or say something.”
I pointed at him. “I like that idea.”
“Me, too,” Ranger said.
“I’ve been keeping tabs on the map about the number of heat signatures,” Scout said as he wrangled the map back into his grasp. “Right now, the third place we scouted out had the most. There were six heat signatures in that building.”
Cap nodded. “All right. We’ll see what else Ranger comes up with during this first flight, and then we’ll go from there.”
“Found another one,” Ranger said.
“Let me see,” Scout said as he shouldered his way back to the laptop setup.
This went back and forth for a while, but by the time Ranger was done with his flyover from the state park, there were five places we had mapped out with various human heat signatures. That third building we came across was still the one with the most.
But it was also the one that was deepest into the state park.
“I still think that third building is our best bet,” Ranger said as he swiveled to face us in his chair.
“Getting to it is going to be a bitch, though,” Wrecker said as he studied the map over Scout’s shoulder. “It’s deep into the state park. There isn’t a direction we can come at it that won’t have us in the woods for miles beforehand.”
“That’s good, though,” Ghost said as he stood by Brutus. “Means that whatever we pull, it’s not likely to draw in people from town.”
“No crossfire,” Brutus added.
“Doc?” Cap asked.
I looked over at him. “Yes?”
He motioned to the computer screen. “What are you thinking?”
My gaze darted in between my president and the computer screen behind the curtain of Ranger’s hair. “I think that I’ll need to transport a lot of medical supplies with me, in case shit goes south.”
“What else are you thinking?”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek as my attention bounced between the partially-obscured screen and the map Scout held in his hands.
I pointed to the map. “Can I see that?”
Scout just nodded and handed it to me. I studied it for a while, my brain whirling and swirling with all sorts of things. I clocked things on the map, like the rivers that were outlined and the supposed grounds that were hunting grounds versus protected grounds.
“Huh,” I said.
“What?” Cap asked. “What do you see?”
I furrowed my brow as I handed the map back to Scout. “I think it’s interesting that they’d build these buildings so close to legal hunting grounds. You’d think they’d be worried about getting caught.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Ranger asked.
I grinned down at him. “That third building? It’s the only one not built near legal hunting grounds.”
“So whatever is out there, they’re really trying to hide it,” Cap said.
I pointed at him. “Exactly. That’s why I think we should focus on that third building, whatever the fuck it is.
They’re actually attempting to hide it. Those other buildings?
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were decoys, or even buildings they could stand to lose if they were spotted or figured out.
But that building?” I reached over the top of the map and pointed to the third building we had come across.
“That building doesn’t fit into any of the parameters like the others. It’s almost like—”
“The others were built to protect that one,” Cap said.
I smiled at him and pulled my hand away from the map. “Now you’re getting it.”
Ghost chuckled. “It would be easy then, creating a distraction to pull them away from that house.”
“What do you mean?” Scout asked as he looked over at the masked man.
I already understood what Ghost was throwing down. “What he means is, if the other buildings are built to protect the one we’re going to infiltrate, then that means we cause chaos at one of the other buildings. Just use their own strategies to our advantage.”
“What?” Brutus asked. “Like burn one of them down?”
Ghost shrugged. “What we do doesn’t matter.
But I bet you the shirt off my fucking back that if we create a commotion at any of these other buildings we’ve found, the fuckers from that building will go running.
If not to help, then to get the fuck out of dodge.
But either way, it gets us access to that house without having to tiptoe around them. ”
“What kind of distraction will we use, then?” Ranger asked. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to burn those motherfuckers to the ground. But is a fire really the way to go?”
“Doesn’t have to be a fire,” Cap said.
“Besides, there’s already been a fire,” Ghost said. “They might not come running for another similar emergency.”
A thought hit me, and I smiled. “They’d come running for us, though.”
All eyes were on me as Cap narrowed his. “Explain.”
I shrugged. “They’d come running if they heard motorcycles. We wouldn’t even have to infiltrate the woods near any of the other safehouses. We would just have to get the motorcycle engines revving within earshot of that particular building, and I’m sure all bets would be off.”
“How would we do all of that, and then get into the building, though?” Brutus asked.
“We could ask King,” Ghost suggested. “See if his guys would be willing to do the ride around in the woods while we watched from the sidelines.”
“Awww, I wanna send them running, though,” Brutus said.
I chuckled. “Doesn’t mean you can’t. I’m sure King would want an Honor Hog on a bike with him and his guys, just in case.”
Brutus looked over to Cap. “Can I? Be on the bikes with them?”
I swear to hell on high, the massive man looked like a child begging his dad for a sweet treat.
It made Cap chuckle. “Yes, you can ride with King and the guys.”
“Oh hell yeah,” Brutus said with a grin.
“You’ll also be the one to fill them in on the plan.”
Brutus’s head fell back. “Ugh. I hate talking.”
All of us had a good laugh at that before Cap raised his hand in the air, commanding our attention.
“All right,” he said once we all settled down. “All in favor of everything we’ve discussed, raise your hands.”
All of us shot our hands into the air without hesitation.
“Good,” Cap said as he lowered his. “Range?”
“Yes, boss.”
“That’s enough drone-flying for today. Get back at it tomorrow evening, though. I want to map this out a few times so we’re certain this is the building we want to hit. If the heat signatures stay numerous after, say, four more flyovers, then we’ll hit that building.”
“Can do, Cap,” Ranger said.
“The rest of you?” he asked as he turned to face us. “Church dismissed.”
And all of us clapped with our president three times.
With each of the thunderous claps banging around inside of my ribcage.
We were almost there.
We were almost at the finish line.
We just had to hang in there a little while longer.