Chapter 19 #2
“Team Two, Team Three, ready?” Ian spoke into the headset attached to his right ear as he handed Beau’s short lead to Boomer.
When the responses came back affirmative, he told them to move out.
He didn’t have to worry about the men who weren’t part of Trident’s core six.
They all had Special Ops experience, including Athos, so they knew how each man and team would work in unison.
Team One approached, bounding as two sections, which meant while half the team moved forward to the next tree or object to hide behind, the others covered them, ready to fire their weapons if needed.
They silently reached the southernmost building, and Ian signaled for Urkel and Tanner to check the structure.
While Tanner covered him, Urkel scanned the exterior wall with a heat-seeking hand-held device and came up negative for warm-bodied occupants other than a few rodents along the floor line.
With hand signals, he gestured all clear to Team One, and the rest of them joined the two operatives, using the building as cover.
Brody’s whisper broke through the intercoms. “Teams, hold position. I have audio coming through from Angie’s bracelet. Hot damn, it works. Stand-by.”
Ian tamped down his urge to rush into the other building and gun down everyone inside who wasn’t a female in his life.
Angie tried her best to speak in a calm voice.
She didn’t want to upset Jenn any more than she already was.
While Jenn could hear everything, the gag and blindfold remained.
But, apparently, the dirty DEA agents and three other men, who looked like gang members, didn’t bring a second set so Angie could still see and talk.
She was sitting on a chair in the middle of the cavernous warehouse, which was half-full with boxes and crates.
Her wrists were handcuffed behind her, and it had taken her a while to remember that the GPS bracelet Brody had given her also had a microphone.
Grateful for the thing, she ignored that it was hurting her since it was digging into her flesh under the metal handcuff.
She prayed the tech geek was listening as she began asking questions to the men holding them hostage. “I’m who you want. Why won’t you let Jenn go?”
One of the dirtbag gang-bangers with a knife scar on his face looked up from the three-man poker game and sneered. “Because I like the hot little mama. She and I will have some fun after that pig shows up, and we get paid.”
“Shut up, asshole,” Agent Holstein snarled at Scarface, who shrugged and made a vulgar gesture toward Jenn. Angie was grateful the younger woman couldn’t see it, as she was already trembling enough.
“So, it takes five of you to kidnap two women and handcuff them to chairs in the middle of a warehouse? We’re helpless and not going anywhere, so please put away your handguns.”
Please, Brody, be out there somewhere with Ian.
She changed subjects, not wanting the kidnappers to catch on that she was hopefully giving Trident information. “How did you find out about Jimmy and me, anyway?”
While the pacing Holstein didn’t want any of the gang-bangers to answer her questions, the same didn’t seem to apply to his partner.
Agent Jackson was sitting on a crate about fifteen feet in front of her.
“Saw the prick talking on one of those burner phones he used a lot and figured there was a good reason behind them.
When I tried to get closer to hear what he was saying, he hung up and tossed it in his drawer when an ‘agent down’ came in, courtesy of an anonymous call, of course.
“After he tore out of there with the rest of the squad, I picked the lock on his desk, checked the phone, and copied your number. Figured it would come in handy someday. Andrews, or Athos, or fucking asshole, take your pick, was never the type of guy who could stay away from U/C. I knew he’d go back under again someday, and I was right.
Traced the number and found you. When our connections from New Orleans called to see if we knew the new guy who was making them nervous and sent me a picture of him…
well, let’s just say I wasn’t surprised to see your boyfriend. ”
“So, you’re the one who told the drug dealers who Jimmy and the other agent who was murdered were?” The man shrugged without a verbal response, but the cruel expression on his face confirmed what she’d asked. “So now what happens?”
“Now we wait a little while, and when we’re ready, you’ll call your boyfriend and tell him where to meet us. If he comes alone, you both die. If he doesn’t, then you die, he dies, and whoever he brings dies. Then we collect the money owed to us for this fucked up operation… simple enough?”
She didn’t answer him.
“By the way, which one is really your boyfriend? Andrews or the hick who you escaped with?” He leered at her. “Or are you banging them both?”
She realized he still thought Brody was her boyfriend and knew nothing about her relationship with Ian.
The man jumped off the crate, stepped toward her, and squatted in front of her chair. “Maybe I’ll see what has all these assholes beating a path to your door, hmm? You that good in bed, darlin’?”
He imitated the Texas drawl Brody had used on him.
She shuddered when he dragged a finger down her face and neck to her chest. Instinctively kicking out her leg, she missed connecting her shin with his balls by mere inches.
He shifted in time, then backhanded her across the face, sending her and her chair toppling. “You fucking bitch!”
Seconds after she hit the ground, the metal doors on both ends of the warehouse were kicked in, followed by flashes of blinding light and loud booms. Gunfire and pandemonium broke out, and Angie pushed her legs against the cement floor, forcing her upper body toward where Jenn sat, frantically straining against her restraints.
At the same time, muffled screams emerged from around her gag.
Unlike Angie, she was tied to the chair and couldn’t escape the line of fire.
As the shooting continued, Angie managed to get to her knees and, using her upper body, knocked Jenn sideways, chair and all, to the ground, then covered the helpless woman’s body with her own the best she could.
“Sit-rep,” Ian demanded.
They were still in a holding pattern. Brody listened with one ear to a headset plugged into his portable tablet, which ran the same program as his laptop, while his com-set was in his other ear.
Angie’s voice came in loud and clear with occasional scratching noises, and he could make out the male voices in the distance.
He hit the record icon when Angie started to ask the questions the team needed answers to.
“Way to go, sweetheart. Teams, standby, our girl is giving us info… five tangos… principles are handcuffed to chairs in the middle of structure… handguns at ready. No hints at any other weapons… she’s off-topic. Your call, Boss-man.”
“Team One, taking west end. Team Two, take the east end. Get me heat confirmation, Two.” Ian signaled for his men to circumvent the empty warehouse they were still behind toward the front entrances for both buildings.
The other team would work their way toward the back.
He also indicated for Carter to find a way to the roof to see if he could get eyes into the northern building.
High windows would run along the south side of the other structure if they were the same. “
Reverend, south sniper looking for a position, do the same on north if you can.” After Ian's teammate acknowledged him, he asked. “Heat signatures?”
Rad’s voice came through as a low whisper since he needed to stand close to the target building.
“Affirm. Looks like three sitting at a small table—two others in chairs about twenty feet to my left, possibly our principles. One pacing east to west looks like he’s southeast of principles.
One more sitting between duo and trio, maybe on a crate or something. ”
“Windows, doors?”
The men in the best positions to answer did so, starting with Rad on the north side and going clockwise. “Second-story windows on North, no entry.”
Marco’s voice came next. “East, one kick-in door, no windows.”
“South, windows, no doors,” stated Devon, who was first in line along the front of the unoccupied building and could see the last two sides from where he stood. “West, one kick-in, one overhead, no windows.”
Carter reported in. “Sniper position on top of south structure. Partial line of sight. Best I can do. Can get headshots on everyone but Pacer—he’s too close to my side.
Lots of hiding spots, boys. A bunch of wooden crates and boxes in there.
Princess A sitting in chair, hands behind back.
Princess J, five feet east, hands same, also blindfolded and gagged. ”
“I’ve got Pacer in sight from north position.
” Jake was straddling a limb in the tall tree he’d managed to climb about fifteen yards from the target building.
It wasn’t the greatest spot because he couldn’t rest his sniper rifle against anything, so it would have to be a holding shot without a spotter.
As long as the branch didn’t break under his weight, he’d be okay.
Ian acknowledged all transmissions. “Team One, breach west. Team Two, breach east. Team Three, standby for intercepts. On my go.”
Marco took the remainder of his team, rounded the building to the back door, and stated they were in position while Ian’s team took the front.
Before Ian gave Devon the word to use the mobile ram to breach the front door and Bannerman to do the same at the back, Carter spoke into his headset from his elevated roost. “Crate tango hopped down, walking toward Principle A. Right in front of her, no weapon threat, lost headshot. . . smacked her, she’s on the floor. ”
“Breach!”