Chapter 108
They could see Miller near the entrance to the mine.
As soon as Miguel stopped the truck, Dom was out.
He headed to the blonde. She already wore gear that told him she thought she was going in.
The woman carried rope, an infrared setup in one hand, and a small night vision device in the other.
Apparently, she believed in being prepared.
He damned well hoped they didn’t need that rope—unless they used it to drag Newcomb from the mine by his damned ankles.
“I was giving you five minutes, then I was going in to get Madison myself. That’s my friend in there, too. I wasn’t going to let him get too far in with Mads. Not if I could stop it.”
He suspected she meant it. That earned her his loyalty for life. “What do you know? Where did you get that setup?”
“Visual confirmation that the van is in there, but I had to go in to see it. The cavern curves around—van is behind the bend. This is Brett’s gear.
You’ll see my boot prints to the side of the tire tracks for the van.
It’s wet enough in there; we may be able to follow tracks.
I haven’t followed. I don’t know what sort of weapon situation he has, and I’ll need both hands to use this, as well. ”
“I know Newcomb always carries his service weapon. He may have another. But he is not in the field at all now. Especially in Wichita Falls,” Miguel said.
“Anyone shoots down there and we’re facing a ricochet or cave-in issue.
No live rounds. Period. Or we are all screwed.
We’ll need another way to take him down.
The last thing we are doing is shooting down there, period. ”
“So we are doing this without guns. We can’t risk hitting her.
” And that limited their options. Dom just hoped to hell Newcomb recognized he’d be putting himself in danger if he fired his weapon down there, too.
But Newcomb had to be feeling the heat of them on his trail.
A desperate man did desperate things. Add in that he was a damned killer—he would not hesitate to take out whoever he could. Starting with Madison.
“I am going in first,” Miguel said. “He won’t see me. I’ve done some training down here with Mawbry. We’ve explored a few mines nearby for the hell of it.”
If there was one thing Dom didn’t like, it was small underground spaces. He despised caves.
Madison knew that.
She’d told him it was hilarious that a caveman didn’t like caves. That he must have been trapped in his old lair, in a previous life, like the bear he was.
He loved that woman. He had waited long enough to go in. “I’m going in after her.”
“You are not taking lead. Not with it being your woman in there. I’m not going to let you,” Miguel said, stepping into his path.
Miguel had a flashlight, paracord, and a thermal scanner in his hand.
Apparently, he carried that in his personal vehicle.
Miguel and Miller must have been scouts in another life. Always prepared.
“We need to get in there. She’s getting deeper in there. And she’s terrified. Alone. In the dark. We don’t know what he’s doing to her.” But they could damned well guess.
“I’m taking lead,” Miguel said. “You bring up the rear behind Miller. Lake and Jake—command out here. Set up what you need to, in case that asshole tries to get behind us, or he’s meeting friends.
I want to try to box him in between us. There are some nasty areas in the mines—winzes and ore chutes have caved in or are crumbling.
There are drop-offs and some areas flood.
No one wanders off alone in there. They just don’t.
We don’t need to send rescue after all of us, as well as Madison.
We won’t do her a damned bit of good if we rush this.
Someone will need to find Madison. There isn’t going to be much maneuverability or cover.
Our main objective is getting her out of there safely. We will apprehend Newcomb second.”
“What’s the plan?” Jake asked.
“I am going in, Acardi behind me. Then Miller between us all. Miller is going to be our second set of eyes, and if something happens to me, Miller takes point with that thing. I have a thermal scanner. If I am down, get it. Keep moving until you get Madison. It is better than the damned flashlights—no lights. And try to be quiet. We don’t need to advertise our locations.
Lake and MacNamara—perimeter. Stay back until signaled.
Be alert. We don’t know where he thinks he’s going to get out of here, and there may be another exit.
And remember, we are talking about a cop-killing ring.
Make sure Madison wasn’t just the bait. Watch yourselves, people.
We have more responders on the way. We are talking tight spaces.
Be prepared. Light will be extremely limited. Let’s do this.”
Miguel had a thermal monocular.
Miller had an infrared and night vision set-up.
It was as good as it was going to get.
Dom took the coil of rope Miguel handed him.
He was ready.
“I’m taking point, Acardi. Don’t be a hero and do anything stupid. That won’t help your girl at all.”