Chapter 13 - Ranger #2
“It’s what I would’ve done,” Cap said with a shrug. “Marla said she’s Navy, right?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
Cap nodded back. “I’ve got lots of contacts in the Navy still. Someone’s looking for that woman. We have to make sure her commanding officer knows that she’s not AWOL. I’ll take care of that.”
There was a silence that poured over the room before Scout spoke up. “We got any idea if these guys will get desperate enough to raid our compound for Marla?”
“We’ll be ready if they do,” I spat. “No one’s getting their fucking hands on that woman again. I promised her.”
Cap shot me a look before he focused back on the guys. “He’s right. If there’s an attack on our compound, as far as I’m concerned, that’s a declaration of war. We’ll defend ourselves as necessary and get our women to safety.”
“What is it, Doc?” Wrecker asked.
My head snapped toward the man, who stared at the floor, clearly lost in thought.
“Doc,” Cap barked.
The man whipped his head up. “Sorry, what was that?”
I furrowed my brow. “What’s on your mind?”
“What are you thinking about so hard?” Wrecker asked.
Doc heaved a heavy sigh. “Just something in that video.”
“Well? Spit it out,” Cap said.
Doc just shrugged. “We’ve got two men in here that have been in the bowels of this thing. Cap. Wreck. You guys recognize where Lizzie was? The walls? The windows? Anything?”
The two men looked at one another and squinted their eyes before they both turned their attention back to Doc.
Cap was the first to speak. “No, actually.”
“Nu uh,” Wrecker said.
Doc nodded. “Exactly. And what would you guys say the condition of those places was? The floors? The walls? The windows?”
“Run down,” Wrecker said.
“Dusty,” Cap said.
Doc nodded. “So why was Lizzie kneeling on a pristine floor?”
“Fucking hell, I knew it,” Ghost muttered as he stepped out of his corner. “I knew that floor was much too shiny in that video.”
Doc pointed at the masked man. “My thoughts exactly. We’re dealing with people in the fucking woods, but Lizzie’s outlined reflection was on that floor during that video. Do you guys remember any reflective floors?”
Wrecker shook his head. “Just concrete and some carpet.”
Cap shook his head as well. “Same. Concrete and carpet.”
Doc shook his head. “I don’t think she’s being held in one of those buildings in the woods.”
“I think I know where she’s being held, though,” Ghost said.
“Where?” Cap asked as all eyes snapped to him.
Ghost just sighed. “The law firm.”
“I was wondering the same thing,” Doc said.
Ghost continued. “The law firm has reflective floors. Not quite that color, but tiled. Decorative. Squeaky clean. Walking through that place, I always flinched at random movements on the floor because my eyes would catch the fuzzy outline of me fucking walking, for fuck’s sake. She has to be there.”
Cap tilted his head. “That’s a hell of a risk on their part, keeping a woman like that chained up somewhere.”
Ghost just shrugged. “They’re holding secret midnight meetings that are spoken in code. Who’s to say they’re not holding people there as well?”
“We need schematics of the place,” I said. “We need to figure out if they’ve got a basement or something like that in the building.”
Cap looked back at Doc. “How clean was that floor in that video?”
“I’d eat off it, Cap.”
Our president looked at me. “That’s enough for me. You pull those schematics when you know it’s safe.”
“They’re safe,” I said simply. “I back up everything to an external. I’ll get the external plugged into something I can lock down and I’ll get them pulled tonight.”
“Good,” Cap said, “because you and Ghost are the ones that are going to be on this. I don’t care if you have to use your own mobile hub or whatever the fuck to hack into the firm’s internet systems. If they’re holding Lizzie at that law firm, we can use that to our advantage.”
“And gather a fuckton of information for our DOJ contact in the process,” Brutus said.
Cap pointed at the mountain man. “Exactly.”
“When do you want us to head out?” Ghost said.
Our president didn’t hesitate. “Forty-eight hours.”
“We’re waiting two days before we go?” Doc asked. “She needs medical attention now.”
“And you said it yourself. She’s not being tortured. And if she’s not in the woods, then we have to assume—”
“Assumptions could get her killed, Cap,” Doc said.
My eyebrows rose up onto my forehead.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard Doc interrupt our president before.
Cap’s face settled into stone. “Provide the argument that we need to run in guns blazing then.”
Doc just chewed on the inside of his cheek as he stayed silent.
Cap’s face softened before he sighed. “We can’t retaliate immediately. That’s what they’re bracing for. For all we know, they’ve set this trap perfectly for us. If we retaliate immediately, there’s a chance we play right into their cards. So we give it two days and go in the dead of night.”
It looked almost painful for Doc to move his head in a nod. “Understood.”
“Do we need a recap?” Cap asked as he held his hand in the air.
I was so fucking thankful that we all stayed silent.
“All in favor of our forty-eight-hour plan, raise your hands,” he said.
One by one, our hands shot into the air. Doc was the only one that took his sweet time getting his hand all the way up. I’d never seen him like this before. But then again, when Doc saw someone who was in need, it was hard for him to sit on the sidelines.
After all, he was Doc for a reason.
“Church dismissed,” Cap said as he clapped three times.
We all returned the same three claps in kind.