Chapter 16
Chapter sixteen
“Colt’s place is an hour by plane and I’m about the same distance from Atlanta,” Ace replies. He’ll be wheels up in fifteen, and I’m right behind him.
“I can’t make it there in time to help out in person, but Ace, do you have any of those drones leftover from the other week?” Liam asks.
“Yeah, I can bring a couple if you want to fly them,” Ace tells him.
“Liam, how about you run one, and then give me one for surveillance so I can run point here from my home base,” I add.
Ace chuckles, what a foreign sound. “I’m not giving you a weapon, Sophia. You’ll shoot my ass.”
“One, rude. Two, don’t make me mad and you won’t have to worry.
We all know I’m a great shot. I’m just most useful behind a keyboard, boys.
” I smart off but I know I can with these guys.
It’s never a threat to them that I’m kickass at my job and can get a little—or a lot—mouthy.
I know they respect me as a team member.
I make a mental note to look further into the receptionist at the clinic where Dante had his appointment.
We now know Salvatore Serrano put a reward out to staff members at pediatric cardiology clinics that specialize in Tetralogy of Fallot with photos of Cara, Dante, and Mila.
The reward made it look like Cara was involved in a custody dispute and took off with the kids in the dead of night.
The receptionist that Cara bumped into when leaving Dante’s appointment is going to face my wrath before I serve her with a bow to the authorities.
The twenty-five-thousand-dollar transfer into her account earlier this morning isn’t helping her case in my eyes.
One hour and twenty minutes after our phone call, Colt and Ace met up in Memphis and are in one of the trucks my contact left them.
They’re parked a quarter mile away from where Dante’s watch is pinging.
He hasn’t moved more than a city block in the last three hours, but the dot moves around enough that I think he’s still wearing the watch.
These morons took those innocent babies to some abandoned industrial area, or if it isn’t abandoned, the owners take shit care of their things.
Someone is paying the electricity bill though, so I took that as an invitation to hack the power grid for that area so I can knock out their power if necessary.
I like to have multiple options prepared, even if I never need to execute them.
“How does it feel to be the backup for once, Liam?” Colt asks.
“Backup? I’m pretty sure I could handle this on my own but thought y’all would want in on the fun,” Liam deadpans.
“Just so long as your drone is charged, sure,” Ace teases.
I huff. “He doubts us, Liam.”
“He’s an idiot, Sophia.” It almost sounds like Liam is smiling—and that’s a rare occurrence with that man.
“He’s still on comms, assholes,” Ace chimes in.
“Aw, you made Ace smile. Good job, y’all,” Colt chimes in and makes me laugh in response.
We get our drones up in the air and I can’t help but clap in excitement. I love knowing the good guys are going to take down some bad guys—and I really love when I get to help.
“Copy that, Ranger Rick.” I smirk at his grumbled response but focus on the task at hand.
Because they’re in such an isolated area, I don’t have any local security cameras to hack as additional vantage points, so I need to see as much as I can, without being actually seen.
Liam launches his drone and goes wide to take an approach of the building opposite of my current position.
I have a live feed from both my drone and Liam’s, as well as a live feed from Ace’s and Colt’s bodycams. My large monitor in my situation room takes up a third of the wall behind my desk and is currently split into four quadrants for our respective feeds with my facial recognition software running for any face that may appear on screen.
Thankfully, these drones were a gift from a friend in one of the federal alphabet agencies and they have tech that even impresses me—which takes a lot these days.
“Alright boys, I’m getting four heat signatures in the northeast corner of the first floor, and judging by the muscle mass, and suspected height of each one, they appear to be four adult male suspects.
There’s one lone target outside who looks to be patrolling the southern side of the building.
We also have two adorably sized heat signatures coming from the second floor, and judging by the positioning, I’m guessing they are both sleeping.
” Please let them be sleeping. Please let them be alright.
I shove the trigger away, and double down my focus.
“I don’t see any other heat signatures in the surrounding area. You’re good to go on your count, Ace.”
“Heard. We’re approaching the southwest entrance. Sophia, let us know if anything changes on overlook.” Ace’s voice is steady but controlled as he and Colt quickly move toward the building.
Despite their massive size, Colt and Ace move like stealth thieves in the night. Keeping to the shadows, they move into position until Ace lifts his hand, signaling for them to stop less than twenty feet from their first target.
Our intent is to disable and detain, avoiding casualties if possible.
I keep a close eye on overwatch, in addition to following the other three feeds.
Moments after I hear Colt whisper, “Cover me,” he silently slides behind the goon patrolling the exterior of the building.
Colt had him in a chokehold before he even realized he was in trouble.
He quietly lowers his unconscious body to the ground.
Zip ties and duct tape will keep him quiet and unable to move until the feds pick him up.
“One target secured and detained, preparing to make entry,” Ace updates us, but as soon as he and Colt cross the threshold, movement from my drone’s feed requires a necessary pivot.
“Be advised gentlemen, there’s an SUV approaching from the north at a high rate of speed. And judging by the make and model, I don’t think it’s any of your alphabet friends, Liam.” I have yet to meet a federal employee that drives a G-Wagon.
“Can you see who’s in it?” Liam asks as they pull up to the north side of the building and come to a stop in front of the warehouse.
Ace and Colt are ducked under some shelving units out of sight, waiting for us to get a better picture of what’s going on.
“Negative. There are three figures exiting the vehicle,” I respond as I zoom in as much as I can from my drone without giving away my position.
As soon as they step out of the vehicle, I’m off and running with my preferred facial recognition software, which is running beautifully, as it should since I designed the software.
But one of them does not require any software to identify. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Liam whispers.
“I see; hold for confirmation,” I mutter as my fingers fly across my keyboard.
Identity confirmed.
“Who is it?” Ace whispers from inside the building. He doesn’t have a good visual on the individuals on the other side of the building, but it wouldn’t take him long to reach them.
“We have confirmation one of the three individuals walking into the building right now is in fact Salvatore Serrano. The moron not only sent goons after kids … he showed up himself.” He thinks he’s untouchable, and those are my favorite assholes to watch fall.
“My contact said he’s been wanted for over eighteen months. Serrano gave them the slip, and they haven’t been able to pin down his location since.” Liam pulls his drone back briefly.
“Well, it might help the case against him if they had him in custody—or no longer breathing. To-may-to, to-mah-to,” I reply.
“Not opposed to either but might be easier for Cara’s brother to go home if this asshole is in jail where he belongs,” Ace adds in a hush tone. “I’m not opposed to the guy catching a bullet, but it’s Liam’s call.”
“Copy. Let’s try not to kill the assholes, but general pain is acceptable,” Liam says and now I wish they had given me a drone with the ability to shoot.
It’s challenging to shoot a gun if one were to have a bullet hole through the middle of their palm.
“Ace and Colt, I’ll draw them to the northern exterior and secure potential threats then move for retrieval from your location.
Sophia, can you get closer to get eyes on the kids and keep an eye on the perimeter in case anyone else tries to join the party? ”
I hate when a mission includes kids; it makes me irrationally angry. “Copy, I’m on it. All seven heat signatures on the first floor are positioned near the stairwell in the northeast corner. The two littles on the second floor have not moved locations.”
“Let’s change that, hmm?” Liam is like a cat that plays with his food before eating it.
He brings the drone close to the building and a few keystrokes has him shooting out a couple windows on the first floor.
These drones are so elite, it likely looked like a blur zoomed by the building to the naked eye.
Like moths to a flame, all seven morons run toward the gunfire.
It’s like reaching out to see if a fire is hot—but play dumb games and win dumb prizes. The seven goons fire a few shots toward the drone, but none of them touch Liam’s maneuvers.
“Did you contact your alphabet people in Memphis?” I ask Liam. Unless I need to know, I just lump all the various agencies together. Liam handles all contact with them anyway, and honestly, how many acronyms does someone need to say in a single day?
“Yes. Our U.S. marshal friends should be rolling up within fifteen minutes, but I’d rather have the kids out of there by then so we can get them back to their aunt tonight,” Liam replies as though we’re talking about the weather and he didn’t just shoot a guy in the shoulder and another in the thigh, as I move my drone in closer to have a better view of the kids through an upstairs window.
“Rabbit out the front door,” Liam says as he repositions his drone to follow the figure escaping from the building and gunfight. “I’m on it. Focus on the interior.”
The other four are now aware of Ace and Colt’s presence and are attempting—and failing—at returning fire.
“Ace and Colt, two of the seven assailants are immobilized. Be advised,” I mention.
“Thanks, Soph,” Colt chirps. Two quick shots echo through the comms. “Two more down.” One heat signature is moving toward the front door when I hear Colt add, “One … more … down.” His last word timed with the bullet taking another goon down.
“Give me a minute,” Ace says before a quick pop causes the one standing heat signature to bend at an awkward angle before collapsing.
“Where did you shoot him?” I cock my head, trying to figure it out.
“I think I’m becoming partial to a kneecap shot. It does a lot of damage and is exceptionally painful to recover from,” Ace explains as I watch their heat signatures scale the stairs.
“We have eyes on the kids.” I hold my breath, waiting for Colt to say more.
“They’re breathing, but lethargic. I think they’ve been drugged with something.
Let’s get them out of here.” Watching Colt gently pick up Dante and Ace position Mila in his arms like an oversized football against his chest has my heart seizing.
“It’s only a thirty-minute flight or so to Forrest Falls. Let’s just get these babies home. Liam, do you have someone that can meet us at the airport?” Colt asks.
“Yeah, one of my sister’s friends is a doctor I trust. I’ll have her there, and if she’s not available, she’ll send her husband.”
“Oooo, two doctors, fancy,” Ace quietly says as I watch him cradle the little three-year-old Mila against his chest. “It’s okay, baby girl, we’re going to get you home,” he murmurs to the sweet little girl who could have woken to a nightmare.
As they make their way to the truck, I circle back to overwatch and provide backup to Liam in pursuit of the rabbit—the one and only Salvatore Serrano.
“Why does it not surprise me that he’s the one that bailed on his men?” I deadpan.
“Assholes love to act like assholes. But watch this…” Liam swiftly shoots out the two tires on Serrano’s passenger side, causing him to spin out. He overcompensates his correction and the idiot flips his G-Wagon on its side.
“Heat signature indicates movement within the vehicle, the collision didn’t kill him,” I inform the team.
“Perfect timing,” Liam chimes in as multiple vehicles zoom down the road and surround the flipped vehicle, while a handful of other vehicles continue to the warehouse.
“I sent a text to my contact, and they know the package they really want is in that tipped over vehicle. But they’ll gladly take all of the assholes in, which means less work for us. ”
“Good work, guys. Thank you for stepping up today,” Liam adds. We usually have a much larger team, but we were all spread out on what was supposed to be a break from action—but that’s not really a thing in our world. Evil doesn’t sleep, so unfortunately, some days neither do we.
As soon as Colt and Ace load them into the plane bound for Forrest Falls, I’m finally able to exhale and let go.
I turn off all the comms and curl up on the couch along the back wall with tears running down my face as my trusted Cane Corso watches over me.
Bruno leans slightly into my body to let me know he’s there.
I hate when kids are involved in our cases, but I’m so grateful this story had a happy ending.