Chapter 17
The mountain terrain was unforgiving, but Levi moved through it like a predator, ignoring the pain radiating from his ribs, the blood seeping through bandages that needed changing hours ago.
None of it mattered. Nothing mattered except the red dot on his tactical display—the vehicle carrying Willow, sitting at a location northeast toward coordinates that Con had identified as Morales's primary compound.
He had to ditch the stolen vehicle to make it to the compound without being seen.
“Berserker, sitrep.” Con's voice in his ear, professional but with an edge of concern.
“Two klicks from the compound perimeter. Still tracking her?” Levi vaulted over a fallen log, landed hard, and kept moving.
“Affirmative. The vehicle arrived at the compound two hours ago. Thermal signature shows they moved her inside the main house, basement level.” A pause. “Z, you need to slow down. You're running yourself into the ground.”
“I'm fine.”
“You're injured, exhausted, and about to assault a fortified compound alone. That's not fine; that's suicidal.” Con’s voice held the exasperation of a friend who wanted to help but really couldn’t.
Levi didn't respond. He just kept moving. One foot in front of the other. He was driven by the memory of Willow's smile and the image of those fuckers shoving her into that truck. Blood was streaming from her shoulder. He fucking used his rage as fuel.
“Updated intel coming through now,” Con continued.
“Compound's bigger than we initially reported. From the NSA satellite we borrowed, we can see the main house is built into the mountainside, and under the canopy, we couldn’t detect the three additional buildings. Estimated forty to fifty hostiles on site.”
“Defenses?”
“Perimeter fence, four guard towers, roving patrols, and camera coverage. I’m searching for a way into the system so I can help as you enter. No luck so far. If you gave me some time …”
“Not happening.” Z shut that thought down fast.
“Right. I knew that, but I had to try. So, anyway, standard cartel security multiplied by paranoia. Morales has been fortifying since you started hitting his facilities.”
“Weak points?”
“I'm sending you NSA satellite imagery now. I need to hop on here more. They have some awesome filters and lenses. Hold on.”
Z kept moving. His lungs burned; his leg, while healing, was still pissed as fuck; and his ribs were convinced he had a death wish. He blocked it all out. He couldn’t stop.
“CCS just dug up some gold for us. There's an old mining operation on the north side of the compound. Some tunnels, most collapsed, but Guardian historical records show at least one entrance they used. It may still be accessible. According to this document, it’s iffy, but it’s your best way in. I mean without killing yourself.”
Levi's display updated, showing detailed compound layout. He studied it while moving, his brain automatically cataloging approach vectors, kill zones, and defensive positions.
“The tunnel entrance?” he asked.
“Two hundred meters from the compound perimeter. Probably hidden by vegetation. Opens inside the fence line near the generator building.” Con's voice changed, becoming more serious.
“Levi, listen to me. Phantom's team is on the ground. You need to wait for backup. Establish observation post, gather intel, coordinate—”
“Stop.” Levi's voice was flat, cold. “She doesn't have the time. You know it, and so do I.”
“You don't know that—”
“Yes, I do.” He'd heard the radio chatter from the guards.
He understood enough Spanish to know what Morales wanted.
Information. Names. Intelligence about what operations were planned and who planned them.
And when he didn't get it … when Willow refused to talk because she was stubborn and loyal and too damn brave for her own good, Morales would hurt her.
“He's going to interrogate her. Torture her. And I'm not waiting to stop it.”
Silence on the other end. Then Con sighed. “You're going in.”
“I'm going in.”
“Alone. Against fifty hostiles. In a fortified compound.”
“That's the plan.”
“That's not a plan; that's suicide.”
“Then help me make it fucking work.” Levi crested a ridge, and the compound appeared below. Lights glowed in the darkness. The main house sprawling against the mountainside. Somewhere inside that structure, Willow was bleeding and scared and waiting for a rescue she believed probably wouldn't come.
Except it would.
“All right,” Con said finally. “All right. Let me coordinate with Phantom, see if we can accelerate their arrival. And I’m feeding you real-time intel. Guard positions, thermal imaging, everything we've got.”
“Appreciated.”
“Levi?” Con's voice softened slightly. “Don't die. She needs you alive, not martyred. And you’re one of my only friends. Don’t fucking die, asshole.”
“Hugs and kisses to you, too, fuckwad. And I’m not going to die.” He found cover behind rocks, studying the compound through binoculars. “Send me everything you have on that mining tunnel.”
The tunnel entrance was exactly where Con said it would be.
It was hidden behind curtains of vegetation, barely visible even when Levi was standing directly in front of it.
The opening was narrow, maybe three feet wide, and it contained a darkness beyond that his flashlight couldn't fully penetrate.
“Structural integrity?” he asked, checking his gear one last time.
“Guardian used these tunnels for staging operations in the nineties. Some sections have probably collapsed since then, but the main access route should be stable.” Con paused before emphasizing, “Should be.”
“Comforting.”
“I do my best.” Keys clicked on the other end. “Thermal shows the tunnel runs about two hundred meters before opening near the generator building. No heat signatures in the tunnel itself. So, probably no guards, and no traps that we can detect.”
“Yet.”
“Yet,” Con agreed.
Levi activated his flashlight, checked his weapons. He had a Glock with a suppressor, a knife, the three remaining shaped charges, and a block and a half of C-4 he'd been saving. Not enough for a full assault, but enough for one fuckton of chaos.
Enough to get to Willow.
“Going dark in three,” he said. “Maintain satellite coverage. I want to know every guard movement, every thermal signature.”
“Like I would stop. And Levi? Phantom says they got lucky. They’ll be there, but you still need to stay alive. Fifteen minutes. Ish.”
That “ish” was the real show stopper. If they had to fight their way to the compound, it could be one hell of a lot longer or, if the worst happened, never. He always accounted for the worst to happen.
“Tell him thanks.”
“Tell him yourself.”
Phantom’s low growl came over his comms, “Z, damn it, wait for us. I have Cobra team with me. We can make a concerted effort. We’ll bring her out.” Z could hear the sound of the men shouting in the background. They were making the best time they could. He knew that, but it wasn’t good enough.
Z entered the tunnel. “Love you, brother, but my woman was shot, she was bleeding bad, and I’m not going to give that bastard one more second with her.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Phantom swore over the comms.
“Now you know what I’ve been dealing with,” Con said with a dramatic sigh. “We’re now in mission mode. Z has entered the tunnel.”
The comms went to mission mode. Con would be monitoring and recording but not transmitting unless Levi spoke or it was tactically urgent.
The darkness swallowed him whole, and the tunnel was worse than he'd expected.
Water dripped from the ceiling, turning the floor into a slick mess that made every step treacherous. Support beams sagged, some cracked, all of them ancient. The walls pressed close, and more than once, Levi had to turn sideways to squeeze through sections where rock had shifted.
His flashlight beam cut through the darkness that felt way too long.
Thirty years of abandonment had turned this place into something that belonged in nightmares.
Z smiled wickedly. He was the nightmare.
He was Morales’s nightmare, and that fucker hurt his woman.
He’d take his time killing the bastard and love every second of his screams. “Skin him alive,” Levi said out loud.
“Repeat?” both Con and Phantom said at the same time.
“Disregard,” Z growled over the comms. He kept moving. One step. Another. Following Con's clipped directions through the labyrinth of collapsed passages and false turns.
“Seventy-five meters,” Con reported. “Take the left branch at the next junction.”
Levi did, and the tunnel opened slightly. Better. He could breathe without feeling like the mountain was crushing him.
“Thermal shows activity ahead. The generator building is fifty meters past the tunnel exit. Two guards on patrol, circling the perimeter. They pass the tunnel entrance every eight minutes.”
“Timing?”
“Next pass in … two minutes. After that, you'll have a seven-minute window before they circle back.”
Seven minutes to exit the tunnel, cross open ground, reach the generator building, and plant his charges. Child’s play.
“I'm almost at the exit,” Levi said, seeing light ahead. It wasn’t daylight, but the glow of compound security lights filtering through vegetation. “Switching to silent.”
“Copy. Good luck, Z.”
Levi emerged from the tunnel into humid night air that smelled like diesel fuel and jungle rot.
He was inside the perimeter fence, exactly as planned.
The generator building sat fifty meters away, humming with mechanical purpose.
Beyond that, the main house, which was three stories of stone and reinforced concrete built into the mountainside.
Somewhere in there, Willow was in pain and needed him.
He checked his watch. Five minutes until the guards passed.