6. No Way Up
No Way Up
Forest
By sunrise, Hope’s Beacon has given us the building but not the floor.
Fontainebleau has too many rooms, too many guests and too much legitimate security for us to start wandering around asking questions. Hope told us probable high floor, likely penthouse. That narrows it, but likely isn’t enough to build an extraction around.
We’ve spent most of the night pulling apart everything we can get remotely. Hotel layouts. Elevators. Service access. Cameras. Staff movement. G and Felicity have been working from San Francisco while Jax, Matthias, Jasper, Col, Pete and I turn what they find into something we can actually use.
Jasper leans over the table in my hotel room. “We need eyes at height.”
He’s right. A neighboring tower gives us the angle.
Twenty minutes later, Jasper and Col are inside the hotel next door looking like two men who stayed out too late and got up too early. G feeds them available floor information while they work their way upward, stopping wherever they can get a clean view across to Fontainebleau.
Pete stays with me, monitoring their feed.
“Thirty-six is wrong,” Jasper says through comms. “Too low.”
They move again.
Floor by floor, the angle improves.
Jax stands beside me studying the Fontainebleau plans on another screen. “Once they identify it, nobody moves closer until we know the access points.”
“I know.”
“Service elevators, stairwells, security positions, electronic locks.”
“I know, Jax.”
His gaze shifts to me. “She’s my sister-in-law.”
“And I’m getting her out.”
The words come sharper than I mean them to.
Jax doesn’t react. “Then don’t rush because you’re close.”
I understand what he’s doing. He’s spent years extracting people from places designed to keep them trapped, and I’d be an idiot not to use that experience.
But I know what I’m looking at too.
Col’s voice cuts through before either of us says more.
“Hold.”
Pete straightens beside me.
A few seconds pass while their camera shifts across the neighboring tower.
“Go up one more,” Col says.
They move.
Then Jasper comes back. “Forest, we’ve got it.”
The feed steadies.
Across the gap, the uppermost level of Fontainebleau fills the screen. Floor-to-ceiling glass. Luxury suite space. The angle matches what Hope described, including the view she would’ve needed to identify the roadside Fontainebleau sign.
“Top floor,” Jasper says. “Penthouse.”
G answers from San Francisco. “Checking against the Beacon elevation now.”
We wait while he runs it.
“Confirmed. Signal altitude is consistent.”
There she is.
She’s not a marker moving across a map anymore. She’s inside a specific penthouse on a specific floor with walls, windows and ways in and out.
Jax immediately starts working through access. “We need both stairwells covered before anyone touches that floor. Service elevator gives us another route, but assume they control it.”
I study the feed.
“Not yet.”
Jax looks at me.
“We know where she is,” I say. “Now we find out who’s between us and her.”
He holds my gaze, then nods.
Hope has already done her part from inside.
Now I finally have a door to plan around.
Circa Resort & Casino, Las Vegas. 0740 hours.
Finding Hope’s penthouse should make the problem smaller.
Instead, it shows us how difficult the problem really is.
G has been pulling everything he can on access while Jasper and Col keep eyes on the top floor from the neighboring hotel. By the time we put it together, every conventional route is effectively dead.
The elevators require restricted access above the luxury floors. The penthouse level has additional private security, and the service elevator is monitored separately. The stairwells are alarmed and secured before they reach the top floor.
Pete studies the building plans beside me. “So we can see her. We just can’t get to her.”
“From inside,” I say.
Jax looks up immediately.
I bring the roof plans onto the larger screen.
Fontainebleau rises in front of us, and I stop thinking about elevators.
Jasper sees where I’m going before anyone else. “Roof?”
“Roof,” I confirm.
Jax steps closer. “How?”
“We come down from above.”
Everyone studies the same problem from a completely different direction.
“We jump in,” I say. “HALO insertion onto the roof. Me, Jasper, Col and Pete. We carry additional chutes and climbing gear. Three of us hold the roof while I abseil to the penthouse.”
Jax’s expression hardens. “You’re talking about parachuting onto a hotel in the middle of Las Vegas.”
“At altitude, before sunrise, with the right approach.”
“And getting off?”
I point to the roof.
“Same way we came in. That’s what the extra chutes are for.”
Pete gives a low whistle as he catches up with the rest of it.
“It could work.”
I nod. “I rig Hope for a tandem jump with me from the terrace. Jasper, Col and Pete jump independently, and we land several streets away where ground transport is waiting with Beacon tracking.”
Jax shakes his head. “Too many variables.”
“There are variables whichever way we go.”
“Forest.”
I turn toward him.
“I know what you’re going to say. You’ve done more extractions than I have. I want your input, and I’ll use every bit of it that makes this work. But walking through the lobby and hoping Legacy lets us reach the top floor isn’t a plan.”
His jaw sets.
“This is my call.”
The words settle between us.
Jax has always been the brother people follow. Older, more experienced, already proven in exactly the kind of work I’m stepping into now.
But Hope isn’t waiting for me to become him. She needs me to be capable enough to lead the people I have.
I look at Jasper, Col and Pete. “Can we make the jump?”
Jasper studies the approach data. “With planning, weather and the right aircraft, yes.”
Col nods. “Roof extraction will be the harder part.”
“Then that’s what we solve next.”
Pete looks at me. “I’m in.”
Jax stays quiet for several seconds before looking back at the plans.
“All right. If you’re doing this, we build every failure point before anybody leaves the ground.”
I nod.
That’s exactly what I need from him.
Circa Resort & Casino, Las Vegas. 0815 hours.
Once Jax stops arguing with the concept and starts improving it, I know we’re getting somewhere.
He works through the plan with Jasper, Col and Pete until every obvious failure point has an answer.
Roof access. Spare rigs. Tandem setup for Hope.
Ground transport. Alternate landing zones.
What happens if the wind shifts, if the roof is occupied, if Hope can’t move under her own power, and how I get through the penthouse balcony slider once I’m down there.
“The slider’s the weak point,” I say. “If it’s standard hotel hardware, I’ll bypass the latch from the balcony. If they’ve reinforced it, I carry a glass-break tool and force entry.”
Jax studies the plans. “Noise?”
“Only if I have no other option.”
Nobody gets defensive when he challenges something. That helps.
So does coffee.
Pete comes back from downstairs carrying six cups and a paper bag big enough to qualify as emergency supplies.
“Breakfast,” he announces.
Jasper looks inside. “That’s mostly pastries.”
“Correct.”
“We’re planning a HALO insertion.”
“And you’d like to do that hungry?”
Col takes a croissant. “He makes a compelling tactical argument.”
Even Jax smiles.
The tension in the room eases slightly, which is exactly what we need. We’ve been staring at locked doors, armed security and a woman being held as leverage for hours. If we let the mission turn everyone into machines, we’ll start missing the human beings inside it.
Hope included.
I take one of the coffees and look around at the men with me. “Eat. Ten minutes. Then we call Steve.”
Jax catches my eye.
“You happy with it?”
He studies the plans one last time.
“I’m happy enough to put it in front of him.”
Coming from Jax, that’s practically a standing ovation.
Ten minutes later, Steve appears on the secure screen from San Francisco with Janice beside him. I take them through the plan from the top, keeping it clean.
“No usable internal route to the penthouse,” I finish. “So we stop trying to use one. Jasper, Col, Pete and I HALO onto the roof with the extra equipment. I abseil down to Hope. Once she’s clear, Hope comes off the building tandem with me. Ground team collects us several streets away.”
Steve looks at Jax. “Your read?”
Jax doesn’t hesitate. “It’s aggressive, but it solves the access problem. We’ve worked the obvious failure points. I’d support it.”
Steve looks back at me.
“This your call, Forest?”
“Yeah.”
He holds my gaze for a second, then nods.
“Then you’ve got approval. Keep building it.”
That’s it. No lecture. No second-guessing. Steve gave me command. Now he’s letting me use it.
Steve starts asking practical questions about aircraft, jump altitude, weather and landing zones. Janice focuses on Hope, what condition she may be in and whether Matthias needs to prepare for sedation, injury or shock the second she reaches the ground.
By the time we finish, the plan is no longer something we came up with in a hotel room. It’s an operation.
Pete leans back in his chair. “So much for gambling.”
“You can gamble after we get her out.”
Jasper looks at me. “You buying?”
“Get real.”
That earns another laugh.
We needed it.
Then I look back at Hope’s location on the screen.
Time to turn the plan into a rescue.
Circa Resort & Casino, Las Vegas. 0910 hours.
By nine, the hotel room has stopped looking like somewhere four mates came to Vegas for a holiday.
Gear covers one bed. Jump equipment is laid out across the other. Jasper and Col are working through helmets, altimeters and oxygen gear while Pete checks harnesses, carabiners and the rest of the extraction kit.
Jax has the Fontainebleau plans open beside the latest surveillance feed, and Matthias is packing the medical kit he’ll have ready the second we bring Hope down.
The aircraft is being arranged. Weather is being monitored. Pre-flight checks will take place in the hangar. Ground transport will be positioned away from Fontainebleau before we move.
We’re committed now.
Steve comes through comms from San Francisco. “Forest, the Saint-Pierre team has reached the island.”
I look up.
“Victor and Adrian?”
“On the ground. Angus and the advance team are already established separately. Both channels are live from this point.”
Legacy probably thinks these are two separate problems.
Hope in a Las Vegas penthouse.
Adrian Blackstone arriving for their Council meeting with one security man beside him.
They have no idea the same operations room is watching both.
Jax taps the Fontainebleau plans. “Our focus stays here.”
“Agreed.”
Whatever is happening on Saint-Pierre belongs to Victor, Angus and the people holding that channel at HQ. Hope belongs to us.
I look around at Jasper, Col and Pete. We came to Vegas expecting casinos, too much alcohol and several days of taking the piss out of each other.
Now the three of them are preparing to jump onto the roof of a sixty-seven-story hotel with me.
“You lot still sure about this?”
Pete looks offended. “Bit late to discover a conscience, mate.”
Col keeps checking his rig. “You promised gambling.”
“After.”
Jasper glances over. “Still not buying?”
“Definitely not.”
That gets the reaction I wanted.
Then we get back to work.
I check Hope’s Beacon status again.
Active.
She’s still helping us from inside, and across the city she’s waiting without knowing exactly when we’re coming.
I can’t give her that answer yet. What I can do is make sure that when we move, we don’t waste the chance she’s given us.
“Final checks,” I tell them. “From here, we prepare to execute.”
Across two countries, both of HAVEN’s operations are live. Now we find out which side Legacy sees coming first.
The secure channel stays quiet while everyone works. I think about Hope’s last message, especially the detail about the captor checking periodically and leaving her alone. She’s still watching them, still finding ways to help us without knowing whether anyone will reach her in time.
That takes guts.
I glance at Matthias. “When we get her out, you’re the first person she sees after us.”
He nods. “I’ll be ready.”
Jax looks toward Hope’s marker on the screen.
“When we’re ready to move, we message her through Beacon.”
I nod. “Keep it simple. Tell her rescue is coming, stay away from the balcony doors and be ready to move when we reach her.”
“She’ll know what to do.”
This time, I don’t have to rely on chance. We can give her something she hasn’t had since they took her.
A warning that we’re coming.
Getting into that penthouse is only half the job.
Getting Hope safely out of Las Vegas is the part that matters.