CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“I have a visual on Talia and Maria,” Colt said over the radio. “They just came out of the warehouse with Keller and two other men. They’re heading straight for the gangway of the ship.”
“Do you have a clear shot line on Keller and the other men?” Lennox asked, looking around the corner of the same dockside warehouse that Colt was positioned atop of, wishing like hell he was the one up on the roof instead of standing down here. “You have to stop them from getting on Fredrickson’s ship.”
The silence on the radio stretched out for so long that he started thinking there was something wrong with his earbud but then he heard a long sigh and realized his gear was working just fine. It was his head that was offline.
“Negative,” Colt said. “Besides the fact that I’m carrying a compact submachine gun with a max range of two hundred meters, there are also dozens of civilians within sight of the gangway. I can’t start shooting in a crowd like that.”
Lennox closed his eyes and let out a groan, feeling like a dumbass. “You’re right. I don’t know why I even said that.”
“I know why,” Darwin said over the radio. “You’re worried about Talia and Maria. Just chill. We’re going to get them back, but we have to stick to the plan.”
He took a deep breath. “Okay, we stick to the plan. Colt, are Talia and Maria okay?”
“They’re fine.”
Lennox closed his eyes again, saying a silent prayer of thanks as relief flowed through him.
“Bogdan’s flatbed truck with the computer just arrived at the gates,” Kyla announced over the radio from her new surveillance van, which was a surveillance RV this time. “He’s the fourth vehicle in line to go through security, so he’ll probably be at the docks in twenty minutes.”
Wes and Kyla would stay outside the security fence unless everything went sideways. If it did, Lennox and everyone else was depending on the couple to get them out.
“Simon, Kirk, and I are about to go into the water with the heavy weapons and extra ammo,” Darwin announced. “We’ll have to move slow to avoid detection, but we can be on the boat in fifteen minutes.”
“Copy that,” Lennox said before slipping around the corner of the warehouse and walking casually along the well-lit dock as if he was supposed to be there. He kept his backpack slung over his shoulder as he walked, one eye on Fredrickson’s ship and the gangway leading into the forward cargo bay. “Colt, get down here. We need to be on the ship before Bogdan shows up.”
“On the way,” Colt replied. “Be careful. Keller knows what you look like. If he sees you, you’re dead. And I don’t want you even thinking about what that means for Talia and Maria.”
Lennox didn’t respond, figuring it went without saying that he didn’t want to be dead, and he certainly didn’t want anything to happen to Talia and Maria. So obviously, he’d be careful.
When he slipped into the building where the dockworkers stored all their heavy equipment, no one paid attention to him. That wasn’t surprising considering the heavy dirt-streaked coveralls and work boots he was wearing. The few people inside didn’t even look his way as he climbed into the cab of the heavy-duty forklift, cranked it up, and drove it right out of the building to head for the forward hold of Fredrickson’s cargo ship.
As he did, Lennox replayed what’d felt like the longest day of his life.
He’d spent every minute since Keller had kidnapped Talia and Maria, imagining all the horrible things that might be happening to them. The thought that Keller would kill Talia because he had no use for her had driven him out of his mind with worry. Somewhere between meeting her that first time at the zoo and last night, he’d gone from liking Talia to being in love with her. The feeling was more real and powerful than anything he’d ever experienced. Which was why the idea of her being scared—and maybe hurt—wondering if she’d even be alive come the next sunrise tore him apart inside. And suddenly, he understood a little better why Talia hated the idea of him going on a mission.
It didn’t help that Keller hadn’t responded to any of Bogdan’s attempts to reach him until two hours ago. Lennox had no doubt the delay was intentional. Keller was letting the Rybaks twist in the wind, so they’d know who was in charge.
Of course, it wasn’t like they hadn’t already known what Keller wanted—Dayton McDaniel’s state of the art genome sequencing computer. But Keller hadn’t deigned to let them know until two hours ago that he wanted it delivered to Fredrickson’s cargo ship tied up at the San Diego docks. It was a smart move on Keller’s part, almost certainly designed to limit the time Bogdan had available to scheme his way out of the situation.
Unfortunately, it had also limited the time Lennox and his Teammates had to come up with a way to get onto the docks and the ship. Which was why Lennox was now driving a forklift. Dockworkers were the only ones able to freely move on and off the cargo vessel. Unfortunately, dockworkers would stand out carrying heavy weaponry. That was why Darwin and the other guys were taking the underwater route.
“Hey, Lennox, I was thinking,” Wes said over the radio as Lennox drove the forklift up the gangway and into the dim interior of the ship without anyone so much as looking in his direction. “Keller obviously saw you at the Rybak’s place. Should we be worried that he might have dug around a little and figured out you’re a Navy SEAL? He might be waiting for you to show up tonight.”
Lennox hoped not.
“Nothing we can do about it now,” Lennox muttered as he drove toward the furthest corner of the forward cargo hold, coming to a stop behind a wall of shipping containers taller than a two-story house. “Everyone watch your six and be ready for a counter-ambush. If Keller knows about me, he might be ready for the rest of you as well. Wes, that includes you and Kyla. If Keller knows you’re there, he’ll probably make a move on you too.”
Everyone confirmed that they understood the possibility of this situation turning on them, though Darwin, Kirk, and Simon could only double-click their mics, since they were still underwater. Kyla had been able to get some basic diving gear, but microphones that would work underwater weren’t something she could find on short notice. The guys could hear them talking, but not respond. It shouldn’t matter since the three of them would be on the ship with the extra gear soon enough.
Lennox climbed down from the forklift, slipping through the narrow corridors between cargo containers and pallets of shrink-wrapped crates. The height of the stacks cut off most of the lights coming from overhead, making it even darker than he’d expected.
“I’m in the cargo bay,” Colt’s voice came through softly over the radio. “I’m moving aft to find a place that’ll let me cover as much of the hold as possible.”
Lennox confirmed that as he moved through the maze of cargo containers, trying to envision how this exchange would go down, hoping that it might help him come up with a clue on the best way to pull off this rescue.
Needing a better view, Lennox headed up, taking two flights of stairs until he came out on a narrow catwalk overlooking nearly the entire cargo hold. From this perspective, he could see that the bigger cargo containers had been stacked mainly along the outsides of the hold, closer to the ship’s outer hull. Inside that were the smaller crates and pallets. The center-most section of the hold, roughly the size of a basketball court, was still clear of any cargo. The truck carrying the computer would fit easily within the available space in the middle of the hold—almost as if it’d been left clear for that very purpose.
“Bogdan is on the dock approaching the loading ramp,” Kyla said. “He should be pulling inside the ship within two minutes.”
As Kyla finished saying that, a soft tone vibrated through the ship, like the ding an elevator makes as it arrives at the proper floor. And just like that, the half dozen or so dockworkers who’d been moving around the cargo hold immediately turned and walked out of the ship. That couldn’t be a coincidence.
Knowing the ship would be crawling with Keller’s men any second, Lennox realized that staying on the catwalk was out of the question. He’d be too easy to see up here—and even easier to shoot.
Dropping down one level and moving toward the darkest part of the cargo hold, Lennox climbed over the catwalk railing and leapt across the ten-foot gap between him and the nearest stack of cargo containers. From there he quietly hopped from container stack to container stack until he was over near the hull of the ship, shrouded in darkness but still with a good visual on the center of the cargo hold.
Going to one knee, Lennox pulled off his backpack and dug through it, pushing aside the lightweight jacket he’d shoved in the upper part of the bag to hide the weapon underneath. Sliding his hand all the way to the bottom of the bag, he felt around for the handle of the submachine gun, pulling out the small automatic weapon and loading the first magazine. He once again wondered what kind of people Kyla knew who could get their hands on weapons like this with a few hours’ notice. The things weren’t illegal in the U.S., but they were sure as hell expensive.
Right on cue, the small flatbed truck crested the top of the loading ramp, carefully easing into the cargo hold. It had barely come to a stop before armed men slipped out of the gaps between several cargo containers, surrounding Bogdan’s vehicle.
Lennox dropped down to his belly atop the cargo container. There were four men that Lennox could see. Assuming there were more still hiding among the containers, it’d mean that Lennox and his Team would be outnumbered.
“The whole ship and dock area are clearing out,” Kyla said. “At least we won’t have to worry about innocent people getting in the way.”
Lennox imagined that Rybak probably had enough resources to get parts of the dock clear, and maybe with Fredrickson’s help, he could get the ship’s crew to leave, but this seemed more like something Keller would do. Not that Keller was concerned about having innocent people around. It would simply mean fewer people to get rid of.
“You can step out of the vehicle now, Bogdan,” Keller said, stepping out of the shadows. “Carefully. With your hands in clear view.”
The driver’s side door opened slowly, and Bogdan stepped out. He walked toward Keller, hands raised to show he wasn’t carrying a weapon, his head moving left and right as he looked for Talia and Maria.
“Where are my daughter and her au pair?” Bogdan demanded.
Keller didn’t say a word as he closed the distance between him and Bogdan, then searched him for weapons.
“They’re both here,” Keller finally said after he finished and stepped back. “But they won’t be coming out until I confirm that you’ve brought what I want.”
At a gesture from their boss, several of the men slipped their assault rifles over their shoulders and jumped up on the back of the truck, quickly breaking into the wood crate with crowbars. A few moments later, they’d removed the top and front piece revealing a boxy-looking metal and plastic unit about the size of a set of bunk beds. LED touch screens and access panels covered most of the side facing Lennox.
A studious looking guy in glasses climbed into the back of the truck to get a closer look at the computer still packed in its foam within the remains of the box. The guy dug into the crate, checking out model and serial numbers and opening up various panels, humming in apparent happiness at what he found.
Off to the side, Bogdan waited impatiently. They’d been right about Keller wanting to look over the thing before allowing the exchange to go down. At one point, they’d considered not bringing the real genome sequencing computer, not wanting it to fall into Keller’s hands—especially when they didn’t know what he wanted to do with it. But if they’d done that and Keller’s computer expert had figured out it was a fake, Bogdan, Talia, and Maria would be dead.
Thankfully, the computer guy must have liked what he saw because he turned and gave Keller a nod before scrambling awkwardly down off the back of the truck and quickly disappearing into the shadowy stack of cargo containers.
“Okay, that doesn’t bode well,” Colt murmured over the radio from wherever he was hidden within the cargo hold. “That guy ran like he knows that the shit is about to hit the fan.”
Lennox silently agreed. He didn’t see anyone else moving into position but that didn’t mean much. There were so many dark corners in here, there could be dozens of bad guys in here and they wouldn’t know it.
“Darwin?” Lennox whispered into his radio. “Please tell me you and the others have made it onto the ship and are near the forward cargo hold. Things are about to get interesting in here.”
Nothing but silence met his query. Not even the double click through his earbud that indicated the guys were still underwater. To say that was bad was a drastic understatement. They needed Darwin and his Team to have any chance of getting out of this rescue alive. At least if it went the way Lennox expected.
Lennox could only think of one reason why Darwin and the other two SEALs weren’t answering the radio…and the possibility was devastating. He’d only known Darwin, Simon, and Kirk for a little while, but he already considered them good friends. If something had happened to them, it was going to hurt.
And while it seemed cold-blooded to even worry about something like the rescue mission at the same time he was thinking that his three Teammates might be dead, Lennox knew that losing them also meant he and Colt were about to step into a fight with one hand tied behind their backs. There was a good chance none of them were making it off this ship alive.
“You have your computer,” Rybak said. “Now bring out my daughter and her au pair.”
Lennox tensed, pulling the MP5 tighter to his shoulder, flipping the safety off and letting his index finger move carefully to the trigger as he readied himself to start shooting the second anything looked like it was going bad.
Keller motioned with a hand toward one side of the cargo hold. Two men immediately stepped out of the shadows, holding Talia and Maria each by an arm.
“Daddy!” Maria shouted, trying to run to Bogdan only for the man to yank her back.
Talia struggled against the man holding her, reaching for the little girl, but she didn’t get any further than Maria had, yelping when she was jerked backward.
Lennox ground his jaw as he lined up the sights of his weapon with the man’s forehead, ready to kill the a-hole for hurting Talia. He didn’t realize his finger had started to tighten on the trigger until he heard the creak of metal on metal. Cursing silently, he got a grip on his raging anger and lightened the pressure he was putting on the trigger. But he stayed tense, ready to shoot if he had to.
Not knowing if Keller would let Talia and Maria walk away after the exchange, Lennox had been forced to leave this part of the plan rather vague. If Keller let Bogdan take Talia and Maria off the ship, Lennox and the other guys would wait until they were well away from the docks before making their move against Keller.
However, if Keller reneged on the deal—as everyone expected—Lennox and the others would have no choice but to put themselves into the middle of the situation, getting Talia, Maria, and Bogdan out any way they could. It would have been a crap situation even with Darwin, Simon, and Kirk available for backup. Without them, it was bordering on suicidal. But there was little else they could do.
“Release them,” Keller said with a benevolent gesture at the two men.
Maria darted forward like only a child could, throwing herself into her father’s arms and squeezing him tight. Talia moved a bit more cautiously, her eyes darting everywhere as if she thought Keller was going to change his mind about letting them go.
Lennox finally let himself start to relax when Bogdan placed a gentle hand on Talia’s shoulder, carefully turning her and Maria toward the gangway that would lead them out of the ship. A few more seconds and they’d be out of the line of fire.
And then—as if Lennox had jinxed everything simply by having a positive thought—Keller stepped forward and aimed that same huge handgun he’d been carrying in Brazil straight at Talia’s head.
Not Bogdan but Talia.
“You didn’t think you’d be walking out of here so soon, did you?” Keller said casually to her, letting his eyes take a slow scan around the cargo hold. “Not before I meet that boyfriend of yours. Lennox, isn’t it? The brave Navy SEAL. I’m sure he’s around here somewhere waiting for the perfect moment to make his appearance.”
Lennox felt a pallet of lead bricks drop into his stomach at the same time he heard Colt curse in the background of the radio, his Teammate muttering something about them being screwed sideways.
His finger instinctively tightening on the trigger again, Lennox leaned forward and took aim at the center of Keller’s chest.
Then Keller stepped forward, close enough that the barrel of his weapon was only an inch or so away from Talia’s temple. Even from this distance, Lennox saw the terror in her eyes.
“You should come out now,” Keller continued in a deadly calm tone as one of his men came up to put a restraining hand on Talia’s shoulder. “Before things get messy.”
Shit .
Keller wasn’t the kind to make empty threats. He’d shoot Talia in the head without blinking an eye or losing a wink of sleep.
“Colt,” Lennox whispered into his mic, “I’ll be going off comms in a second so when this gets ugly, I’m depending on your judgment on when to bail me out.”
“I’m tempted to ask what your definition of ugly is, but something tells me that I’ll know it when I see it,” his friend said.
“I hope so,” Lennox said.
He placed his radio, earbud, and backpack on top of the cargo container, then slowly stood. He considered leaving the MP5 behind with his other gear but changed his mind. He probably wouldn’t get a chance to use the weapon, but he’d rather have the option of having it nearby regardless.
Lennox slung the MP5 over his shoulder by the short sling then jumped into the gap between the stack of cargo containers he’d just been on and the next stack over, his arms and legs pushing out against the container walls. He slid down the metal walls, his boots taking the majority of the friction as he reached the deck of the ship.
“Drop the weapon,” Keller ordered as soon as Lennox walked into the central part of the cargo hold. “You won’t be needing it.”
Lennox truly doubted that but with Keller still pointing his handgun at Talia’s temple, there wasn’t much he could do at the moment. Slowly taking the weapon from his shoulder, he used the distraction to look around the cargo hold, memorizing everyone’s location and threat level.
Bogdan and a frightened, tearful Maria were standing to the side of Talia, with Keller at her shoulder and two of his men right behind them. The other four mercenary types were scattered in a semi-circle to the left and right of their boss, their demeanor relaxed but ready for him if he decided to make a sudden move.
It hurt to see Talia right then. She was pale and tense and looked like she was seconds from passing out. She gazed desperately at Lennox, probably assuming he had a plan that’d get them all out of this situation. She would have almost certainly been disappointed to know he was basically winging this.
Lennox finished taking the MP5 from his shoulder, then carefully placed it on the steel deck. A little shove with his foot sent the weapon bouncing and skittering across the rough surface where it came to a stop about halfway between him and the closest member of Keller’s mercenaries.
“Search him,” Keller ordered, swinging his weapon away from Talia’s head and pointing it at his.
Talia took the opportunity to try and run over to him but the man holding her roughly held her in place. Lennox bit his tongue, fighting the urge to throw himself forward to protect her. Doing so might make him feel good for a few seconds, but then he’d be dead and Talia would likely be right behind him.
The man searching him finished and took a step to the side, nodding in Keller’s direction, confirming that Lennox wasn’t carrying any other weapon. Hell, he wasn’t even carrying his cell phone or car keys.
“I have to admit,” Keller said as he walked toward Lennox, the barrel of his oversized handgun dropping down to hang loosely at his side, “when I heard that the nanny’s pet SEAL was coming to save her, I expected a bit more of a fight. I didn’t expect you to show up and simply walk into my trap.”
Lennox was moving before Keller even finished speaking, taking a quick step back and to the side, reaching out to grab at the man who’d searched him a moment before. Getting a grip on the guy’s shoulder, Lennox turned and twisted, sending the man over his hip in Keller’s direction.
Diving for the deck, Lennox flinched as Keller’s gun went off. Lennox rolled back to his feet in time to see the mercenary he’d thrown collapsed limply to the deck, hit by the round Keller had just fired.
Even as other guns started raising all around him, Lennox lunged forward. He reached Keller just as the big man was adjusting his aim, swinging a punch at the guy’s jaw as hard as he could. Keller flew backward, tumbling into Bogdan, Maria, and Talia along with the men who’d been guarding them.
Lennox took a step in Talia’s direction only to have to throw himself to the deck again as more gunshots filled the air. That one footstep had been enough of a distraction to give him a fraction of a second to make it to the MP5 still lying on the deck. It probably wouldn’t be enough to save his life but maybe it would let him save Talia, Maria, and Bogdan.
He came up with the submachine gun, finding the trigger by pure instinct as the bullets slammed into the deck all around him. Then he turned, knowing there were still six guys left to deal with, praying Colt came to bail him out.
But as he started to pull the trigger, the doors on two of the nearby cargo containers slammed open and more mercenaries in tactical gear came pouring out.
That’s when everything really hit the proverbial fan.