Chapter Seventeen #2
“We are NOT talking about your balls. You keep them in your pants and shut the fuck up about it. I mean it, Zayn. I’ll taze you my goddamn self!”
The man grinned.
“We just talked about them.”
She pointed at him again.
“I said, NO.”
Because Elizabeth wasn’t playing, she continued.
“If I even hear you told them shit, MATE, I’ll not only kill switch you, but I’ll have your father discontinue you for the FBI. He wants in my britches, so I’ll win this one.”
She pouted.
“If I had REAL britches, you’d be in trouble, Mother.”
That was neither here nor there.
“I mean it, MATE. Don’t play with me. Stealth mode, please, until I tell you otherwise—not just at the end of this case. Put my signal back in FBI West, where I have an alibi.”
She sighed but listened.
Their vests all made a sound, and MATE clued them in that were offline to the world.
“I’m a ghost now, and you’re in lockdown in your office as we speak. In fact, you’re currently sending dirty text messages to a cloned phone that can be used in court if need be. You should be ashamed of yourself. Callen is going to blush.”
Good.
Elizabeth was ready.
“Continue,” she stated.
Jagger did.
“The plan is we’re going to have to navigate the woods to get to him. Using CIA tech, we can stay invisible, but I really don’t want to tangle with him INSIDE of his home. We can’t see what’s going on in there, and close-quarter combat in the light is dangerous. My wife is pregnant.”
Maura laughed.
“You were doing so well. You haven’t brought that up since the UK. Almost, Babe. Almost.”
He was honest.
“I have to worry about the baby on board, the director on board, and the asshole on board,” he said, pointing at Zayn. “Oh, and the bear on board. There’s a lot onboard that needs to be micromanaged."
The big man scoffed.
“And the little man trying to get on board the little lady,” he stated. “With a stepstool.”
They both flipped him off.
Neither wanted to waste the time on that conversation again. If they had a dollar for each time it came up, they’d all be rich.
Elizabeth had a plan, and she had a foolproof way to get the douchebag to come right to them.
“Get us there, and I have a way to get him out. Make it happen.”
Well, that they could do.
Parking in the safest spot, they’d make their stand here. Once out of the vehicle, Maura pulled out a tarp that was camouflage and tossed it over their ride.
Just.
In.
Case.
Then, she pointed.
“We’re going to head there in one big cluster. More eyes on the prize, and on the ground. We get in, and then, we get what we need. Elizabeth wants tech, so we can find Devon, so we’re going to get the lady what she wants.”
That worked for The Hunters, and that would get them to the ultimate goal of containing Devon.
To keep them all safe, Jagger pulled out a box, and it was blinking, proving that they were already messing with Jace Reyaund’s gear.
He was on a loop.
Together, they began moving toward the cabin. Gene was right beside Elizabeth, and they were moving behind Zayn. The whole time, he was checking out the ground for tripwires.
As he stepped down, ready to move between two trees, she caught the glint of light off of the wire, and grabbed Zayn by the hair, pulling so hard his head went backward, and he froze.
“What the fuck,” he muttered.
She pointed.
“Tripwire up high,” she said, her hand fisted in his long braid.
When he saw it, he knew it could have been bad.
Holy shit.
He’d been inches from setting it off with his head. That was way too close.
Jagger moved toward the tree, and he found two devices. Oh, someone owed Elizabeth one.
“That would have blown your head clear off,” he said. “You owe the lady some gratitude and apologize to her for saying she was off her game. It turns out you were,” he said, as Maura joined her husband, and began disengaging the explosive.
MATE was right beside her, telling her how to do it as she walked her through the steps.
Hearing that, Zayn knew Jagger was right.
“Thank you, Elizabeth.”
She didn’t mind.
“Teamwork makes the dreamwork,” she stated. “Oh, and I’ll take both balls,” she joked, trying not to be the Debbie Downer of the group.
He snorted and gave her a fist bump.
“I kinda need at least one to make more flowers for the garden,” he said.
Yeah, she figured as much.
After disengaging the bombs, for when they had to come back through here to leave, they kept moving. This time, though, they were more cautious of the things above and below them.
Just.
In.
Case.
They moved the next half mile. That’s when she pointed.
“There’s the cabin,” Maura whispered, warning them that the target’s home was ahead.
So, they got low.
Jagger pulled out binoculars and he checked out the house to see what they were up against.
It was protected with cameras, but he could also see small tripwires ahead, glistening in the sunlight that was filtering in through the trees.
“He’s boobytrapped. Elizabeth, now’s your chance with your plan. If we get closer, we risk accidentally setting one of those bombs off. Then, we have two problems. One of us is dead, and he knows we’re here.”
Elizabeth was aware.
So, she got her tech ready.
“MATE, is he awake?” she asked.
Her AI scanned the house.
“No, Elizabeth. He’s in his bed and fast asleep. What is your directive?”
Well, this was about to be fun—for MATE. This was right up her alley.
“Ghost him out of there. You know how Trey makes people freak out? Be a hologram and spook him for me. We need him to come to us.”
MATE measured the distance and gave her the bad news.
“In order for that to happen, I need to be closer,” she stated. “I can do it if you get me fifty feet closer to the house. I have to be within a certain distance of all tech to do that.”
Elizabeth stood.
And Gene nearly shit himself.
“Uh, I’ll go.”
Elizabeth stopped him.
“I’m smaller, and I’m good at creeping. Bears don’t creep. Cover me, and I’ll get her closer to do the damage. Be ready to contain him when he comes out.”
Gene was to the point.
“Don’t. Get. Blown. Up.”
That was definitely the plan. Elizabeth liked her legs and head.
A.
Lot.
The last thing she wanted was to be blown to kingdom come by this asshole.
Nodding at the team, she knew they’d keep her safe. MATE was with her, and she was moving carefully as her AI kept updating her.
“Closer,” MATE said.
Elizabeth ducked a wire and stepped over another. When she did, she was almost there.
“I’m going into the bushes,” she stated, pulling down her ski mask and slipping into the prickly bramble. She was going to be scratched up, but she’d be alive.
Priorities.
Sometimes, you had to go with the best option, and the bramble would hide her.
“This is good,” MATE said. “See you in a few.”
With that, she disappeared, and they could hear her. She was in their earpieces.
The woo-woo sounds were funny.
To.
Them.
Clearly, they weren’t to the man inside. There were screams as MATE played sound effects of chain’s rattling, and ghostly haunting sounds.
This was what happened when you let your AI watch Halloween movies in her downtime.
“Jace, I’m here for your soul,” MATE said, flickering. Then, she made sounds right out of HELL. “Time to take your soul for killing little children on that bus!” she stated, as there was gunfire.
LOTS of it too.
They all put their hands on their guns, but then, they realized MATE was translucent on a good day. She couldn’t be shot.
Maybe this tech thing could be helpful, because why had they never thought of this?
Elizabeth was crazy like a fox.
It didn’t take long for the gunfire to end, and that’s when it happened.
The front door of the cabin opened, and the man came running out. Behind him, MATE was following, and she made herself look like she was levitating.
“You killed me on that school bus,” she said, adding scary children’s laughter to the audio.
The man ran right toward Elizabeth, and when he did, she stuck her foot out of the bramble, and he went flying. Because had she not, he would have set off his own tripwires and blown them all up.
As soon as he went down, the Marines were on him.
As he looked up at them, his eyes were huge. It was clear that he realized that he had one hell of a problem.
These ghosts weren’t translucent, but they were going to do more than haunt his house.
Bet.
On.
It.
“Hey, Jace,” Maura said, putting the nose of her gun on his forehead so he didn’t get any ideas. “We have to have a little talk about some shit. Seems like you’ve been a very bad bomb builder.”
Then, she punched him in the face so hard his lights went out.
Tucking away their guns, the team had navigated the first obstacle. From where he stood, Zayn shook his head.
“Why the fuck have we never thought to use MATE to do shit like that?” he asked. “That was genius. Here, we’ve been working harder, not smarter.”
Gene helped Elizabeth out of the bramble and gave her a fist bump.
“Someone was thinking with her noggin,” he stated, winking at her.
She actually laughed.
“I mean, why have a hologram if you can’t use it? I bet Chris never saw that one coming when he gave me that billion-dollar tech,” she joked.
Then, she got serious.
“Honestly, though, guys, it wasn’t my idea.
My kid was tormenting her brothers. Charlie told MATE to scare the shit out of them for stealing a brownie that she put away for later.
The next generation is far more tech-savvy.
That genius plan was all on my daughter and her desire to torture her brothers. ”
Maura wasn’t shocked that one of Elizabeth’s kids had come up with it. They were a lively bunch of teens who tended to be just like their mother.
“We’re using that again. Bet on it,” she stated.
Zip tying his hands, they dragged him back toward the cabin, making sure not to set off any explosions along the way.
“Let’s make our little friend a little more uncomfortable. Rogue, raid his tech, and get us something. We’re about to have some fun,” Maura stated. “I hate baby killers. They make me all kinds of mean.”
Oh, and the men knew one thing.