Hayes glanced at his feet and grinned. “Have boots, will travel.”
“Rangers lead the way, brother,” I said, invoking our shared language from our Army days.
“Damn straight,” he agreed. “Rangers lead the way.”
It turnedout that I was one of the pairs of the boots on the ground because I’d insisted. Hayes and I, still dressed in our all-black tactical gear, less our rifles, slipped into the tiny back yard of Riker’s modest two-story condo. The fugitive wasn’t holed up there. If he had tried to return, the state police staking out the place would have taken him into custody.
Granted, they hadn’t caught us sneaking into the condo,but we were former special ops. Riker wouldn’t have been able to elude them like we had.
A block away, Pasco oversaw all things electronic, and Wheeler pulled double duty, watching surveillance feeds and running point. We were a small, stripped-down team. Too small if anything went sideways. But assuming things went to plan, this was the best way to execute our operation.
Hayes picked the back door lock and used a handkerchief to turn the door handle. We slipped into the kitchen, turned on our headlamps to supplement the weak light coming in from the street, and snapped on nitrile gloves.
Having memorized the condo’s floorplan, I knew that other than the kitchen, there was only a front living room and an impossibly small powder room on this floor. But there was an alarm by the front door. Hayes sprinted through the small space and held up a descrambler to the security control panel, disabling it.
Pasco instructed Hayes on where and how to place the tiny electronic detectors that, when in the right position, would cast an invisible net over the entire condo. That electronic web would allow Pasco to locate every electronic device in the house, whether it was powered or unplugged, on- or offline, alive or dead.
My role was to ensure there were no print-outs of still shots of Cami from the video. Pasco had insisted it wasn’t a priority and I shouldn’t remove anything from the house because we were making a surgical strike, not felling a forest. I’d convinced him that naked pictures would still damage her. The others had agreed I could do a sweep, and if any images of her existed, I could remove those and only those items from the house.
I started with the crawl space above the second floor. Ipulled the trap door open from the hallway, climbed partially up the ladder, and peered into it, my headlamp illuminating the space and throwing long shadows. There were beams and framing but no insulation over the second-floor ceiling. It wasn’t up to building codes. I wouldn’t report the landlord any time soon. I hoped that fucker Riker froze his dick off all winter and sweated his balls off all summer. But the best thing about the two-foot-high area that spanned the top of the condo was the sightlines. There was nowhere to hide anything.
I hopped back down to the hallway, closed the ceiling hatch, and headed for the upstairs bathroom. Despite everything being in disarray, including towels and dirty clothes strewn on the floor, Riker was a minimalist, which made my job go faster. I sifted through every drawer and cabinet, spending the most time looking for hollow spaces and hiding spots.
His bedroom was neater, and while the black silk sheets on the unmade bed were a questionable choice, at least they smelled fresh. I was grateful for that as I checked over and under every surface of the bed. I moved the furniture to check the floors and walls, then moved on to the dresser drawers, closet, and three-shelf bookcase.
Behind one of the few books on the bookcase, I spotted a small, black, rectangular box. I’d found the hidden camera Riker had used to violate Cami’s body and her trust. I reached for it. I would crush it the way I wanted to crush that fucking guy’s head.
“Leave it,” Hayes said from behind me.
“What did you find?” Pasco asked.
“The recording device.” Hayes laid his hand on my shoulder and guided me away from the bookcase. “I’ve finished placing Pasco’s toys,” he told me. “I’ll take overchecking for hollow spaces. You go through the drawers, closets, cupboards, and furniture.”
I snarled but followed his orders. Technically, I was on his turf, plus we’d all agreed on how to execute this operation. I finished my search of the second bedroom, then went downstairs to continue there.
“Good news for you boys,” Pasco said. “I’m picking up the electronic signature of an air-gap computer. Looks like it’s coming from the first floor, near the back of the house.”
“The kitchen,” Hayes and I said in unison.
“I’m on it,” Hayes said.
Despite the shot of adrenaline that had kicked in at Pasco’s announcement, I stayed focused on my task, trusting Hayes to perform his.
“I see it,” Hayes said. “It’s in a gap in the wall behind the fridge.”
I joined him and helped him move the fridge out farther. Hayes pulled out the machine.
“Let’s see if it’s money,” Pasco said. “Attach the reader to it, somewhere inconspicuous.”
Hayes pulled a tiny, nearly imperceptible, clear disk from his pocket and attached it to the underside of the computer. Thirty seconds later, Pasco confirmed it was what we were looking for.
“There is so much amazing shit on here,” he announced.
Hayes placed the computer back into the gap in the wall and we slid the fridge back into place. Having located and bugged the correct device and completed the sweep for any other compromising items, it was time to go. I ran back upstairs to remove the six small detectors Hayes had placed there while he gathered the ones downstairs.
I was getting the last device from the bedroom when Wheeler shouted into the comms.
“Incoming! Shit, they came in on my blind side. Hayes, Rogers, two hostiles incoming.”
