Sebastian raised his hands in mock surrender.
“Rocco, look here,” Everett said, pulling him back toward the table. “These are satellite images from earlier today.” He pointed at a woman in the distance walking along the perimeter of a garden followed by two armed guards.
Rocco leaned closer, heart pounding in his chest. “That’s her. That’s Jemma.”
Bobby raced back to his laptop. “I’m sending drones to fly over and give us a live feed of the island.”
Rocco turned to Tati. “When did you steal … I mean, liberate, the artwork from the island?”
“Around two years ago,” Tati responded.
“How did you get in and out avoiding the guards?” Rocco asked. Whatever Tatiana had done could be their best way onto the island. Jemma was there now, but she might not be for long.
“It was easy,” Tati said, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “An SPSS and a well-placed grotto.”
“Fucking brilliant,” Bobby said.
A self-propelled, semi-submersible was perfect for approaching the island. They were used frequently by cartels to smuggle drugs across the Caribbean to the U.S. No doubt El Sombro had a fleet of them crisscrossing the waters at this very moment.
The construction allowed them to move at high rates of speed with less than a foot of the vessel above water. They were undetectable on radar and got lost in the choppy waves of the ocean from any visual detection by law enforcement.
“Where in the hell did you get an SPSS?” Sebastian asked.
Tati’s eyes grew wide. “From Stingray Security.”
“We have an SPSS?” Everett looked stunned.
“You have four built with cutting edge cloaking technology and capability to move faster than the average fourteen miles per hour,” Tati said.
“So, you stole the SPSS from Stingray?” Lachlan asked.
“Borrowed!” Tati interjected, her eyes twinkling with defiance. “I brought it back to the underground dock. Go down there, you’ll see they are right where Ike left them.”
“This is good,” Rocco said, hope building within him. He could have Jemma safe in his arms in a matter of hours. “Tell me about the grotto. Where is it? How did you get past the guards?”
Tati slipped an arm around his waist, then stretched across the table, tapping an area not far from the garden where Jemma had been spotted on the satellite feed. “I navigated the SPSS to the grotto here. The guards are all concentrated on the part of the island near the mansion. I was able to take trails through the garden, cross the pool area and scale the house to enter on the second floor. There were no cameras on the island back then. Not sure if that’s changed.”
Bobby projected the live feed from the drones onto the three wide monitors across the front wall of the command center. The lush tropical landscape came into view, then focused in on a mansion that dominated half of the island. The garden where Jemma had been earlier was now empty.
“Guards stationed by the house,” Bobby said, zooming in on each one. “But garden and grotto area looks deserted. The scan for security equipment has only detected infrared and motion sensors. No cameras. If I was wanted by the DEA, I wouldn’t have any cameras on my private island either.”
“Bobby will stay behind and monitor our activities from the war room,” Sebastian said, doling out orders. “If we hit any law enforcement radar, we’ll need you to run interference. Bobby, dowhat you can online. If we need help on the ground, call Adonis to coordinate that.”
“Got it,” Bobby responded.
Sebastian continued, “We’ll take two of the SPSSs. Rocco, you’ll go with Tati and Everett. I’ll follow with Lachlan and Kane. Tati, after you deliver Rocco and Everett to the edge of the garden, come back to the grotto and wait. While they are heading into the house to get Jemma, Kane, Lachlan and I will do our best to take out as many guards as possible.”
“That’s a damn good plan,” Kane said.
“We’ll leave an hour after dusk,” Sebastian said.
Feeling a surge of excitement and a burst of adrenaline through his veins, Rocco said, “I’m ready. Where do you keep the weapons?”
Chapter 54
“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” Bobby gushed, running a hand through his golden locks as he jumped up from his seat.
Ike gripped the handles on the wheels and propelled himself forward into the command center of the Stingray Security compound. Stopping a few feet away from the massive table, he paused as the ghosts of his past lingered in the air.
