Willa squeezed her shoulder. “Cults ruin so much. I’d never heard about the cult you were in. I’m sure there are loads of other cults out there and we know nothing about them.”
Blakely nodded. “Yeah, there are way more cults than people know about.”
Pen’s lips screwed on one side. “There has to be something that can be done about the number of cults.”
“I don’t know. I knew nothing about social media, and I wasn’t allowed to go to the library. The people in these cults don’t have access to resources and people on the outside don’t know about the cults.”
Willa dropped to one of the kitchen chairs. “It’s a huge problem.”
Blakely nodded. “It is. I don’t know what to do about it.”
Pen let go a heavy sigh. “We might not ever find the perfect answers, but talking about it will help.”
Blakely nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate you two helping me.”
It was wild that she had friends now after so long without any. She felt like she fit in with them. She wanted to do something for them but didn’t know what she could do to show them how much she appreciated them. She would think about it over the next few days. With Jump being gone, she would have time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The explosion rocked the area and Jump reached out, steadying himself with one hand on the wall beside him. He was lucky the wall hadn’t caved in. He needed to move.
There weren’t supposed to be any bombs. This was a simple in and out rescue mission. Maybe simple wasn’t the right way to describe it. There were ten teenagers they were here to rescue, but everything had gone to shit right after they arrived.
“Anyone have visuals?” Kevlar asked over coms.
“I see them moving. The kids are with them,” Foster said.
“I count ten kids,” Bang said.
“We need to follow,” Preacher said.
They’d been so close, and now it was all going to hell because a rival group attacked. T, Cy, Flash, and Smiley stayed back to take on the new group as the original kidnappers fled the area. He knew his buddies would catch up once they took care of the second group.
Jump trailed the group holding the teens. They were planning their assault on the fly. The main objective like usual was to retrieve the hostages and get back to safety.
He wasn’t sure this mission would have a positive outcome. Too many variables stood in their way. The rival group wasn’tmuch better than the original group they were after. Both of them had done their fair share of atrocities. He wouldn’t shed any tears over these guys dying. They killed many and didn’t deserve a break.
“I’m headed to the east,” Jump said as he took off, moving so he could intercept the group.
“I’m with you,” Blink said.
He saw Blink joining him after a moment. They moved to the east, keeping up with the group then passing them after about twenty minutes. They kept moving, making sure they were on the same line the group were on. After more than two hours of moving silently in the dark, they circled around to get in front of the group who’d taken the students.
When he stopped to watch the group, the guy with the broken arm seemed to be having a problem. The kidnappers could be heard yelling at the kid, telling him he had to keep up. The kid wasn’t going to be able to keep up if he didn’t get medicine.
“We’re in position,” Blink said over coms.
“We’re behind the group and almost in position,” Kevlar said.
“They are stopping,” MacGyver said.
Jump pulled out his scope, looking for Kevlar and his team. He could see them about three hundred meters behind the group. They had to get these kids away from the kidnappers.
“We’re moving as soon as they settle down. We want the kids lying down,” Kevlar said.
This hadn’t been their original plan, but that plan had been shot to shit when the other group had attacked their targets. T, Cy, Flash, and Smiley were back with them. The other group wouldn’t be a problem now.
He kept his focus on the group, waiting until everyone seemed to drop off. The boy with the broken arm was down for the night first, then the other boys seemed to settle.
