Page 87 of Grayson’s Challenge

Moments later, his gaze was drawn back to the monitor and he focused his eyes.

“Fuck! Unbelievable,” Hamish cursed. “I’m bouncing back from the door too. Zoltan, Enya?”

“Same,” Zoltan said. “I can only assume that they painted the doors with lead paint on the inside.”

Grayson cursed silently.

“Just like they used the lead paint dust in New Orleans,” Enya said.

“They were expecting us,” Hamish said.

“And prepared accordingly,” Grayson ground out. “Come back to the vans. We’ll regroup.”

While the Stealth Guardians made their way back to the vans, Grayson was already going through all the remaining options in his head. Surprising Abel’s men wasn’t an option anymore. They were expecting an ambush.

“Okay,” Grayson started, speaking into the mic for every member of his team to hear. “Here’s how it’s gonna go. Eddie, you’ll need to take out the postal facility’s cameras on my command. I also need the power out in this grid. We don’t need any nosy neighbors calling the cops.”

“Not a problem. I prepared for that already,” Eddie announced. “I’ll need about five minutes for the power grid though.”

“Good!” Grayson was relieved to hear that Eddie had been anticipating hiccups and planned accordingly. “I need the best lockpicks to open the doors for us. We’re going in on the street side and the East side. Cooper, pick the lock on the East side.”

“Sure thing,” Cooper said through the earpiece.

“I’ll take the street side,” Sebastian volunteered.

“You’ve got it, Sebastian.” Grayson took a breath. “Eddie, how far away is the drone with the infrared cameras?”

“About three minutes out,” Eddie replied.

Grayson looked at Thomas. “Can you steer the drone from here?”

Thomas nodded. “Yep. I’ll take care of that.” He started tapping away on the laptop. “I can send it to everybody’s cell phone, and alert you via the comms when I see movement of people inside.”

“Do that,” Grayson ordered, feeling more confident with every moment. He had a team of experts at his disposal, the best in their fields. They would succeed. They had to.

Several tense minutes passed, until everything was finally in place.

“The power grid is going down in five, four, three, two, one,” Eddie said, counting down.

Grayson looked outside through the windshield. It was pitch-black in the neighborhood. “Okay, it’s a go.” Grayson jumped out of the van, and saw his colleagues do the same. Thomas stayed in the van to give updates on the heat signatures the drone was delivering. “Eddie, cut the cameras.”

“They’re blind now,” Eddie confirmed.

Cutting the cameras was necessary, even though the electricity was already out, because there was a chance that Abel had anticipated this too and was using battery power to operate the cameras on the outside of the building, so his men were alerted when the Scanguards team approached.

Grayson and his colleagues approached the building, walking swiftly but silently. One group made their way toward the street entrance, the other toward the East entrance. He reached the East entrance at the same time as Cooper, who was already reaching for his lockpick.

Grayson pulled his gun and let his eyes roam, while listening to any sounds from inside. There were none.

“East side door is open,” Cooper murmured.

“How about street side?” Grayson asked via the mic.

“Street side door is open too,” Sebastian replied.

“Okay. On my command.” Grayson took a deep breath, then motioned for Cooper to press the door handle down. “Three, two, open!”

Cooper ripped the door open, and Grayson rushed inside, gun drawn, his colleagues on his heels.