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“Marty’s getting back to me to find out why the office building is so full.”

“What do you think? Should we abort the mission?” Kostya asked Gideon.

“I don’t want to drag Marty into another round of this. If we abort, then I need to come up with another way to get at Kraken,” Gideon answered.

“Then we don’t abort,” Kostya stated.

“Good,” Nolan and Ryker said simultaneously.

Gideon’s phone rang. He put it on speaker. “Yeah?”

“It’s sales. They started a week early. They are on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors. The executive floor is the eleventh. You’re good,” Marty said.

Gideon rolled his eyes.

“If Frank calls, tell him the same thing,” Gideon said. “Also, call us when he calls you to let him up to the eleventh floor.”

“Roger, sir.”

“I’m not an officer, quit calling me sir,” Gideon laughed weakly.

“Yeah, but you were my boss once, and I called you sir then, so it stuck. Good luck with whatever you’re doing.”

“Thanks, Marty. Got to go.”

Gideon hung up.

“Let’s go to the executive floor,” Gideon said.

It was weird doing a mission in street clothes. It was almost like he was naked. But, he had two guns and a knife as well as body armor, so that made him feel like he had underwear on.

Ryker looked down at his watch. It was two-thirty. The meet was supposed to happen in a half hour. They’d done their due diligence. They’d also done their little decorations at the base of each elevator.

They’d used all four elevators and made sure none of them could go up to the eleventh floor without either the passcard, or someone on the eleventh floor buzzing them up. With their executive passkey, Nolan was able to get into all the closets on each floor until he found a big, blue, plastic garbage can on wheels. It had been on floor three, and he brought it up to the executive floor. They were ready to go.

Now they were just waiting.

Fifteen minutes to showtime. They all put on their latex gloves.

“Positions,” Kostya ordered.

Gideon’s phone rang. “Marty said he’s in elevator one. I’ve got video. He’s not alone. There’s one other guy,” he called out. He was behind the reception desk. “I just buzzed them up in elevator number two.”

Linc and Nolan got on either side of the number two elevator, and when it opened, Frank Sykes took a step to get off, and fell flat on his face. Then the next man just stumbled on the trip wire and caught himself. In a flash, Linc was sitting on top of Frank. Ryker watched as he slammed his face into the marble floor.

Nolan kicked the man who had stumbled in the side of his knee, elbowed him in the back of his head, then punched him in his kidney before he crashed to the floor and hit his head. Ryker sauntered over to Frank. He waited for Linc to divest him of his three guns and one knife. Then Ryker grabbed the man by his hair and lifted him to his feet. He didn’t make a sound. Freak probably liked pain.

“Hi, Needledick, how’s it hanging?”

He twisted his jaw back and forth, but before he had a chance to spit at Ryker, he kneed him in the balls so hard that if he were going to live, he would be singing soprano. Ryker kept hold of him as he groaned with pain.

“You can’t touch me. I have too many friends so much higher on the food chain than you,” he laughed. “I’m not going to try and kill your girlfriend this next time, I’m going to sell her down in Bogota. They’ll love her.”

“Nolan, get me the garbage can now. I can’t have him bleeding all over the floor.”

Ryker grinned as he and Nolan deposited Frank headfirst into the garbage can. Ryker took off his shoes, then his pants. “Nolan, find me some harsh cleaning supplies, can you?”

Nolan nodded.