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One step.
Another step.
Another step.
He placed the barrel of the rifle between the beer drinker’s eyes. “Where are the kids?” he asked.
The man responded in Turkish.
Ryker pulled back his rifle then shoved it forward, butting the man’s head back against the chair.
“You made me drop my beer,” he sighed in English.
“Where are the kids?”
“What kids? There are no children here.”
Ryker saw the sweat beginning to drip from his high hairline as the pain had to be streaking through his body.
“If this is the way you want to play it, then fine. I’ll—”
“See if he has any keys on him,” Kostya hollered. “I’m not hearing anything from inside these shipping containers, but we might get lucky.”
“Gladly,” Ryker grinned. He pulled the man up out of the chair by the front of his sweater and patted him down for weapons. When he didn’t find any, he then checked his pockets for keys. Nothing. Then he saw the gleam of gold around his neck. “What have we got here?”
He yanked at the man’s necklace.
It was nothing. Just a necklace. He threw the man onto the ground, making sure he landed on his shattered knee. Then he turned his attention to the other man. He yanked him up by the scruff of his neck. The man was wearing a puffy winter coat, and Ryker found a set of keys in the first pocket he checked.
“Got ‘em,” he yelled out. He dropped the man, then looked up and threw the set of keys to Linc who had his hand up to receive.
Kostya came over to him. “Found this from the office. Kind of nice of them to have all the supplies we could want or need.”
“Bomb’s diffused!” Nolan called out triumphantly.
Ryker shuddered with relief. He couldn’t stand the idea of seeing that little boy dying. He just couldn’t. He briefly flashed to the day at the beach long ago, the last day he saw his best friend alive.
Focus.
“Ryker, take the zip tie,” Kostya prompted. Ryker thrust his hand into the bucket of zip-ties and took out a set. “I’ll get this guy,” he said pointing to the man who’d spilled his beer. Kostya nodded and started zip-tying the second man.
Ryker was almost done zip-tying his man’s feet when Linc yelled out.
“They’re here!”
Kostya and Ryker left the two men and ran to where Linc had opened up the third shipping container. He was using his flashlight, and thank the good Lord, three sets of eyes were peering back at them That meant all three of the men were alive.
Linc and Ryker started in, but Kostya grabbed Ryker’s arm. “You go out and watch for the Kraken. I don’t want them taking us by surprise. Turn off the TV and all the lights on your way out.”
“Got it,” Ryker nodded.
“Here,” Kostya stopped him. He shoved the car keys for the SUV into his hands. “Just in case.”
16
Ryker didn’t see or hear a truck drive up, what he did see was a shadow passing by the open bay door in the plant. The dumbasses hadn’t even done a perimeter check; they just went right into the plant and were checking things out.
“Linc, Kostya, they’re here. At least one is in the plant. Haven’t seen their vehicle.”
