Page 59 of Breached

“Stand by.”

I stepped into the kitchen briefly to watch John as he listened to Mike on his radio. He moved around doing the same type of things as I was. Mike was on the opposite side of the mountain, looking out from his sniper vantage point covering the east side of the house. Keith and Mike were our best snipers, and we needed to make sure nothing would obstruct their view when we were under attack.

I eyed the fireplace. I had secured the tracker inside it. It would be activated when we were ready—and we were so close to being ready.

“Paul,” Keith made a noise like he was thinking, “see how the sun is just touching about an inch of the glass on the corner of Grandpa Logan’s painting above the fireplace?”

I turned toward the big stone fireplace and saw what he did. “Yeah.”

“If anything made that painting shift, even if it drops to one side, whatever, I’d be blinded.”

I jumped up on the stone ledge and pulled the painting down. “Let’s take the glass out.”

“My thought too.” I heard a scraping sound as he moved and knew it would be rocks and gravel under his fatigues. “All right, I think we’re good. I’m coming down.”

“Copy that, Keith.” I removed the glass and stepped down, hearing a familiar giggle. I glanced down at the stuffed Elmo I’d kicked with my foot and glanced at Cole, who shot me an uncomfortable look.

After another hour of work, I was satisfied with the result. Since the sun was just setting behind the mountains, we did one last run-through with Keith to make sure the sunset wasn’t going to pose a problem for him.

“Upstairs is fully wired,” Ty said as he and his team came into the living room.

“Mike’s back.” Mark came in from the kitchen and nodded toward the entryway, and we could hear Mike as he banged his boots off.

Everyone slowly started to gather, and once Keith and Steve arrived, Cole went over the checklist one last time. Everyone had their assignment, and each one had a backup plan, and a backup plan to that plan. The grounds around the house were already carefully mapped out, and we’d tripled the cameras, so no matter where you stood within a hundred yards of the house, you could be seen. Besides the main driveway access to the house, we carefully rigged a second one on the south side, that I would use to bring in Bruno. I was confident the place was like a lobster trap. You might enter, but you couldn’t leave.

I felt my pocket vibrate and pulled my phone free.

West: We’re ready.

Paul: Give me ten.

I raised a hand, pulling the attention of the room. “For the last few months, Team Stonewall’s been working on something off book. It’s been need-to-know until now. It had to be real before we put a name to it.” I glanced around, letting it settle. “Given what we’re walking into…it’s real enough.” I saw a few shifts and nods spread around the room.

I pulled out a folded photo and held it up for all to see. “What you’re looking at is the newest set of eyes that’ll be flying above us when this thing kicks off.”

“It’s a bird!” Mark exclaimed.

“No, Mark, not just a bird. My little feathered prototype is so much more than that.” My voice dropped a notch as I passed the photo around so they all could look at it. “We’ve lost too many people to the cartels,” I swallowed hard, “some more than others.” I waited for a beat. “This little guy is going to help us with that. We’ve given it a special name.”

I let that hang in the air as I looked around.

“Guardian.” I let the word hang there. “It’s to honor your parents.” I looked at Cole. “After all, they have been guardians to all of us, and I like to think they’re still watching.”

Silence followed—but not the empty kind.

“If you want to join me at The Peak, we’ll be testing it, and I can share what makes this tiny drone so special.”

Cole stepped forward and hooked an arm around my shoulder and drew me in for a hug. “If you ever doubt which side of the fence you belong, brother,” he leaned back and patted my chest, “Mom and Dad would be honored.” He blinked and turned away, and I saw Mark’s eyes were glossy as well. John came up to me as I walked toward the door.

“Let’s see what this thing can do.” He grinned as we all walked toward the line of SUVs and headed up the road that led to The Peak.

The air was cold, and the wind was high. It was the one place Cole would send us when we disobeyed an order or broke a house rule early in our time here.

Pegged near the side of the mountain was my office, a massive canvas tent where I conducted my field projects. With the sides rolled up, we had a fantastic view of the cliff while being well protected from the Montana elements.

My team was standing by up above with Guardian queued up, ready to take flight. West handed me the control, and I turned to everyone who had gathered around in a horseshoe shape. Stonewall had already set up the huge computer monitors to show in real time what the drone was seeing.

“To give you the full effect of the drone, I have Quinn, Davie, and Dell planted around the property in certain locations for Guardian to locate.” I picked up the radio and held it close to my mouth. “Are you ready?” I waited for them to check in. “Go!” I started my stopwatch and gave them a head start. “At this point,” I explained, “the men are running in three different directions toward three separate locations.” I pushed a button, and the tiny drone, no larger than a chickadee, lifted off the cliff above and seemed totally unaffected by the choppy winds around it. I typed in a command, and with my thumb on the stick, I eased it forward, and in a blink it took off. “It barely makes a whisper of sound,” I added.