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The interior was dimly lit, but the soft golden light there bathed the foyer so that acres of white marble took on a warm, buttery glow. West crossed in front of Charlie, moving into the lead with ease and precision in his smooth movements. His handgun was gripped between both hands, lifted and ready as he visually swept the area for guards.
Ed moved into view next, also checking the area while Charlie silently shut the door.
A sharp, electric crack filled the van. Both Will and Kairo jerked backward in unison. One by one, the various monitors pixelated for a second and flashed off.
“Fuck! No! Fuck, no!” Kairo shouted, his fingers flying across the keys but the screens weren’t coming online again. “Guys? Can you hear me? Gingerbread man to the baker? Anyone, come in!”
The scent of burnt ozone filled the air and Will struggled not to let panic consume him.
“What’s going on?”
“Fuck! Shit! We’ve been made!” Kairo leaped out of his seat and lunged from the front of the van to slide behind the driver’s seat.
“What? What do you mean made?” Will demanded as he followed. He’d just fallen into the passenger seat when Kairo got the engine to roar to life. His friend shoved the vehicle into drive and they took off, throwing Will back against the seat.
“Made. Found out,” Kairo replied sharply. He stomped on the gas, causing the tires to bark as they raced down the quiet residential street. “They were apparently watching for my hack and sent a virus. I didn’t see it. It fried my equipment. The guys are in there blind. We can’t talk to them, and they can’t talk to us.”
A million questions rushed to the forefront of his mind concerning how that was fucking possible in the first place, but none of that was important. The only thing that mattered right now was getting Charlie, West, and Ed out of there alive.
“Do they know? What are they going to do? What do we do?” Will shot out. He gripped the handle on the door to keep from being tossed out of his seat. With his free hand, he made a grab for his seat belt and fought to get it in place.
“They should figure it out pretty damn quick. This is grounds for aborting the mission completely. The plan would then be to get out of the house as fast as possible and head straight for the backup extraction point, where we are headed now.”
“Yeah. Okay. Good.”
That sounded smart. Prepared. Charlie and the others would hurry out of the house, dodge the guards again, get over the wall, and meet up with them. Everything was going to be fine.
“Doc? You brought your med bag, right?”
Will’s stomach sank and his sweaty hand tightened on the door handle. “Yeah. I brought it,” he replied tightly.
“Good. Probably gonna need it.”
Fuck.
17
CHARLIE SANDS
“Fuck—”
It was the last thing he heard from Kairo, and then the earwig went silent.
Charlie flinched at the ominous thunk of the lock automatically sliding into place in the door behind him. He lifted his gaze to see both West and Ed glance at him with questioning looks.
“Gingerbread man? What’s the situation?” Charlie demanded in the lowest whisper he could manage.
But there wasn’t a single sound from their eyes in the van.
That meant just one thing—they’d been made. They had to get out of that house right now.
Charlie pivoted on the balls of his feet and made a grab for the deadbolt to slide it free, but the mechanical lock was fighting him. He was prepared to shoot the lock and force his way out when a flash of movement past the window by the door had him stopping. He gazed out and cursed under his breath. Guards were already rushing across the front lawn, moving into position to block their exit through the front.
“Through the house. Head to the exit at the rear and the backup extraction point,” Charlie gritted out between clenched teeth.
His two friends nodded without question or an ounce of hesitation. This certainly wasn’t the first mission that had gone south on them. Charlie just hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly.
West took the lead, a gun in his right hand while he reached down and swiftly palmed a second in his left. The sniper preferred to work unseen from a distance with a high-powered rifle, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t as capable on the move with a pair of handguns. Hell, Charlie had seen how lethal the man could be with just a few knives. Ruthless precision and not nearly enough concern for his own well-being.
Pounding footsteps echoed through the house as guards were already racing to their position. Charlie brought up the rear, one eye constantly turned behind them, watching for anyone who was looking to catch them unaware and pump them full of bullets.
