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At this point, he was sure Kairo was overthinking the job and being too cautious. Alexei and Soren had both started threatening to move without them if Charlie didn’t pull the trigger soon. But after the disaster of the last attempt, Charlie couldn’t help his hesitance. Kairo was of the same mind.
The night they chose was a bleak one with black clouds rolling across the midnight sky, blotting out stars and the sliver of moon. Cold wind swept across the flat grounds and angrily rattled bare tree branches.
Thanks to the somewhat frightening team of Alexei and Kairo, they discovered that Catalina Perez had been living in the middle of nowhere for nearly a decade. No one had seen a trace of her in Buenos Aires, and too many of her old acquaintances thought she was dead. The only thing that was unclear was whether her exile from the capital was voluntary.
“Are we a go?” Charlie whispered, his voice automatically picked up by the tiny mic pinned to his shirt.
“I’m in position. There’s no movement at the front of the house,” West immediately stated. The sniper’s leg had healed enough that he could return to the field with only a minimal amount of fussing from the team doctor. West had already scaled one of the many trees on the property and was watching over the area through the scope on his rifle. He was providing the first line of backup if things went bad yet again and they needed to make a quick escape.
“Everything looks good on our end,” Ed added, his voice coming in loud and clear in Charlie’s ear from his position in the van. The demolitions expert did not get approved by Will, and he was just a touch salty about it, but at least he wasn’t letting it bleed into his work now. “The interior of the house is quiet. Target hasn’t stirred from the bedroom since she retired three hours ago. From our count, there are four guards inside the house, with two of them on rotation doing a patrol once per hour. One more is in the guard shack.”
“I’ve got the guard shack in sight,” Soren replied.
“I’m ready to take the security down.” Kairo was hidden in another part of the large yard with his phone hacked into the house security system.
“Be careful, gang,” Will murmured. His voice was strong and firm, but Charlie still felt as though there was a tremor of worry underlying it.
“We got this,” Charlie stated. There was a chorus from the rest of the team mimicking the sentiment, and Charlie felt a swell of gratitude in his chest. He appreciated them watching out for the new guy. The inevitable hazing could wait until they were no longer worried about getting shot.
“Do it, K,” Charlie ordered in a rough whisper.
The silence that followed for a few seconds left Charlie holding his breath. Kairo had claimed that the security system was far more simplistic than the one they’d encountered at Benicio’s, and both Soren and Alexei had confirmed it.
Just as panic was sending a chill along his spine, Kairo spoke. “System is down. Everyone, move.”
The four of them were approaching the house from different directions and would be entering from different spots. Kairo was at the back, while Alexei was bold enough to claim the front door. Charlie was moving toward a patio door that would let him into the kitchen. Assuming all went well with the guard shack, Soren was to follow Alexei through the front two minutes later.
The security system was attached to all the doors, and they would automatically unlock as Kairo crashed the system. Charlie ran in a partial crouch, muscles tensed against potential gunfire as he left the cover of bushes, trees, and thick shadows for the open ground.
Looming ahead of him was an enormous two-story house that looked as if it had been lifted straight out of Western Europe with its dark brick and black timber accents. As he got away from the line of trees surrounding the house, the main front lawn was decorated with perfectly sculpted hedges. Even a large fountain rose in the center of the driveway where it formed a circle before the curved staircase to the front door.
He thought he caught the tiniest glimpse of Alexei as he darted from one shadow to another, dodging the golden glow of the landscape lights. But then, it could have just been his eyes playing tricks on him.
The house was monstrously huge. How could this all be for one woman and her small security team? They’d tapped the interior cameras and had watched the house for days. No one came, and no one left. The count had to be accurate. Catalina Perez was living in the middle of nowhere in a giant house alone.
Shoving the thought aside, Charlie crouched down beside the patio door that was covered in windows and reached out for the handle. His breath became lodged in his throat as he tested it.
