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Adam, Wells, Jones, Mendez, and I were on the speed boat, and Garcia, Yates, Guy, Jasmine, and Christine were on the larger-looking yacht. We were divided into two teams for two reasons. The first was that the speed boat would barely fit the five of us. Fully loaded, it wouldn’t be very fast, which was a must. If we needed to follow the Reapers in a fast retreat, we’d be screwed, packed tightly like sardines on one boat. Second, if we did end up having to intervene and storm their hideout, we’d have no way to transport the victims or the traffickers. So we bought a shit-ton of zip ties and duct tape. And on the yacht we had first-aid kits, water, and food. Hopefully we’d end up not needing it tonight and would have a lot more time to prepare, but I was counting on things going wrong. They always seemed to in situations like this.
The yacht was placed further out to sea, because it was larger and more visible. So our speed boat kept its distance while I waited with my small crew. Jones’ dumb ass actually had a fishing line out. I could have smacked him on the back of the head when I saw that, but Adam did that for me, and he grinned the whole time Jones rubbed the spot.
At one in the morning, Guy sent the drone up to start recon to see if anyone was approaching. We didn’t know where exactly the boat would be coming from. Would it leave from Potter’s Cay and wait in the ocean for the other boat? Or would it come from somewhere else on the island, giving us the opportunity to follow it? We all waited anxiously to find out, except Jones; he enjoyed his fishing.
At two, we heard the sound of a boat approaching the waters around Potter’s Cay.
“Incoming,” Guy said into our radios.
We saw a sleek black boat approach Potter’s Cay and then stall. It flashed a light twice and then went dark again. This must have been some kind of code that they used to communicate.It’s me, I’m here.
As much as I wanted to flash our own light, I held off. They’d get close enough to see it was a trap and warn the rest of the Reapers. As much as I hated to admit it, the guys were right. We needed to follow the bees to the hive.
After ten minutes, they started their motor and turned around and headed back the way they came. Their black boat with no lights was difficult to follow in the dark.
“Eyes in the sky?” I asked into the radio.
“Yes, we won’t lose them,” Guy answered.
I saw the drone fly overhead, following the retreating boat at a safe distance.
“They are heading west. Let’s see where they end up,” Wells commented.
Twenty minutes later, we had our answer. They turned left into the Old Fort Canal and made their way through the channels, which looked more like a maze than anything else. When they parked the boat in front of a house, I could have cried in relief. We now knew at least one operation point for them.
“Let’s do an address check to make sure this is a house Ricketts owns.”
“Already on it,” Christine said into the radio. After a moment, she added, “It’s his, along with the ones on each side.”
“Jackpot,” Jones said. A wide grin grew across his face before Jasmine smacked his arm.
“So now what? Do we just let them go for now?” she asked.
“No, we need to watch. We need to make sure they aren’t going to make any other moves tonight,” I said, at the same time Adam said, “No.”
“No, what?” Wells asked.
“No, I don’t think we should just let them go. Why do you think they have three houses side by side?” he asked.
“Because they can’t fit the whole operation in one,” I answered.
“Just like in your New York case, they needed a high rise because their operation was that big. Robbie needed warehouses, so this doesn’t sit right with me just walking away from here, even if they don’t make any moves tonight,” Adam said with a conviction I hadn’t heard from him before.
“So you’re saying we go in there guns blazing tonight?” Jones asked.
“I don’t want to, but I don’t think we have much of a choice. Look how easy it would be for them to transport people. In an hour, they could make multiple trips to a large transport ship and have a bunch of women in another country. That’s assuming that these houses are still occupied, that they haven’t moved anyone in a while,” Adam said.
“Look, there’s always a choice. We need to make the best one that guarantees the safety of any innocent people who may be inside. We can’t move forward with a half-assed raid unless it’s a last resort. Now that we know where they are, and confirmed they aren’t in the middle of a move, let’s do a full day of recon. We can take shifts and rotate out. From there we can put together a plan that keeps us and the victims safe,” Garcia said into the radio.
I was torn. I was with Adam. I wanted to go in there right now and kick some ass and free those who were probably terrified beyond belief. I wanted to end their suffering. Those women probably had no hope of a rescue. They probably assumed that no one was coming for them. During my deployment, my hope was the shoreline. It was ironic that I was on a boat again, and this time it was to bring someone else’s nightmare to an end. For that very reason, I wanted to back Adam up and demand that we storm their base of operations. With as many buildings as they had, three houses, and two pool houses along with a small boathouse, it was like a compound.
The less emotionally charged part of me—the part that remembered my training—kicked in. I knew that Garcia made a very valid point. To have the upper hand, it’s best to understand the enemy before confronting them. That meant knowing the battleground too. We didn’t have a way to lure them all to a location of our choosing. They might have sent a couple of guys out for me today, but we surely wouldn’t get lucky enough to get them all at one time in some massive showdown. This wasn’t a TV show, and we couldn’t manipulate the script to work in our favor. On top of that, we may have lost their interest in me when they came back empty handed. Or it could’ve had the opposite effect. Only time would tell, and then you’d be able to use that knowledge. Waiting right now was the right call, as much as it pained me to admit it.
By now the Reapers were probably looking for the manager, and he wouldn’t be answering. His phone was with the Marshals, and it was their call on how to investigate further from there. We wouldn’t have long before they opened their own investigation, and if they stormed in, it would definitely spook the FBI office that I came here to investigate.
For some reason, the four guys in my boat turned to look at me. Like I was the deciding vote.
“I…I think Garcia might have a point on this.” My eyes flashed to Adam’s, and I hoped he’d understand. I was picking a plan, not a partner. “I think we do need a plan. I read the report about the raid in Las Vegas, and it was sloppy. That wasn’t your doing; that was on Bob. You saw how messy that got. What if we have a way to avoid that entirely? What he did endangered the lives of everyone. A standoff like that could have been avoided. He could have tried to get to them in transit, right as they left the warehouse. I think we need to figure out what security measures the Reapers have taken and figure out how to disable them completely so that they never see us coming when we do make our move,” I said.
