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“It’s going to have to be an upper-level intrusion,” Mike said. “Since the beginning of the surveillance, there’s been no movement in two specific areas. No heat signatures, life forms—nothing. My best guess is that these are probably storage rooms. Lattimore, this is where we breach.”
Benarld looked back and forth between them, eyes wide. “That’s the fourth floor.”
“We can get in,” Joel reassured him. “The only real issue is that these guys could be the trigger-happy sort. If all the children are being housed in one location, they could be expecting to go the mass murder route if pushed. So, it’ll be reconnaissance and then contact.”
The first look was always to get an overview of the target. On some assignments, they’d do multiple days’ worth of surveillance before taking action. The point was never to leave crumbs. Ten times out of ten, once they were called in, the expectation was to send all hostiles to the afterlife.
“And if they detect you?” Benarld asked.
Mike continued to study the model. “They won’t.”
Gage raised his head and called the rest of the team over. Everyone followed his directive—until the end of the assignment, Recces and Angolan Special Forces would be part of the team, which meant they all fell under Dez and Gage’s command.
“Here’s what we’re working with,” Gage began. “Phase one is infiltration. Huang and Lattimore will breach to plant devices to give us a damn-near-perfect visual of the interior. Thermals can do plenty, but a scan will give us the most accurate layout to properly seize the building and the life forms inside. Phase two: we identify and flag as many friendlies as possible. Those who we’re unable to tag will be an on-the-spot decision.”
“And phase three?” Denis asked.
“Violent contact,” Gage said, without a blink, twitch, or hitch in his voice. “The way we operate is to go in, retrieve the hostages, and kill everyone else.”
John, Denis, and Benarld looked at each other. Then they looked over at Giorgio, who’d removed a blade, and it now looked as though he wore a glove made of blood.
Benarld nodded. “You lead. We’ll follow.”
After finalizing the details of what they hoped would be less than a twenty-four-hour strategy, they retreated to rest up to move at ten hundred hours.
CHAPTER2
Joel found an isolated corner of the room, pulled out his phone, and tapped Sydney’s name in his recent contacts list. Should things go south tomorrow, he didn’t want the last words they exchanged to be an argument.
On the fourth ring, she picked up.
“Hey,” he greeted.
She responded with silence, and he only knew she was there because he heard her breathing quietly into the speaker.
“Syd?”
“Joel, do you love me?”
Knowing where this line of questioning was headed, he answered carefully, giving himself time to prepare for the following question.
“Of course, I love you, Sydney. When have I ever not loved you?”
“Do you love me more than you love your team?”
Sighing, he massaged the space between his brows. “Syd, that’s like asking me if I love you more than Audrey or my parents.”
“Well, do you?”
“Love you more than my sister or the people who gave me life? There’s no way I can answer that.”
Another bout of silence passed between them. Before he left, they’d done more than argue, and that she didn’t start the conversation with that information meant he had his answer.
“So, the pregnancy test?” he asked.
Again, she didn’t respond.
“Sydney?”
