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The others followed suit, helping each other scale the fence.
Dev dropped to the other side and landed inside the manicured grounds of the compound.
The landscaping was carefully designed, with tropical bushes and trees forming trails and pathways throughout what appeared to be several acres of prime mountain real estate.
As soon as Dev hit the ground, he took off running, sticking to the shadows while keeping parallel to the main road leading into the property.
“Keep going, Dev,” Hawk said into his headset. “We’ve got your six.”
He found the first sentry several yards from the gate, carrying a military-grade semi-automatic rifle and wearing camouflage combat gear.
Dev eased deeper into the foliage. “One guard beside the main road twenty yards from the gate.”
“Got him in our sites. Rex will take him,” Hawk said. “Keep moving. We’re with you.”
Dev moved silently, bypassed the man and resumed forward progress. The trees blocked his view of what lay ahead, but he assumed the buildings would occupy space on high ground to take advantage of whatever view the mountainside offered.
He’d gone at least the length of a football field, steadily climbing, before the bushes and trees thinned and a massive home appeared ahead, perched against the side of a mountain. The modern architecture sported crisp lines of white stucco and huge tinted picture windows.
The beauty of the structure and the surrounding gardens of flowering shrubs and climbing bougainvillea were marred only by the guards patrolling the exterior, carrying the same military-grade rifles as the sentry Dev had passed on the road coming in.
Dev stood in the shadow of a banyan tree with all its many roots trailing from the branches above into the ground below. He spent a moment studying the home’s exterior, noting the cameras perched on the corners.
“I’m at your five o’clock,” Hawk spoke softly into Dev’s headset. “Teller and Levi are circling around to the east.”
“Two guards in front,” Dev said. “One on the east corner, the other on the west corner. I’ll circle around to the west and see if there’s a better approach.”
“Logan and Jackson will go with you and establish a perimeter,” Hawk said.
“Roger.” Dev swung wide of the home, clinging to the tree line, staying concealed for as long as possible. It took every bit of his control to keep from rushing the building and demanding to know where they’d taken Kiana.
He could just make out Logan and Jackson behind him. As he continued around, Jackson dropped back to take up a lookout position.
Logan kept pace at a distance, following him to the rear of the building, where a lavish garden with a maze of bushes filled with colorful flowers spread out to the back compound wall. Arched arbors created a fairytale setting that grew all the way out to the tree line where Dev hovered in the shadows.
A voice carried across the garden, barely audible but definitely female.
Dev started forward, ready to race into the garden.
“Hold up, Dev,” Logan’s voice came through his headset. “Bogey exiting the building on your right.”
Dev turned in time to see a man, dressed as the other sentries in camouflage and armed with a rifle, emerge from a door at the corner of the building, heading toward the sound of voices.
Another man emerged and followed the first. Both crouched low, their heads barely above the line of bushes. At a fork in the maze, they split up.
“Once we leave our concealed locations, their surveillance camera will pick up on us. At that point, we’re all in,” Hawk said.
“Roger,” came the response from all the members of the team.
Dev judged the distance he was from the man in the lead. “I’ve got the man on the left.”
“I’ll go right,” Logan said.
“Going in,” Dev said.
“You heard the man,” Hawk said. “It’s show time.”
Dev left the banyan tree, moving quickly and silently across a carpet of grass, entering the maze at a point he’d determined would lead him to his man.
