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Ace stopped and listened for the sounds of humans. When he heard none, he checked right and left for any guards patrolling the exterior of the wall.
As far as he could tell, there were no guards this far along the wall.
Working against time, Ace, carrying the bolt cutters, stepped into the open and hurried toward the wall.
Fearghas followed.
When they reached the stucco wall, Fearghas got down on his hands and knees.
Ace stepped up onto his back with the bolt cutters. He could just reach the concertina wire. Careful not to lose his balance, he slipped the bolt cutters over the thick wire and pressed the handles together as hard as he could. When it didn’t cut all the way through, he pressed again, applying all his strength.
Snap!
The concertina wire sprang apart and curled away to the next metal anchor holding it in place. What was left was a gap wide enough for Ace to pull himself up and swing his leg over. He studied the interior of the compound as far as he could see, which wasn’t far at all. Nothing moved. He reached down for Fearghas.
Fearghas let Ace pull him up the wall until he landed with his belly over the top.
Fearghas swung his leg over and straddled the wall. “Go,” he said softly to Ace. “I’ve got Dmytro.”
Ace dropped to the ground inside the wall and moved through the trees and brush to get a good look at the house standing on a slight rise. He could see the side and the front corner. “Two guards on the front entrance,” he reported to the other two members of his team. “No side entrance until the second floor.”
Fearghas spoke into Ace’s headset, “Headed to the back and beyond to the other side.”
“Going to circle around front to the other side,” Dmytro said.
“Be careful,” Ace said.
Moments later, Fearghas said, “Back side is a no go. It’s built on the edge of a cliff. Headed back to Ace.”
Ace waited patiently for Fearghas to join him and for Dmytro to weigh in.
“One entrance through a garden on this side,” Dmytro said into Ace’s headset.
“On our way.” Ace edged further away from the house and then ran in a circle around the front, crossing the paved road leading in and out.
Fearghas followed, keeping pace.
On the other side of the house, Ace and Fearghas inched forward until Dmytro found them.
The Ukrainian pointed toward the garden and a trellis leading up the side of the house to a balcony.
Fearghas glanced up at the trellis. “That’s the entrance?”
“There are two. From what I saw, one leads into a sunroom on the first floor. The other probably leads into a sitting room or another sunroom on the second floor.”
“Did your contact give you an idea of where Bertolli might have the boy?”
Dmytro nodded. “He said that his wife’s sister is Bertolli’s housekeeper. She told his wife she had prepared a tray of food for him several times and laid it on a table beside a room on the second floor. No one is allowed into that room except Bertolli. He told them the boy is his nephew and is sickly. He doesn’t want anyone spreading their germs around him.”
Ace’s chest tightened. “Poor kid is all alone in there. He’s only three.”
Dmytro nodded. “All the more reason to get him back svoyiy mami.”
Ace frowned.
“To his mama,” Dmytro said. “The sister said that the boy is locked in the nicest guest room in the house. The one that gets the early morning sunlight.”
Fearghas stared up at the room above the trellis. “Morning sun would be on the east side of the house.”
