It was still daylight, so Joe kept to the trees as much as possible. He was still alert for an outside guard, and it turned out to be a good thing he was. As he neared the rear porch of the house, a man in camouflage rounded the nearer corner of the building. Any thought that he might be a noncombatant were given lie by the HK433 compact assault rifle he held close to his chest. Unless people in the area had taken to mowing down deer instead of hunting them, this had to be the Pakistanis who had kidnapped Finn.
The confirmation caused a wave of icy calm to flow over Joe as all uncertainties were laid to rest. Almost without thinking, he spent two seconds switching the tranq gun out for his suppressor-equipped Glock 17. He would have preferred to take the guard alive, but it was too dangerous with the guy armed the way he was. Joe would rather have a quick, quiet kill and hope they could take alive one of the others inside.
The guard was about to pass in front of Joe’s position at a range of about twenty-five meters. Joe lifted his gun and sighted the kidnapper. He drew a breath. Without hesitation, he released it and fired.
The suppressed weapon made a sound barely louder than a cough, and the guard spun in place, shot cleanly through the head. He dropped to the ground, and Joe moved immediately, wasting no time to double-check the kill. That was Drew’s job now, and Joe had to get inside and find Finn as fast as possible.
The house had no basement, only a crawlspace as evidenced by the low access door Joe could see, which meant he had to mount the porch to gain entry. It also meant that Finn was likely being held in a central area of the building, since it was only a single-story in height. There might be a guard at the windows, but Joe’s instincts told him this was supposed to be a fast assault with minimal operators to lower the likelihood of detection. Joe had now killed or incapacitated at least two of their personnel, which meant there were two or possibly three still in play. If they had one person working on Finn while another stood guard, then there was likely only one other guard in the house. Or at least, that’s what he hoped.
The porch steps were concrete, and Joe crossed to them easily, pressing against the brick of the house as he mounted them. When he reached the top, he tested the porch door, which was fortunately unlocked, saving him several moments. He opened the door slowly to minimize any sounds and then slipped onto the porch, easing the door shut on its springs.
There was a nice seating group facing the trees and lake, behind which a long wall of glass offered a view into the house. There was no one in sight, but Joe could see only a single room, which appeared to be a lavish kitchen. He tested the knob of the nearest door, finding it also unlocked. Before opening it, he said a brief prayer. If the place had a newer alarm system that alerted every time a door was opened, he was about to announce his presence.
He turned the knob slowly and then pushed the door inward, relieved not to hear the telltale beep of an alarm. It took him only a moment to slip inside, but he left the door open to facilitate Drew’s entry—or his own sudden exit, if it became necessary. Now that he was inside he could hear voices, followed by a sharp cry of pain that had to have come from Finn.
Time slowed down as it always did on ops, and Joe felt like he was moving in slow motion even as he made as much haste as he could toward the voices, gun raised to deal with any threat. He didn’t see any other guards as he cleared each room on his way forward, and he wondered if there was another outside whom they’d somehow missed. As it was, he reached the open door of what appeared to be an office, and as he peered cautiously around the jamb he spotted another guard cradling an HK, who appeared to be watching avidly as an older man in a suit and tie used a metal baton on one of Finn’s knees.
Joe didn’t even think about what he was going to do. Instinct took over. He raised his gun and put a bullet in the head of the guard before he stepped into the doorway, turning his gun on the torturer.
“Stop right there. Drop the baton, or I swear I’ll put a bullet in each of your kneecaps before I start to get really nasty.”
The man had frozen when the guard began to topple over, dead where he stood. He turned to face Joe, a strange smile curving his lips. “Ah, I see reinforcements have arrived. Excellent. This one is most uncooperative. Perhaps you’ll be a better subject for interrogation.”
The pronouncement made Joe frown, but he didn’t lower his weapon. Instead he glanced at Finn, clamping down hard on a surge of rage at the sight of Finn’s injuries. Instead he kept his voice light. “Hey, partner… sorry I’m late.”
Finn was blindfolded, but he lifted his head and turned in the direction of Joe’s voice. “It’s okay,” he said, his tone suffused with relief. “I knew you’d turn up sooner or later, but I was getting kind of bored with waiting.”
The smart-ass reply made Joe’s tension ease just a bit. If Finn could still joke, he hadn’t been broken. Injuries to the body, as Joe well knew, could heal a lot faster than having your spirit flayed into nothingness. Plus it meant that Finn hadn’t doubted that Joe would come for him.
“Yeah, I figured you’d had enough of a vacation and came to haul your ass back to work,” he replied. He refocused on the guy in the suit. He was older than the guards and had the distinct air of someone in charge. “Sorry to put an end to your fun, but you’ll be coming with us, and I promise that you’ll be paid back for your hospitality. In spades.”
“Maybe.” The guy smiled again, but it held no warmth. “Then again… maybe not.”
Joe hadn’t heard a thing, but he felt the barrel of a gun suddenly pressed against the back of his head.
“Don’t move.”
The situation was suddenly changed, and Joe cursed himself for not clearing the entire house before making his presence known. He could have sworn there was no one else inside, and maybe this guy had come in through the front after Joe had already headed for this room, but it was sloppy. And it might be a mistake that was going to cost he and Finn their lives.
Before he could frame a reply, he heard the guy behind him gasp, and he instinctively ducked his head away from the gun even as he felt an impact against the body armor on his back. In that moment of distraction, the man who had been torturing Finn suddenly bolted toward the room’s front window, crashing through it and out into the yard.
“Shit!” Joe turned enough to see Drew standing behind him, gun in hand. “Take care of Finn!” With that, he ran for the window as well, launching himself out of it in the torturer’s wake, taking off after him.
He’d acted on instinct, not wanting the bastard to get away, and he was hot on the man’s heels as the guy streaked away. He fired his gun over the man’s head, not wanting to kill him outright because they still needed answers about what was happening. To his surprise, the man didn’t stop.
Joe was a big man, and while he could run for long distances, he wasn’t as fast as Finn or Dead-eye over short distances. The torturer was either a former track-and-field athlete, or else pure terror was giving him speed, because he actually began to pull away from Joe, leaving Joe with the choice of shooting him in the back—something the police would frown far more upon than his killing of the guards—or allowing him to escape.
There was also a third alternative.
“Pixel! Lock in on my GPS beacon! I’m in pursuit of one of the kidnappers, but he’s faster than I am. I need you to get a drone on this guy before I lose him!”
“On it!”
A moment later, a dark drone swooped down and homed in on the torturer, keeping pace with him far more easily than Joe could.
Joe slowed down, watching until he was sure Pixel had locked on and then he turned and headed back toward the house. “I’m going to secure the location, but it’s time for backup to roll,” he said to Pixel. “Also notify Wake County PD and get the helicopter up to evac Finn. He’s conscious but injured.”
“Roger that,” Chris said with brisk efficiency. “I’ll give you an ETA for the helicopter as soon as I have one.”
