"Then Mac and I become very loud distractions." Her voice is cool. Steady. "We can cause chaos, buy you time to get gone."
"And if that doesn't work?" John asks.
"Then we adapt." Jenny's tone goes flat. "This is a snatch-and-grab with high-value assets. Everyone in this room knows things can go sideways fast. That's why we have contingencies, escape routes, and more firepower than we should need." She looks around the table. "We're professionals. We extract the targets, we get out clean. Understood?"
A chorus of affirmatives.
"Good. Teams One and Two roll in thirty minutes. Everyone else, final equipment check."
The kitchen erupts into controlled chaos. Weapons concealed, uniforms adjusted one final time, comm checks performed. I pull Merlin aside.
"The path to the vault." I keep my voice low, pulling out the tablet with all my notes. "One more time."
He takes it, scrolling through my obsessively detailed annotations. "Wine cellar, northeast corner. The 1947 Château d'Yquem section?—"
"Third rack from the door. The bottle second from the left triggers the mechanism."
"Hidden door opens to a corridor approximately forty feet long. Motion sensors that Mitzy's bees will handle. Biometric lock at the end."
"Which you'll bypass with the EMP."
"Thirty-second window." He confirms. "I'll need you to work the manual override while the system's down. Can you do it?"
Can I pick a lock while my pulse is trying to beat out of my chest and every instinct screams at me to find Vivianne instead? "Yes."
He studies me for a long moment. "She matters to you."
"She's everything."
"They will get her out." He squeezes my shoulder. "And we'll get the Swan. Both. No choosing, no compromise."
On Jenny's signal, John and Brett head out first, their catering van disappearing down the pre-dawn road. Fifteen minutes later, Charlie follows in her florist truck, humming along to the radio like she's just making a delivery.
The rest of us load into our respective vehicles. I'm with Merlin in CJ's "plumbing van," which is actually a mobile surveillance center with monitors lining one wall and communication equipment taking up another. Jenny and Mac take the photographer's van. Blaze and Sam head out in the security company vehicle with Forest hidden in the back with all the monitoring equipment.
As we pull onto the road, the sun breaks over the hills, bathing everything in golden light.
"Team One in position." John's voice crackles through comms fifteen minutes later.
"Team Two arriving now." Charlie reports. "Flowers are gorgeous if I do say so myself."
On the monitors, her van pulls up to the service entrance. Guards check her credentials, wave her through. She disappears inside.
"Team Three approaching." Mac's voice. Our security van pulls up to the main gate. More credential checks. Professional nods exchanged. They're in.
"Technical support deploying first wave." Mitzy announces from her remote location. The monitors fill with tiny dots as her bee drones spread across the estate like a mechanical swarm.
Jenny's voice cuts through the chatter: "All teams, this is Lead. Confirm ready status."
"Team One ready."
"Team Two in position, visual on target's suite."
"Team Three posted and monitoring."
"Surveillance ready." Sam confirms. "Forest has eyes on all feeds."
"Vault team?" Jenny asks.
