“Oh my God.” Charlotte’s heart nearly beat out of her chest at what she saw.
Fast as possible, she closed out of the document, sat back in her chair, and stared at the blank screen for a moment while her mind processed what she’d just read. She ripped a piece of paper from her notepad and scribbled down the file number. She folded it, stuffed it in her wallet, and shoved it back in her bag.
Without meaning to, she’d stumbled upon something dark and evil, something she wasn’t meant to see—somethingno onewas meant to see. If the people on that list found out she’d accessed the file, they would use their power and connections and do whatever was necessary to keep her from talking.
Even with that threat looming over her, she couldn’t just move on and pretend like she hadn’t seen the horrors listed on that document. Charlotte owed it to the innocent victims to do something, even if it put her life in danger.
CHAPTER TWO
Patrick“Hawk”Nakaiscannedthe area through his night vision goggles as his team moved through the dark shadows, avoiding the glow from streetlights on their way to their intended target. Remy, his two-year-old black Lab partner, kept pace with them, the dog’s body humming with excitement at the idea of getting to work.
To avoid drawing attention, his Dark Ops team waited to move in until after midnight. The sound of their gear clicking against their tactical vests with each step was joined by a deephoot hootfrom high overhead.
Nighttime ops were always the most dangerous, and there was a sense of urgency around this one that added an extra layer of concern.
They’d received some last-minute intel that ten girls and eight boys, all under the age of fifteen, were being held in a small house, located on a quiet street in a middle-class neighborhood. No one would suspect the innocuous-looking Spanish-style structure with the bird bath and mirrored, blue gazing ball in the front yard was actually a halfway point for human trafficking victims waiting to be transported to their final destinations.
They had to get those kids out tonight, because tomorrow, they were going to be sent off to parts unknown all across the US where they would be lost to a life of exploitation—either sexually or through forced labor.
The team was here to ensure that didn’t happen.
Cole Lambert, his boss and head of the OSI Dark Ops division of O’Halleran Security International, pointed toward a utility van parked by the curb across from the target house. They all nodded, crouched down, and hurried over to conceal themselves behind the vehicle. He raised his index finger, made a circular motion with it, then pointed two fingers toward the back of the retention house. Calliope Daniels, Eddie Calabretta, and Lucas O’Halleran split off from the group and ran across the street to take up position at the back door.
Thanks to Sammy, their tech wiz, they knew the house’s layout. Unfortunately, there was no intel on how many traffickers were actually inside the damn thing, but the Dark Ops team was ready for anything. They were a specialized group of covert operators who focused on human trafficking. Tonight’s mission was one of many since the group’s inception a little over a year ago.
Calliope’s voice whispered in their earpieces. “In position.”
Cole pointed toward the house, then looked over at Hawk and Viking Bailey. They nodded, his boss took point, and all three of them, along with Remy, dashed across the street and up the driveway. Their boots were silent as they moved across the wooden porch, until creeeak.A wooden slat groaned beneath someone’s foot, and they all froze in place, including Remy.
After a few minutes, when no one burst from the house, they lined up against the wall, ready to breach the front door. Viking pressed a small amount of C4 explosive right next to the deadbolt, set the charging caps, and stepped to the side of the doorframe. Lucas was doing the same to the back door.
“Explosive set,” Lucas whispered.
“Prepare to breach,” Cole whispered.
Remy whined softly next to him, excited and ready to get in on the action.
Hawk looked down at him, put a finger to his lips, and his partner immediately quieted.
Remy was an ESD canine who was specially trained to sniff out electronic storage devices—hard drives, microSD cards, and other things like that. During a recent mission in Miami, he located a half dozen microSD cards hidden in a shoebox filled with mothballs and cedar chips. The damn thing was shoved to the back of a closet shelf in a hoarder’s mobile home.
The only way they were able to get through the house was by navigating around, up, and over stacks of old magazines and newspapers, stepping over pizza boxes, rotten food, and years’ worth of all kinds of other crap. Remy even had a standoff with a pretty well-fed rat right before finding the SD card.
They’d struck gold.
The cards had contained thousands of videos and images of child pornography created, then downloaded to the Internet by the asshole who lived there. Remy didn’t know or care about that; he just knew to sniff for triphenylphosphine oxide, a chemical used in the production of electronics. And if he found something, that meant he’d get a tasty treat and a chance to play with his favorite toy—a ridiculous stuffed duck with an obnoxious squeaker inside. Remy had chewed on the thing until he yanked out the squeaker, then he’d whined for hours, so Hawk bought a huge box of the exact same stuffed ducks and kept them in reserve.
“On my mark.” Cole began his countdown. “Three, two, one, mark.”
There were two simultaneous small explosions at the front and back doors. Viking slammed his size-sixteen boot against the door, and wood shattered inward. Rifle raised, Cole entered first, followed by Viking, then Hawk and Remy.
At the same time, his teammates Eddie Calabretta and Lucas O’Halleran burst into the kitchen through the back door. Calliope Daniels entered with them and immediately began to charge toward the sounds of the kids screaming.
“Get down, now!” Cole shouted at a man sitting on a couch, holding a can of beer in one hand and a partially eaten sub in the other.
The guy’s eyes became huge, the beer slipped from his hand onto the carpet, and golden liquid shot up through the opening. A tomato slipped from the sub and landed on the front of his black T-shirt.
“Drop the weapon!” In the kitchen, Lucas repeated the command. “Drop. The. Weapon!”
