“My contact is sending Angie some information on your brother and Michael Drake. We’ll go over it in the conference room after we take care of this.”
“Which is?”
“The contract retaining The Leonidas Corporation’s services in finding and retrieving your brother. This is the same contract Michael Drake’s family signed. The retainer is ten thousand dollars.”
Addison’s eyes widened, and she inhaled sharply. Shit. That was going to leave a mark. “Is there a cap? A point at which I can’t pay anymore and you stop the mission?”
Paige rested her arms on the desk. “Addison, you don’t need to sign this contract. TLC has the assets to cover the cost of the entire mission. Whether you pay or not, we’re going. We don’t leave our guys behind.”
“You took the Drakes’ retainer,” she said.
“Because we didn’t realize the scope of the issue when they signed it. More than likely, we’ll return the full retainer.”
“Then do the same with me. I’ll pay the retainer, just like the Drakes did. If I get it back, I get it back. If not, it’s just money.” She shrugged a shoulder. Yeah, it was just money, but it was still a lot of money, and she’d feel it once her separation from the Air Force was finalized in two months.
This would wipe out a third of her savings. She should probably figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up.
“All right,” Paige said.
She went through the contract, explaining the conditions and clauses. Addison initialed where indicated and signed on the last page before handing over her credit card with a hard swallow.
The paperwork finished, Paige led them to the conference room where lunch was spread out on a table at the back of the room.
Once everyone was seated with their food, Angie took a position in what Addison was beginning to think of as “Angie’s spot” at the front of the room.
“Thanks to the mysterious Shady Lady, we have an invitation to the auction as well as the location.” She clicked the mouse, and a picture of a fairytale castle appeared on the big screen.
“Disneyland?” Jane asked.
“No. This castle is located on the western coast of the Crimean Peninsula, inland on an estuary of the Black Sea. Using schematics I found from when the castle was put up for sale about ten years ago, I was able to render a decent three-dimensional floor plan of the building. Keep in mind, this is an estimate and not to scale, and doesn’t account for any renovations made after the purchase.
“Also, can I point out there’s a website to buy castles? I don’t know why anything surprises me anymore, butcastles.”
“Angela,” Graham said.
“Moving on. Using overhead imagery and photos of the interior that were on the website, I was able to find a smugglers’ tunnel that was bricked up at some point. The team should be able to exfil that way.”
“Should?” Devon asked around a mouth full of food.
“Nothing is ever guaranteed when you can’t see what you’re dealing with. I have no idea how thick the wall will be,” Angie said.
“How big is the assault team going to be?” Addison asked.
“Not big,” Paige said. “Stealth is better. We don’t want to draw a lot of undue attention by blowing up a five-hundred-year-old castle.”
“Our goal is to get in, free your brother and Drake, and get out without having to fight our way in or out,” Graham said.
“Just the four of us inside?” she asked.
“Yes. Jane and Tinker will be outside. Turner and Harrison will be on standby for exfil,” Graham said.
“But before you can get out, you’ll need to take out the security system,” Angie said. “According to the information I received, the security is on a stand-alone server in the castle. I can’t access it remotely—it has to be taken down from the inside.”
“How do we do that?” Jane asked.
“With this.” Angie held up a small black circle. She pulled it apart, revealing the tiniest USB drive Addison had ever seen. “Insert this into any computer wired into the network, and then I’ll be able to access the security system remotely.”
“Attendees can only arrive by water,” Paige said.
