"What?" Hamm demanded, his tone harsh.
"They're transferring a girl. Jesus, these bastards. She's on her feet but bound and gagged."
"What does she look like?" Tristan asked, his voice taut.
"Long dark hair, petite. The driver pushed the girl inside the house, and the ugly dude is handing over money, I think."
"Son of a bitch," Hamm cursed.
"It confirms they're holding girls there. There's a good chance that's where your sister is," Cade reassured Tristan, who then nodded and returned his attention to the phone.
"Driver is back in the van. He's leaving. There's no more activity outside."
"I've got eyes on the van, it's heading back toward the city," Annabeth chimed in. "I should be able to ID him from the plates, but I'll keep tracking him. When he stops somewhere, we can pay him a visit."
"Do it," Hamm instructed. "Tag, what about the house? Can you tell how many people are in there?"
"Switching to thermal imaging."
Cade kept his eyes on Tristan as they both leaned toward the phone, listening intently.
"I see eight, wait, nine heat signatures, five on the upper floor and four on the ground floor. If one is the new girl and one is the ugly guy, that leaves seven others."
"I'm guessing they don't need more than one hired gun per captive, so what, three perps? Maybe four?" was Hamm's assessment.
"Yeah. No more than four," Cade concurred.
"Okay, excellent work, Tag. Come on back. We've got what we need."
"Understood," Tag said, then disconnected.
Tristan turned to him, his voice pleading. "So we're going to get my sister now, right?"
Cade shook his head as Hamm's voice came over the speaker. "Not yet. We need to formulate a plan for extraction."
"What kind of plan do you need?" Tristan objected, his voice strained. "You go in, you shoot the bad guys, and you get my sister."
"We can't do that," Hamm responded evenly. "We need to familiarize ourselves with the house's layout, then plan the extraction carefully. Recklessness can get my guys killed, and we also have to think about the hostages at the other locations."
"Can't we get them later?" Tristan's voice rose an octave.
Cade reasoned, "Once we hit one target, it will alert the traffickers at the other sites. The girls there might be in more danger, or they could move them, and we could lose them forever."
"But we don't even know where the other locations are!"
"Not yet, but we'll keep looking and hopefully find them soon."
"But that could take too long! What about the auction?"
"If we can't identify the other locations, we'll go into this location before that and hopefully get your sister," Hamm said, his voice steady and sure. "Tristan, I know this must be extremely difficult, but try to trust us. We all want to save the other victims too, if we can."
"Remember," Cade reassured him, squeezing his hand, "They're not going to do anything to her until after Saturday night, and this is only Thursday."
Tristan sucked in a breath and let it out his nose, then nodded curtly.
"We'll conference with the whole team tomorrow morning at ten hundred," Hamm said in a voice that left no room for argument.
When they disconnected, Tristan threw himself against the back of the sofa, his expression drawn and resigned. He blankly stared at the ceiling as Cade sat nearby, wondering yet again what to say.
