Taylor looked confused and swung his gaze to Annabeth, but she just shook her head, rolled her eyes and introduced Tristan.
"Everyone, this is Tristan Hines. Tristan, this is Taylor, Rodriguez, and Kate. The guys are on the rescue team, and Kate is the transport driver."
Cade watched as Tristan studied the two men he had told him about, and he could almost see the other man trying to reconcile what he knew about them with their appearances. Taylor's shaved head and muscular build screamed military, but Rodriguez, short and skinny with bleach-blonde hair and baggy pants, didn't exactly fit the bill as a weapons expert. He looked more like a teenager trying to look edgy and failing.
"Alright, does anyone need to see the house's blueprints again?"
"Nope," Taylor answered. "There are only two entrances, front and rear. Easy peasy."
"So, is everyone clear on the approach, procedures and contingency plan?" Annabeth asked, looking around. As everyone answered yes, Cade noticed Tristan looking pensive, maybe anxious now that the time was near, or worried his sister wouldn't actually be in the house as they assumed.
Cade hoped like hell they'd gotten that part right.
"Okay," Cade said, "So when we are all in position, and it's a go, I'll say, 'One more thing,' and that's your signal to move in."
When the other men nodded, Cade felt satisfied that they were ready to leave.
"Anything else?" Cade asked, his eyes landing on each team member in turn.
Tristan surprised him by saying, "I want to go with you."
Multiple sets of eyes snapped to the redhead as Cade's heart lurched, and he objected, "Absolutely not."
"I don't mean when you go in. I mean like, in the car, so I'm there when Natalie comes out."
"You can stay here with Annabeth and Kate. Annabeth will be on comms, so you can hear everything that goes on, and Kate can bring you to the house when she comes to get the girls."
"No, I want to be there as soon as you get Natalie. I don't want to wait."
"It will only be, like, ten or fifteen minutes until we can bring her back here," Cade argued, frustration rising.
"I don't care! She's my baby sister. She's terrified and possibly injured or... worse. I want to see her as soon as possible."
"It's a bad idea," Tag cautioned.
Cade tended to agree with Tag, though he loathed to say it out loud. He glanced around at the others for support, but Taylor justshrugged, Rodriguez looked back and forth between him and Tag as if they would start swinging any second, and though Annabeth frowned, she remained silent. Kate seemed a bit shocked that Tristan would ask such a thing.
Seeing Tristan's pleading eyes and recognizing once again that denying this man seemed impossible, as if some inexplicable mental block prevented him from uttering the word 'no,' Cade considered the request and thought through the possibility as he voiced it. "Tristan could hide in the back seat. As long as he stays out of sight, there shouldn't be any risk. He would stay in the car until I got him," Cade emphasized as he pinned Tristan with a pointed expression, "and then he could see his sister as soon as the hostiles are down. What do you all think?"
Rodriguez commented, "I mean, as long as he's hidden in the car, I don't think it's a problem." He turned to Tristan, "You're not going to run into the house when bullets are flying around, are you?"
The redhead shook his head vigorously, and Cade's resistance to the idea slipped a bit more. He knew Tristan wouldn't do anything risky.
Rodriguez continued, "And we're not incompetent, so it's not like the bad guys are going to get outside and find him."
"It's an unnecessary risk," Tag said, and though a voice in Cade's head seconded that, he turned to Taylor and asked, "What do you think?"
Taylor shrugged again. "Don't see how there's any danger if he stays in the car."
"Annabeth?"
Instead of answering Cade, she turned to Tristan. "Are you sure it's that important? Staying here with me and Kate would be safer."
"I want to see her as soon as I possibly can," Tristan stated, his voice shaky with emotion. The quiver chipped away the last of Cade's opposition. He could sense how important this was to Tris, and it was in his power to do this one thing to make him happy. Besides, if the idea was really that dangerous, someone on the team would’ve spoken up.
"So it's decided? Any other discussion or objections?"
Annabeth mumbled something that sounded like grudging consent, and Tag pursed his lips but relented, "Whatever."
