Jodi scowled. “How am I supposed to get any experience if you never let me do anything?”
Alina opened her mouth to answer, but Rodney interrupted her.
“Alina, I’m by the back entrance of the building near the garage. It sounds like they’re loading the truck,” he said softly into her earpiece. “If we’re going to do this, it needs to be soon.”
“Stand by,” Alina said to Rodney, then looked at Jodi. “Anything from Wade?”
Jodi glanced at her phone and shook her head.
“Dammit,” Alina muttered.
She and her team were here to stop this deal. That’s what they were going to do—with or without Wade.
Spinning around, she headed for the door. “I’m on the way down,” she said over the radio. “Rodney, you’ll go in the back as planned. Fred and I will go in the front. Once we get inside, he’ll split off and help you cover the garage, while I handle the conference room.”
The two men acknowledged the change in plans without comment. The adjustment would mean that Alina would be covering the largest concentration of bad guys on her own, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it.
Hand on the doorknob, she turned to look at Jodi. “Stay here and monitor the wire. Let us know if you hear anything.”
Jodi probably would have argued, but Alina opened the door, walked out of the apartment, and headed for the stairwell.
Outside, Alina yanked the collar of her leather jacket up as she jogged across the street, trying to keep the cold rain from slipping down the back of her neck. She was only partially successful.
“If this turns into a shoot-out, make sure you avoid those chemical drums,” Alina whispered into her radio as she hopped on the curb and moved closer to the building. “They may not contain nerve agent yet, but we don’t want to breathe that crap anyway.”
Fred reached the front door of the building before she did. After a quick peek through the glass, he picked the lock, then swung open the door. Alina drew her pistol as she met up with him. He did the same, covering her as they both entered.
“We’re in,” she whispered over the radio.
“Ditto,” Rodney responded.
Alina stopped for a moment, listening. She heard soft voices coming from a room down the hall on her left. She didn’t hear any other sounds, not even from the garage where Rodney said he heard them loading the van. Did that mean they’d already finished the deal and were about to move?
She gave Fred a nod and pointed in the direction of the garage, indicating she wanted him to back up Rodney. Tightening her grip on her pistol, she headed for the room down the hall. She was halfway there when she realized something was wrong. It took her a moment to figure out what was causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand up, but then it hit her. The layout of the hallway and rooms off it was wrong. Or more precisely, the drawings Wade had made were off. The room the voices were coming from was on the wrong side of the hall, directly across from an adjoining corridor to her right that wasn’t even supposed to be there.
She shouldn’t have been surprised Wade had screwed up the details. He wasn’t necessarily big on that kind of crap. But combining it with the fact that he hadn’t bothered to show up made her stomach knot.
“We’re in the maintenance bay,” Fred said over the radio. “There are a few drums that might be chemical, but no people.”
Crap.
“Something isn’t right about this,” Alina said.
Her instincts were telling her to bail, but they couldn’t do that. Not until they apprehended the bad guys.
“We’re on the way to your location now,” Rodney said.
“Roger that.”
Taking a deep breath, Alina took another step toward the door. Even through the heavy wood, she could clearly hear the men talking inside. She didn’t have Jodi’s knack for languages, so she wasn’t sure what they were saying, but from the laughter, it sounded like the negotiations were going well.
She glanced over her shoulder to see Fred and Rodney hurrying down the hallway toward her. They looked as confused and worried as she was.
“Jodi, we’re going in,” Alina whispered over the radio before giving Rodney a nod.
Rodney stepped forward to kick in the door when Jodi’s confused voice floated across the secure radio channel. “Guys, something’s wrong. The men are starting to repeat themselves. I think—”
That was all she got out before Rodney’s boot connected with the door, sending it flying back on its hinges. Alina and Fred followed him in, ready to deal with however many armed men they found.
