The incident commander turned to his second-in-command, a fierce woman who kind of scared Zane. “Get me... everybody.”
At that vague order, she smirked and said, “Yes, sir.”
IT TOOK AN HOURto regroup and reset the teams outside the warehouse. “It took too long,” Tessa fumed. “A smaller force could have gotten in and—”
“Gotten themselves killed.” Zane stood in front of Tessa. “They haven’t deployed the drones yet. And now that we have a good idea of what they’re carrying, we can shoot them out of the sky if necessary.”
Snipers were in position along the entire motorcade route, but two of the best had been relocated to positions in the vicinity of the warehouse. A newfangled drone defense device was also ready to be deployed. No one would explain how it worked, but SBI was confident it could stop the drones in the air. Apparently SBI had had it ready to go at the first site, but without knowing for sure what the drones were carrying, no one had wanted to risk an explosion. Now, the techs in charge were itching to test out their new toy.
“I need this resolved, Zane.” Tessa paced in a tight circle around him. “I can’t have the president land in this mess. I’m not sure if I could recover from the failure.”
“He won’t land in a mess.” Zane kept his tone calm, even though the depth of her trust in him—her willingness to be vulnerable with him, to share the truth of who she was—staggered him. “And even if he did, it would not be your personal failure. You’ve been all over this. You’re still all over it. You’re the reason the visit tonight will go off without a hitch.”
Her smile was gentle, but when she spoke, it was clear she remained unconvinced. “I hate to have to point this out, but you may be a little bit biased.”
“I’m not a little bit biased.” When she went to argue with him, he held up a hand. “I am intensely and completely biased. Doesn’t make me wrong.”
Everything went silent as the SWAT and SBI teams approached the warehouse. The decision had been made to breach the building without any warning. After what happened at the house, no one was in the mood to go gentle. But before they got inside, six drones flew from the roof and into the airspace around the warehouse. All were carrying an unknown payload, but from the ground it looked like the same setup as what they’d faced earlier.
Before the drones were a hundred yards from the warehouse, two exploded in midair in a spray of red and then rained down in tiny fragments. Sniper shots. Two others hovered, then dropped out of the sky as if they’d lost communication with their flight controllers. Both shattered on impact, and large puddles of red fluid leaked from them onto the ground.
Then a small drone took flight from the SBI command vehicle, and a brief dogfight took place over the warehouse, ending in both drones crashing into the roof.
The last drone met the same fate as the first two. It wouldn’t surprise Zane to learn that the snipers had been arguing over who got to take the final shot.
As before, the chaos of the drone attacks had provided cover for the teams entering the warehouse.
“You know, if these guys were serious about causing any real damage, they should get someone with some military experience to help them plan their missions.”
Tessa’s acerbic comment was too much for Zane to resist, and he took a step closer and ran a hand across her shoulders. “I’m sorry they didn’t present a bigger challenge for you, Princess.”
“Oh, hush.”
A new voice over the coms. “Ten individuals. All contained. Similar setup inside. Bleach, ammonia, water, drones.”
Tessa shook her head in disgust. “Did they really think this was going to work?”
Zane squeezed her shoulder. “It could have. You’re not giving yourself enough credit.”
Tessa frowned. “Right now, the only thing that will make me happy is if Craig Brown is in there. If he isn’t and I have to spend next week hunting him down so we can arrest him, I’m going to be seriously ticked off.”
Five minutes later, Craig Brown was loud and proud as he was escorted from the building. “He’ll never show now. Not after all the chaos we caused! We made our point! He will have to listen to our demands now!” The rhetoric continued until the door of the patrol car closed and thankfully muted the sound of his voice.
“Idiots,” Tessa grumbled as they walked back to her car. “All of them. Blooming idiots.”
Zane pulled her to a stop. “Let me get this straight. First you were worried they were going to succeed. Now you’re mad they weren’t a big enough challenge?”
She scrunched her entire face and hissed. “That would be ridiculous.”
Zane laughed as they resumed their walk. “I realize this may sound backward, but sometimes it’s the morons who succeed. They don’t have enough sense to know something can’t be done, they don’t set up their attack in a logical fashion, and it’s their unpredictability that gives them an edge.”
Tessa didn’t agree, but she didn’t disagree.
“And, as you so eloquently pointed out earlier, this was no lame attempt. The crowds would have panicked. And depending on the concentration of ammonia or chlorine, some could have been harmed. Those who weren’t would have been furious—either at having their clothing ruined or because they ran screaming from what was essentially red rain. Not to mention the danger a stampeding crowd is to the young, elderly, and disabled.”
“True.”
Her disgruntled tone had him reaching for her hand. She didn’t shy away when he pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “Tess. Look.” He paused by an agent who had the local news pulled up on his laptop. The camera angle showed an overpass filled with people. At least half of them were children. They were laughingand having a grand time. “Those people will never know that today could have ended in tragedy. When those kids grow up and think about this afternoon, they’ll remember the joy, not the trauma. You did that, baby. I’m proud of you. Your team is proud of you. And if they knew what you’d done, your country would be proud of you too.”
