“That’s not the problem,” Angus said quietly.
Dana stepped closer to Wolfe, her mind spinning. “What’s the problem?”
“Access,” Wolfe said, reaching for his burner phone. “I can get in.”
Angus shook his head and dropped a hand on Wolfe’s shoulder. “No way can you go in alone. These labs have decent security, and one soldier alone is too dangerous.”
What the heck was going on? “I’ll go with you,” Dana blurted out.
Angus looked over his shoulder. “You know how to parachute out of a military transport in the dead of night?”
Her mouth shut. Angus had been FBI, Raider and Nari HDD, and Malcolm an undercover police detective. They were all trained and dangerous, but Wolfe was the only one with special-teams experience and knowledge of parachuting, and she had no doubt she didn’t know half of his military background. “You are not going alone,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
“We’re not even close to worrying about that,” he said, his phone paused on the way to his ear. “The plan is to destroy Gary’s heroin so he’ll come after me, tracking me to the cabin that Brigid kind of hid from him. But first, everyone needs to reach out to their contacts to locate the right lab. Brigid? You have to have friends in satellite surveillance.”
“No, but Raider does,” Brigid said. “I bet Millie Frost has connections there, too.”
Wolfe barked more orders, and everyone set off to reach out to anybody who might have relevant information. Angus shut his office door, calling in favors.
Dana hesitated, reaching out for Wolfe’s arm. “You can’t go by yourself.”
He patted her hand, the bruises on his face standing out starkly. “Honey? What do you think I did in the military?”
* * *
Close to midnight, Wolfe paced around the conference room table, studying the map taped over his board. It had taken all day, but they’d been able to piece together the information they needed. “It has to be in that hilly region.”
Angus nodded. “All of my contacts confirm that.” He pointed to the rough terrain. “The other side has been raided lately, so my bet would be right here.” He used a permanent marker to circle an area next to a large hill. “Satellite imagery confirms the heat and power numbers are what we’re looking for.”
Wolfe shook out his numb ankle. It hadn’t been right since the explosion the other night.
Angus lobbed the pen onto the table, where it bounced once and then rolled a couple of inches. “All right. Everyone else has gone home to get a good night’s sleep. Let’s do the same, and we’ll plan the op tomorrow.”
“Good plan.” Wolfe wanted to get home to Dana, since she’d left hours earlier with Malcolm.
Force leaned against the table, lines cutting into the sides of his mouth. “I don’t have transport in, Wolfe. My connections don’t include military helicopters.”
“Mine do.” Wolfe had already made the call. “It’ll be a HAHO jump. I still have some good contacts in the military, and we’ll bill it as a training exercise.” After this, he was definitely out of favors.
“You’re not going alone,” Angus said.
Wolfe’s chest hurt. “My team is dead, Force. I can’t ask anybody currently with the military to break code and do it, and I’m not close enough to anybody discharged to ask. It’s just me, and that’s okay.”
“Jethro is going with you,” Force said, widening his stance as if expecting a fight.
Wolfe frowned. “I don’t know that guy well enough to work with him on this kind of op.”
“I do,” Force said. “Jethro was MI6 and knows how to jump.”
“He’s a professor now, so jumping isn’t in his plan. Why he left MI6, I don’t care. But he’s out, and from what I’ve seen, he wants to stay out.” Wolfe wasn’t putting his life in the hands of a guy he didn’t trust.
Force limped around the table and switched off the light, heading into the main hub area. “He has no problem blowing up a drug facility, so long as you make sure civilians are nowhere around.”
“You already talked to him,” Wolfe drawled.
“Yep, and he has a contact that can help extract you two if you don’t get killed.” Force whistled for the dog, who came running from Nari’s office, a pink high heel in his mouth. “Damn it.” Force yanked the shoe free and turned it over to reveal bite marks. “How did you get this?”
Roscoe sat and panted happily.
