Kyle watched the screen. “They’re heading for the border. They’re crossing state lines.”
Zach was on his phone. “Roger. Can we get a helo?” Zach ended the call. “We’ve got air evacuation on standby. Ken, when the compound is safe for evac, you will run triage. There were four more infants left near Berkeley hospital and transferred to Morgantown, all with measles. My guess is it went through their whole nursery.”
Troy’s eyes stayed fixed on the screen. “Folks, they have officially crossed into West Virginia.” As his fingers moved over the keyboard, dots appeared on the screen. “Okay, Ellie said she was born near Shepherdstown. She was kidnapped from Fredericksburg. The hospital they dropped the kids off at is in Berkeley. The Knolls’ farm and out property are in Leesburg. Boss, call tech, have them search for a recent purchase of property bought along a fifty-mile southern arc from Martinsburg to as south as Leesburg.”
“Greece, what do you see?” Kieran asked.
“They have to be close to the hospital as well as close to Leesburg. They travel in a comfort zone, but they need rural turf to hide their operation. They also had to run after what they did to Wes and the capture of Tara. They need someplace large to take care of the girls. They can’t risk losing more babies.”
“We’ve got a home on the Shenandoah River, outside of Boyce, Serenity Springs. Eighteen acres, ten bedrooms. Former bed and breakfast. One road in. Purchased by Lenore Williams, a realtor from Leesburg,” Ian repeated what their technical analysis team was telling him.
Troy smiled. “Biff, your mom is a very bad lady. Boss, ask them to search the name Jackson in the area.”
After a pause, Ian said, “Sheriff Ryder Jackson. Send me a photo. Run it against the photo we have of Malachi Drake.” The group sat in silence. “We got them.” He gave Troy the address.
“This is operations command to all teams. We have the target address. All teams, find a place to hold. Operation Save the Stork command, please contact base on frequency beta.” Troy plugged in a second headset and handed it to Ian.
“Hornet to Gator, Arrow, Witch, I want you to await Hoist and come in on foot from a half click north of the driveway and get as much of the lay of the land as you can. We’re attempting to get sat images. We have three hours until daylight.”
“Roger, sir,” Remy “Gator “ Mirouette replied. Chad “Arrow” Thorn and Gwen “Witch” North replied as well.
“Sat images are incoming. Drone is airborne,” Zach said.
