“Understood,” Rogue said. “But first, we have an extraction mission to accomplish.”
“What do you mean?” Royce asked.
“It’s non-negotiable, sir.” Rogue met and held Jade’s gaze. “We get the hostage out, or we lose our witness. Jade won’t cooperate otherwise. Honestly, I wouldn’t either. The hostage is her younger sister, who is being held as leverage.”
Silence stretched for a moment before Royce responded. “All right. But be smart. Hartley and I are counting on that testimony. We can’t afford to lose any of you.”
“You won’t,” Rogue assured him. Not if he could help it.
Royce ended the call, leaving the three in the kitchen staring at each other.
“Seventy-two hours.” Keira shook her head. That’s not much time to work with.”
Keira pulled her laptop out of the bag she’d carried in and turned it on. As soon as it booted, it pinged. Keira’s brow furrowed.
“How many people know how to message you?” Rogue asked.
Her face paled. “Obviously, too many. It’s Viktor.”
Jade gasped.
Keira turned the laptop so they could all see the message. “It’s a video.” She clicked on the play button. A teenager who looked like a younger version of Jade appeared on the screen.
“It’s Lily,” Jade cried.
The girl stood in a bare concrete cell, looking directly at the camera; she was pale, thin, had red-rimmed eyes and looked scared.
A man’s voice sounded off-screen. “Hello, Keira. I know you’re with Jade. Tell her she has forty-eight hours to return to us, or her sister pays the price. And Keira? We will find you.” The video ended.
Jade buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
Keira stared at the screen, her cheeks turning red, her eyes narrowing to slits. “We’re going to take that bastard down. She shifted her gaze to the hand-drawn map. “This isn’t enough. Knowing where the buildings are located is only a fraction of the battle. We need to know all the routine movements, changing of guards, deliveries...everything.”
Rogue pulled his own laptop out of his go-bag, booted it and started pulling up satellite images of the compound. He sent a message to Royce asking for tech support to study satellite images over the Onyx compound and any routine comings and goings.
“Forty-eight hours,” Rogue said. “We need to be ready sooner than that. Then we’re going to fucking war.”
Chapter 9
Keira and Jade went over and over everything they could remember from their time at the Onyx training compound, documenting everything. Mostly, they remembered their daily activities from morning roll call, calisthenics, hand-to-hand combat and weapons training, noon meal, afternoon training, cleaning, and the nightly lockdown.
Slowly, they remembered other things that had gone on around them. Jade remembered the guards' shift changes at the gate and in the tower, the twice-weekly supply deliveries and the once-a-month propane deliveries. Keira remembered escape routes, blind spots and Viktor’s patterns, all because of his surprise attacks and his insistence on situational awareness one hundred percent of the time. Together, they recalled the number of guards and trainers present at different times of the day.
Rogue listened, provided input where he could and summed up what they were up against. “This is a hardened facility. Armed guards, surveillance, multiple barriers. We're looking at a minimum of twenty hostiles, maybe more. Let’s talk about what we have to work with.”
They pulled all the weapons and ammunition they’d brought with them. Three handguns, three knives, a sniper rifle, and limited ammunition that might work for one engagement. Radio earbuds for two. No explosives. Three personnel, two of whom were fugitives.
“The numbers are not in our favor,” Rogue said.
Keira stared at the inventory of items. “Then again, Onyx operatives are trained to work alone. We can figure this out.”
“I can get inside,” Jade said. “They'll expect me to return—Viktor's message said as much. I can go in under the pretense of surrendering.”
“And then what?” Keira asked. “There’s only one of you against twenty of them. They’ll lock you up with Lily.”
“Not necessarily,” Jade said. “If they don’t lock me up, I can get inside the security room and disable internal security systems and surveillance.”
“That’s a lot of ifs.” Keira shook her head. “That’s if we can get through a breach in the outer wall and if you can get in to turn off the internal security. They’re not going to trust you after blowing a mission.”
