All this for a young ladies rehabilitation camp?
As he slowed to a stop at the closed gate, he adjusted his cap lower and rolled down his window. “Sorry, I’m late. Truck didn’t want to start.”
The guards circled the truck. One of them rolled the door up in the back.
Rogue held his breath.
The door came back down moments later, and the two guards reappeared at the gate.
While one guard activated the mechanism to open the gate, the other waved Rogue through.
He drove past the gate into the compound, following the route Jade had pointed out on their hand-drawn map. To his right, several girls stood around a sand pit while two more stood in the sand, throwing punches and kicks, while the others watched.
The big building was where they’d said to go. He drove around and backed up to the loading dock at the rear. Grabbing the clipboard the driver had left on the dash, Rogue dropped down from the cab and hurried to open the back of the truck.
A man emerged from a door, pushing a handcart. “You should’ve been here thirty minutes ago. You’re making me miss my smoke break.”
“Sorry, man, couldn’t get my truck to start at my last drop,” Rogue said. “Go take your break. I can unload this stuff.”
The man glanced over his shoulder. “You sure?”
“Sure. When I’m done unloading, I need to hit the latrine before I head back.”
“Well, just leave boxes on the dock. I’ll take them inside when I get back. You can use the latrine inside that door—down the hall on the right.”
“Thanks,” Rogue said.
The dock worker descended the stairs, left the dock, and walked around the corner of the building toward a shaded picnic table Rogue had passed on his way in.
Rogue climbed inside the rear of the truck. “All clear,” he said softly as he quickly moved the smaller boxes onto the dock. If he didn’t leave the supplies, the dock worker might find it odd and raise an alarm.
Jade and Keira climbed out of the bigger boxes and straightened. They helped move the rest of the supplies out onto the dock.
In the shadow of the truck, they glanced at their watches. “If we leave that truck here for more than ten minutes, the dock worker will get suspicious.”
Keira nodded. “Ten minutes.”
“Find Lily,” Jade said and sprinted for the door leading into the building, a flash drive in her pocket, unarmed and ready to be their distraction if needed. Her first stop would be to disable the surveillance and alarm systems.
Rogue and Keira hurried toward the confinement building, moving in the shadows of the main structure until they reached the end.
Rogue glanced right, then left. No one moved back here. When he started to step out, Keira grabbed his arm and yanked him back.
A moment later, a golf cart rolled past them, driven by a man in tactical gear, carrying a rifle. He looked ridiculous and dangerous.
After he disappeared into what appeared to be a vehicle maintenance shop, Rogue looked again, and they sprinted across the open area, Keira on his heels.
The confinement building was a concrete-block structure with a locked steel door. Keira pulled a thin file out of the satchel she’d slung over her shoulder and stuck the tip into the keyhole on the doorknob. She jiggled it several times until a soft click sounded. She closed her hand around the knob, turned it, pushed the door open and stepped inside.
As Rogue followed, a movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. The man in the golf cart was coming out of the motor pool.
Rogue ducked through the door and pulled it closed behind him, careful not to make any noise.
“Hey, you! Do you have clearance to be in this building?” a man’s voice called out from the first room to the left of the entrance.
Keira stepped through the door and smiled. “Actually, I was looking for someone with a lighter. I left mine at home.”
“What do you need a lighter for? You don’t have a cigarette.”
