The two agents shared a glance that said what the fuck’s going on? Double lines on the list were few and far between. Usually didn’t end well, either.
What was so damn important on this case?
He’d already picked up on the urgency back at the Mariner’s Bar and Grill when he found out Keith had been added to his team. Having Cat in the house from the beginning, and Josh arriving as backup, had only skyrocketed Mitch’s intuition. The confluence of so many top OPAQUE agents on one job meant there was a high probability the assignment was headed straight up. Hot and fast.
In fact, if you added in Reese, Stealth, and Joey, you’d have the entire Shades of Leverage team on the case. That meant a lot of OPAQUE groups were out there without their usual team leader. Either way you looked at it, the situation was a clusterfuck waiting to happen.
Keith rushed back into the great room, pointing to the room’s surveillance screen. “You need to see this, stat.”
In one quick move, Mitch tapped the tech-band strapped to his forearm and took in the dynamics of the trajectory on the screen in the closeup. He pushed the security-scrambled speaker button for direct access to OPAQUE. “Do you see this, Drake?”
“On it. I’m sending more agents even as we speak. FBI’s ETA three minutes max.”
“The way CT’s surrounding us, this will be an all-out attack. What’s going on, Drake? What aren’t you telling us?”
“I’ve told you everything we’ve got.”
“None of this makes sense. Why would they set up for a direct attack?” Mitch motioned Liz to his side. “They know Liz is here. They know we’re here. Yet they’re willing to charge the house to get her. I’m thinking her dad has been involved in something else for quite a while. Something they really need.”
“Get out of there right now.” Drake’s tone edged on controlled panic.
Mitch didn’t care what the old man said. Once an agent was put in charge of a team, that agent had complete control. Even when he was in charge of other team leaders. “Since when does OPAQUE run from CT?”
“When I gave you the team lead, I stipulated you had one objective. Keep Liz safe. Keep her alive. Got that?”
“Yes, sir. But—”
“Leave the team. Put someone else in charge. Don’t even take time to think, Mitch. Get Liz out of there right now.”
There’d been very few times an OPAQUE agent had been told to desert his team. Drake had always drilled that extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. Extreme circumstances meant the client was more important than the team itself. More important than each agent.
He didn’t like this.
“Don’t think,” Drake shouted. “Go. Now.”
“I’ll chance the panic room.” Liz’s voice held a tremble. So did her body as she turned toward the hallway.
Mitch processed his options. Liz. Panic room. Coercion Ten. Explosive. Chance? Liz—dead. Together. Escape. Fight. Survive. Chance? Small.
He made his decision. “Josh, you’re in charge of the team. Liz and I will head to the beach.”
“I’ll take your back. Are we going out the tunnel?” Keith slammed a new clip into his gun.
“No.” Mitch scanned the screen one last time then gripped Liz’s hand and pulled her along with him. “The tunnel would bring us up in the middle of CT’s main force. We’re going cross-country.”
Keith raised his arm to show his tech-band had ended up busted in the prior fight. “If we get separated, that’s gonna be tricky in the dark.” OPAQUE’s tech-bands handled everything from sonar to radar to GPS to texts, phone calls, and more. Kept everyone in sync. Without one you were fighting solo.
He motioned Liz to stay next to him. “From now on, you don’t leave my side. I’ll try to hold on to you. If I can’t, grab my shirt. And keep up.”
“Got it.” Liz glanced around at the agents—Keith, Josh, Cat, and two more who had appeared from nowhere. “Thank you. Thank you all.”
Mitch would slow his pace enough for her to stay right behind him. If she fell, he’d stop. If she couldn’t get up, he’d make his stand there. They’d have to go through him to ever take her.
“Josh, what kind of personal watercraft did you guys come in on?”
“The new Quantum40s.”
“Where?”
