Grant said, “Two down.”
Elias whispered, “One down.”
Iona breathed easier, relief sweeping through her. He sounded good. He must have taken down his target silently without too much strain on his shoulder.
She worked quickly for the next few minutes, watching the security screens and passing information to the operatives. The minutes flew by until Teagan broke in.
“Teagan and Rayne, joining Seth, Noah, and Andre,” Teagan reported.
“You have three bogies coming up on your six.”
“Copy.”
Iona watched her teammates split up and circle around behind the trio closing in on Seth, Noah, and Andre. She smiled. Looked like Seth and the others would be bait for this party. She appreciated their willingness to appear unaware in order to use Artemis best in this situation.
Too bad she couldn’t join them. Iona had had enough of ambushes. The question was, who instigated this mission? Wasit Dutch and his cronies, or did the blame for Elias’ trouble hang on Eddie Knight?
Iona noticed two people moving away from the center of the action at a fast clip. Her eyebrows rose. Had two of their opponents bailed from the conflict? She watched until they moved beyond the Fortress perimeter. At the last second, she noticed one man was carrying someone. Perhaps one of their teammates injured an ankle or leg.
When the three people were beyond the range of the security cameras, Iona turned her attention to her teammates. She remained silent while Teagan and Rayne tracked and targeted the three men bearing down on Echo unit, one at a time. Ten minutes later, Rayne reported in. “All three down.”
Seth broke his silence. “Grant, report.”
“Both targets down. One minute from your position.”
“Hold. Elias, report.”
Silence.
Iona’s gut knotted as the seconds ticked by without a response. He should have answered by now. Her man had already taken down Thug One with ease. No way taking down Thug Two would have taken this long.
She activated her comm device. “Elias, report.”
Still nothing but silence.
Iona scanned the screens filled with camera views and didn’t see him anywhere. Where could he be? Something was very wrong, and she’d missed it.
She stiffened. The two men. What if the two men carrying who she thought was a comrade-in-arms were actually carrying Elias from the woods? “I’m contacting Zane.”
“Do it,” Seth said. “What about the first thug who caught our attention?”
Riley said, “Got him wrapped up. Violet and I are waiting for a couple of you to frog-march him to the cabin.”
Andre said, “We’re two minutes out, sweetheart.”
“Copy that.”
The conversation between team members of Echo unit and Artemis became a buzz in the background as Iona grabbed her phone and called Zane.
“Yeah, Murphy.”
“It’s Iona. Activate one of Elias’ trackers.”
“What happened?” he asked, voice sharp. From the phone’s speakers came the sound of Zane’s fingers tapping on his computer keyboard.
“Bring Brent into the conversation. I’d rather not waste time reporting twice.”
“Hold.” A minute later, Zane said, “Brent has joined us.”
