It was always terrifying whenever Scout felt like singing. He had this haunting voice that I just knew could make a grown ass man wet himself in the middle of the night.
“Holy fuck, that’s people,” Ghost said, like he thought this shit wouldn’t work.
“Three of them to be exact,” Ranger said as he dipped the drone down just a smidge.
“Are they inside something?” Cap asked. “Or walking around outside something?”
“What landmarks are around?” Wrecker asked. “Can you show us?”
Ranger raised back up so far that the heat signatures disappeared. But the amazing bird’s eye view made Wrecker gasp.
“Holy fucking hell, that has to be where?—”
“That’s where Ariel and I were held,” Cap said. “Lower back down. Go back down, Ranger.”
He did as our president asked without a huff or a puff. He slowly lowered the drone back down until the three blobs came back into view. Still circling in that same pattern.
“The fuck are they doing?” Brutus asked.
“Walking around the perimeter,” Cap muttered.
“That’s what I wanted,” Ranger said as he snapped a few screenshots on the computer screen. “I wanted them to come out and search for that noise.”
“Got a map,” Scout said.
“Go back up. I want Scout marking these places on a map,” Cap commanded.
“Absolutely,” Ranger said.
Pulling back out helped Scout to easily identify where on the map we were in the state park. He circled the area with a big red marker, and then looked at Ranger and nodded his head.
“All right, let’s see how many more we can find,” Cap said.
We stayed like that for a while, watching Ranger fly the drone over the state park. It took us a while to come across another set of heat signatures that were human versus animal, and this time, Wrecker was the one whose eyes bulged.
“That’s it,” he said. “That’s where Amanda and I were. Holy fuck, Range, you found it.”
“Scout,” Cap said.
“Already got it marked,” Scout said. “I’m ready to go when Ranger is.”
“I want to fry them,” Wrecker growled.
I looked at his hands and saw his knuckles turning white. So I turned away from the screen and walked towards him.
“Hey, take some breaths,” I said as I stepped in front of him, blocking his view of the screen as well.
“I’m fine, Doc,” he said through gritted teeth.
I reached down and wrapped my hands around his fists. “You and I both know you’re not okay. So take some breaths with me.”
“Doc.”
I leveled him with a look. “That’s an order from your physician, Riley.”
Wrecker looked over at Cap, but Cap was much too busy hovering over Ranger’s shoulder and mumbling commands and requests. His gaze gravitated back to mine, and the tick in his jaw told me that he surrendered.
I squeezed his fists softly. “Take a deep breath in through your nose.”
