Providence: I’m about as good as you’d expect. I need you here.
Me: We’ll be there soon.
“Providence?” Mike asks from his seat across from me.
“Yeah. Listen up. We have the motherfucker’s name and location. Mellie is sure it’s the same place the girls are now. I’m sending the info to your phones. Evan, we need to dig up everything we can find on Charles and Rodney Harrison.”
“On it, Boss,” Evan answers, as his fingers are flying across the keyboard of his laptop.
“We’ll handle this like any other mission. I want to know everything we can about the house, the blueprints if possible, and where we think they’re holding the girls. Mellie told Providence that they were kept in a cement room with no windows. I’m guessing the basement, but we don’t have any room for error here.”
“Got it. I’ll dig up the blueprints if possible. Small towns suck for record-keeping. But what are we going to do for weapons?”
“Adapt, improvise, and overcome. Have you forgotten already?”
“No, sir. We’ll figure it out,” Pat says.
At least now we have enough information to plan the mission. Adult involvement makes it hard enough, but children add a whole other level of danger to the mix. We’ll need to be prepared for anything, including the possibility he’s killed them already. Not that any of us want to go down that road.
Knowing that this is where they held and tortured my woman already has me seeing red. It’s going to take every bit of my training to keep from blowing the fucker’s head off.
I’m thinking about how I’d like to get my hands on the dirtbag when Mike yells, “Got them.”
“What do you have?” I ask, moving to sit next to him so I can see his screen.
“The blueprints. Apparently, this town isn’t as backward as I’d thought. They digitized their records about five years ago.”
“Finally, some good news. I need everyone over here so we can go over these. Except you, Evan. Keep digging into the Harrisons.”
“Copy that.”
“Okay, Mike, walk us through the target reference points.” I lean in as he takes us floor-by-floor through the blueprints.
“The house sits on two acres of land. No close neighbors. We won’t have to worry about making noise other than alerting thetangos. There’s a front and back door, here and here,” he points to the screen. “Unless something’s changed, there are windows in each room downstairs that should be large enough to breach, but I think it’s high-risk. without knowing how many we’re up against.”
Mike’s one of the best at logistics I’ve ever met, and I trust him implicitly, but even I know it’s too risky to go through the windows. “Stealth is imperative. Until we have eyes on the children, we need to approach with extreme caution,” I stress, as I focus on each member of the team. “No cowboy shit. I know we all want a piece of this motherfucker, but we get the girls out first. Understood?”
“Yes, boss.”
“We’ll have our comms, and whatever weapons we can procure once we get to town, but we should avoid discharging any firearms within range of the children.” They already know this. Years of training have drilled this into all of us, but it never hurts to be reminded. Bad shit happens in the heat of the moment.
“Don’t worry, boss, we know the girls’ safety is our priority,” Pat says as he rubs his bald head. He’s probably going to scare the crap out of them, but there’s nothing to be done. We’re all enormous, and busting in with guns won’t help assuage their fear.
“Right. As much as I hate the idea, I know we’ll have Providence with us. Possibly the other woman—Mellie, too. I don’t like it but once we clear the scene they’ll be able to keep the girls calm while we take care of business. Mike, send everyone a copy of the blueprints. Study them, find all the blind spots.”
“Already sent,” Mike replies.
Pat and Adam return to their seats and pull out their laptops to go over the blueprints. I’m contemplating texting Providence when Mike touches my arm.
The concern in his expression has me stopping in my tracks. “What’s up? Did you find something else?”
“No, but I’m worried about Providence and her friend. What happens if we’re too late? How do we keep them away from that? We’ve been through some shit over the years, but you know how much seeing a dead kid affects you. It’s not something you can ever forget.”
He’s right. I still have nightmares about a mission when we couldn’t get to the family on time. I’ve never seen such a gruesome scene in my life, and I pray I never do again. I wouldn’t want my woman to see anything like it. Sure, she’s been in the Navy for twenty years, but on a ship, not behind the wire. Providence will have enough healing to deal with, without adding to it.
“I guess we just have to make sure we get there in time.” Yeah, it’s stupid. For all we know, they’re already dead. “He kept Mellie and Providence for at least three weeks. He’s had these girls for three days. I refuse to give up hope.”
“True. I forgot you said he had them for that long. Do we know how they got out? You said they were founding wandering around, right?” Mike asks as he runs his fingers through his beard.
