We return to the hall, then proceed into another room. This one is an office. Nobody to be found—saved, shot, or otherwise.
In half a minute, we clear all rooms down this hallway, then retreat to the main room.
Charlie One provides an update to command and the other team leads. “Last hall on first floor clear. We’re proceeding upstairs.”
“It’s all uphill from here,” Andrews whispers, making a partial attempt at humor.
We fall in line and ascend the stairs, keeping flush against the wall.
“It’s too quiet up there,” Romero offers about five steps up.
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end. All four SWAT agents at the front of the pack freeze at the landing.
We’re all feeling it.
Something is very wrong here.
Charlie One attempts to hail base on the comms. “Command, what’s the status of Alpha and Bravo?”
I switch over to the main channel, noticing all the others doing the same.
No response.
Absolutely zero chatter from the other team leads, not even background noise.
Fuck.
I mentally rewind. A lot occurred in the four or five minutes since we entered the compound. But not much in the last two minutes.
Andrews tugs on my forearm, urging me down the stairs. “Fall back. Regroup.”
As we’re returning to the first floor, Hemsley calls out, “Command? Anybody? What’s happening up there?”
Nothing.
“I didn’t hear you in my earpiece,” I tell him.
“Me either,” Fowler says. “They took out our comms.”
I eye the others questioningly. “It’s been dead silence other than those thumps when Bravo took the second floor.”
Charlie One decides on a full retreat. “To the van. Now.”
In the relative safety of the SWAT van, I scan the faces around me. Each one is teaming with a mix of bewilderment and alarm.
Twenty agents went upstairs.
Twenty innocent men and women.
Twenty.
No gunshots. No comms. No yelling.
Just thuds. Then silence.
I voice my racing thoughts. “Something took them out almost instantly. Had to be a chemical gas. Dissipated before it got down to us.”
“Sounds extreme,” Andrews responds. “Thisishis compound, though. Strong chance he had it built with a defense system. Paid cash for it or silenced those involved in the construction, which is why our analysts didn’t find it when they scrounged together intel today.”
