Grimm’s eyes glossed over for a fraction of a second before he shook the dark memories away. “I make no promises.”
Thorne put his phone away and looked out the window at the darkness below. The sun would not be rising for several hours. He was calm, but respected the seriousness of the situation not to be arrogant. This was what he excelled at, neutralizing the threat before it became one. The quiet precision that kept the people he protected from ever knowing how close it had actually gotten.
He’d been doing it his whole life, from schoolyard bullies plotting to go after his younger brothers to international terrorists threatening the constitution he’d pledged his loyalty to. It made no difference to him. He would always stand between those who wished harm to those he’d sworn to protect.
* * *
They hit the ground running.Literally. Keys had updated their positions twice during the flight, adjusting the intercept points as Kennedy’s men drew closer. By the time Thorne and Grimm landed and got into their respective vehicles that Keys had had waiting for them, they had less than twenty minutesbefore the first of the three reached Poison’s last known location.
It was not clear yet if any of the three were aware the other two existed. Kennedy could be keeping them compartmentalized. From a security standpoint, it made sense, but from an operational standpoint, it did not. Regardless, Thorne doubted this was Kennedy’s first time running a capture order like this.
It was, however, going to be his last.
Thorne and Grimm split at the first intersection outside of town, each going after their assigned targets without ceremony.
Thorne found the first man exactly where Keys said he’d be, pulled over on a rural stretch of highway twelve miles from the motel. As Thorne nonchalantly drove past him, a quick glance over showed the engine was still running and the thug was studying his phone.
Parking the car around a bend, Thorne got out of his vehicle and backtracked on foot. The whole thing took four minutes, from zip ties to trunk.
Thorne checked his comms, but Grimm was still traveling north, so Thorne moved onto his second target.
Unfortunately, this one did not go down as easily as the first.
He’d parked off the highway on a gravel access road, which told Thorne he had some situational awareness. Liking the quieter, more controlled approach, Thorne once again parked his vehicle away from his target and came up on foot.
But the dust of disturbed gravel became his undoing, and the man spotted him at the last second. Thorne reluctantly gave him credit for that. The man burst from his vehicle like a missile on steroids, tackling Thorne to the jagged ground. Thorne immediately rolled, taking the glancing contact on his shoulder rather than his face, but the man just kept blindly jabbing at him. Rather than rolling him under, Thorne linked his arm under his attacker’s and flipped the man onto his back over Thorne’s chest.
The man flailed like a fish out of water, trying to get up.
Thorne applied pressure to the man’s carotid until the fight went out of him. The entire takedown took longer than it should have, and left Thorne with a split lip he was going to have to explain to Keys. Groaning as he felt the imprint of the stone that he’d lain on, Thorne stretched his back, feeling every second of his thirty-nine years.
He loaded the other bound man into the trunk next to the first and closed it without preamble. Getting into the driver’s seat, he checked his comms.
“Talk to me,” he said quietly.
“Wow, big brother. That sounded like it hurt.”
Thorne scowled at his steering wheel since his brother wasn’t there to experience his wrath. “Yeah, but I still got mine. How’s yours?”
“Secured.” Grimm’s voice sounded lighter than it had in a long while.
“Then get your ass moving,” Thorne answered sharply. “Rendezvous at the airplane.”
“Copy.”
Unsurprisingly, Thorne beat Grimm back to the airport. By the time Grimm’s headlights appeared down the long drive of the private runway, Thorne was leaning against the side of the car, looking up at the brightening gray sky while remembering the good ole days when he could pass the time with a cigarette.
They loaded all three captive men without conversation, double and triple checking the restraints before doing a thorough clean of both vehicles.
Ready, Thorne pulled out his phone.
Thorne: Three secured. Coming home once I figure out where the Start Button is.
* **
Keys might beone of the most impatient people on the planet, but he also didn’t believe in rushing things that mattered. And this? This mattered. By the time evening settled over Mount Grove and the property behind the building had gone completely dark, he had spent the day wiring, testing, calibrating, and running contingencies that he hoped he wouldn’t need. The sensor rigs had taken the longest, but not because the technology was unfamiliar. After all, he’d built the prototypes, but because adapting it for this particular application required the kind of careful attention that couldn’t be hurried.
Originally, he’d built them for a veterans’ organization out of Alexandria. The concept was simple: wireless sensors attached to major joint groups, capable of delivering targeted electrical stimulation to the surrounding musculature. He’d even picked Tessa’s and Bear’s brains to ensure he had the anatomy correct before testing the devices on a prospect, who’d somewhat volunteered to be his first guinea pig. The goal was to give a soldier, who had lost voluntary movement in a limb due to nerve damage, restored function.
