Chapter 28
Sera
Two days. That was all it had taken.
Two days of reconnaissance confirmed what my model had predicted. The property in the gap zone was Kindt’s hub. Satellite imagery showed vehicle activity inconsistent with agriculture. Long-range observation revealed armed men and a security rotation that ran around the clock.
Hunter had looked at the recon data, looked at Travis, and said three words: “We go tonight.”
Travis had immediately agreed. We were running out of time.
So now I was alone in a derelict equipment shed a mile from the property, and the operation I’d helped build was unfolding in my ear.
“East corridor clear. Moving to second floor.” Hunter.
“Copy. Holding south entrance.” Coop.
“West side has a locked interior door. Breaching.” Beckett.
And Travis. His voice came through less often than the others, but when it did, the calm in it was so absolute that it scared me more than the gunfire. Every word stripped to its function, nothing wasted, nothing offered that the moment didn’t require.
“Primary target room is ahead. Two contacts visible. Hold positions until I call it.”
I’m glad I wasn’t there, but at the same time I wished I could see what was going on. Travis had chosen this location for me during the planning phase because it had a clear line to the team’s encrypted frequency but was far enough from the operational zone to keep me out of the fight.
My laptop was open on a sagging workbench, connected to Maude’s network through a secure relay. One screen showed Maude’s tactical overlay of the property with the team’s last known positions marked in blue. The other ran the communication feeds I was monitoring.
Lachlan, Lucas, Daniel, and Liam were positioned along the property’s outer perimeter, holding the boundary and watching for anyone trying to leave or arrive. The strike team inside. The perimeter team outside. And me, a mile back, listening.
I could listen. I could not transmit. Not from this distance. The encrypted channel required proximity to the relay node the team carried, and a mile was too far.
One-way glass. I could see in. They couldn’t hear me.
A burst of gunfire came through the channel. Three rounds, then two more. Then silence that stretched for four seconds before Coop’s voice cut back in.
“Contact down. South entrance secure.”
I exhaled. My fingers were on the edge of the workbench, pressing hard enough that the metal lip dug into my skin. I released them and made myself sit back.
Four blue markers on the screen. Four men inside a building where people had guns, and I was sitting in a shed staring at dots.
I’d known this was what the role would be. Travis and I had discussed it, and I’d agreed because I understood the logic. My value was analytical. I wasn’t trained for entry operations. Putting me inside would make me a liability and split Travis’s focus between the mission and keeping me alive.
All of that was true. All of it was rational. None of it mattered when the channel went quiet, and I couldn’t tell whether quiet meant progress or something I’d never recover from.
After all the times Travis had done this by himself, he couldn’t get hurt now. He justcouldn’t. I wouldn’t be able to stand it.
More voices. Movement through rooms. Hunter directing Beckett to a stairwell. Travis reporting a hallway with three doors. Lachlan checking in from the north perimeter, all quiet.
Then Travis again, and his voice had changed. Still controlled. But underneath it, something had shifted.
“We have minors on site. Repeat, children confirmed. Multiple. Room at the end of the second-floor hallway.”
My chest locked.
Kids. In that building. Right now, while bullets were flying and men were fighting in the corridors below them.
“How many?” Hunter asked.
