I’d wanted to throttle Edwards when he suggested Maisie didn’t have the experience to pull off her plans for Canada Lake’s redevelopment. I was making the same assumption about Davies.
However, judging by the scowl on his face when Diesel abruptly left their conversation, I wondered if I was right about her.
Doc and Merrigan walked into the lodge. Both looked haggard.
“What’s the status of the ransom payment?” I asked.
Merrigan sighed and looked at her husband.
“The attorney is pressing them to pay as soon as the bank can free up the cash, which would be sometime tomorrow afternoon.” He looked at his watch. “Or I should say this afternoon.”
“Are you suggesting they don’t pay it?”
Doc shook his head. “I can’t tell them not to do everything they can to get their granddaughter back. However, the three previous victims were killed despite the ransom being paid. So far, there is no trace of that money being used anywhere.”
Doc’s words about the other victims being killed were like a stab to my heart. He was right, though, as hard as it was to hear.
“We’re going to call it a night,” he said, putting his arm around Merrigan’s shoulders. “If anything significant comes up, call my cell. I’ll only be a few steps away. By the way, Ranger, there’s a room set up for you too. Even if you can’t sleep, try to get some rest.”
“Where?”
Merrigan pulled out a key card and handed it to me. “Number seven. It’s right next to ours.”
“Thanks.”
I went in search of Diesel and found him outside. “What’s going on?”
He looked up at the sky. “Thinking the same things you are, Range. I want to find her.” He rubbed his eyes. “The FBI has drones up now, checking all the camps that aren’t supposed to be occupied.”
“You and the agent don’t appear to see eye to eye.”
“If that isn’t the understatement of the fucking century,” he muttered. “The thing is, she’s smart. Damn smart. So as much as I might want to discredit her, I can’t. We’re lucky to have her on this investigation.”
“I came out to tell you I’m going to lie down in one of the rooms in the lodge. If you need me, I’ll be in number seven.”
“Copy that.”
When I went inside, the agent was stretching. “Do you have a place to get some rest?” I asked, attempting to offer an olive branch of sorts.
“I’m monitoring the drones presently, but after that, I’ll take a break. Oh, and to answer your question, I’m in one of the cabins.”
I nodded and walked in the direction of the hallway where the rooms were located and bumped into Onyx coming out of one.
“Why didn’t you go back to Blanca’s camp?”
“I did. I brought her here so we wouldn’t use assets we need here, there to keep an eye on her.”
“Thanks, Onyx.”
“We’re going to find Maisie and bring her back safe. We aren’t at the twenty-four-hour mark yet.”
“Copy that,” I mumbled as I walked to my room. I wasn’t there more than thirty minutes before Diesel pounded on my door.
“We’ve got a hit on the car and are sending a drone to detect whether someone is in the vicinity,” he said when I motioned for him to come in.
“Where is it?”
“Sherman’s.”
I hadn’t bothered to take off my clothes before I lay down, so I pushed past him.
“What have you got?” I asked Agent Davies.
“A few more seconds, and I’ll be able to tell you.”
“We need to assemble a team.”
“On it,” Onyx shouted over to me while I watched the agent’s laptop for signs the drone had detected life.
“They’re there,” she announced, looking up at me. I studied the screen a few seconds more to see how many people were, based on the drone’s detection of movement. Three.
“Let’s move out!” I shouted.
Doc came out of the hallway, carrying two sets of tactical gear and tossed one to me. “Suit up.”
I did and raced out the door to a waiting SUV with the engine running and the front passenger door open. Diesel was behind the wheel.
We had two hours before the sun rose, taking away the advantage we had with the NVDs, but I didn’t need to tell him to hurry. My best guess was he was doing at least ninety once we got out on the road. He’d probably been going sixty on the gravel drive of the forestry camp.
Onyx sent a text showing the setup of where everyone would be going in and who was on each team. I was leading the one closest to where the drone had picked up signs of life. Onyx, Diesel, Wasp, and Buster were going in with me.
This was something we’d done countless times in situations far more dangerous than this one. Ones where we were outnumbered ten or more to one. In all the years I’d been doing extractions, I hadn’t lost a single target. I wouldn’t today, either.
“When we’re in, we’ll take out Edwards and whoever else is with him while you get Maisie,” said Onyx.
Take him out. That’s right. The motherfucker would take his last breath in a matter of minutes. But what if there were other victims we didn’t know about?
“Keep him alive if at all possible,” I said through the mic. We’d interrogate the fuck out of the sonuvabitch until we got our answers. After that—we’d see.
“Roger that,” Onyx and Diesel responded.
We entered the bathhouse but stayed on the building’s interior perimeter. The drone had picked up breathing near the center of the structure on a lower level. I couldn’t remember ever seeing an entrance leading to a basement, but there had to be one somewhere. After five minutes, we hadn’t found one.
“Agent Davies, contact Al Jones and ask him how to access the bathhouse basement,” I said into the mic. He’d know, and it would save time.
“Roger that.”
We waited for her reply, staying as stealthy as possible. What felt like an hour but was only minutes later, I heard her voice.
“There isn’t one from the bathhouse. There’s a tunnel you can access from the carousel. It goes under the midway. There is no other way in or out except via that access point. He said there used to be an entrance from the building above it, but the fire department made him drywall over it.”
“Copy that. Let’s move.”
We filed out, and when my team went to the left, team two went to the right. Team three went around by the lakefront. The fourth and final team was in position between the bathhouse, the length of the midway, and the parking lot. I heard Onyx tell them to stay put.
Once we located the trapdoor, I went in first. Through my NVDs, I could see signs of recent footprints. Two sets.
I raced through the tunnels, counting the steps that I had taken when we left the bathhouse. I was about to round a corner when I heard a noise in front of me. It sounded like someone cocking a gun. I motioned for the guys behind me to slow and get down. I aimed my firearm in the direction I’d heard the noise, hoping the NVDs gave me an advantage over whoever was about to shoot at me. I stuck my head around the corner and fired at the same time he did.