“Underground?” she asked.
“One level belowground for trucking,” he said.
“More than one way in or out?” Shane asked.
“Several,” he said, tapping the screen. “Heavy security installed.”
“What’s around it?” Shane asked.
“Looks like industrial sites,” Diesel replied. “What’s on your mind?”
“Is there anything butted up against it, with a shared wall, that we could maybe drill through or something like that?”
Diesel smiled and looked at him with respect. “Yeah, give me a second to take a look here.” He scrolled around, carefully looking at the adjacent buildings. “Okay, looks like a manufacturing plant is beside it on the left. An alley on the back and some kind of metal fabrication shop on the other side.”
“But isn’t that too easy?” Shelly asked.
“The place will be wired in some way, no doubt,” Diesel said with a nod. “It would be good to get Gavin to check for security on the street and adjacent buildings.”
“On it,” Shane said, and bringing up the chat, he quickly asked for any available security feeds on the street and around the corner. We’ll need it for the last six months, but I want it in one-month segments, and I need the last twenty-four hours ASAP. I’ll also need passage to England, as fast as possible. Then he started typing again. Flights preferred. London.
It wasn’t long before Gavin replied. We can have you out in the morning.
Put us on the first flight out then, Shane replied. He looked to see Shelly curled up and already asleep now. Better make it for three.
A question mark came back from Gavin, so Shane grabbed the phone and gave him a call. “I don’t dare leave her behind. I don’t want to give these assholes any more leverage than what we already know they have on me.”
“Got it. I understand.”
Shane stopped and thought for a moment. “Hey, Gavin, who the hell is paying for this anyway?”
“Does it matter?”
“Well, it’s my family being held, and I’m the one being extorted to do something, though I seem to be dragging the rest of you along with me.”
“Look, Shane, let’s just get through it. We can do any settling up later, if we need to, after we have all the facts. We’re trying to get more information on what’s going on and on what group we’re dealing with. MI6 has been contacted. They’re not impressed that you’re coming, by the way.”
“Of course not,” he said. “I had a few dealings with one of the MI6 agents a few years ago.”
“Yeah, he’s had some dealings with a lot of us,” Gavin said, and a round of laughter could be heard on the other end.
Shane just smiled and said, “They’ll deal. They don’t want these guys in their lives either.” When he finally hung up, Diesel sat there, watching Shane.
“You okay, man?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Shane said. “Pissed off and worried about my family.”
“I don’t think they’ll be in London.”
“No,” he said, “he’ll have them squirreled away somewhere else. That’ll be a whole other operation to deal with.” He exhaled. “After seeing what this guy did with his testing process, I’m sure he’d kill them in a heartbeat if I fail to get his daughter out, and we need to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”
“I’ve got the photos that he originally sent us. I presume it’s her house?” Diesel asked.
Shane got up and walked around, so he could look at the images over Diesel’s shoulder. “Yes,” he said. “That’s her house.”
“So, where are they being held is the next question.”
“And there is just no way to know,” he said, sitting back down with a thump. “So we need to prioritize here. We’ll start with what we’ll do about my sister and also look at the London location where the daughter is and make a plan. Especially how we’ll deal with the explosives.”
At that, Diesel’s head came up. “Explosives?”
Shane gave him a crooked smile. “It’s one of the reasons I was picked, I’m guessing,” he said. “I’m an explosives expert.”
“You must have gotten into that after our last SEALs mission together, huh?”
“Oh, yeah, maybe so,” he said. “Yeah, I got a lot of detailed training, then did a lot of work in that field. Actually that may be why our paths haven’t crossed for a while. It was one of the things I was happy to let go of when I walked away.”
“I’m not so sure we ever really walk away,” Diesel said.
“Obviously,” Shane said, with a motion toward their laptops. “So we need to know everything about the vehicle that came and took my sister’s family away. And we need access to the camera feeds for that.”
“I requested the feeds earlier, so I’ve had a chance to check them out. I found one likely vehicle, a black delivery-style van. The license plates return to a stolen vehicle taken about four months ago,” he said.
“Wow,” Shane said. “They’re playing a long game here.”
“Well, either it was stolen on the off chance they would need it or it’s been something they’ve been using here and there, and, so far, they haven’t been caught with it.”
“Maybe,” he said, “but I really don’t trust this asshole, and I have no sympathy for him. He just happens to have an even bigger asshole cranking his chain. We have to make sure that, by the end of the day, we’re the ones holding all the damn chains.”
“I got it,” Diesel said, “and I’m really sorry about your family.”
“I appreciate that,” he said, “but I have to set aside the grieving and focus on the mission. We’ll share some barbecue when this is over, when we have my sister and her family with us.”
“You got it, man,” he said, “and you still owe me one steak already, by the way.”
Shane snorted with laughter at that. “Find out where she is, and figure out how we’ll save them,” he said, “and I’ll upgrade you and get you the biggest damn steak you’ve ever seen.” With that, they each settled in and got to work.
They both worked silently for a time; then Diesel sat back and stretched. “I caught sight of that van heading toward the airport,” Diesel said, “but it veers off beforehand.”
“Well, the camera spot-checks all along the line,” Shane said. “So keep tracking, and you should run it down.”
“Yeah, I was hoping to get lucky and track it quickly, but no such luck.”
“We can’t make an attack too fast,” Shane said. “But I would love to have them safe before this goes down.”
“Preferably so you can tell this other guy to take a hike,” Diesel said.
He nodded; then he thought about it and winced. “I know, right? Yet I keep thinking about this woman, who’s been held captive for six months. How could I walk away knowing what she’s going through?”
Chapter 6