“I’m in place,” I whispered to my team.
“Alpha, you’re up first.” Andrusha’s voice came over the comm.
“Roger, ready, over.”
In the far back corner of the building, one of my men waited in the shadows while a single lone guard stepped to the open doors and lit a cigarette. I shot the dart into his neck, and my guy stepped in behind him and caught him before he hit the ground. He dragged the guy’s unconscious body into the shadows before carefully cleaning up the cigarette on the ground.
“All clear,” he said, and he stepped back into the shadows.
We repeated that pattern ten more times as we quickly and quietly drugged and hid the unconscious bodies of all the guards.
I waited at the top, watching the small wooden line of offices below. Everything remained silent.
“Come on, come on,” I muttered, as I moved my scope, searching.
One more lone guard, when he lost communication with his buddies, stepped out of the second office and hesitantly peered into the shadows.
My dart hit him in the side of the neck. Within seconds, he crumpled to the floor.
“We’ve got the office covered,” said a voice into my headset.
“Wait for me,” I told the team.
I moved downstairs. Flanked by my team, I moved toward the office.
This time, I had a live weapon in my hands.
When I opened the door, an older, rumpled-looking man sat on the couch with his hands tied in his lap and his mouth gagged. He was alone.
Without my instruction, my team cleared the room and then disappeared. I moved toward the older man and gently took the rag out of his mouth.
“Are you Mr. Asterdam?”
He looked slightly frazzled. “Yes, are you here to help me? I’ve been kidnapped.”
“We know. You’re safe now.”
“My wife, do you know how she’s doing?”
“As far as I know, she’s fine. Are you hurt?” I tried to assess how he was doing.
“My granddaughter—do you have any news about her?”
“She’s okay.”
Relief made his body sag. “Are you the police?”
“Not quite.” I took out my water flask and handed it to him. He drank heavily before he looked closer at me.
“I think you’re the one who is hurt, son. Who banged up your face?”
“It’s a long story. We traveled a long way to figure out where you were.”
“You’re a private company—my wife hired you?” he guessed, still trying to figure out who I was in this puzzle.
I gently worked to cut the ties from his wrists. “I see where Blaire gets her sharp and inquisitive mind.”
He studied me even closer. “You’re close to my granddaughter.”
Whoa. This wasn’t how I wanted to introduce myself to her family. “She’s been instrumental in helping find you.”
He leaned forward. “There is some information that I need to retrieve off one of my ships.”
“We found it. How are you feeling? Can you walk?”
He rubbed his wrists. “I can walk, but I desperately would like a bath.”
If he was asking for a bath, he was going to be just fine. I stood up and helped him to his feet. I spoke into my microphone. “Subject is safe.”
“Building is clear,” my team lead said into my ear.
“We’re coming out.”
I put my arm around the older man. “Come on. I’ve got someone who wants to see you.”
Andrusha spoke in my ear. “Can I bring out Blaire?”
“Affirmative. Building is secure.”
We started to walk, and the older man spoke to me. “You found the data on the boat? Have you been in touch with the Canadian government?”
My tone was dry. “We’ve been in touch.”
His shoulders sagged in relief. “That’s good. That’s very good.”
We walked across the empty building and came out to the parking lot. Ahead of us, coming out of the shadows, were Blaire and Andrusha.
“Pappa!” she cried as she sprinted toward us.
“Oh, my darling girl.” The older man stopped and held out his arms.
I stopped moving so I could watch the reunion. I couldn’t take my eyes off Blaire’s beautiful face as she ran toward her grandfather. She looked so incredibly happy. I almost couldn’t believe I was, in part, responsible for making her feel that way.
Andrusha and I made eye contact. He had a huge smile on his face, showing a rare display of softness. We silently communicated everything we needed to say with one steady look.
Long fucking week, hey, buddy?
You don’t know the half of it.
It’s over. You made it.
I pulled my eyes away to watch Blaire. Arms flung out in a ready hug, she was three feet away when I heard the shot. Before I could react, the old man stumbled.
The look on Blaire’s face would haunt me until the day I died.
“Noooo!” Her scream echoed around us as he stumbled into her arms.
Andrusha sprinted toward us. “Flash came from the building to the north.”
I knelt down and focused my rifle and nightscope on the large brick building, quickly but systematically checking out each window.
The building was too big. We were sitting ducks out here. “We need to take cover.”
I could hear the rest of the team yelling instructions and locations to each other in my headset as they strategically focused on that building in an attempt to give us cover.
“Go, go, go,” someone yelled in my ear.
I picked up the older man in my arms, ignoring how my body screamed in protest at the effort. Andrusha had put his entire self between Blaire and the building, and together, we ran back to the shelter of the old cannery.
Once we were safely inside, I set the older man down on the ground. I pulled off my bag and dug for my medical kit. I tore open bandage after bandage in an attempt to stem the bleeding, but no matter how much pressure I put on his wound, my hands were immediately saturated in his warm blood.
Blaire was cradling the older man’s head in her lap. “No, Pappa, it isn’t supposed to go like this.”
The old man held her hand and stared into her face. “Tell your grandmother I love her.”
“She knows that.”
“The first time I saw her, I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was my whole life.”
Blaire was now openly weeping. “She says the same thing about you.”
I continued to try and stop the wound from pulsing blood, without any success.
Off to the side, Andrusha was on the phone. I knew he was calling the police and an ambulance. We had already made the decision that if this extraction got bloody, we would remain above the law and contact the authorities.
Andrusha knelt down beside me and held out his hand for the bandage. “They are five minutes out.”
He was letting me know I had a short amount of time to hunt down my hunter.
I was so torn. I didn’t want to leave Blaire or her grandfather, but I also needed to avenge her grandfather’s impending death.
“Go,” Andrusha told me. “I’ll guard them with my life.”
I nodded my thanks before picking up only my high-powered rifle. I looked down at Blaire. She was sobbing as she and her grandfather said their goodbyes.