Striding up the road, he ran through the plan again in his mind as he slipped gloves on each hand. Given the lane was in regular use by a heavy vehicle, he didn’t have to worry about IEDs, allowing him to make good time. He retrieved the tablet and keyed it back up, checking on the drone video stream. The device was now in position over the cabin, and the image showed a tight ring of dark forest surrounding the clearing. Sending the drone higher, he allowed it to hover there until he saw his figure coming into range in the distance. There were no other heat signatures of any note nearby, so he brought the drone back down to the optimal height and studied the forms of the children and dogs.
Owen frowned when he saw three heat signatures inside the cabin. One human form was large, similar in size to Owen’s, one form was smaller, most likely a child, and one was clearly a dog. They were all three clustered together in a corner of the cabin, and Owen could only assume it meant they shared a bed.
Well, fuck.
Kelly hadn’t mentioned Warrant keeping any of the kids inside as sequestered pets. That was before he dumped Kelly to die, leaving Shiloh defenseless. Somehow, Owen knew what he was going to find when he entered that cabin, and the idea made his stomach churn. Even if it wasn’t Shiloh, the idea of the man abusing any of the kids in that way promised to earn him a harder death. Now to sort out what this means to the changed plan. He picked up speed, traveling at a quick trot to put more distance between him and where Kelly would begin his trek. It might gain him five extra minutes, and he planned on using each of them wisely.
Well before he was ready, Owen could see the forest falling away from the road ahead, thinning and sweeping out to each side in a wide arc, making up the outer circumference of the clearing that held the cabin. Before he got any closer, he set the drone’s audio system to broadcast. Immediately, he saw the heat signatures representing the dogs stir and get to their feet, pacing back and forth in short arcs.
Kneeling next to the tiny enclosure that housed the battery array, he yanked the door open, surprised there was no lock or security in place. Of course, the presence of the wire prevented the kids from accessing it, so it made a kind of backwards sense Warrant would see no reason to lock it up. Not the sharpest crayon in the box. Owen tapped a fingertip against his chest to activate a dim light bar he’d strapped to the harness. He pulled out his jumper, positioning the alligator clips expertly and pausing only for an instant to verify his accuracy. He attached a small battery pack to one of the clips and used a custom ohm-meter to test the results. Once certain everything was in place, he disconnected the terminals from the industrial batteries one at a time, ensuring the leads were laid to the side without causing a flash or spark, and without interfering with the bypass he’d put into place. He toggled his light off, giving his eyes a chance to adjust to the dark again.
A brief glance at the dimmed tablet screen showed the dogs had done as expected, migrating away from the sound and towards the far outside edge of the fenced-in area. They would have become conditioned exactly like the children, and if anticipating pain from close proximity, probably wouldn’t encroach upon a broad swath of ground on the inside of the buried wire. Still, they’d moved towards the back of the house where the lean-to was, which put the house itself between him and them, and gave him even more protective cover against their alerting reaction. The dog’s silhouette had disappeared from the cabin, and Owen wondered if there was an access door he didn’t know about. Probably a doggy door. He dismissed the information, caring only that with the dog gone from inside, it left things wide open for him.
Moving at a crouched run, he darted through the yard and alongside Warrant’s truck, bending to pull a wide-bladed knife from a sheath strapped to his calf. Two firm thrusts of the weapon later and the truck listed steeply to one side, the passenger side tires flat and useless. Owen’s gaze went between the gray-hued screen on the tablet and the darkness ahead of him, where half a dozen children were curled into individual heaps on the cold ground. He easily identified himself, then mentally mapped his route to the cabin’s door. Reaching into the tiny pack strapped to his waist, he brought out the mask matching the one he’d worn while working the warehouse mission and pulled it on, the wide elastic strap secure around the back of his head. He didn’t like it, hadn’t liked wearing it before, because the eyeholes restricted his field of vision. But the mask had become a critical piece of the plan tonight, which meant he had to simply deal.
Still in a crouch, he took the remembered pattern of strides and sidesteps at half speed, keeping each footfall as silent as possible. On the porch, he froze in place when a board underfoot groaned loudly. One of the dogs reacted, visible via the tablet, but none of the kids even moved. They were either too well-conditioned to remain still, or all truly sleeping through the aches of the cold night.
The door opened easily under his hand, the knob twisting without resistance as Owen let himself inside. Knock, knock, motherfucker. The original plan had been to incapacitate Warrant silently, giving Kelly a chance to find and remove Shiloh from the equation. Owen peered through the darkness, seeing the pale circle of a tiny face framed by a mass of tangled hair against the covers. Long tresses didn’t mean it was Shiloh for certain, but at this point, Owen didn’t hold out hope it would be any other child.
Owen was glad Kelly hadn’t expressed any discomfort about the idea of trekking alone through the dark woods, something most kids would balk at. Knowing the boy would be walking on the rough driveway most of the way to the clearing and not through the woods proper, made it a little easier to bear. Now, Owen just had to hope Shiloh was made from the same tough stock, able to follow instructions to get her out of the cabin without losing her shit.
First up was to deal with Warrant.
Owen approached the bed, positively identified his target in the near dark, and leaned in with his hand positioned for a blood choke hold. Fingers digging into the puffy flesh of the man’s neck, he compressed the internal and external carotid arteries for a count of thirty, angling for the vagus nerve as well, to slow the man’s heartbeat. Owen wasn’t concerned with causing brain damage but wanted a minimum two-minute window to restrain and gag the man.
Warrant’s arms and legs flopped like an annoying dead weight, making it harder for Owen to wrestle the man into the position he’d planned. With the ankles secured and wrists finally tied behind the back, Owen efficiently threaded the ropes down through the footboard and up through the headboard of the bed. Snagging what looked like a dirty sock from the floor, Owen balled it up and stuffed it into Warrant’s mouth. Owen shook a chem light and snapped the plastic tube, mixing the ingredients to emit a steady but dim light. With that illumination, he found the man’s shirt hanging from the footboard and cut a strip of fabric, tying it in place around Warrant’s lower face. Pre-cut strips of tape finished the layered gag, until Owen was satisfied with his handiwork.
Leaving his mask in place, he made his way around the bed to where the little girl lay on top of the covers. Her hands were knotted together, a strip of leather wrapped tightly around her wrists and secured through a loop in her collar to the leg of the bed. The placement meant she was bent awkwardly, scarcely able to change position at all. He pulled the blade from the sheath and severed the leather strap inches above her wrists. Working quickly, he unwrapped the bindings from around her limbs, carefully chafing the skin to stimulate circulation.