Page 55 of No Going Back

Tyler moved to the next window, but he still could not see where the light was coming from. A few steps further, he came to a door. Locked. Diving into his backpack, he located the lockpick. Whoever had done the security here had done a piss-poor job. Special Operators? Jeez, where the hell had they trained? He had the door open in seconds. Everything was quiet. He’d just peer inside. If he couldn’t see what it was, he’d call for back up. Tyler crept inside, making his way toward the light coming from under another door. He put his ear to it but heard nothing. Trying the door, he found that too was locked.

“One?” Tyler whispered into coms.

No response. Tyler tapped his coms, trying again. Shit, there must be a scrambler or something disrupting the signal. He stepped back outside the door and tried again, still nothing. He had six minutes until the chopper dropped the Zodiac. He needed to be in the water by then. He had no time to go back and call for back up and also find out what was in the room.

Going back to the door, he listened. Everything was quiet. Making a decision, he knelt. This lock took a little longer, but it finally gave. He opened it a fraction, but still nothing tripped or moved. Cautiously, with his weapon raised, he stepped inside some kind of computer room. The light he’d spotted came from a monitor screen. The whole room was still powered. Whatever was on these servers was important enough to have its own backup generator.

Scanning the room, his eyes stopped on a small metal cage in the corner. Bingo, there were three small hard drives secured inside. Oh yeah, whatever was on these was important to Gomez. Could be details of his whole operation. Wouldn’t CIA love that?

Tyler studied the cage. One padlock on the front. Not exactly the best security, but not surprising after the easy locks he’d just picked. Picking the padlock would take too long. He was running out of time fast. Grabbing cutters from his pack, he paused. There was a chance that when he opened this cage it could set off an alarm. He couldn’t see any wires or anything, but that didn’t mean there wasn't something underneath or hidden. He could put the rest of the team at further risk. But these drives could contain information that could help take down everyone Gomez did business with, in turn saving hundreds of lives. It seemed like a risk he should take.

Making the decision he cut the padlock.

***

SAM AND MIRA WATCHED the aerial view of the house on satellite. The clouds had cleared somewhat, but their visibility was still reduced. They’d seen the team get in position but lost sight of them soon after.

Mira’s hands were sweating. Christ, she’d worked coms like this dozens of times since joining Onyx, but tonight, everything felt different. Tyler was out there somewhere, in the dark, risking his life. It was no different from any other mission, yet Mira felt sick and was trying her best to hide it from Sam. How the hell did Kelly do this with Dex in the field? She was always so calm and professional, seeming unfazed by the danger. On the outside, at least. Perhaps, she was terrified inside and just hid it well. But she appeared to keep it together, totally confident her man and the team would come home. Mira was going to have to work on that.

Why? You’re not in a relationship with him, Mira. Stop worrying.

No, they weren't in a relationship, but that didn’t mean she didn’t care. It wasn’t just about caring. Tyler was dealing with something personally, and that made her concerned about his focus. Yeah, the boys could switch it off. They were taught that way. But last night, she’d seen for herself just how bad he was hurting. Was it really that easy for him to switch that off?

“Any chatter?” Sam asked.

“No, nothing. I’m not convinced that Gomez doesn’t have a backup plan. Cutting the power might have triggered an alarm to somewhere on the outside. Like you said, these guys are professional.” Mira continued to scan the area, looking for any sign of vehicles heading toward the house. She saw only one road in, along the shoreline. If a car turned on that road, there was only one place it was going.

“I agree with you, that’s why the team knows they have to be back in the water in” —Sam glanced at his watch — “six minutes.”

“Right.” Mira tried to keep the nervous edge out of her voice. Tyler hadn’t checked back in yet. “I know the team’s got this. Just seems a little easy. I feel like we’re missing something.”

“Not like you to doubt yourself. People like Gomez get complacent, believe they’re untouchable. He’s a big deal in Guatemala, people fear him, he has authorities on his payroll,” Sam said. “He’d never believe anyone would be brave enough to do what the team are doing. Raven have this.”

“Target secure. Zodiac?” Dex’s voice interrupted them.

“Three minutes,” Mira confirmed, feeling a little better, knowing they were almost done.

“Copy that. Four, sit rep?” Dex asked.

“Everything’s clear. No word from five, could be bad coms, haven’t heard any noise,” Donnie replied.

“Five, come in?”

The silence was deafeningly loud

“Five, come in,” Dex repeated. Nothing.

Mira stared at the screen. Some gaps in the cloud meant she could see the team coming back into view as they began to rendezvous at the beach. But it was difficult to make them all out.

“Tyler, check in,” Mackie’s voice held urgency. Still no response.

“Continue to exfil, team.” Dex’s voice was firm.

Mira looked at Sam. “They can’t just leave him there. What if he’s hurt?” God, the thought that something had happened to Tyler, that he might be injured or worse. She struggled to keep the panic out of her voice. Sam looked at her questioningly. Shit, it was not her place to question the team leader on an op. He was the one in the field and would make the call. That’s how they worked.

“Sorry,” she mumbled and focused her eyes back on the screen. The damn clouds were still not clearing. She cared about everyone at Onyx. But, dammit, everything had changed with Tyler. What if he’d been distracted and got in trouble? There was nothing alarming on screen and no chatter, but the uneasy feeling in her gut wouldn’t go away. Something had happened to him, and this damn op wasn’t over yet.

“Mira, can we widen the view at all? I want to see if there’s any movement anywhere close to the property.”

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