Page 16 of Remade

He made a noise and narrowed his eyes up at me. “I’ve grown to like pup. Stick with the classics. Or, you know, the new hit—baby. That may be a favorite.”

I grinned and spun him around. “I’ve grown to like pup too. March.”

“Aye, sir!”

On the way back, I switched on comms again and went to the main line where the perimeter watch and Coach listened in. “Slater and Green from perimeter watch, get back to camp. Briefing in ten. Out.”

Leighton turned back to me. “How many are out there? I thought we only had… Never mind. Crew and Ryan flew in too…”

I nodded. “People have been coming and going all day, but we’re at fourteen now, including you.”

I bet he was curious to find out if he was going to take an active part in this unit or not.

He’d find out soon.

Once we were back at the camp, I talked to Coach while we waited for Slater and Green to show up. For the first time today, shit was running smoothly, and things were falling into place. The Feds were waiting for our signal, ready to take care of the drug crew’s other location. Where the immigrant workers had been held. They expected minimal pushback. The other locations in Fredericksburg were cleared too, with the exception of my brother’s place. They were there now.

Sixteen drones at our disposal. I nodded and made a mental note, and Coach moved on to give me an update on the latest details they’d found for this property. Permits all in order for the bunker, but the public records—the building plans—didn’t reflect reality. Squeezy had found the electrical blueprints and plumbing plans that revealed an expansion of the bunker. In other words, they were more accurate.

“I made a rough sketch of what we think the bunker looks like.” Coach pulled out a notepad from his back pocket, and I positioned myself next to him.

This was good. The entry was along the short end of the rectangular-shaped bunker, which meant we wouldn’t be entering in the center. Going in through the center would entail splitting up to cover more angles.

Past the downhill driveway was an underground parking area; he said it was big enough for four or five vehicles. And since the vehicles had turned back earlier, we could expect them to be there. Objects to hide behind, if nothing else.

Smoke grenades were out, because they would just delay our entry without causing any problems for the enemies.

“Then we have this wall here.” He pointed at the wall I assumed separated the outdoors from the indoors. “It’s relatively thin, indicating they haven’t invested in reinforced steel doors or anything like that. We have the tools to get through the wall if we can’t shoot the hinges off the doors.”

I nodded along, eyeing what came after. The bunker was essentially one room after another, in a neat row. Three exceptions—presumably bathrooms, based on the plumbing.

There was no way of knowing how these rooms were designed—what kind of security setup they had—but we did have our experience to fall back on. Drug distribution on this scale…? If they cut the coke on-site, we could expect that to happen in the back. Storage room, area for sorting and packing…

I rubbed my forehead. “There’s no kitchen. No second exit, no chimney.” To remain under the radar, obviously. No smoke, probably bad ventilation. No building inspector would ever approve this construction, but I guessed that didn’t matter when you didn’t ask for permission. My guess? They’d had a perfectly modern, quirky, million-dollar idea at first, including more entry points and a nice kitchen. All that. They got that shit approved, and throw in some bribes, and they were free to go their own way.

“Are all walls thin?” I asked.

“Based on where the sockets are placed on the blueprints, yes,” he confirmed. “Concrete all the way through, wethink, for obvious reasons since they’re underground, and no structural security.”

That settled it. I nodded and drummed my fingers over my lips. If this turned out to be true, their security came in the form of weapons.

“I don’t think interrogating the Mexicans will provide more details either,” he continued.

I agreed. They’d probably never been here. The Feds, however, would be interested in hearing what they had to say.

“Are tunnels ruled out?” I asked.

It put me on edge when others were so dumb that it was nearly impossible to underestimate them. You didn’t get rich on your drug route if you didn’t have protocols in place for whenshit went sideways—like it had today. Those two street soldiers had literally guided us all the way here when they’d had Coach and Leighton in the back of that van. Any hustler worth his salt would’ve taken them someplace secluded, tried to disarm and fight them, made sure they didn’t have phones on them, andthencome here. With two hostages, to boot.

Nobody was that stupid. They even knew they were dealing with Hillcroft people. Coach and Leighton had chased them all the way from our building.

“Never entirely, but considering the neighbors…” Coach glanced around us. “The area ain’t that big before civilization takes over. We have a couple family-run farms, a country club, and a gun club nearby.”

The latter was convenient. Nobody had reported gunshots here today.

“How much of the forest do the Hahns own?”

“A few acres in every direction past the clearing,” he replied. “Hold on. Last update from Hyatt.” He turned away and switched on his comms. “Say again, Hyatt.”

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