Page 55 of Assassin's Prey
I smiled. The reflection I caught in my brother’s eye looked more predator than pleased.
“I knew you’d come in handy sometime,” Remi joked.
“Damn straight.” Eli bumped fists with him.
By morning we had a workable plan, but I decided to hold off for what little cover darkness could provide us. We hit the sack, but when I closed my eyes, all I could see on the backs of my eyelids was the replay of the fireball that had consumed my world mere hours ago. I couldn’t rest but instead lay for hours, the swoosh of my heart louder in my ears with every passing moment.
Bit by bit I replaced the memory of losing Abby with a movie of our plan, going over every step so often I knew each action would be automatic, no hesitation. My revenge played out on the screen of my mind, and it always ended the same way: Redding dead. Chadwick dead. Anyone who stood between me and them, dead.
I wouldn’t stop until the movie became real life.
Two hours after dark we sat in a black van a mile from Hacr’s front entrance.
“Go over it again,” I told Eli.
He sighed like I was doubting his ability—I wasn’t—but went over everything again. “Night staff is limited, and most security personnel is focused on the other buildings at night—where the good stuff is. We’ll reduce the risk of legit personnel being hit if I take security off-line zone by zone.”
“Buildings,” I demanded.
“This one”—he pointed to the map in front of him, at a building near the front of the complex—“is the one we need. Mostly offices, conference rooms, supply areas. Mail. The rest of the buildings are labs and research facilities. This one’s a garage,” he said, pointing again. “Security and logistics here.” Indicating the top floor of the executive office building where a small apartment had been built, he said, “Redding is likely here.
“The most important things in this building are the computers, and those are primarily monitored electronically and with alarms to protect against building intrusion.”
“Redding wouldn’t want his legitimate staff exposed to Rathlin’s men,” Remi said. “There’s no way to pass them off as legitimate hires.”
“Redding has pulled most of his legit security staff to other areas, leaving Rathlin’s men with free rein in the executive building. Probably passing it off as extra protection for some kind of personal threat.”
“He’s not lying,” Remi pointed out.
“No,” I said, “but it won’t help him.” I nodded at Eli’s screen. “How many bodies we looking at?”
He switched to a screen with red dots lit up over the blueprints of the building. “Maybe thirty, forty. Mostly on the top two floors. Scattered otherwise.”
I grunted. “All right. You have the security zones timed to cut out?”
Eli tapped a couple of buttons, and a green bar highlighting the wordActivatedflashed across the middle of the screen. “Yep.” He closed the lid on his laptop, keyed in a code on a small panel strapped to his wrist, and a miniature version of his screen appeared. “Ready. Let’s lock and load.”
Five minutes later we were headed toward the backside of the compound. It took less than thirty seconds to get the three of us through the fence.
“Thank God there are no dogs,” Remi muttered as we loped through the trees toward the cleared area around the buildings.
“Right. Wouldn’t want to see that lily-white ass of yours again.” Eli chuckled. So did I, remembering the time as teens when a literal junkyard dog had caught the seat of Remi’s pants as he jumped a fence.
Remi flipped us a bird.
Our quiet laughter died down when we reach the clearing. “Eli?” I asked.
Quiet tapping told me he was at work on the next phase of our plan.
“Go.”
Even with the cameras on this side of the compound running recorded footage of the last five minutes, we kept low and quiet as we rushed toward the back entrance of the building we needed. Though we were already on the property, this sprint was like heading for the starting line. Once we hit that door, the fight was truly on. We would encounter resistance, we knew it, but I wasn’t worried for me. My brothers might know what was at stake, even be willing to risk it, but I’d do everything in my power to keep them safe.
We reached the door.
The plan was to incapacitate as many men on the bottom three floors as we could, lessening the risk of being flanked later on, when we least expected it. We started in the basement locker rooms. At the first door I gestured Eli forward, let him do his magic on the electronic keypad. When the door clicked open, I took the left and Remi and Eli took the right.
Hugging the wall, I crept along the farthest row of lockers. Ahead, steam billowed out of the shower area. Slick skin could be hard to get a grip on, but I didn’t need to—I’d brought dart guns. The ketamine injections would hurt, but only for a few seconds. Then it was nighty-night time.
