Page 23 of Avenging Jessie
Spence
The world was aboutto burn, and it was up to him to stop it.
Jessie returned to the table, swiping their half-eaten breakfast aside. “We need to go. Now. Get eyes on that warehouse?—”
He cut her off. “What if it’s a trap?”
She froze, like someone had yanked a wire inside her. Her brow tightened. “You think Brewer knows we’re watching?”
He pushed back from the table and stood. “I think it’s exactly the kind of game he plays. You know him better than almost anyone, including Tessa. Is this real, or is he feeding us just enough to get us moving? To make us expose ourselves?”
She didn’t answer right away. Her jaw shifted, her fingers flexed, and she glanced at the doorway. That alone told him everything.
“He’s done it before,” Spence said, contemplating how to wrap his mind around all the ways Brewer could screw them. “Sent up a flare one place—hit the real target somewhere else.”
Jessie stared toward the window, toward something Spence couldn’t see. Maybe a memory. Maybe her own guilt. Her silence said more than any confirmation.
“Tessa never saw it coming,” he added. “None of us did. He’s led us on a royal goatfuck for over a year, starting with your and Meg’s abduction by Hagar.”
Jessie dragged in a breath through her nose. Those memories still had to trigger her, even now. Her voice was lower when she spoke again. “He’s always five steps ahead. Always watching the board from above, like he’s playing chess while we’re monkeying with checkers.”
She brought her gaze to his, tension bleeding from her shoulders. Her fight hadn’t disappeared; it had only shifted. Focus was clear in her eyes. “You’re right,” she said. “We need a plan.”
Spence didn’t let her change of heart slow him down. The moment Jessie gave that rare, quiet agreement, he was moving—fingers on the keyboard, pulling up encrypted files, spinning through images Del had tagged from the Görlitz compound.
“First things first,” he said. “We need gear. NVGs, comms, drones, thermals, surveillance cams, trackers. If we’re gonna play in his sandbox, I want to bring our own toys.”
Seemingly unable to sit still, Jessie jumped up and came around to watch him work. “And you know where to get all that?”
He gave a dry smile. “I know a guy.”
“Of course you do. You always know a guy.”
She didn’t ask questions, though, and that told him just how much her trust in the mission—and maybe him—was shifting.
“We might be on stakeout for hours or days. There’s no way to predict. I want the layout memorized. Entry points, blind spots, natural cover, possible sniper nests. We can’t just eyeball it from a hilltop.”
Jessie exhaled, clearly tamping down her instincts to move fast. “I assume you want to map exits, too.”
“Multiple,” he confirmed. “Worst case? We get spotted. We need more than one way out. A van, two bikes, fake plates, burner phones, backup IDs?—”
“Jesus, Spence.”
He paused to glance up at her. “This is Brewer. If he’s laying a trap, we can’t play this loose.”
She tilted her head, studied him. “How soon do you think before he launches the drones?”
Spence didn’t have a solid answer. He clicked open a map file, dropping a few new pins along the border of Görlitz’s industrial zone. “No idea, but if he activates them before we’re ready…” His insides churned. “We don’t get a second chance.”
Jessie moved closer to look over his shoulder. “All this stuff… this isn’t just about doing recon for more than a few hours. You’re equipping us in case we do need to go in and dismantle the drones.”
“That’s one of the contingency plans we need to prepare for.”
He reached for the manila envelope tucked into his go-bag—the one from their contact in the park. Inside was a satellite printout of the compound perimeter, hand-marked with vantage points and drainage tunnels.
“Asset said this ridge has a solid line of sight.” He pointed it out to her. “But we’ll need cover. Camouflage tarps, maybe a heat-dampening tent. Nights are cold, and I don’t want us lighting anything to stay warm.”
Jessie’s brow furrowed. “This isn’t recon. It’s war prep.”
