Page 28 of The Madman's Nightmare
Devlin
Returning to the conference room, I saw Aubrey had the video paused at the very beginning as she leaned over, looking at something Regan had on her screen. They looked up at me as James, Lucian, and I too our seats.
Aubrey sat down and began to explain. “Something about the video wasn’t right the first time I saw it and I think it was the shock of seeing something so . . .” She shook her head and continued, “But watching it a second time, I started to notice a few things.” Playing the video without any volume, she paused it again just before the unknown person’s fist connected with Elise’s jaw. Standing, she sent the video to the large screen at the front of the room and pointed at the screen. “If you see here, right before the person connects with Elise, the fist changes.” She nodded and Regan reached over and pressed play before stopping it almost instantly. The video showed Elise’s head snapping to the side as the fist is in mid-air. “See, right here, he has six fingers.” Another nod and the video played for four seconds then stopped, “And here, there are no fingernails on this finger that were there in the last screen.”
Regan backed the video up to the beginning and Regan pointed to the two instances she was referring to. I leaned forward, trying not to focus on what the screen was showing, but the inconstancies of what appeared.
Six other times, she paused the video and pointed to something that was wrong with the image. Just before the video showed Elise begin stabbed in the chest, feeling my heartbeating erratically, she paused it for the last time and pointed to the screen one last time. “Here, you can see the blade edge is facing up and without shifting their hand, the blade edge is on the bottom on the next frame.”
She looked at me and stated with confidence. “This video has all the hallmarks of a bad AI video, and I think if we ran it through any system, it would agree.”
Standing from my seat, I walked up to an unsure Aubrey and pulled her into a bruising hug, knowing her skilled eyes just saved Elise, and me.
She patted me on the back, and I stepped back, looking at Regan, then her husband, Rhys. “I’m taking the house. My gut says this is those fucking siblings and, in my heart, I think it’s the place to start.”
Rhys stood and replied, “Let’s get moving.”
Skid stood and spoke, “I’m coming with you, so I think we need to double security on the building, and I want Gunner and Sadie to take Elise’s folks and the boys back to the Death Hounds compound. No one can get to them with my brothers protecting them.”
I gave him a nod. “Make the call and meet us in the armory.”
We took the servers and moved them off sight due to the heat they put off into the building. The second floor was now an armory, even though we didn’t use it that often. Skid followed us into the hallway and he stopped to call Gunner while Lucian, James, Rhys and I walked down the stairs to the second floor.
I used my handprint before punching in a long and complicated code into the keypad, opening the door to my personal war room. Inside the lights cam e on with movement and I heard a whistle coming from Rhys as he took in what I kept for protection.
“Is that a sniper rifle?” Lucian asked and walked over to the long gun hanging in the case behind the cage.
I walked over to the uniform locker and opened it before glancing over my shoulder at what he was looking at. “It’s one of two, but it’s hard to get a good line of sight to focus the scope, so it may be as much as half an inch off of dead center.”
“Fuck me,” Rhys said as I pulled out my standard black pants, shirt, and boots before stepping to the side and letting James grab his gear. “Why do you have hand grenades?”
I smirked at him and said, “The same reason I have claymore minds.” He gave me a confuse look so I tacked on, “Because I can.”
Lucian and Rhys stepped up and James assisted them in finding clothes that would fit as Skid walked into the room. He had his own locker with the weapons he preferred, as well as his covert uniform. It was one of the rare times I’d ever seen him remove his cut. Carefully, he hung it up in the locker before removing his shirt, pants, and boots to swap for his street clothes.
As he got dressed, he explained, “Chuck and Blaire didn’t want to move the boys since they were asleep, but once I explained where we were going and why they needed to be moved, they loaded up and Gunner and Jackal are flanking them on the drive over to the compound.”
“Thanks, brother,” I replied, and he gave me a nod as he began to strap guns, clips, and two huge knives to his body.
Rhys, Lucian, and James were each arming themselves as I pushed the last five clips into my belt holder. Walking over to the com’s locker, I opened it, checked the earpieces, and began to hand them out before giving everyone their throat mics.
When we were all strapped up and ready to go into battle to retrieve my wife, I met each of the men’s eyes and made a brief statement. “Thank you for this. I don’t know how I can repay you for helping, but I will find a way.”
James smacked me on my uninjured shoulder and replied, “We’re family and that’s what family does.”
The other men nodded in agreement and if I was an overly emotional man, I would probably cry, but they’d seen that already and now, it was time to go to war. Walking to the door, I looked over my shoulder and remarked, “Let’s get my wife back.”
Without turning back, I walked out of the armory and down to the lobby. My security was waiting for us and when they offered to join us, I shook my head and directed them to stay and keep Amaya and Elizabeth, James’s daughter safe.
“There is an SUV parked in the lot of the lake and Preston has opened the gate for us to enter the private land side,” James instructed and we walked across the darkened street and into the deserted parking lot of Pierce Lake.
James got behind the steering wheel and I got in beside him as Rhys, Lucian, and Skid climbed into the back. It was unfamiliar to go into battle with such a small group of men, but the element of surprise was what we were going for, so I hoped we had enough people to get the job done.
As James turned the vehicle onto the walking path, I scanned the area, looking for anything out of the ordinary. As we reached the far edge of the public part of Pierce Lake, I saw Preston standing at the large gate that separated the public from the private. As James drove through, I gave Preston a chin lift, and he returned the gesture as James began to drive farther into the private parts of Pierce Lake.
There were six houses that were part of the land trust, and another home that Was built on the edge of the property, but wasn’t part of the trust. We drove past the first three houses, and when we got to the fourth house, Amaya’s grandmother, Eleanor, was standing at the edge of her driveway with her hand resting on her heart. Her small gesture wasn’t expected, and as we drove past, I lifted my hand to her in thanks.
Preston’s house was fifth in the line of old, expensive home, and the last house was starting to come into view. This was Preston’s cousin’s, and I saw the father loading his wife and two kids into their vehicle as we drove past. He raised a fist in the air before he got behind the wheel, and I looked into the rear-view mirror to see them turn in the opposite direction, away from the isolated house outside the land trust area.
