Page 36 of Danger Close
And that smile—
That smile.
It hit Ricky like a sucker punch to the chest.
She didn’t look scared.She didn’t look hurt.But she looked wary.Like she knew that every movement she made was monitored.Controlled.
He swallowed hard.
“Target in sight,” he said, voice flat and low.“Visual confirmation—Sophia located.She’s here.She’s alive.”
He felt it in his chest—that sharp click of mission and meaning locking into place.
Now it was real.
Now it began.
****
The hotel room smelledlike cold coffee, hot wires, and twenty-four hours of held breath.
Every surface was stacked with tech—laptops, signal boosters, makeshift jammers, and two oversized monitors running grainy CCTV feeds of the compound Ricky had just walked into.Marsh sat at a chipped wooden table in the corner, fingers flying over a keyboard like he was defusing a bomb.Hogan stood behind him, arms folded, one foot tapping out an anxious rhythm against the peeling tile floor.
Ezra paced.
Back and forth.Back and forth.
His palms itched.His chest ached.
The room was thick with tension.The kind that didn’t just sit—it clung.Like static before a lightning strike.
And then—
“Target in sight.”
Ezra froze.
Ricky’s voice crackled through the comms, low and composed.Too composed.But Ezra knew him—knew that clipped tone meant his heart was racing.
“Visual confirmation—Sophia located.She’s here.She’s alive.”
Time stopped.And then—
Everything snapped into motion.
Marsh let out a low whistle and sat back on his heels.“Hot damn.That’s a lock.”
Hogan swore under his breath.“She’s alive.”
Bateman stood from the makeshift ops table and grabbed the nearest map, eyes blazing.“We’ve got our confirmation.That changes everything.”
The tension in the room didn’t vanish—it transformed.From coiled fear into something sharper.Focused.Hopeful.
Ezra exhaled for the first time in what felt like hours, dropping into a battered hotel chair like his legs had given out.
Sophia was alive.
They had her.
