Page 19 of The Last Strike

“Copy. That’s good to know,” he said sincerely. James Thomas had a remarkable way of keeping his ego in check. He wasn’t above hearing ideas or getting intel from various sources. He used everything at his disposal, and Abi thought that was a key reason he was still alive today.

As the footage grew darker, Abi’s anticipation rose. James would only have one chance at this rescue.

Either they were coming home with Reed, or not coming home at all.

Asher

Asher drew a deep breath as the screen went black and then switched to the camera in James’s night-vision goggles.

“James, move into position,”Samuel said.

Asher’s heart felt like an erratic ping-pong ball bouncing around in his chest as he looked at the screen like he was watching a train wreck. He couldn’t look, and he couldn’t look away.

“Copy,”James said. The footage bounced as James ran, his strides seemingly calm and measured.

“Two minutes,”Samuel said.

“Copy,”James replied, his voice steady, focused.

Asher’s eyes darted to Jesse, who sat opposite him, looking at the same footage on another screen.

He, too, looked focused, but not concerned—not yet anyway.

It wasn’t that Asher didn’t have faith in Thomas Security, he just felt helpless and out of control. There was little—if anything—he could add to help them or to ensure this ran smoothly, and he hated that.

The palace walls came into view and Asher thought it was a good sign he’d gotten so close that quickly. Asher expected King Khalil to be on high alert since Reed’s supposed death.

“In position,”James said.

Asher’s heart rate spiked.

“Three, two, one!”Samuel said as the lights of the palace shut down and the sound of an explosion followed.

Samuel, working with James’s men, had managed to shut down an entire electrical grid, and the explosion was for distraction purposes only. James’s men had used it as a diversion—so Adani soldiers would go running off to find out what was going on. It was the same tactic Reed had used, but it remained an effective one because Khalil couldn’t afford to ignore it. They would have to investigate and by the time they realized it had been yet another distraction, James and Reed should be out—just in time for the final explosion.

From James’s position at the base of the wall, Asher could hear the sound of the Adani soldiers yelling in confusion via James’s earpiece, which was on speaker in the office.

“Moving to position two,”James said as he ran along the base of the wall, securing a black square on the wall every yard he ran.

Asher smiled. So far so good.

“Copy,”Samuel said as a map with a green dot flashed up on Asher’s screen beside the footage window.

The sound of the Adani men grew closer, and as James looked up and his camera shifted with his body, Asher realized they were right above him. James paused, but the Adani men kept running along the wall, completely unaware of the predator a few feet below.

James stopped, pulled on a pair of gloves, then began scaling the wall like Spiderman. The gloves secured onto the bricks, giving him a tension point. Within seconds, he was at the top. A third window of footage flashed up on Asher’s screen: the camera James was using to look on top of the wall. An Adani soldier ran right past it—which of course he couldn’t see in the dark—then James jumped up and onto the wall.

“Move in!”James commanded as he sprinted forward. He caught up to the Adani soldier, who was likely running much slower than usual due to the lack of visibility. Thanks to James’s night-vision goggles, he didn’t have that same problem. He fired two shots in the man’s back and hurdled over the soldier as he fell to the ground. In a ruthless, yet expected move, James kicked the man off the wall and his body fell outside the castle walls—out of view.

James’s team moved in behind him. They were instructed to stay on the wall of the palace and only enter if James issued a distress call. They had discussed this exact strategy for Reed’s mission, but had deemed it too much of a risk because the goal had been for Reed to slip in and out completely unseen, and a team would only attract more attention. But now that they’d lost the element of surprise—and Reed—the team had been approved.

“In position,”a man’s voice confirmed.

Asher exhaled with relief. James was almost inside, and his team was on the wall.

Asher returned his attention to James’s camera as James entered the watchtower. Men ran and yelled as another explosion echoed through the night.

James seemed to slip through the chaos like a ghost. He stuck to the back walls where no one could see him moving, but as they entered the palace, he had to be more careful.

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