Page 88 of Montana Freedom

“Has anything changed?” I challenged him.

Things moved quickly when you had the full resources of the FBI behind you. They had satellites overhead, and the place was barely populated. The army they were afraid of wasn’t there. Every scan they ran said the same. There were only a few people in the complex, and no more were around for miles. Were there variables? Yes. There was every chance this was a trap, but we could see that if we got closer.

Either way, in my mind, the risk of going in now was lower than waiting, because my goal wasn’t Simon. It was Emma.

Phillips stared at me, and I knew he didn’t want to give the answer. “No. Nothing’s changed.”

“You don’t have the power to stop me,” I said, voice low.

“I could arrest you.”

“You and the cavalry that’s not here yet?”

“Daniel—”

I shook my head. “Wait here if you want. I’m not.”

“You can’t do that.”

Turning around and heading toward my men, I simply said, “Watch me.”

The guys were clustered together, watching me approach. “Do you guys feel comfortable, given what we know?”

“To go in?” Liam asked.

“Yeah. It’s going to take another thirty minutes for the troops to get here, and that doesn’t include all the staging they’ll want to do.”

Noah shook his head slowly. “This is Simon we’re talking about, Daniel. If we do this, we have to be careful. You know as well as I do, he already knows we’re coming. He’s not stupid.”

“I know. Which is why I’m asking you guys. Is there truly a possibility Simon has an army stashed out here someplace we don’t know?”

“Unlikely,” Harlan said. “Those buildings are old. If they have a basement, it wouldn’t be deep enough to avoid the infrared. And Simon is lying low. This isn’t his main base of operations. He’s not going to sink money into creating a bunker. If anything, he picked this place so that it can get destroyed.”

“That’s what I’m thinking. At the very least, I want to get closer to see what’s going on.”

“Daniel.” I clenched my jaw and turned to meet Phillips.

“Yes?”

“Come on, I want to show you something.”

For a long second, I hesitated, and then I followed him. He passed me a tablet lit up with plans for the buildings on it. “They found these. If everything is the same, the switch for the power is here. Only three entrances make for an easy breach with the seven of us.”

“The seven of us?”

“Seattle has been moving fast and expediting because they know what’s at stake, and everyone is still on their way. But DC got wind, and they’re losing their shit over Jones. There’s about to be sixty times more red tape, and I already told you how I feel about bureaucracy. But I’m not letting Simon Derine escape because people who weren’t in the field decided to argue too long.”

I nodded, relieved. “Thank you.”

Waving everyone over, we crafted the plan. Get closer, use the earpieces we’d picked up from the ranch to communicate. It was dark now, so we’d be using night vision. The goal was simple. The satellites told us only five or six people were in the buildings. If one was Emma, that was all we needed.

Our job was to get in, grab Emma and Simon—alive, if possible—and get out. This was risky. Simon always had a backup plan, and we didn’t know what it was. We had darts but not many. Real bullets would have to do if we ran out.

But even with the risks, he had to know we were coming. If he ran, he ran with Emma or killed her. Not only did we lose her, we lost our chance to catch a truly terrible criminal.

The odds weren’t in our favor, but I still felt calm.

In less than ten minutes, we were moving, fanning out in the dark and jogging down the road toward the buildings. I saw nothing. No visible defenses, no signs of cameras.

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