iii.

The first order of business was to see to our own security. Marcos and I roved the neighborhood, checked the street, the cafes, the shops, the parking lots for anyone or anything out of place.

Not a sign.

That worried me. Where were they? They’d launched a shot with the police report, but that was no serious attempt. They were waiting to see what I was going to do. But how would they know if they weren’t watching? They were waiting for me to come to them. That would fit with Miss Emerald. She knew I wouldn’t just leave the others there. She knew I’d be back. That angered me. And I wondered what else they’d expect me to do.

When we returned to the house, Ryan wasn’t happy. “I should go with you. You know I can drive, I can do that.”

“Your first line of duty is to Sarah,” I said. “You have to watch over her. And you’ll be watching our backs here. Somebody has to be here.”

Ryan looked to me, then Marcos, then Sarah.

“We can’t take her with us,” I said. “We need you here.”

“Okay,” he said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Keep that shotgun, for one,” I said. “You look handy with it.”

I was gladdened by his smile. Sarah laid her hands on his shoulders and he reached up and patted her hands.

“I’m glad you’ll be here with me,” she said.

I took Marcos and Rake into my study and opened my safe. Marcos shook his head in disbelief.

“You sure pack heavy for a travel writer,” Marcos said.

Rake picked up an MP-5SD suppressed submachine gun and ran his hand over it. “I haven’t shot one of these in a long time.”

“They armed you?” I said.

“We were forward deployed and fully operational, Frank. We had special operators whose sole job was to take care of us while we viewed, but we had to prepared to take care of ourselves if they were engaged.”

“You did search and rescue too?”

“Just like this.”

“How come you left, Rake?” Marcos said.

Rake shrugged and looked at me. “I got tired of the way things were done. Got tired of lying to people, pretending to be something I wasn’t. Out here, I hang my shingle, I deal with people who believe and pay me well for being just what I am.”

He studied my reaction carefully.

“Where did you get all these guns, Frank?” Marcos said. “What the hell are you into?”

I handed him a M-4 carbine. “Remember how to use this?”

“I’ll never forget that,” Marcos said. “You going to answer me?”

“I haven’t always been a travel writer.”

“What are you now?”

“In between the military and the civilian world.”

“Quit fucking around.”

“I’m a spook.”

“That’s just fucking great,” Marcos said. “A military psychic and a spook with a safe full of automatic weapons. And we’re going to go out and break every law in the books? Are you official?”

“You really want to get into it?” I said.

“No,” Marcos said. “I don’t. Can you bring any official heat on these people?”

“My people don’t even know I’m involved. If they found out…”

“I don’t want to know,” Marcos said. He set the rifle down on the bed and clapped his hands to his ears. “Don’t tell me a fucking thing.”

We laughed. Marcos shook his head, then picked up the rifle.

“You got magazines and ammo for this, or do I just go bang bang?” he said.

I pulled a trunk out of the closet. Inside was a variety of tactical gear. I handed him an Eagle Industries chest pouch that held nine empty magazines. “There’s a case of .223 under the bed.”

“There’s a case of .223 under the bed?” Marcos said. “Man, you don’t fuck around when you come out of the closet.”

Rake checked the action on the MP-5. “What have you got for this?”

I threw him a thigh carrier that held three thirty-round magazines.

“Guns alone won’t get us in there,” Rake said. “What’s the plan, Frank?”

“Keep it simple,” I said. “We go out there, recon the house, work our way to the door, make entry. We take out anybody that gets in our way. If they fight, we put them down. They give up, we tape them up and leave them. We break the cell doors…”

“With what?” Marcos said. “We can’t just hammer them open.”

“With these,” I said. I pulled out a wooden crate from the bottom of my safe and eased the top open. Nestled in foam were narrow strips of explosive.

“Door charges? You’ve got lock cutters?” Marcos said.

“Never know what you might need in this neighborhood,” I said.

“The liberals and the yuppies would run for their lives,” Marcos said. “Maybe we should let them know.”

“We’ve got the equipment,” I said. “And we’ll keep it simple. Get there, get in, get to the cells, bust the cells, take the people out, retreat to our rally point, pick up our vehicle and go.”

“That’s a big mission for three men,” Rake said.

“That’s all we’ve got,” I said.

“We could use Ryan on the wheel,” Rake said.

“No. Somebody has to stay here with Sarah.”

“What if they do come?” Rake said in a low voice. “Do you really think Ryan is going to slow them down?” He looked down the hall at the closed door of their bedroom.

“He’s got a point,” Marcos said. “We take them with us, at least we’ll know they’re okay. And we’re going to need two vehicles anyway. You got Luella, the kid, the man in the other cell, that other girl…maybe more. We could pick up two mini-vans. Ryan and Sarah could drive them.”

I didn’t like the thought of those two so far forward. But in this fight, where was forward? They knew where I lived, knew my vulnerability to be the people who were here. It made better sense to take them with us.

“You’re right,” I said. “They can drive and wait for us. That will work. Bring them in here.”

Marcos nodded. “They’ve earned a seat at the table, mano. I’ll get them.”

He went down the hall and brought them back. Sarah and Ryan were holding hands, looking eager, a little scared.

“Marcos tell you what we need?” I said.

“Yes,” Ryan said. “We want to help.”

“Sarah?” I said.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” she said. “I’m here for all of you.”

“So it’s settled then,” I said. I looked at my team. “Let’s do this.”