52

Agent Coal touched her glasses stem. “Did you get the video?”

“I did,” the Chief replied. “The building is destroyed?”

“All the buildings are destroyed. TYL has been leveled. Dust and ashes.”

“Guess you won’t be needing those grappling hooks. And the girls?”

“We’ve detected some minor indications. A few of the lucky ones may have survived. I don’t think there will be many.”

“How long until help arrives?”

She monitored a police band frequency. “To an island? At least half an hour. Probably more.”

“And when they investigate…”

“They’ll discover that a gas main burst. We’re working on that now. Even if they are resourceful enough to scan for traces of explosives, they won’t find any.”

“Excellent. I’m impressed at how well you’ve dealt with the surprises.”

“Responding to the unforeseeable is part of every field op.”

“And you still have much work to do. I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you. I’ll deploy the soldiers for cleanup and acquisition.”

“We can’t have any more snafus. No ugly gossip seeping out. No mistakes. You must achieve your mission objective.”

“I plan to do so.”

“And you understand what that means?”

“No one left behind.”

“Precisely.”