Drew stooped over Nami’s desk, squinting at the blueprints on her monitor. He zoomed in and out with the mouse, shaking his head and mumbling to himself.
“What is this for?” he asked.
“How would I know? I’m the queen, not the architect.”
The rest of the team slowly filed into the forensic center behind them.
Nami spun in her chair. “Come on in, guys. Don’t bother knocking or anything. It’s not like this is a secure room.”
“Now isn’t the time, Ms. Williams.” Nelson stepped beside her. “None of this matters. We’ve been shut down.”
“What?” Nami’s head snapped around as she looked up at him. One of her pigtails slapped across her cheek. “What about Ashley?”
Nelson merely shook his head.
“I don’t understand. Why are we shut down when we just lost a guy? This isn’t—”
Drew cut her off. “This is some kind of underground structure.” He jabbed a finger against the monitor. “It looks like they tied into a really big power line. Some kind of industrial grid maybe.”
“Detective Lloyd.” Nelson grimaced. “There is nothing we can do right now. We have to wait for the agents to arrive and escort us from the premises.”
Bree and Tate stood by the opposite wall, a healthy space between them.
“What am I missing here?” Nami asked. “Who is shutting us down and why?”
“Is this all there is? Just these blueprints?” Drew fumbled with the mouse.
“Don’t touch.” Nami snatched the peripheral from him and moved the cursor to the bottom of the file. “See these tabs here? That means more. Gods, I thought Ashley was the only technologically illiterate one around here.”
“What is going to happen to us?” Bree asked.
Nami swiveled in her chair. “Seriously. What the hell happened while I was in here kicking that computer’s ass?”
“I don’t know what they’re going to do.” Nelson turned back to them. “Hopefully, they’ll debrief you and send you on your way. I can’t promise that, however. President Thomas was furious.”
“What is Woodsland?” Drew asked, still ignoring the rest of their conversation.
“The adults are trying to talk here, Mr. Clean.” Nami swatted him on the hip. “Stop interrupting us when we’re speaking.”
“This says Woodsland.”
“It was an old amusement park I went to as a kid,” Bree said.
“An amusement park? Never heard of it.” Drew straightened out, still inspecting the screen. “You know anything about it? Is it still open?”
“It closed down ten years ago or so, I think. It’s in central Pennsylvania. They called it Woodsland because you had to drive deep into the forest to get there.” Bree shrugged. “We loved going there with my cousins. It was really remote for an amusement park. Probably why it closed.”
“Whoa. Whoa!” Drew spun around, looking at everyone wild-eyed. “I think we have something big here.”
“I don’t get it,” Briggs said.
He stood by the door with Huxx and Shea.
“Short Round here just recovered a file from Christie Tolbert’s laptop. We believe that file came from the thumb drive given to her by the man on the subway this morning. By the looks of it, that guy was running from Smith’s men. It’s safe to assume he actually was one of Smith’s guys who had decided to switch teams. That’s why they hunted him down and killed him.”
Drew pointed at the monitor behind him. “That file has blueprints for an underground structure with enormous electrical requirements. It also mentions an old, abandoned theme park in the middle of Bumfuck, Pennsylvania.”
Bree’s eyes widened. “Woodsland would have more than enough electrical capacity.”
“Bingo.” Drew looked down at Nami. “Find out if anyone purchased the theme park in the past few years.”
“On it.” Nami spun around and faced her computer. She brought up the Internet browser, but received an error. “The hell?”
“What?” Drew asked.
“I lost my Internet connection.”
Nelson said, “They’re likely removing our access in preparation of shutting us down.”
“Screw it.” Drew turned his focus on Nelson. “I’d bet anything that Woodsland is where Smith is. The man this morning was bringing us all the information we needed to find Smith, but they got to him first. They killed him, recovered the thumb drive, and tried to destroy Tolbert’s computer. They probably think they dodged a bullet.”
“Those pussies didn’t know you had a cyber queen on your side.” Nami beamed. “Hashtag—winning.”
No one responded for several seconds. Nami looked over her shoulder, found all of them staring at her.
“What?” she asked. “None of you has ever heard of Charlie Sheen?”
“That was like a decade ago,” Bree said.
Nami paused, her face scrunching. “Oh, crap. I’m turning into Ashley with the old-timey references.”
“It all fits,” Drew said to Nelson. “The location meets their requirements. It explains how they were able to operate in D.C., Baltimore, and Arthur’s Creek. Central Pennsylvania is within driving distance of them all.”
“Maybe.” Nelson set his jaw. “But even if we did find him, there’s nothing we can do about it. We’re shut down.”
“To hell with that. They have Ash.”
“Detective—”
“I don’t know any of you all that well, and I’m not sure I ever want to.” Tate stepped forward. “But we can’t leave a man behind. Benson screwed up by splitting off from us, but he held his own today. If we know where he is, we gotta go get him.” He looked to the three men standing by the door. “Right?”
Briggs shrugged his big shoulders. “I didn’t sign up for this gig to run back to Texas with my tail between my legs. I’m game for another ass whoopin’.”
Shea and Huxx both mumbled in agreement.
Tate didn’t ask Manning what she thought. That made Nami want to get up and punch him in the wiener. What a butt plug. But he was advocating for saving Gigantor at the moment, and she didn’t want to break that party up.
“I understand the sentiment.” Nelson held his hands out. “That doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been ordered to stand down. It’s over.”
“What would happen if we told the men coming to relieve us about Smith’s location?” Nami asked. “They’ll go and save Ashley, right?”
“Yes, but probably not in a manner you’ll find acceptable.” Nelson clenched his jaw. “Judging from the conversation I just had with President Thomas, they’ll likely blanket the area with drone strikes. Assuming the area is as remote as it sounds.”
“But what if Ashley is there?”
“I think they view the lieutenant as more of a liability now than an asset.”
Nami’s mouth dropped open. “They’ll kill Ashley?”
“We have a chopper,” Drew said. “We have men, we have guns, and we have the element of surprise. Let us go in there and pull Ash out.”
Nelson said, “We can’t just—”
“You’re right,” Drew interrupted. “They’ll kill him. If they can get Ash and Smith at the same time, they’ll do it and wipe their hands of this entire mess. If we leave now, we might be able to get him out of there before they start dropping bombs.”
Everyone watched Nelson as he mulled it over.
After several seconds, he looked around at all of them. “This is treason. You all realize that, right?”
Everyone nodded except Manning.
She fidgeted beside Tate. “What does that mean for us?”
“Could be death.” Nelson glanced at Drew. “Or they could disappear us. You willing to risk that?”
“You said it yourself,” Drew said. “They might do that to us anyway. If the clock is ticking, then I want to make one more play before the game is over. We have to try.”
“So that’s it?” Manning inspected her boots. “We either sit here and wait to be taken down or we go up there and kick some ass, then get taken down. Pretty easy decision.”
“Damn it,” Nelson mumbled. “Prep the chopper. Ms. Williams and I will get as much information on this Woodsland Park as we can. Tate, get the team ready. You have to take off before the officers from D.C. get here.”
Nami gulped. Her cute little behind couldn’t possibly survive in prison. She’d be someone’s bitch within five minutes of arriving. And beyond that, the idea of being incarcerated for the rest of her life was horrifying.
There were so many anime shows she hadn’t seen yet.
And yet, she knew she had to go along with their plan. Ashley was out there and he needed her help. They’d gone through too much together for her to abandon him now. He would owe her big time for this.
Maybe they could send each other cards from federal broom-handle-in-your-ass prison.
“We’ll hold them off as long as we can,” Nami said. “I won’t tell them shit when they get here.”
“Grab the lieutenant and then get out of there.” Nelson jabbed his finger at the floor as he spoke for emphasis. “Don’t worry about Smith, just get Benson. The bombs will likely fall once the officers figure out where you are. It won’t take them long.”