I watched Pimm as he painstakingly separated wires, reattaching them just as carefully.
“That’s it,” he said, looking up at me. “You’re in.”
“You’re sure?”
Pimm had reprogrammed the device’s detonation protocol so it neither alerted a system failure nor a parameter breach. As far as Matthew Caird knew, everything was working the way he’d initially set it up.
“It’s the same way the house in California was wired. Two parameters, although the first was simply an alert. It’s the second that was intended to trigger the detonation.”
“Didn’t you say that bomb was programmed to detonate at three in the morning?”
“Only as a backup.”
“What do you mean?”
“When Losha stepped over the threshold of the stairwell, the device should have detonated.”
“Jesus, it was a mistake?”
“I’m afraid so, sir.”
I thought back to the way I’d walked the cottage on Butler Ranch, checking each entrance, all the windows, and finally, the basement. I hadn’t done so at the beach house. “He expected me to stay. I was supposed to be the one who crossed the second parameter.”
Pimm nodded.
“Shiv? Are you ready?” asked Wilder.
“Radios?”
“Affirmative,” said Pinch, handing me a headset.
“Is the communication system functional?”
“Completely.”
Rivet had delivered more than I’d asked for, and while I appreciated it, whether I could forgive the man for his lies by omission, remained to be seen. If I had to make a decision today, I wouldn’t just leave MI6 and SIS; I fully intended to leave the UK entirely—once Losha, Kazmir, and Darrow were safe, and Matthew Caird was either apprehended or dead. Admittedly, I’d prefer the latter.
I looked into Pimm’s eyes and put my hand on the man’s shoulder. “My son is in there.”
Pimm nodded. “Go get him.”
We’d agreed that Pinch would go in through the basement, Wilder would stand at the ready near the front door, and I would gain access through the back door of the house.
At my signal, Pinch would cut the main power from the electrical box in the basement and the lights would go out. At that point, I would be close enough to take the man down, neutralizing him by whatever means necessary.
All three of us activated our night vision devices and waited for me to give the signal to go.
I took a deep breath, knowing this was the single-most important op of my life. Nothing that had come before and nothing that might come after would ever be of equal measure to saving the lives of my child, the woman who held my heart, and my sister.
With a nod of my head, we each went in a different direction. In less than a minute, I was inside, listening to my sister tell the man who threatened all their lives that the estate he claimed as his rightful inheritance would soon belong to the crown. Her voice sounded confident and condescending, rattling the man just enough to distract him.
I crept through the mudroom and kitchen, like the ghost I was known to be. I stopped less than five feet from Caird, who had no idea I was within killing range.
I pressed a button on the headset, which sent the message to Pinch to kill the house’s power.