Code Name: Aries by Janie Crouch

36

Ian

We didn’t wait. As soon as we confirmed the location of the building Wavy had drawn, we put plans into motion. We were making our move tonight.

Normally, I would have waited. I would have gathered intel to amass every possible tactical advantage I could get. But now, I had to balance those potential advantages with the element of surprise.

And that I really, really wanted to take that fucker down.

Erick Huen thought he was untouchable. We were about to show him otherwise.

I’d been prepared to fight Callum, thinking he’d want to send in his own law enforcement team. But he’d surprised me by only insisting he come with my team unofficially. That was good because I was not waiting for official channels to move on this. We also got Finn Bollinger onto our six-man team, mostly because I knew Finn wanted to kill Erick as much as I did. If for some reason Erick slipped past me, Finn would be there to stop him.

The only person I’d been unsure about for this team had been me. I hadn’t wanted to leave Wavy, not even to finish this.

If she’d asked me to stay, I would have. There was nothing I wouldn’t give her if she asked, but she hadn’t. She’d been remarkably calm, sitting with her feet tucked under her on the couch in a robe as I’d explained the plan.

“It’s a private island, which works well for us.” I pulled on the formfitting black shirt that would go under my tactical gear. “Fewer civilians, less chance for casualties.”

“Kings Fork Island,” she murmured.

I glanced over to see if the name of the island caused her stress, but she seemed okay. “Yes, there’s a church that matches what you drew. We couldn’t have asked for something more affirmative.”

She nodded. “That’s it. I know it is. You have to rescue Janice.”

Landon had agreed to stay behind with Wavy. I knew he hadn’t done it lightly. He might be one of the most charming members of the Zodiac team, but he was deadly in the field. Besides myself and maybe Sarge, there was no one else I would trust with Wavy’s safety. If Mosaic got word we were coming and tried to turn the tables, he would get Wavy to safety.

I didn’t leave until he was up in the penthouse, armed and ready. Then I kissed Wavy softly on the lips. “I love you.”

For the first time her facade cracked. “Ian? I-I . . . love you too.”

“I’ll be home soon, and this will be over.”

That must’ve reassured her enough. She walked into the bedroom without another word.

I rubbed the back of my neck. This must be harder on her than she was letting on, and she’d been keeping it together for me. We both needed this to be finished.

I turned to Landon. “Try to keep her away from her paints, or make sure it’s not a nosebleed session if she does want them.”

Landon held his hand out for me to shake. “I’ll guard her with my life.”

I pulled him in for a brief hug. I knew he would.

The team and I were on our way less than an hour later, taking the Zodiac jet to the closest large island since landing on Kings Fork under stealth would be impossible. Then we’d switch to two rigid hull inflatable boats, the same RHIBs I’d used in the SEALs.

On the jet, Isaac laid out a large map of the island on the table in front of us so everyone could see it. “Our drop-off point will be this beach less than a kilometer from the church. Satellite imaging shows us movement in and out of that building as of a few hours ago. We also have heat signatures inside.”

“How many?” Callum asked.

“At least two dozen. That could be good or bad. Good if they’re the other victims. Bad if they’re all Mosaic guards.”

Everyone was armed with both tranquilizers and real guns. Tranquilizers were the first and best option, but we were all willing to change over to bullets if it meant stopping whatever was happening there. Even Callum.

“Aren’t you risking your job by being here?” I asked him as the others studied the map.

He shrugged. “I’m hoping this all goes smoothly, we bring in Erick Huen and possibly other members of Mosaic, and we eliminate a human trafficking/assassin ring. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to get back into my bosses’ good graces. If not, I’m assuming that you’re going to create a position for me in Zodiac when I get fired.”

“I’m sure we have a position open for a janitor or something.”

He let out a laugh. “Let’s just take Mosaic down, and then we’ll see where the chips lie.”

We landed at San Amado Island, Finn muttering about how it had been much nicer when he’d been there a few months ago for a wedding, then we headed out on the rafts. Even if someone was looking, the six of us in black, the raft in black, motoring across the black water of the Pacific, were nearly invisible.

We were silent, everyone knowing their job and what was expected of them. Finn and I would breach the northwest door. Isaac and Callum would each come in from a far window. Nate and Garrett, two of my most trusted agents, would come through what used to be a wine cellar. The plan was to tranquilize anyone we saw and sort them out later.

Once we got off the raft, we approached the church at rapid speed. We only had a couple hours of darkness left, and we wanted to use that cover to our advantage. Before I went in, I made one last contact with Landon back at the house.

“Everything okay with you and Wavy?” I asked on a separate comms channel.

“Affirmative. She hasn’t come back out of the bedroom. I checked on her briefly. She wasn’t painting, just sitting on the bed. I’m sure this hasn’t been as easy on her as she wanted us to believe.”

“It’ll all be over soon,” I assured him. It was a promise to him, to myself, and to her.

We split up and went our separate directions. There was no sign of any guards, which could mean a number of different things. That they weren’t expecting to be found, or Mosaic was so confident in their location they didn’t feel like they needed perimeter lookouts.

Or they knew we were coming and had fallen back into a more secure position.

The church had stone footings and then grew into wood, making it a unique structure, even in the darkness. I waited for everyone to get into position and report in.

It was time.

“On my mark, we go,” I said in a low voice. “Everyone head toward the heat signatures, and watch your asses.”

A chorus of “Roger that” echoed in my head.

We maintained silence as we entered the building. Finn and I split up into the two different hallways as soon as we entered. We’d be coming from different directions, hoping to catch any tangos off guard.

I moved down the narrow passage. It was quiet, which didn’t make me feel better. This wasn’t a great location—it would be way too easy for me to get trapped here if guards started coming in from behind me.

I spotted my first bad guy facing the other direction and pulled out my tranquilizer gun. I fired two shots, frowning when they hit the man and made a sort of clank, and he didn’t fall.

“Be aware tangos are wearing some sort of body armor,” I said into my comm unit as I dropped to one knee, waiting for the guy to turn around. I’d have to take him out in his leg or shoulder. Not as easy a hit, but it would still get the job done.

He didn’t move.

He didn’t spin. He didn’t fire. He didn’t yell, nothing. There was something very wrong here.

“Aries, we’ve got some sort of problem,” Isaac’s voice came in my ear. “The tango I took out is not . . . human.”

I ran toward the guard I’d fired on, realizing the same was true about him too. What the hell? It wasn’t a robot or even a machine. It was something made to look vaguely like a person from a distance and wrapped in some sort of cloak.

It only took me a few seconds to realize what the material was. It magnified heat. The only reason to use it like this would be to give the impression of body temperature.

“Everybody out,” I yelled into the comm unit. “Get out right now. It’s a trap.”

“Are you sure?” Garrett asked. “Everything looks clear on this end.”

“Just do it.” I ran back for the door, hoping everyone was doing the same.

“Maybe there’s still something down here,” Nate said. “I can see someone up ahead.”

“No!” I yelled. “Get out now!”

I was barely three feet out the door before the building blew up behind me in a raging inferno, propelling me through the air and hard onto the ground. I tried to move, tried to breathe, but I couldn’t do either. Darkness overtook me.

* * *

I woke to somebody pulling on me and started fighting them.

“Ian, it’s me, buddy. It’s Isaac. Cut it out.”

“Isaac?” I stopped taking blind swings as my brain fog cleared and my eyes focused. “What happened?”

“The building exploded. It was a setup, man.”

I remembered now. “Oh fuck, is everybody okay?” I turned so I could see the flames in the darkness.

“Finn’s over there. He’s unconscious. I think he has a concussion. Callum is alive, definitely a broken leg, maybe more. I haven’t heard from Nate or Garrett yet. Shit, they would’ve checked in if they could have. You’ve got some burns on your back, man.”

I could feel them. “I’ll be fine. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I want to do a perimeter sweep and see if maybe Nate and Garrett are unconscious somewhere. God, I hope so.”

“They knew we were coming.” I repeated back the words Isaac had said a few seconds ago. It was the only thing that made sense.

“It looks like it. They had dummies inside to make it look like heat signatures.”

“They knew we’d be looking here.”

Isaac squeezed my shoulder. “If you hadn’t called it when you did, we’d all be dead, man.”

I shook my head. I still might have been too late to save everybody.

Isaac shook his head. “I guess Erick Huen was trying to eliminate you once and for all.”

“Or at least get me out of the way so he could . . .” Terror crashed over me like a tidal wave as a new thought hit me. “Shit, I’ve got to get Landon on the line.”

I got to my feet with Isaac’s help and stumbled farther away from the burning building. My comm unit was down, so I grabbed my phone. I tried Wavy’s number first, but when no one answered, I tried Landon. The call connected, but there was no sound on the other end.

“Landon, are you there? Landon?” Still nothing. I didn’t want to hang up. Had my phone been damaged in the explosion and I couldn’t hear? “Landon, you need to expect trouble. They knew we were coming.”

I held my hand up to my other ear to hear better. “Landon, do you read?” Something muffled came through the phone, and then I pulled it away from my head and looked. He was turning on video.

The first thing I saw when the picture came through was blood. “Shit, what happened? Are you hit? Where’s Wavy?”

“I’m sorry, boss. I’m sorry.” Landon’s voice was weaker than I’d ever heard it.

“Shit, Landon. What happened? Were you attacked?”

“Wavy,” Landon whispered. “I’m sorry, boss. Wavy.” He didn’t say anything else.

I kept the line open and yelled over to Isaac. “Isaac, you got a phone? Landon’s down. They’ve been hit back at the penthouse.” But Isaac had gone to hunt for Garrett and Nate.

“I’ve got one.” It was Callum. He couldn’t walk, but was dragging himself toward me. I ran over to him.

“They hit us in Denver too,” I told him. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I think Landon’s down.”

I couldn’t think about my best friend possibly being dead, and I definitely couldn’t think about what might’ve happened to Wavy.

“That place is the Fortress of Solitude,” Callum said. “How could anyone get in there?”

“I don’t know. We must’ve missed something.” I used Callum’s phone to call the rest of the team back at the building in Denver. “You need to lock down the entire fucking building now,” I told them. “And get medical help up to the penthouse. Somebody find Wavy and tell me where she is.”

I brought my face toward my phone. “Landon, hang in there. Don’t you dare fucking die on me. Help is on its way. Just keep breathing.” Something like the gurgling of air responded, which wasn’t good, but at least it meant he was still alive.

Within minutes, I had Andrew and Tristan on the phone. Both of them would need to get out here to mop up this situation. I needed to get back to Denver. When I saw Isaac walking back toward us, grim look on his face, I knew the worst had happened.

“Both of them?” I asked.

“Yeah, they’re nowhere around the perimeter. They must not have made it out in time.”

Goddammit. “Landon was hit too, and we don’t have eyes on Wavy. I’ve got Tristan and Andrew coming out here. I’m heading back. We’ve got medical help coming for Finn and Callum and the others just in case.”

Isaac nodded. “It’s all right, boss. You can’t be everywhere at once. Get to where you’re needed most.”

That was it, wasn’t it? I was needed everywhere most, but right now, Wavy had to come first. If Landon was down, she had been taken. I couldn’t let myself dwell on that. I had to focus on what I could do and believe it would be enough.

I forced myself to do that as I got on the raft, then on the plane that took me back to Denver. I was on the phone the entire time, working every angle I could, getting the tech team to look for any signs of anyone coming into the building, anyone scaling the building. Hell, anyone parachuting to the fucking roof of the building.

Someone had found a hole in our security and made it into the penthouse. We needed to find out how and who. I should have never left Wavy alone. Erick had played us like we were his damned instruments, and we’d let him.

I also coordinated with Tristan and Andrew about the disaster on Kings Fork Island, Nate and Garrett were probably dead, Callum and Finn wounded. The brothers would get out there and be my eyes and ears.

A final helicopter took me the short distance from the airport to the penthouse. Two of the building’s security team met me on the roof landing zone, updating me as we went. I wanted to see the footage from the penthouse.

“What’s Landon’s condition?” I asked.

“He’s been taken to the emergency room. He was shot in the chest.”

My jaw hardened. “I want to see all the penthouse footage from the elevator foyer and the emergency stairs and the balcony.”

The two men looked at each other and then at me. “Mr. DeRose, we’ve already scoured this footage multiple times. Nobody came into that penthouse. We’ve already had the tech team double-check the footage to make sure it hadn’t been manipulated. It wasn’t. Nobody has gone in since you left.”

“Gone in?” I repeated. “What does that mean?”

“It means that somebody went out,” Brinker said. He was a good man. Older, not necessarily the brightest, but he was a solid member of the team.

“Someone we recognize?” I asked him.

“Yes, sir. Miss Bollinger.”

“Wavy went out. I get it. Somebody took her.”

“No, sir,” Brinker said. “She walked out of her own accord, got on the elevator, and left through the front door. Nobody thought to stop her because, you know, she’s . . . her.”

Dread filled my stomach once again. “Nobody went in, and Wavy left on her own?”

Both men nodded.

I wiped my hand down my face. “I need somebody to get Dr. Rayne here. Tell her if she has any recordings of her sessions with Wavy, we need them right away.”

“Yes, sir,” Brinker said. “Do we still need to keep looking for whoever shot Landon?”

I nodded, praying what I thought had happened was wrong. “Do a search of each floor in this building, and I want every single security camera run through the tech team to be sure it hasn’t been manipulated.”

But I already knew who had shot Landon.

Wavy.