Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I rubbed my forehead. “There’s no kitchen. No second exit, no chimney.” To remain under the radar, obviously. No smoke, probably bad ventilation. No building inspector would ever approve this construction, but I guessed that didn’t matter when you didn’t ask for permission. My guess? They’d had a perfectly modern, quirky, million-dollar idea at first, including more entry points and a nice kitchen. All that. They got that shit approved, and throw in some bribes, and they were free to go their own way.
“Are all walls thin?” I asked.
“Based on where the sockets are placed on the blueprints, yes,” he confirmed. “Concrete all the way through, we think, for obvious reasons since they’re underground, and no structural security.”
That settled it. I nodded and drummed my fingers over my lips. If this turned out to be true, their security came in the form of weapons.
“I don’t think interrogating the Mexicans will provide more details either,” he continued.
I agreed. They’d probably never been here. The Feds, however, would be interested in hearing what they had to say.
“Are tunnels ruled out?” I asked.
It put me on edge when others were so dumb that it was nearly impossible to underestimate them. You didn’t get rich on your drug route if you didn’t have protocols in place for when shit went sideways—like it had today. Those two street soldiers had literally guided us all the way here when they’d had Coach and Leighton in the back of that van. Any hustler worth his salt would’ve taken them someplace secluded, tried to disarm and fight them, made sure they didn’t have phones on them, and then come here. With two hostages, to boot.
Nobody was that stupid. They even knew they were dealing with Hillcroft people. Coach and Leighton had chased them all the way from our building.
“Never entirely, but considering the neighbors…” Coach glanced around us. “The area ain’t that big before civilization takes over. We have a couple family-run farms, a country club, and a gun club nearby.”
The latter was convenient. Nobody had reported gunshots here today.
“How much of the forest do the Hahns own?”
“A few acres in every direction past the clearing,” he replied. “Hold on. Last update from Hyatt.” He turned away and switched on his comms. “Say again, Hyatt.”
I headed over to the others, who were huddled around our equipment and getting some supper. Leighton too; he was preparing his MRE next to Crew and Slater.
“Fellow assholes and elbows, listen up,” I said. Everyone looked up from their meals and conversations. “After the briefing, Coach will give you a rundown of what the bunker likely looks like inside, but before then—here’s what’s up. Chances are parts of this crew are responsible for shampoo bottles needing instructions. The bunker lacks structural security, and they literally gave two of our guys a ride right up to the proverbial gate. However… Any Murphy’s Law that comes to mind?”
“Well, there are a couple about ambushes,” Ryan drawled.
I nodded. “Long story short, we have every reason to believe they’re heavily armed. If they lured us here, they’ll need the firepower to bring us down, and if they’re making up for an extreme case of stupid, same answer. They will need guns. A lot of them.” I paused. “This is the last location, operators. The Feds are waiting in the wings to cover this all up—and in the next few days, we’ll get to read in the papers how they took down a drug ring outside our fine capital.”
“The glory of the Feds!” Slater raised his water bottle.
“Bad time to mention I’m happily married to one,” Crew said. “But in my defense, he’s retired. He’s with JATE now. Okay? Moving on. Why are you lookin’ at me?”
Uh.
Ryan smacked him upside the head. “Quit thinkin’ with your mouth.”
“Harsh, Gramps.” Crew scowled and rubbed his head.
Right. I moved on. “I have a great segue for this. When Crew Finlay isn’t rambling about his husband, he’s working hard to maintain his reputation as one of JATE’s finest, which is why he’s with us now. You’ll find our recon Marine up front with Coach and me tonight in the Alpha line of defense. More than that, he brought new top-of-the-line headsets for us so we can stop worrying about batteries in the middle of combat. How JATE’s order was prioritized over Hillcroft’s is beyond me, but whatever.”
“Happy to help,” Crew replied. “Also, I think our order arrived first because your supply department is evidently slower than our guy.” He pointed to himself. “I’m hella fast.”
“Of that, I have no doubt,” I replied. “Mov—”
“By the way,” Crew added, clearly not done, “it’s not the end of the world to use regular earpieces. Worked just fine for us in Colombia.”
Was he joking?
Coach gave him a look that asked the same question. “You and Hayward couldn’t hear for hours after the shootout in the tunnels.”