"Good. Your team doesn't have much downtime. We're on the clock." Xavier reached out to Skye and pulled her into a hug. "Skye Dean, you're beautiful as always; positively radiant." His eyes narrowed in thought. "How's the little one?"
Why did everyone keep asking about her kid? I didn't get why they bothered with the extraneous talk.
"Zach is great, getting bigger every day." My sister beamed whenever talking about her kid.
I got it. Little Zach was cute, but he smelled funny, and there didn't seem to be much going on behind his eyes. Maybe when he got older, he'd be more interesting. Not that my sister cared. She thought Zach was a genius because he could blow bubbles with his spit. I'd say the jury was out on that.
"And the husband?" Xavier released Skye from the hug but continued to hold her at arm's length. "Still rockin' it? He's on tour, right?"
"Still rocking it." A smile graced my sister's face. It did whenever she thought about Ash. "He's happy to be playing with Angel Fire, misses his kid, though."
"I'm sure that's not all he's missing." Xavier's gaze cut downward, lingering a little too long on Skye's midsection. Before I could think about that too much, he pulled Skye into a hug and kissed her cheek. He then glanced at me. "Let's get this party started."
"Is Raven here?" Skye glanced around the dining room and craned her neck to look into an adjoining living space. "I don't see her."
"She is." The corner of Xavier's lips pulled up in a smirk. "A bit tied up right now but will be down shortly."
I couldn't help but laugh.
With Xavier, that comment could be taken literally. The man was kinky as fuck, but we needed Raven on this operation, and Xavier wasn't one to dick around.
I was virtually sure Raven was busy elsewhere, but not literally tied up in Xavier's bed, or whatever dungeon he had set up in this godforsaken place.
Skye's face flushed, and she glanced away. She wasn't into that kind of thing. My poor, vanilla sister had no idea what she was missing. Kink was liberating and fun.
I had a few fetishes of my own. Unlike Xavier, I wasn't a strict dominant when it came to sex. I wasn't submissive either. I was what they called a switch, alternating between being the top or bottom. I liked to fight for sex, the more aggressive, the better. And, if another man could best me, then I let him have all of me. If not, things generally didn't work out for long.
Skye worried about my sexual appetite and the number of men who passed through my bed. We agreed on two things. I would get tested regularly, and she wouldn't pry.
It kept things civil between us.
"Well, tell me where she is." Skye glanced at the men streaming in. "There's a little too much testosterone floating around here. I need a break from all the alpha attitudes clotting the air."
The pointed look she gave me did not go unnoticed, although I refused to rise to the bait.
Xavier's head tipped back. He belted out a deep laugh, and then his attention shifted to me.
"I bet it is." He pointed to a set of stairs leading up. "She's in the library upstairs with Mitzy. The two of them are finishing setting up Command and Control. You should go check out the drones we got. Talk about fun toys."
"Boys and their toys." Skye's smile slipped into a tiny laugh. She flapped her hand at me. "See you later, Bean. Try not to be too much of an ass and let your men do what they've trained for."
Skye left us and went to where Ryker, Tia, and Eli had set aside their team's medical gear. She said something, pointed up the stairs, then exited the chaos.
"You ready for this?" Xavier's sharp gaze cut to me. The man was a few inches shorter than me. Most men were, but I felt pinned beneath his cutting gaze.
"I'm ready."
"Good. You've got ten minutes to prep your team, then meet in the ready room to go over details.
"Ready room?"
"Converted ballroom. This place was impressive in its heyday. Your girl, Mitzy, has a rather impressive briefing ready for us."
The mansion Xavier appropriated sprawled across extensive grounds, encircled by high concrete walls, it was the perfect place to set up our base operations.
I'd already counted more fountains than I cared. They were all dried up with scraggly weeds clinging to life in the muck, which had settled in the basins.
Everywhere I looked, decay greeted my eyes. Plaster flaked off the walls. Shreds of curtains dangled from rods that barely clung to the walls. The marbled floors were chipped and cracked. Dirt and dust covered every surface.
I glanced over my shoulder at the organized chaos that was my team. They didn't need me to tell them what to do.
"I'd like to check out Command and Control."
I'd trained Mitzy in most of the surveillance we needed, and we brought along our VR gear. That was likely what Xavier meant when he said he was impressed by the briefing Mitzy planned.
Before my men stepped a foot on the private island, we would see it in virtual reality.
I wanted no surprises.
Xavier's drones had been collecting the data we needed. Paired with what Mitzy dug up from local records, we should have a realistic set up for a dry run.
Ben Chambers trotted up and stopped in front of Xavier. He gave the slightest of bows in deference to his boss and the man he called Master.
"Sir, we're ready."
"Good job." Xavier gave a slight nod.
I swear Ben beamed beneath the praise.
"Make sure Forest's team is in the ready room." Xavier glanced at his watch. "Seven minutes."
"Yes, sir." Ben pivoted and jogged back to where my guys set up.
His team leaned against the wall, watching the commotion. They would be joining me. Ben, Mel, Bay, and Chad were specialists in covert operations. Their one job was to keep me safe.
Skye wasn't the only one who had concerns about my presence on this mission.
It had been one of the first arguments Xavier and I had.
I won.
He lost.
But I was the one who conceded.
The man had a will about him that defied description.
I had the training, the best in the world, but never served in the military, and I'd never seen combat. These men had. They had experience with the real deal, not the mockups I arranged. To them, I was a pretend wannabe, aka, a liability.
They could keep me safe all they wanted.
They didn't understand the truth.
Chapter Eight
Forest
Xavier walked with me as we joined the tech team upstairs. I expected the same degree of chaos up there, although I shouldn't have.
Mitzy's OCD wouldn't allow such a thing.
My tech team had arrived ahead of us, courtesy of Xavier. They'd been in place less than a day but looked like they were long-term residents. Power cables snaked through the room, all neatly bound together with pink zip-ties. The tables were straight; monitors placed precisely so. There was no chaos in Mitzy's perfectly ordered world.
Her obsessive nature had everything labeled in a range of pastel pinks and blues with neon yellow, orange, and greens sprinkled through for good measure.
"Forest!" Mitzy's shriek had my shoulders lifting to my ears. The petite pixie with her psychedelic hair ran toward me.
She wasn't going to hug me. The girl was going to hug-hug me, and she did it because she knew how much I hated to be touched by girls.
Mitzy launched into my arms and wrapped her petite body around mine. Her arms barely wrapped around my midsection, and I had no fucking clue why she had to hang on me like a monkey.
Her stick-thin legs curled around my hips while the clunky heels of her military boots dug into my ass.
I did what any man would do in my situation. My arms wrapped around her, touching without touching anything I shouldn't, followed by peeling the little monkey off my body.
"It's good to see you." I pulled at her waist, trying to get her off, but she buried her head against my chest. I tugged and pulled. I yanked at her ankles while s
he clung to my neck. Finally, I deposited her on her feet.
"You, boss, are cutting things close." She gave another tiny squeeze. "We're ready to kick some ass."
Skye stood a few feet away, a smirk planted on her face, while a gorgeous woman with raven-black hair looked on with a bemused expression.
Raven took me in from head to toe, then passed right on by me where her eyes smoldered as she looked at her Master.
"We're ready, Master."
"Good girl." Xavier stepped into the room, entirely at ease with being in charge.
He went to Raven, cupped her chin, and dragged his thumb over her lips.
Raven leaned into his touch, and her dark, sultry eyes slowly closed.
"Mitzy," Xavier said, "how about you give Forest a run down."
Mitzy's eyes lit up. "Okay, first communications. Since we're dropping you offshore, I found these amazing earbuds. You won't wear them, obviously, on your dive, but once you hit land, put them in, and we'll be in touch. Snowden's people have radar set up, but they're more concerned with boat traffic. Our drones will be flying above their visibility plane, and your coms will patch through the drones. That'll bounce to us. I also have body cams installed on all the vests. I'll be with you the whole way, boss."
I waited for the poor girl to take a breath, but Mitzy spits it all out fast as lightning.
I wasn't sure if I wanted her watching and in my ear the whole way, especially with what I planned. I could take the body armor off to kill Snowden, but that was something I'd have to play by ear.
"Of course, you have all the things: night vision, laser targeting, etcetera. I'm not in charge of weapons, but I'm told the targeting is spot-on. The VR suite is up and running. It's fucking rad. You have to see what I did." Next to me, Mitzy was becoming a virtual reality addict.
A slow spin let me take in the room. Banks of computers heated the air as their processors churned and crunched through data. The whirring of cooling fans drifted through the room. A deep breath brought a flood of comforting scents to my nostrils.
I'd grown up with computers. They had been my safe space. It was the one thing Clark Preston allowed. Our foster father didn't like his kids playing outside. Skye had her books, and I had my computers. In our rooms, we were safe. When called out to serve his sick depravity, we weren't.
Therefore, computers were my solace. I lost myself in them growing up. I understood them. They never lied. There were no messy emotions. They worked the same way I did. Logical. Methodical. Precise.
For an awkward boy growing up, I'd had no real friends, but I had my computers.
The glow from the monitors gave the space an otherworldly feel, and the ever-present tapping of keys and clicking of mouses floated in the background.
Mitzy took me on a tour, showing me each station as I endured the ritualistic greeting of my tech team.
Unlike the men downstairs, we didn't shake hands, slap each other's backs, or bump our chests to measure our brawn against the other.
There was no bravado, no need to show off our strength and determine the pecking order based on that. Here, our brains were our weapons, and our intellect decided where we sat in our unique pecking order.
I took the throne. Mitzy was my Master at Arms, and Raven proved to be an unexpected treasure. I'd never seen a better hacker.
I smiled and nodded. Not once did I have to shake hands. They were my real team; technical geniuses who would make sure the mission went off without a hitch. I didn't think Ben and his team understood the power this team wielded.
"We need to head down for the briefing." Xavier hurried me along.
Mitzy joined us with a little skip to her step.
"Why are you always so damn perky?" My question came out more of a growl but did nothing to Mitzy. In general, she was unfazed by my size. The girl was fearless.
"Because I can't wait for you to see the VR set up."
I couldn't help but roll my eyes.
In addition to Mitzy, Raven accompanied Xavier and me downstairs. He held her hand, keeping her tucked tight to his side. Skye followed behind us with her lips twisted in a disapproving frown.
When we arrived at the ballroom, I was surprised to see all my team gathered. I had two groups of six, Skye's medical team of four, myself, and Xavier's squad with Ben and his men.
Long tables lined the walls with VR headsets perched on top. Distributed through the room, were unique spheroid treadmills. They would allow us to navigate the VR world; walking, running, and crawling as needed, all while staying in place.
Mitzy clapped her hands together, but when that didn't cut through the noise of my men, she put her fingers in her mouth and gave a long, ear-piercing whistle.
The room quieted between one breath and the next. All eyes went to me, as they generally did, but Mitzy lifted her hand over her head. The tips of her fingers barely reached the stubble of my jaw.
"Hello!" Her high-pitched voice cracked as she spoke. "Welcome to our pre-mission briefing."
Mitzy went to one side of the room, while Raven moved to the other side. They each lifted a VR headset over their heads.
"The briefing today will be conducted in a virtual space. Each of you will need to grab a headset and put it on. Raven and I will come around to help you with the treadmills if you need it, but it's pretty simple. Put the goggles over your eyes first. Lift the strap and settle it over your head. Push the red button to activate it."
Raven demonstrated while Mitzy explained.
"That's it," Mitzy continued. "Everything is set and ready. There are earbuds attached to the headsets. Put those in."
Mitzy grabbed an armful of headsets and passed them out to the men directly in front of her. They took them with brows pinched, looked at me, then put them on when I nodded.
Raven came to Xavier and me, handed us our headsets, then went to distribute the rest to my team.
I settled the device over my head, shoved the earbuds in my ears, and turned the thing on.
Immediately, the world around me shifted. No longer was I standing in a dilapidated mansion in Manilla, but rather on the shore of an island with coarse sand beneath my boots, waves gently lapping behind me, and a twenty-foot wall with serpentine wire coiled at the top standing in front of me.
Tropical plants with big, broad, leaves blew in a soft breeze, and a few palm trees soared into the sky, bending out from the wall. Puffy clouds drifted overhead, and the sound of tropical birds called out in the distance.
I saw an immediate problem if this was our planned insertion spot.
While I checked out the VR environment, people began to pop into the world. They stood in tight clusters according to their team designations. Ben, Chad, Bay, and Mel stood in a loose semi-circle around me. Skye, with Ryker, Tia, and their surgeon, materialized down the beach to my right. To my left, my two six-men teams formed up as they entered the virtual space.
To my right, a man and woman checked things out with wide-eyes and gaping mouths. We'd made incredible strides in improving the realism of our virtual reality space and spared no detail. Xavier appeared behind me.
"Well, this is impressive. I can't believe they were able to create this from overhead photos." Xavier looked impressed.
"Knowing Mitzy, it's a conglomeration of satellite, overhead surveillance, and building schematics she dug up from God knows where."
Xavier sniffed. "I'm surprised it doesn't smell like the beach."
"We're working on that. Scent and sensation are problematic. For our gaming platform, we have a skin suit that emulates most sensations, but smell is a sense which so far eludes us."
"I didn't know such a thing was possible." Xavier spun in a small circle. "It looks so real."
No arguing with him there.
The texture overlays for sand, rock, water, and the plants looked spot-on. If I reached down, I could cup the sand in my hands, and my brain would tell me it ran through my fingers.
Xavier had no idea how realistic we cou
ld make this. Mitzy brought her A-game to this simulation. She appeared in front of me with her spiky psychedelic hair and a damn unicorn horn planted in the center of her forehead.
She fisted her hands on her hips and gave me a look as if she defied me to say anything about the damn horn. I wisely kept my thoughts to myself.
In this space, she didn't need to compete to be heard. Mitzy had control over all sound and muted people while she went over a brief introduction of the simulation and what we could expect.
"It's going to be dark when you arrive, but for this simulation, I've kept us in daylight. Once we're done, you'll have an opportunity to walk around and get acquainted with the layout. I believe Xavier has intel about the night's festivities and plan of attack. You'll want to run through that at least once, but you'll have about twenty minutes to move through the space. You do not have to go as a team, although if you want to, that's fine. The headsets will keep up with your movements."
Mitzy gave a few more tips before handing things over to Xavier. He briefed us on attendees, arrival times, what they knew about security, and our timetable. After he finished, he turned the briefing over to me.
I clapped my hands together. "All right. We know what we need to do. You have twenty minutes to look around, and then we'll reset everyone to the beach. Skye, your team is free to look around, but once we get back together, it will only be ops team members. We'll run through things as many times as we can before we load up in the helicopters."
All our dive gear was being loaded on the helicopters as we spoke. All we'd have to do is change into our drysuits and go. Not a fan of water, I wasn't looking forward to the dive.
I set off with Ben while Chad, Bay, and Mel went to check out the security on the walls. For the simulation, Ben and I merely stepped through into the expansive grounds of the estate inside.
A chill ran through me. This was Snowden's lair; only this time, I wouldn't be his victim. I came with an avenging force to take him down.
Music piped into my ears. "The Flight of the Valkyries" brought a grin to my face. Sara hated the song, which is why I changed out her ringtones whenever she wasn't looking, but this was my song.
Forest's Fall (Captive Hearts Book 3) Page 7
