Shadow of the Moon: Shadow SEALs

by J. M. Madden

  “Fuck it,” he said, pocketing his wallet. “We’re going to get him tonight, anyway.”

  Amberly nodded. “We almost have to. Since we don’t know how the attack, or attacks, are going down, we have to assume that they’ll be leaving Bozeman soon. We have to find him, or at least his camp.”

  “How far are we from that location on Zed’s phone?”

  Amberly pulled up the map on his phone. “Looks like less than half an hour, but straight up onto the mountains. We’re going to need a four by four.”

  Amberly spread everything they had out on the table, the pictures, the list, her laptop and the file on Regent and his followers. “The answers have to be here.”

  They pored over everything they had. Dev kept coming back to the picture they’d been calling the spider. “Can you pull up the Virginia Railway Express maps for D.C.?”

  They didn’t look similar.

  “Oh, maybe the Washington Metro…” she murmured, typing in the search terms. The bus map popped up. “That’s completely wrong.” Then she clicked on the train maps. “Oh, we found it! That’s a match!”

  Yes, it was. “Okay, so he’s sending people in on trains. I bet if we look at the destination points, they’ll coincide with a lot of these targets.”

  She scanned again, nodding slowly. “Yes, I think you’re right.”

  He rested a hand on her shoulder as he stood behind her. “We’re figuring it out.”

  “I need to let Brown know.”

  Even as she said it, he was typing a message off to Charley. He didn’t know if she had any pull in that area, but if they could get someone on those trains, watching, maybe someone would spot something.

  He also told her he was moving in tonight if he could find a decent ride and a few more supplies.

  Roger that.

  Amberly had activated the second burner phone and called Brown. Dev listened as she related the details they’d worked out. Then she paused, and her face fell. “No way,” she breathed, her eyes flicking up to his.

  Dev could see the shock in her expression, and he wished she’d put the phone on speaker.

  “Okay. That’s good, at least. Yes, sir. No, we’re going in tonight.”

  She paused, her eyes dropping to her laptop, though she wasn’t really seeing. “I knew you would. That’s why I didn’t say anything. Yes, sir.”

  And she hung up the phone. “He’s not happy you’re involved, but he says as long as I stay in charge, we’ll be okay.”

  Dev looked at her incredulously. “Seriously? He wants you to pull rank on me?”

  She shook her head, sighing. “I have no idea. And they think they figured out who the granddaughter belongs to.”

  “Who,” he demanded.

  “Alfred J. Hatchett.”

  Dev could have been blown over by a feather. “No way! Old Man Hatchett? Your old boss? Seriously? Has anybody even seen him since he retired?”

  “I don’t know. Brown didn’t say how he learned the information.”

  That was a little shocking. The Old Man had been tough and thorough, but Dev never would have thought he would work against the country in any way. He’d been patriotic to the bone, first being a Marine, then working for the Agency for more than thirty years. “That sounds so out of character…” Dev murmured.

  Amberly looked at him, her eyes troubled. “I know. It’s not sitting well with me, either.”

  “I wonder who researched it?”

  She shook her head. “He didn’t say.”

  They continued digging, Dev eventually getting on and plugging in the address they’d found on Zed’s GPS. It looked like it was a cattle ranch. For some reason, he’d thought it was going to be an encampment in the woods. Actually, it was a ranch at the base of a mountain. There were a few pics online he found connected to a young girl’s Instagram account.

  He created an account and logged into the property valuation office, but he couldn’t find the address even listed. Hm.

  Dev supposed he’d be going in blind. He only needed to get close enough to take a shot.

  To that end, he unboxed his rifle, put it together, and mounted the scope. He wouldn’t know until tonight how well it worked. He didn’t have Kevlar anymore, or anything even comparable, so he would be going in very exposed. Dev had a feeling there would be more than one target, and he also knew they would be loaded for bear.

  His chances of making it out alive were not great. And if they had a gun in their hands, they were enemies.

  Anxiety churned in his gut at the thought of what was coming tonight. When you were a part of a team, you had guys to depend upon. When Dev had been on missions, he’d normally had a spotter with him, someone to call out ranges on his shots as well as watch his back. He’d have armor to drive in to the target and armor to drive him out. And the entire team to support.

  Dev didn’t even want to take Amberly in with him. Not that she wouldn’t be great support. She would be. But he had a feeling that when it got down to the nitty-gritty, she would want to try to apprehend Regent rather than kill him.

  Dev wanted to leave her behind just to keep her safe, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen either.

  He was getting his pistol ready when his phone buzzed on the table. Picking it up, he swiped his thumb across.

  You have a delivery.

  Hm. Stepping to the door, he peered through the security hole, but didn’t see anyone standing there. Cautiously, he opened the door and peeked out.

  There was a kitted out flat black 4x4 Jeep four-door truck parked in the spot directly in front of the door. It was a damn fine piece of equipment, and seemed to be tempting him. Maybe he could ‘borrow’ it for tonight.

  Then he caught sight of the key fob ring around the antennae. Seriously? Was this for him to use?

  He looked around, trying to see who it might belong to. There were a few people moving around at the end of the building, but they were unloading a Tahoe. He pulled the key fob off the antennae and hit the button. It beeped and the lights flashed.

  “What’s going on?” Amberly asked, stepping beside him.

  “I think Charley is my long, lost fairy godmother,” he murmured.

  Moving to the driver’s side door, he pulled it open. There was a Post-it note on the steering wheel. Don’t forget to check the back!

  Devlin looked at the Jeep. It was fairly new and had so many bells and whistles… He could take this thing into the woods for weeks at a time and not need much more than what was on his back. Amberly opened up the passenger side. “Do you see this? It’s exactly what we need for tonight.”

  She nodded, glancing around the interior. “She knew we were going to need something.”

  Stepping out of the car, he moved to the back and looked in the bed.

  “No fucking way…” he breathed, reaching out his hand. It was his kit from the SEALs. And his khaki rifle case. Lifting it from the back, he turned it in his hands. “I need to get inside and look at this.”

  Activating the lock button on the key fob, he checked their surroundings. It was literally like this stuff had dropped out of the heavens for them. As soon as he was inside the motel room, with the door locked behind them, he sank down into the chair.

  “How the fuck did she get this,” he asked Amberly as she sat on the corner of the bed.

  “Maybe it was in evidence lockup?”

  Unzipping the long case, Dev paused. If it wasn’t his rifle, he was going to be damned disappointed. Lifting the lid, he exhaled a quivering breath, excitement and relief running through him. Now they had a fighting chance. He ran his hand over the desert stock, feeling the divots in the plastic from the many beatings it had taken, banging against rocks and other equipment. But as damaged as the exterior was, the interior mechanics of the weapon ran like a German clock. He’d made sure of that. Or at least they had when he’d been the keeper. Pulling the pieces from the case, he studied them thoroughly. His life would depend upon this gun in a few hours.
/>   “It looks perfect,” he murmured. “I don’t think anyone has shot this weapon since I had it in my hands.”

  “It was used in the commission of a hit. It was kept in lockup somewhere,” Amberly said softly.

  Yes, he could understand that.

  “Requiem, right?”

  Dev looked down at the gun. “Yes, Requiem. I thought it was appropriate to name it for a ceremony for the dead.”

  Putting the pieces of the rifle together by muscle memory, he relished in the feel of it in his hands. Taking a life was never done lightly, and he’d never disrespected the dead. Some of the men in the teams had called the gun ‘Wreck’em’ for the destruction it wrought, but in his mind it was always Requiem, and he treated it with the respect it deserved.

  Slowly, carefully, he put the rifle back into the case, and dragged his pack over. Everything from his boots to his vest to his green boonie hat was there. All his stuff. The NVG goggles were in their nylon case. It barely even looked like anyone had gone through it. “This is so weird,” he murmured. “It’s like I just went back in time three years.”

  Amberly nodded. “I bet. Must be nice to have a Charley as a fairly godmother…”

  He grinned. “It’s not bad…”

  There was a black backpack clipped onto the side of his kit, and he unfastened it. Inside, he found a smaller Kevlar vest and a second pair of NVGs. “I think this is for you, babe.”

  Amberly looked down at the equipment incredulously, then with excitement. “Seriously?”

  She fit the vest over her head and fastened the Velcro. It fit her perfectly.

  Perception was a funny thing. An hour ago, he’d been looking at a daunting job with very little chance of success. Now he felt like they actually had a chance.

  “Let’s go kick some ass,” he grinned.

  Amberly gave him a fist bump. “Hell, yeah.”

  17

  GPS led them along a dirt road skirting the base of a mountain. The ranch that was semi-outlined on Google would start in about three miles, but it was bordered by another dirt road that ran straight up into the mountain. That was where Devlin wanted to be. If he could get the high ground and scope out the terrain a little bit, he would have the advantage.

  It was late afternoon. The sun had already dipped beyond the mountain, giving Dev enough light to see but not outline himself in any way. The Jeep bounced along the track, ready for anything. Unable to help himself, Dev glanced to the side, trying to watch Amberly’s boobs bounce, but the vest wouldn’t allow that.

  “Quit it, you letch,” she laughed. “Let’s get through tonight, then we’ll talk about us.”

  “Agreed.”

  She was right. They needed to concentrate on what was before them.

  Dev watched for any kind of lookouts or security cameras. He probably wouldn’t see them at this speed, but if they had game cams or the like, they wouldn’t see the images until after the fact. As far as he could see, there were no power lines up here at all. They looped around a hairpin curve, and he knew he was where he wanted to be. Driving off the road and into the woods, he navigated toward the east, between trees and rocks and scrub. As they neared a rock embankment he’d noticed on the satellite map, he turned the Jeep around and shut off the ignition.

  Climbing from the Jeep, he headed toward the rock embankment to look down on the ranch nestled in the valley below them. Sitting on his ass, he braced his elbows on his bent knees and peered through his binoculars. This place looked to be a working cattle ranch. Rusty coated cattle numbering in the hundreds dotted the fields between them. Horses were in corrals near the huge, two story wooden barn. After searching for records through official channels for more than an hour last night, they’d determined that the place must belong to one of Regent’s father’s friends, Landon Smith. The man was older, in his seventies, but his son Chris was Regent’s age, almost forty. Amberly had found several pictures of the Chris, but there was no mention of him in the original case file or the pictures that Necco had gotten out. Chris Smith had to be a new follower, willing to put everything on the line for Regent’s wild conspiracies and terroristic tendencies.

  They watched the comings and goings of the ranch for more than an hour, and when the night faded, he drew out the NVGs that had been in his pack. He’d had to replace the battery pack, but that was a small thing to have this convenience.

  “Are you looking at that building off on the far side, almost across from us?” Amberly murmured.

  “Yes.”

  He wasn’t surprised she’d noticed the cabin in the woods on the far side of the valley. Several trucks were parked outside, and armed men had been coming and going. A few women, as well. And then a figure stepped out onto the porch that he recognized, both from dreams and nightmares and from real life.

  Cole Regent.

  Dev was too far away to see the features of his face, and more importantly, to take the shot, but he recognized the man’s body shape and the way he moved as he walked down from the porch to look into the back of a truck. There was a lot of nodding and laughing as about six men leaned on the rails of the truck, looking inside.

  “We need to figure out what’s in that truck,” he murmured. “White Ford, Montana plate, Echo Charley Tango one three two.”

  “Got it,” Amberly murmured. “I’ll send it to Brown. Maybe he can get a local on it for a traffic stop.”

  He read her off three other plate numbers he could see at least partially, then started giving descriptions of the men he could discern.

  “A couple of those match descriptions of known associates of Regent, a couple are new.”

  A car was driving from what looked to be the main house and down the main drive of the ranch, toward town. It was a maroon SUV with two people inside, but with the glare of the headlights, the NVGs couldn’t see the plate. Dev swung his focus back up to the cabin.

  One of the men were moving to the door of the truck. Inside, Dev could see a packed duffle. “I think they might be moving out tomorrow. He has a stuffed bag in the front seat.”

  “Damn it,” she murmured. “So, it’s tonight or nothing.”

  “Seems like it. I’m heading down.”

  Dev pushed to his feet, then held a hand down to Amberly, pulling her up beside him. She’d clipped her dark hair back to keep it out of her eyes, and she wore the darkest clothes she had, with the vest over top. If he worked things right, she wouldn’t be anywhere near the action, but there was no sense drawing attention to herself. They had earpieces in, again, thanks to Charley, and he’d showed her how to use them.

  “I’ll update you as much as I can. My plan is to head to the main barn and try to get a viewpoint there. That’s close enough to the cabin I can take a shot if I get it.”

  She nodded, her luminous silver eyes dilated from the dark of the night. Reaching out, she rested her hands on his vest. “I need you to be more careful than you ever have before,” she murmured. “I don’t like separating, but I understand the need. Just know that if you call, I’m hauling ass in there and blasting you out.”

  He gave her a grin. “I know you will, babe. I expect you to.”

  Then he kissed her, slow and deep. It was a promise to her that he would do his best, because they had so much to get back to. If they both made it out alive, he would be back in her life again.

  Amberly drew in a ragged breath as she pulled back, but Dev wrapped her in a hug. “Don’t worry, babe. We’ll get this done.”

  She nodded against his chest, but he could feel the doubt in her. “Give me an hour to get to the barn. Watch what’s going on down there. If anything happens, let me know. In half an hour, go ahead and start down the mountain. Then park in that spot I showed you. That’ll put you about five minutes from the front gate.”

  She nodded, her eyes filling with tears.

  “Hey, now, none of that. We’re going to get this fucker, and we’re going to save a lot of people. If I miss and he takes off, you’re the secondary, you
understand? You chase him down and do what you have to do.”

  “I will,” she breathed. “But you’re not going to miss.”

  Dev gave her a crooked smile, appreciating the faith she had in him. Then he turned and moved back to the truck. Grabbing his pack, he swung it over his shoulders and fastened it tight over the Kevlar. He’d loaded as many mags as he had. His Beretta was in his thigh holster, and he would carry Requiem over his right shoulder. Strapping his helmet on, he mounted his NVGs so that he could navigate.

  The legality of what he was doing bothered him for about three seconds. Yes, he was planning to kill a man without the protection of being in the SEALs. Probably more than one. But it was literally for the greater good. The one thing that Brown had come back with was that most of the targets on Regent’s list were confirmed to be places frequented by the wives and children of more than three dozen political leaders. Senators, Congressman, the Speaker of the house. The Vice President’s daughter attended Riverview Preparatory.

  If he and Amberly failed and didn’t check in before morning, there was a plan in place. They would begin evacuating, but if they did, their hands would be tipped and it would all fall apart. Regent and his followers would disperse to the winds and they would have to start over.

  It was now or never.

  “I love you, Amberly,” he said quietly.

  With an almost-sob, she threw her arms around him. “I know you do. I love you too. Come back to me.”

  “I will, my heart.”

  And he took off at a slow jog, dodging rocks and tree limbs with the help of the NVGs. No one would see him coming down the mountain, unless they had thermal optics. And unless they were actively hunting, thermals weren’t something most people carried.

  Dev’s heart was thudding strongly, and he was glad he’d kept up with his physical conditioning as much as he had. As long as he didn’t break an ankle on a rock, he’d be good to go.

  Dev made it to the base of the mountain and the ground began to level off. Skirting around a large herd of cattle, he made sure not to disturb them with his passing. He startled one mama with her calf nestled beneath a tree. They took off running.