by Jet MacLeod
“More than likely she is on the first floor or on the second near an office. Ivan is going to want to be near a phone for Rudakov’s instructions. He isn’t going to want Angie out of his sight. Are there any offices below me near the production floor.”
“Yeah, four doors down and on the right. There is an office right above another office on the second floor. It looks down on the production floor, but it has a gaping expanse in front of it.”
“Find out what that expanse was used for. I am going to move down towards that office on this floor. If we can I’m going to run a snake to get a better line of sight.”
“And, if you can’t?” Sanchez asked.
“Find me a way in that is blind to them. I don’t care if it is the AC vents. I have to get to her.”
“Understood, Lieutenant.”
She slowly opened the door. After double checking the hallway, she moved out of the office. She put her back to the wall and slowly made her way down to the office at the other end of the hall. The door was locked. She cursed silently under breath.
“Lewey, wait.”
“What?”
“Check that door before you go in,” Sanchez told her.
“Why?”
“I got a line of sight on it from my perch. Something seems off about it. There is number pad lock on the inside. Is there one in the outside?”
“No,” Montgomery replied as she backed away from the door.
“It’s trapped.”
“Damn it. Find me away around it. Can I go up and come back down?”
“Not that I can see. However the office adjacent to it will still get you above the production floor. You just won’t be over the office, so if you go through the floor...” Sanchez didn’t finish his thought as soon as he heard her grunt.
She pushed on the door and felt it give. She quickly scanned the room. There was nothing in it. There was nothing to hide behind or protect her if someone decided to come in. She huffed and made for the window. She looked out. Sanchez signaled her from across the way with a laser.
“There is nothing in here,” she told him frustrated.
“I know.”
“How am I supposed to get through to her? There is nothing in here. The ac vent is in the ceiling and is only six inches wide. How am I supposed to fit through that?”
“Calm down, Lewey. You can drill through and use a snake in the floor. But, you need to hurry if you are going to do it. There isn’t anyone directly below you right now and the hall is still clear,” Sanchez told her.
“I really hate you sometimes, you know that?”
“I love you, too, Montgomery.”
She moved away from the window and to the center of the room. She figured that the flooring and the ceiling below would be able to absorb most of the vibrations that her drill caused as she drilled a small pilot hole through the floor. Once she was happy with the hole, she pushed the small snake camera through it. She pulled out a small viewing screen and turned the snake trying to get the best angle to see.
“I’ve got nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t see a damn thing below me.”
“Try using the functions and bending the lens,” Sanchez suggested.
She played with the miniature controls on the view screen. Suddenly, the room below her opened up and she had a direct line of sight into the office below. She could see Ivan, but she still hadn’t seen Angie yet. She zoomed in on Ivan. He was pacing.
“He’s in the office and he’s pacing.”
“He’s pacing?”
“Yup, Ivan is pacing.”
“Want me to take him out?” Sanchez asked.
“Not until I know where Angie is. I still can’t see her. Are there more bodies in that room?”
“Not that I can see. There is only one now. There are four below the office and one hasn’t moved since we got here,” Sanchez told her.
“Can you see that person?”
“No, I have no direct line of sight on them. I only have heat. If that is Angie, you’ll be going in hot and I can’t cover you. What are your orders, Lieutenant?” he asked.
“Find me a way around and into that office with Ivan.”
“Wait one,” Sanchez told her.
Del looked at the screen in her hands. She kept moving the camera around. She was desperately trying to find Angie. She was trying to will the camera to find her. Her anger was clouding her judgment and she knew it. She sat down and stared at the wall, willing herself to calm down.
She calmed her breathing and looked at the screen again. She was watching Ivan. He stopped pacing. He came out of the office onto the small production floor. And, that is when she saw it. Finally something was going her way. There was a small break away wall and behind it was another small production floor. There was nothing there but a chair and Angie.
“I found you,” she whispered excitedly.
She zoomed in on Angie. She could see the fear and the determination on her face. It was enough to calm her down completely. Angie was okay and she didn’t look harmed. She sighed.
“Hold on for me, Angie. I’m coming. I’ll be there soon,” she told the screen.
“Montgomery?” Cole asked over the comm.
“Go ahead, Sarge.”
“Looks like Rudakov decided to make an appearance. Gregor doesn’t know how he got out of DC, but I’ve got a visual on him. I’ve got cross-hairs on him. Gregor said it is your call. He’ll take the flak for it. He stated that it would be a shame for Rudakov to have expired unexpectedly in the field. He has gotten permission from State for you to be the lead on this operation and investigation,” Cole told her.
She looked up through the window at Sanchez. He had been watching her, she knew, while she was looking at the screen. He heard what Cole had said on the radio. He gave her a “thumbs up” with the laser. She knew what the signal meant.
“Montgomery?” Cole asked.
“Give me a minute.”
She looked at the screen. She needed to formulate a plan and quickly. If Rudakov was there, it meant that he was going to try to escalate things. He might threaten Gregor to give up her location. She knew that Gregor wouldn’t do that, but he also knew she was in the area and looking for Angie if he was there. Rudakov knew how Montgomery operated, but she hoped that she was lucky enough that he didn’t know that Sanchez and Cole were with her, too.
“Sanchez, I need a route into that office with Ivan.”
“I am on it.”
She waited, still watching the screen. Her eyes were glued to Angie. She shook her head and moved the camera around. She couldn’t see a way into the office. She could cut through the floor, but they would know she was coming before she made it through.
“Sanchez?” she asked, when a thought crossed her brain.
“Still working on it.”
“How booby trapped is the office next door?”
“It just looks like the door, why?”
“I’m thinking that I need to get through that wall. Can you give me any structural specifications? I am getting through over there. I don’t know how, but I will.”
“The walls are just gypsum. That shouldn’t be too hard to break through. Just make sure to miss the studs, they are metal and going to hurt. Once you’re in there, let me know. I’m pulling up the schematics for the flooring. Hopefully it won’t be that hard to get through.”
“I hope not. I’ll deal with Ivan. Cole, keep an eye on Rudakov for as long as you can. Sanchez, what else can you tell me on the vehicles? I need to know before I get in there. I can see Angie, now,” she told them.
“How does she look?” Cole asked immediately, dismissing the rest of the information.
“She is scared, but she isn’t letting them know about it.”
“That’s my girl,” Cole started. “The vans are registered to a Sergey Popov of Carlton Heights, California. They are bogus. If I had to guess, I would say Russian Mob. But, something doesn’t feel
right about that either. They aren’t this sloppy. This stinks of Rudakov from the word go.”
“I think so, too.”
“I can make sure the vehicles aren’t drivable,” Sanchez added.
“How?”
“High powered rifle,” he answered simply.
“They’ll hear it,” she argued.
“Not this one. It is an air gun, compressed air. There isn’t any gun powder. They won’t know what hit them until it is too late. I can knock out the tires. It would be easy from here. Just tell me when and it’s done,” Sanchez told her.
“As soon as I get into the office with Ivan, start taking them all out. Quickly and quietly, though, I want them to think I am still on the outside and moving. The more time they waste on trying to find me out there the better. It will allow me to move around and get Angie out a little more safely. Don’t you both agree?” she asked them.
“Yes,” Cole replied.
“I’m on it, Lewey,” Sanchez replied.
“I’m going through the wall. Figure the rest of it out. I am going to do this as quietly as I can.”
She removed her rifle and leaned it up against the wall. She was hoping that the room wasn’t actually booby trapped and it was just the door like Sanchez saw. She dropped her gear. She needed as much free movement as she could muster to make the hole in the wall. She dug through the small bag that she carried and found her Special Forces hatchet. She smiled as she held it up in front of her body. It always turned out to be very useful. She was glad that Cole made it a mandatory part of her kit.
She backed away from the wall and picked a spot. She stood back and threw the hatchet at the wall. It sunk into the drywall easily. She pulled it out. There was nothing but plaster on it. This was a good sign for her. It meant that she had missed the stud. She immediately went to work on the patch. She wanted to make a decent enough size hole through both sides of the dry wall before she expanded it enough to get through. She wanted to know what she was working with on the other side. She was still hoping that it wasn’t booby trapped like they thought with her every movement.
“Lewey, we got action,” Sanchez told her.
“Where?”
“Coming at you. Don’t make any sudden noises. Whoever it is seems to be patrolling. I think that they are stepping up security on the inside of the building since Rudakov got there. Be careful,” he told her.
“I am.”
She slowly chipped away at the dry wall, widening the hole and making sure not to make much noise. She could hear the foot steps outside. She knew that Sanchez was right.
“How many?” she asked him, confirming his assessment.
“Just one for right now.”
“Good, tell me if that changes.”
“As always, Montgomery,” he replied.
She went back to work on her hole. She was using the blade to scrape at the drywall because it was quieter than hacking away at it. She kept moving. Time was now the enemy. She didn’t want Rudakov to move Angie. That would be the worst thing to happen, besides him hurting her.
She sighed as she brushed off the plaster from her face. She saw the powder puff off at the wall. She wiped her arms and started to go back at it when she heard the footsteps outside getting louder and closer to the office door. She turned and waited. Her eyes zeroed in on the knob to the office door.
She heard the knob across the hall shake. She looked over at the knob. She hadn’t relocked it. She mentally scolded herself for jeopardizing her own safety that stupidly. She ran across the room to lock it, but she realized that if the guard heard it, she was spotted. It would be easier if she could get the guard into the room with her.
As if on cue the knob rattled and the door opened. Her heart dropped. Instinct took over. She grabbed the man from behind and pulled him into the room. He didn’t even know what hit him. The hatchet was buried in his chest and the door was shut and locked before he hit the ground.
“Change of plans boys,” she told them on the comm.
“Yeah?”
“One down, who knows how many to go. Find me another way down, Sanchez. I’ll take them out quietly on the way down. Now, let’s do this.”
“What do you mean one down, Lewey?”
“I had an unexpected visitor, Cole. He has been neutralized. I’ve lifted his radio. It doesn’t seem like anyone is looking for him yet. We’re good. I’ve made sure to keep the body in the office with me. Just someone remind me to clean my hatchet later. It is a little messy,” she replied.
She could already hear Sanchez laughing at the statement. She knew that Cole was worried about her and knew how she reacted to killing, but this time it was different. Rudakov was making this personal and she was going to end it, tonight. She was going to make sure that there weren’t any loose ends.
“Go back to working on the hole,” Cole told her.
“I am done with trying that, unless it is the best and quietest way down.”
“It is,” Sanchez stated.
“Damn it.”
“Look, Lewey, I know that you are angry. Take it out on the wall. We don’t need a blood bath.”
“I know that.”
“Besides, I already have Gregor working on having SWAT here to clean up. All you need to do is tell me when and they’re here. Trust me. No one is getting out of that warehouse without some sort of repercussion. We need to get Angie and get you both out. Let’s focus on that for now.”
“I am focused on that, Cole. Deal with the vehicles. I’ll get back to work on the wall. Sanchez, keep watch on the heat signatures. How’s my feed?”
“We’re good. Keep working. I’ve got the feed and vehicles taken care of,” he replied.
She reached down and pulled the hatchet out of the man. She wiped it off on the guy’s shirt. She turned back to the wall and threw the hatchet into it. The hatchet stuck in drywall right next to the hole that she had already started. She crossed the room and pulled it out of the wall. Now, she felt better and felt like she could actually work on the wall. Slowly and methodically she went at the wall. Scraping and scoring, she made the hole wider. When the gypsum was too tough, she hacked at it with the blade making chucks fall. She didn’t try to do it often because she knew that it would cause too much noise. She needed to keep as quiet as possible as she worked on the wall.
“Lewey?”
“What is it, Sanchez?”
“We’ve got movement on the floor below.”
“What kind of movement?”
“The not good kind.”
“Explain.”
“It looks like Rudakov is with Angie now,” Sanchez told her.
Del’s heart sank. She knew that if Rudakov was with Angie bad things were about to happen. She needed to get to her faster now. Trying to go through the wall was no longer a viable option. She needed to get into that office and fast. But, first she needed to calm down.
“How do you know that it was Rudakov?” she asked Sanchez.
She took a deep breath as she waited for his answer. She was already grabbing her gear and putting it back on. She’d quickly cleaned the hatchet and instead of putting back in her pack, she attached it to her side on her utility belt. She wanted quick access to it, if she needed it. Once she had her gear and belt situated on her, she checked the placement of everything.
“Sanchez?” she inquired again, while she checked her pistol and made sure that the Silencer was attached. She smiled as she put it back into her easy access, break away holster. As soon as her pistol was put away, her left hand checked for the K-bar knife on her left side. Her smile got bigger as she realized that it was just in front of her hatchet.
“Yeah, sorry. I was tapping into another satellite. I am trying to get a better line on the warehouse,” he told her.
“Any luck?” she asked.
“Yeah, but it was a drone I hacked.”
“And?”
“I’ve got a clear view through the windows. Rudakov is in there with Angie and Iv
an. I can’t get too close or stay there too long or they’ll figure out it’s us.”
“I understand that. Take five minutes, watch them and then help me find a way down there,” she told him picking her rifle up and checking it, again, before slinging it over her shoulder. “I am on way down there. Find me the clearest route to that office by the blue prints and let me know what you see.”
“I’ve hacked into the main electrical grid, Montgomery. I can cut the power. Will that help you?” Cole offered.
“It sure would, but we need to wait. I want to be as close as possible to them before we do that. I want him thoroughly spooked by the time I get to him. How are the tires?”
“All punctured, Lieutenant,” Sanchez replied with a grin in his voice. “Third floor is clear. You can start your decent anytime you’re ready, LT. I’ve got eyes on the prize at the moment.”
“Good. Let me know about any changes. How are we looking outside?”
“Clear and unaware on my side, Lewey,” Sanchez replied.
“I got three guards and one piece of muscle, two disabled vehicles, but nothing to worry about,” Cole added. “Don’t worry about it. We got it. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
“Thanks, Sarge,” she told him as she unlocked and opened the door to the office.
She checked the hallway out of habit before she went out the door way. She slowly eased out of the office and into the hallway. She kept to the wall and the shadows. Now was not the time to leave anything to chance. Angie needed her and she was going to make sure that Rudakov paid for his insolence and stupidity. She worked her way down the hall in the shadows. She checked each doorway to make sure that it was still locked. She didn’t want any surprises coming up behind her. She used the heat scope on the stairwells as she passed them. She decided to block all of them but one. That way it would limit the access that they had to get back to her or follow her on her way out.
“How is the roofing looking?” she asked as she finally picked the stairwell that she would leave open for her escape.
