Page 71 of Resolution

I nodded, seeing the challenge in her eyes. “I will.”

“Me too,” Raven said.

Sorensen cleared his throat. “We should go over the plan,” he said, consulting his dive watch. “I want to figure out our approach and gear up.”

“We’re moving tonight?” I asked.

Sorensen eyed Mac and Lincoln. “No earlier than midnight for sure, but I think it’s best to wait until 0400. Even then, I’m torn. Do you think we can wait that long?”

“Sorry,” Raven said. “Why four a.m.?”

“Because that’s the time when the sicarios will be most likely to let their guard down,” Mac said. “They’ll be tired, less alert at four in the morning. The Army has studied this fact at length. Lack of sleep is associated with impaired reaction time, poor judgment, more accidents, low morale. The Army looks at sleep patterns to help soldiers cope with guard duty at the time when the body normally requires sleep. Graveyard shifts in any profession are difficult…it doesn’t matter what industry. The human body isn’t made that way. Nurses, doctors, cops, and even airline pilots have been shown to be less effective in overnight hours. More mistakes are made. Add stress into the equation, and you begin to see patterns. Trust me, Raven, it’s a thing.”

“That makes a lot of sense.”

“I don’t think we can wait,” Bannister said, chewing her thumbnail.

“What do you think, Sorensen?” Lincoln asked. “Should we split the difference between midnight and 0400 then…say 0200?” He checked with Mac. “Good?”

Sorensen and Mac exchanged a glance with each other, seeming to come to a silent agreement. “We’ll set off at 0200,” Mac agreed.

“We’re here to serve,” Sorensen said. “Give us an order and we’ll follow it.”

Heavy boots rang out on the cement floor and Jarrett sauntered over. I’d seen him huddled with the Spec. Ops and DEA tac teams earlier, but now, he was all smiles and dimples, seemingly ready to join in on the discussion. He slapped Cassidy on the back and looked around at the rest of us.

“Are we gonna start plannin’ this shindig, ladies? My trigger finger’s itchy.”

Sorensen smiled at him then pointed to a table near his guys. Several cardboard rolls lay on its surface which I could only assume were maps. “Let’s go make a plan.”

I threw an arm over Raven’s shoulders. He looked at me with such a trusting expression, it made my heart skip a beat. I smiled back before turning to the rest of them.

“Sounds good. Let’s go make a plan.”

Chapter Seventeen

RAVEN

While Miguel joined the teams gathered around the table, I found a folding chair against a wall and sat down, pulling out my phone. I wasn’t a part of the raid on the compound, so it wasn’t necessary to be part of the discussion. If I had to admit, I really didn’t want to know all the details. The fact that the love of my life was going into a heavily fortified compound with an unknown number of killers, scared me to death. Knowing that there was nothing I could do to help the situation made me feel totally helpless.

I tried to get a Wi-Fi connection on my phone, thinking that I might be able to distract myself by doing a Nightcrawler review, but couldn’t get a signal of any kind, even a roaming one. By the time it finally occurred to me that the FBI was probably using some sort of signal blocker to keep our location secret, I gave up. Instead, I opened the Word app on my phone, did my best to remember the latest book I’d read, and started writing.

Book title: Hairy Potter

Author: Dr. Pickens

Publisher: Self-published

Genre: Paranormal

Review/rating by Nightcrawler: 3 stars

Synopsis:

The story of an innocent young man who’s unexpectedly drawn into a magical, supernatural world when he’s bitten by a werewolf.

My review:

The synopsis of this book sounded benign to me, so I sat down with it prepared for a yawn fest. I should preface this by saying that I’ve read my fair share of paranormal books, enjoying tales of vampires, werewolves, shifters, and other supernatural creatures. I was, however, surprised by the sexual twist in this book which was not listed as erotic romance.

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