Page 246 of Wild Card

35

TALON

“You got it?”

One, two, three, four…

“Do you fucking have it?” My patience fails.

“We have it,” Rand confirms. “Systems are down for ninety seconds.”

“Keep alert, Marines. Watch your six and let’s get our fucking guys.” Blade flicks his fingers for me to lead since I’m technically senior on this mission.

The night vision goggles allow us to approach the house silently, but even without them, I have memorized every inch of this property.

It’s been a week since the guys arrived, and it’s a fucking miracle none of us have snapped. Waiting on our asses isn’t our specialty.

As suspected, Robbie, Finn, and James discovered the breadcrumbs Max left indicating a leak in his team.

As so, our rescue mission turned into an all-out diplomatic fucking nightmare. We were commanded to hold back and let the technical teams uncover the depth of Ricardo’s network.

Robbie worked with a special group inside the military to infiltrate every piece of communication on the system Max’s team is using.

What we didn’t expect was the guy I snatched from the club that night wasn’t a loyal henchman.

Eli Gage.

A Goddamn, fucking US Special Agent working undercover.

He’s part of an anti-terrorism unit that’s been working the area for two years. He’d successfully penetrated his way into Ricardo’s crew.

Rand ran his background and it was clean… squeaky clean. The pornographic images and sites on his phone were fake ploys that led a trail back to Eli’s contact in the government.

Within five minutes, we knew we were fucking screwed.

Another part of the diplomatic fucking nightmare.

Without a choice, we added a member to our team. One that none of us trusted, but we had no choice.

Turns out Ricardo is a middleman, but still a valuable asset. He’s got investors operating under guises whose money is being siphoned to terrorist recruitment groups around the area.

And Max knew it.

He fucking masterminded this whole thing.

Robbie was angry, but James Hayes was enraged. He’s never liked surprises and really doesn’t like playing nice with agencies he hasn’t agreed to.

There’s now a slew of ranks claiming to be in charge.

It’s been a pissing contest that James won.

This morning, our guys uncovered the proof that our traitor had tipped off Ricardo’s team they were under surveillance and Marines were in the city. It was this fuckwad who got our men caught.

Now we have the collaborator red-handed and enough information about the network to lead to the top.

It’s time to rescue our men.

We approach the jail, entering through the door closest to the stairwell. Plans submitted for the renovation and Eli’s knowledge give us an idea of the house specs, but we know to be prepared for the unknown.

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