Page 6 of His Witness To Save

After nearly exhausting the entire day, drawing up plans and awaiting the arrival of the weapons the FBI had surprisingly approved, Mack felt fulfilled for the first time in a while as they concluded on pinpointing the hideout the following day and planning to lay ambush as soon as they were certain on their location, but all confidence went down the drain as Dave turned up the volume of the TV that was tuned in to the NYC Evening News Hour.

BREAKING NEWS: WOMAN ABDUCTED ON HER WAY TO SUPERMARKET FOUND DEAD IN NYC ALLEY

As if the headline wasn't bad enough, the cold, emotionless voice of the reporter pierced through all their enthusiastic spirits as she mentioned that it looked as though the victim was tortured and raped before she was brutally murdered. She also mentioned that a message was left beside the victim's body. It appeared to be written in the victim's blood, and it read:

MORE ON THE WAY.

Dave shook his head and sent a punch to the table as Mack stood from his seat and walked slowly toward the giant plasma TV mounted at the other end of the room, staring at it as if his eyes could change what was written. He had had enough. He was sick and tired of the mind games Kamal was playing on him, tired of waiting a moment longer like the voice in his head kept on telling him that Brie and Rachel were as cold and stiff as the lady on the TV screen, and he couldn't help but burst into tears.

"Chief!" one of the men blurted out in the middle of Mack's mental breakdown. He quickly wiped up his tears and answered as sternly as he possibly could. "What is it?" he asked.

"My intel has pinpointed the exact location of the Brotherhood of Blood, sir!" he said anxiously, totally oblivious to what Mack's response would be.

Mack stared at him wide-eyed and silent. He couldn't believe what he was hearing but managed to ask, "How?"

"The hidden CCTV camera at Walmart captured two suspicious-looking figures exiting the premises, sir!" he said. "A face scan was done, and one of the suspects was identified to be Kamal himself."

The entire room went silent as he finished talking, and Mack broke the silence by saying, "We leave tomorrow by dusk."

The information was sent to the deputy chief, and Mack was called up to his office in the middle of another meeting with his team about their choice of evasive attack. Mack was hesitant about coming face to face with the deputy chief again because he had a feeling he was going to chew on more than a few of his bones if he tried tossing the hot potato at him again. But Daveadvised him to go, at least to update him on their recent conclusion about invading the proposed den of the Brotherhood of Blood.

As soon as Mack approached the office, a few light knocks were all it took for the door to fly open and shut, and he found himself in the middle of the office, staring eye to eye with the deputy chief.

"Good day, chief," Mack began.

"I think you should cancel the mission," Deputy Chief Rodgers said without a response to his greeting.

"What?" Mack asked with an obvious look of surprise on his face.

"You heard me loud and clear, son," he said, "I can't authorize you to go there until we have a solid lead on how to tackle them."

Mack lost it. The look of rage was evident in his face as he landed his hands forcefully on the DC'S desk, sending a few stationeries rolling to the ground.

"I don't care if you authorize this mission or not!" Mack yelled. "I have my team ready, and if you think one dead body is going to stop us from going in, then you must be horribly mistaken."

Deputy Chief Rodgers was caught off-guard. He had expected him to be angry about his instruction, but he hadn't seen this level of rage from Agent Mack before.

Before he could say anything, Mack continued, "Brie and Rachel have been in captivity for almost three days, which is already enough time for them to be butchered to bits!" he blurted out. "I don't know if you truly care about me or if you are just looking for a way to pin all this on me again, but my team and I are going, and there is nothing you can say or do to stop us!"

And with that, Mack stormed out of the office without even a glance back at the stunned deputy chief.

Mack walked back into the room with his team, and they all stopped to cast him a look of hope. Dave walked over to Mack, and with a light pat on this back, he said, "Let's do this."

CHAPTER SIX

You didn't need a shaman to tell you about the anxiety Mack felt that night. He didn't want to be alone, so he begged Dave to stay the night at his place, at least running the plan over with him again and again until he was satisfied that it would work to a reasonable extent.

After running through the plan for the hundredth time, Dave saw Mack do something he was sure he had never seen him do until now – pray. Mack suddenly got down on his knees and stayed still, pressing his hands tightly together and muttering inaudible words to a supernatural being he suddenly believed existed. Mack grew up in a Christian home but didn't see the need to pray until now, asking for one thing and one thing only – the safety of Brie and her friend.

Dave didn't interrupt him as the success of this mission depended on him, so it was only fair he asked for assistance from God.

A few minutes later, Mack got up and walked over to sit on the bed with his head down. Dave knew he was lost in thought and only offered a reassuring pat to the back, as Mack envisioned the worst for the mission.

Dawn arrived, and so did the rest of the team, double-checking that all the weapons they had were properly functional. Running over the plan as a team now, Mack gave a little pep talk, and the other men cheered him on, even though they knew deep within that they were about to embark on one of the most dangerous missions in their entire FBI career.

The day got darker, and every member of the team said a silent prayer as they approached the supposed hideout of the Brotherhood of Blood. A surveillance agent in the team had placed every corner outside the dilapidated two-story building on a 24/7 watch, and every being that entered or exited the building had their face scanned through the database, and their identity sent back to the headquarters.

The black bullion van pulled up a few blocks away from the building, and everybody except the surveillance agent alighted from the vehicle. It was now or never as they split up into two teams; Mack, Dave, and another member named Stan walked into the building and started climbing the staircase equipped from head to toe with guns, shields, and bulletproof vests while the other three members scouted the ground floor of the building.

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