Page 23 of Meaner Than Evil

"Sure." He and Mike walk to the port side to send the little airship into the sky.

Crockett cues the radio. "License, you there?"

"Yeah."

"It's 'copy' or 'roger that,' not yeah."

"My bad. Copy."

"Sending night owl to target."

"Roger that. I have the controls."

Nina's voice says, "We have heat signatures on six bodies on board the yacht. Everything looks good."

Three minutes later, we hear Nina again. "Rocket, we have a situation."

I sit straight up as cold calm pumps through my veins. Everyone's eyes focus on me.

Crockett cues the radio again as Mike and Justin return. "Go ahead, Foxtrot."

"I count 20 bodies within the perimeter, and sixty, I repeat six-zero inside."

"Copy that. The body count is eighty. Eight-zero."

"Good copy." She states. "Sharing the live feed with you now."

Crockett opens his iPad, and the screen displays the feed overlapped onto the blueprints. I lean in as everyone huddles around us. The west wing of the mansion shows groups of ten people inside one room inside four separate suites. Their stature is small, which indicates females. There are no guards posted outside.

Wilkerson states, "They will have drugged any other captives and locked inside."

The east wing shows four females milling around another female in a room, while four men are posted outside their door, and two more men are posted outside the adjacent empty room.

Nina says as she circles one with her pointer. "I believe this is Logan, and this is where the auction is going to take place."

I memorize the floor plan as she points out the location of the other bodies scattered throughout. "The other bodies appear to be all men. These are on the first floor. The rest are on the second floor. The only people on the third floor are with Logan."

Another helicopter flies over our heads. We watch the lights descend at the house.

Logan reports. "This appears to be someone of significance with five additional bodyguards."

Dirk Sam's voice breaks in. "We are inbound to deliver the goods. ETA six minutes."

Crockett replies. "Good copy. Standing by to be boarded in six."

He looks at me. "Time to get polished. I hope you clean up good."

I smirk. "The suit makes the man."

Twelve

Hammer

Dirk hovers the helo over the yacht, and Meghan waves then launches a backpack onto the deck. Brody strides over to get it as Crockett waves to her. Then Dirk rises into the dark and banks right, disappearing.

Brody tosses it at me and says, “Showtime.”

As I unzip it and remove the suit, he says, “I don’t know how much you know about body language, so I’m going to give you a crash course.”

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