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"How did we not know about this?" Bryon paced the computer room as Matt searched for more information.
"It's well hidden and very secretive. They pay for the privacy and silence." Matt kept typing as the printer beside him shot out page after page of information. "The home looks like any other mansion in the area. Most of them are gated with guards. A lot of Hollywood's elites live in the area. It blends in well."
"But the traffic?"
"Also common in the area. Some of the bands who own homes in that area are known for their nightly parties. No one would think anything about cars coming and going. I can't find anything on the dark web about it. Which tells me they run things offline. There aren't going to be images or videos for us to come across. We focus on court cases, videos, and pictures we find, then research from there. This is so underground there is nothing to research. Once I knew what to look for, I can find whisperings of it in some places. Even with those, it's not enough to confirm anything is really going on. They use code words to talk about it. One is wine tasting. They would tell a friend they were going to the Clifford Mansion for a wine tasting. To those who don't know, it sounds innocent enough, but to those who understand what goes on there, it means something else."
Bryon braced his hands on the back of Matt's chair and looked at what he was searching. "Can we get into this place?"
Matt stopped typing and turned to face him. "I don't know. It's big. Bigger than anything we've handled before. There are at least twenty to thirty armed men working at any given time, not to mention the surveillance cameras and other security features we're dealing with. I've got Marshall and Jeremy from the Denver team working on hacking the cameras and seeing what else they can find. It's just too big for me to handle alone. I'm used to having Trenton with me. He's our camera guru."
"Carter will be here in a couple of hours. He's flying in to help. He can get through anything as far as hacking the system. Dyson and his team have offered to come out if we need them, but I'm waiting to see just how big this is and how much danger it's going to put everyone in. I know you will all risk anything for Trenton, but I have to consider every life. I'm not sending my teams in on a suicide mission. If we can't pull this off, then we'll find another way."
"The fuck we will." Xander walked into the room. "We're going in. Tonight if possible."
"Tonight isn't possible," Matt said softly. "We don't have enough information yet."
"Then find the information. I'm not leaving Trenton sitting there another night." Xander's tone left no doubt to his anger.
Bryon understood the anger and the fear. He was going insane thinking about one of his men being raped and tortured. His whole life had been focused on stopping this from happening, and now, it was happening to one of his best friends.
He refused to think back on his friendship with Trenton. They'd worked together for so long they were like brothers. They were family. He'd helped Trenton years ago handle a bad situation and they'd been close since. "Should I call in the Denver team?" Bryon asked.
"Not yet. Kasey and Xander are good shots, I'm looking at maps of the place. We can take the guards out quietly in most areas, but I'm trying to decide if we might be better to do this sting during the day." Matt glanced at them.
Bryon frowned. "You think it's safer in the daylight?"
"From what Ben said, there are no customers during the day, which I find odd, but it is what it is. If we know all the hostages are in the basement at that time, it makes it easier. We won't have to deal with customers upstairs, searching upstairs for hostages. It will all happen in the basement. Hell, there is a chance we could clear the basement without anyone upstairs knowing."
"Great," Xander sat down beside Matt. "But tell me, how are we getting all these hostages out? How are we securing the scene? We can't just go in, secure everything, then call the cops to come in and rescue everyone. The cops are involved this time."
"I'm working on that." Bryon sighed. "I'm thinking vans to move them out, then drop them off at the hospital anonymously."
Xander snorted. "Seriously, like that's going to work. You've been at this too long to think we have any chance of staying anonymous that way."
Matt held up a hand to quiet them. "Noam has an idea, but you're not going to like it. He made me promise not to tell you guys until he was sure it would work, so give me just a little time to connect with him and see where things stand."
"You can't say that and not tell us more. Especially if we're not going to like it." Bryon glared.
Matt blew out a long breath. "Give me a few. Noam should be back from his meeting soon."
"When did you talk to Noam?" Xander asked.
"While you and Faith were on your run this morning. He called to ask some questions and get my opinion on a few things. I gave him the information he needed, agreed his idea had merit. He was going to meet with someone and see how things went."
"Who?" Bryon asked, not liking that his team was acting on their own without talking to the rest of them.
"One of his friends from his policing days, I think."
"Fuck, if this doesn't blow up in our faces it will be a miracle." Bryon started to pace again.
"If we rush in there without a plan, it will blow up for sure. We're good at what we do because we plan everything. There is nothing we don't look at and plan for. I know we want Trenton out of there right now, but we have to explore all our options and look at every bit of information before we make a plan. I know our focus is on Trenton, but there are several dozen more hostages we have to worry about as well. This isn't a simple in and out like we are used to. This might be more than we can handle," Matt explained.
While Bryon knew that was true, he didn't like it. He didn't like feeling out of control. He didn't like one of his men in danger. It twisted his gut in knots to think about what was happening to Trenton.
"Any word from Ben today?" Matt asked.
"No, but we didn't expect one. He's at work and can't communicate from there. If he has anything to tell us, he'll call when he gets off work." Xander reached over and took a swig of coffee from Matt's cup.
