Page 90 of Headcase
They all looked at Thomas for a long moment. He rarely brought up Aiden, but when he did, there was a sharpness to his tone, like he wanted to cut off any chance of one of them finally asking what the fuck had happened between the two of them to cause this level of tension.
“Six of us, then,” Asa amended.
“Seven,” Zane said. “I want to go.”
“Yeah, no. You can’t go,” Asa fired back, and when Zane opened his mouth to argue, Asa held up his hand. “That’s not up for negotiation. I can’t focus if I have to worry about you getting shot.”
“You can’t just say, ‘you’re not going,’ like I’m some kind of 1950s housewife,” Zane snapped. “You’re not…the boss of me,” he finished, flushing.
“This has nothing to do with who’s in charge of who,” Asa countered. “This has to do with training. Do you know how to use a gun? A knife? Do you have any kind of combat skill needed that I don’t know about?”
Zane’s face fell. “No.”
“Hold that thought,” Calliope said. Blueprints appeared on the screen as well as what looked like satellite footage. “Strategically, it would seem like breaching the home from the water would be ideal, but the entire backside of his home is glass, so you’d have to go in completely under the radar. That means going in Seal-style with dive equipment and keeping a boat anchored out of sight. It means no guns. This has to be a completely silent attack.”
“If he hears us coming, won’t he just run to his little panic room?” Asa asked. “He can’t possibly care about hacking you enough to risk death.”
“This guy is a narcissist. He’s going to be so pissed that I even dared to try to hack him that he won’t be able to resist showing off how superior his skills are. Believe me, I know the type. I just have to keep him busy. Let him think he’s winning, but while he’s chasing me, I’m leading him right where I want him to go. Once you have him, I’ll have his computer system.”
“What if there’s nothing there?” Zane asked. “We can’t just let him go. What do we do?”
“We get the confession out of him the old-fashioned way and then we put him down and make peace with the fact that we might not be able to expose him for the monster he is,” August said.
“Fuck that,” Zane growled. “The world needs to know. Those families need to know.”
“One crisis at a time,” Calliope said. “Anybody know how to drive a boat?”
“I do,” Lucas said, earning a surprised look from August. “What? I spent my summers fishing with my grandfather. Believe me, he made sure I knew how to do all of the manly things.”
“Okay, so Lucas drives the boat. Zane, you can stay on the boat with Lucas. Once the target is acquired, you can be there for the justice part of it. Okay?” Calliope asked.
“Can I go?” Noah chimed in.
“I need you on the monitors, but we can set them up remotely on the boat. This has to go down at exactly the same time and someone is going to have to walk the guys through step by step. And that someone is you.”
Noah nodded. “When is this going down?”
“Thomas?” Calliope chirped.
“We need a boat, a jet, and dive equipment?” Thomas asked. “Give me an hour to make some phone calls. We’ll go tonight. You stay here and nail down the specifics.”
* * *
They killed the lights on the boat about half a mile from Freddie’s Malibu mansion. Zane and Noah were below deck, ensuring that the monitors were set up. The team on the ground would have cameras so Noah could monitor in real time with satellite footage as well as keep tabs on Calliope.
Asa found Zane sitting on the table, chewing his nails down to the quick.
“I don’t like this,” Zane said, shaking his head. “What if you get hurt? What if he calls the cops and you go to jail?”
“Then you can bake me a cake with a nail file in it. Okay?” Asa teased, earning a glare from Zane.
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny,” Asa said, chucking Zane under the chin. “Seriously, Lois. We’ve done this hundreds of times. This is going to be easy.”
“I feel like you’re fucking lying,” Zane said, wrapping his arms awkwardly around Asa, who was decked out in his dive gear.
“I never lie to you, Lois. That’s why we work.”
