Page 169 of One Eye Open (The BlackWater)

Brandon sighed stirring the lukewarm coffee in his mug and looking at the clock. It’d been a long day, longer too because Maddie had pulled a last minute ops meaning half the team were still in on standby.

“We got the forensics back.” Thomas said as he swung his head around his office door.

“On the van?” Brandon asked.

“Yeah, turns out that soil sample was something…” He said walking in and handing him the file.

Brandon frowned opening it up and scanning the paper.

“What does this mean?” He muttered.

“The composition isn’t from round here. There’s a peat mix in it that comes from three locations all around the Malvern’s.” Thomas stated.

“Why the fuck would this van have soil from Worcestershire?” Brandon asked confused.

Thomas smirked. “I guess that’s what we need to figure out right boss?”

Brandon smirked back. “Yeah you can say that again.” He muttered. “Bring me some info on those sites. I want us to do a reccy, see if there’s anything there we should be looking at.”

“On it.” Thomas said turning on his heel.

“Brandon.” Becky said rushing into the room and practically knocking Thomas over.

“What’s up?” Brandon said.

“This op, have you heard anything?” She asked.

“No, why?”

She frowned. “Aidan’s said Jax hasn’t reported back.”

“Maybe they’re still on scene.” Brandon said but even he got how unlikely it was.

“It’s been three hours. How long does it take to take down some bad guys and round up a bunch of girls?” Becky asked.

“Fair point.” Brandon said getting up. “Let’s go see the Ops Room. Maybe they have an update.”

Becky nodded following right on his heels and if anything it made him more nervous. They walked into the room and it looked like a complete shit show. Half the team were scrambling around the monitors, while the other half were pulling at leads.

“What is this?” Brandon shouted making them all freeze.

“We lost contact.” One of them said. “We think it’s a duff connection.”

“Think?” Becky repeated narrowing her eyes.

“That or…” Another fell silent.

“Or what?” Brandon asked.

They shook their heads.

“Why were we not informed?” Brandon said.

“We thought it was a technical issue. We’ve been trying to fix it.”

“For how long?” Becky asked. They looked at her and then at Brandon.

“For hour long?” He shouted.

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