Page 170 of One Eye Open (The BlackWater)

One of them winced glancing at his watch. “Thirty, maybe forty minutes.”

“Forty minutes?” Brandon said. “Forty FUCKING MINUTES?”

“It could’ve been longer.” One of them half whispered.

“Sorry…”

“Get the fuck out.” He snapped before looking at Becky.

“Get Aidan in there, get another Tactical Team in. We’ve no idea what the fuck is going on but as far as I’m concerned we’ve just lost twenty Agents.”

“And Cole?” Becky said quietly.

“I’ll let him know. Let’s get some answers first. Then I’ll call him.”

She nodded grabbing her phone and calling Aidan.

The vans pulledup to site, lights flashing, not giving a shit who they alerted. Aidan took charge sending each team out in a different direction.

They could see the other BlackWater vans ahead. They looked like someone had raided them, stripped them bare. All the tech, all the equipment was gone.

“Alpha Team you take right. Bravo you go left.” Aidan instructed, watching them move and itching to be with them but knowing he had to lead. He couldn’t do that in the middle of a shootout.

He watched as they crawled between the cars, taking aim, protecting their position as each new Agent moved ahead. They’d trained for something like this over and over and in a way he was proud to see how damn good they were.

“Agent down.” Someone said over the radio.

“Second Agent down.” Another voice called.

Aidan shook his head looking round at the medics. As soon as he could he’d let them in but not until the sight was secure. Clearly something serious had happened and he wasn’t going to take any chances no matter who might be lying there.

He watched as the Agents circled round, securing each new position and then finally he heard the call he was waiting for.

“Site secure.”

Thank fuck for that, he thought.

He nodded to Sam, his SIC, and they ran across to where the team were with the medics following close behind.

“Fucking hell.” Sam said.

All around Agent’s lay sprawled, some were obviously dead. Some were still alive. Aidan’s eyes fell on Max and he ran over, rolling him from where he was laid on his side and heard him groan in pain. He was covered in so much blood it was hard to see where it was coming from.

“It’s alright mate. It’s Aidan, Armed Response.” Aidan said.

“Maddie…” He groaned.

“Where is she?” Aidan asked.

Max shook his head.

“Is she dead?” Aidan asked.

“They took her. It was a set up.” He gasped as the medic ran up to him.

“Where were you shot?” The medic asked.

“My back.” Max half hissed. “They shot me from behind. They were waiting for us.”

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