Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“Shit, man.”
“Crazy, I know. But I couldn’t save my pal Wolf. He was tortured, and he died in the worst way.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry.”
“Ancient history.” He turns the car around. “We’ll park a few blocks away.”
“I’m not armed.”
“Not a problem. I’ve got everything we’re going to need in my trunk.”
“She may not even be in there,” I say.
He keeps his gaze focused on the road ahead, but I feel it penetrating me as if he were looking me straight in my own eyes. “Do you want to proceed? Tell me something. Do you feel her?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Think about your time inside, Falcon. Think about what you learned. You had to rely on your sixth sense. It’s what I had to do as well as a SEAL.”
I close my eyes, try to concentrate. “Yeah, you’re right. I knew when a threat was imminent, but how am I supposed to know if Savannah’s in there?
“You already do. You told me to come here rather than to the kid’s house.”
He’s right. I did. And for the life of me, I can’t feel shit now.
“Your call,” Leif says. “We can try to find her in there, or we can go somewhere else.”
I breathe in, hold my breath a moment, try to clear my mind.
The only time I had to try to clear my mind during the time I was incarcerated was at night. I needed my sleep. If I didn’t get my sleep, I wasn’t at my best the next day, and some inmates—myself included—learned to smell weakness a mile away.
But this—this clearing of my mind while awake—is new to me.
I attempt it, and I try to feel Savannah.
I jerk my eyes open. “Let’s go in.”
“You think she’s here?”
“Leif, I don’t have a fucking clue. I’m not sure I feel her. But I’m using logic. This is the most likely place she is. We know she hasn’t flown anywhere, and as you say, this has more security than Miles’s actual place.”
“You got it. We’re in.”
We get out of the car, and Leif opens the trunk. He hands me a black ski mask and a black hoodie. “Put these on.”
I zip the hoodie. “I feel like I’m getting ready to do a SWAT mission.”
“You are. The only difference is that we don’t have anybody at our backs.”
“We have each other,” I say. “That’s all we needed when we were kids.”
Of course, when we were kids, the worst we had to deal with was Burlington Hays stealing our lunch money.
“True enough.” Leif pats me on the back. “We’re going to get her back, Falcon. We’re going to get her back.”
I simply nod.
I have to believe we will, because I don’t know that I can live if we don’t.
Leif hands me a pistol, fully loaded, and I shove it in my waistband.
He’s already armed in his ankle holster, and he takes another piece as well, shoves it in his belt.
Then he hands me a burner phone. “Turn your phone off.”
“I can’t. What if Savannah tries to get hold of me?”
“We can’t risk their security tracing your signal.”
“I… I can’t do it.”
“You have to.”
And here’s where the difference between Leif and me lies. He was a member of the Navy, an elite SEAL, and he had the most up-to-date technology at his fingertips.
I was an inmate. I didn’t have a phone inside. I didn’t have to worry about it being traced.
I relied on handmade shivs and my fists.
“Where do we go first?”
“We need to breach the perimeter,” he says. “And we need to do it without being seen.”
“That seems impossible.”
“It’s not. We can do it.” He grips one of my shoulders with his firm hand. “You’ve got to believe in this, Falcon. You’ve got to believe that you have justice and the good of everything on your side.”
I breathe in slowly, and then I nod.
Leif nods back and then pulls out a bag of what looks like beef jerky.
“You need a snack?” I ask.
“Nope. These aren’t for me, and I don’t suggest you eat them either.”
“What are they?”
“Beef jerky laced with canine tranquilizer. For the guard dogs.”
“It won’t hurt the animals, will it?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. They’ll just take a little snooze. That’s all we need.”
“Do we even know if there are dogs?”
“Nope. We haven’t cased the place yet. My guess is there will be guard dogs. Every top-notch security system uses human guards, guard dogs, a wired and wireless entry system, and then of course the most basic thing. A big ass fence.”
We’ve already seen the fence. It’s six feet tall, black wrought-iron. With a locked gate.
“I didn’t see a guard at the gate though,” I say.
“There isn’t one. Odd, yes. If it were me, I’d have one. But it’s probably a remote-controlled gate. If it’s digital, and I’m betting it is, I should be able to hack the code.” He holds up a gadget that looks kind of like a cell phone.