Page 60 of Talk to Me

There was a moment of perfect peace found in the seconds between heartbeats, in lining up the target and squeezing the trigger. Profound tranquility that lasts microseconds.

As the hot sticky air wrapped around me like a cocoon, I settled into place. My gun was cool against my fingers. The scope let me isolate my field of vision as necessary. One by one, I cataloged the night sounds and began to eliminate them.

The buzzing of the insects.

The croaking of the frogs.

The singing of nightbirds.

The faint lap of the water.

A distant splash.

Each one identified, then muted. If the sound changed or shifted in some way, I’d notice then. Until then, I didn’t need to be distracted. Sweat trickled down my face. A thin line of Vaseline across my brows kept the perspiration from finding its way into my eyes.

While I settled into place, McQuade and Locke crossed the cracked, dilapidated parking lot that seemed more suited to a strip mall along an interstate than some secret installation.

Then again, black sites never looked like black sites. That was the point.

I studied the lot through my scope. The cameras. They had to have them, just camouflaged well. Nearing the muddy yellow glow cast by one of the lights illuminating the lot, McQuade fired three times before the glass broke and the light went out.

He wasn’t that bad of a shot. Bullet resistant glass used for outdoor lights? If we weren’t already certain the sketchy nature of the location, that would have confirmed it. They were in the first door swiftly after the glass came down.

I debated going ahead and taking out the rest of the lights, but the destruction of the first didn’t seem to alert security. I marked the locations for ease of targeting later, then went back to overwatch on the door.

My awareness submerged, letting me process the sounds around me as I eliminated the ones I didn’t need in order to listen for the ones I did. A car motor approaching? A shift in the breeze? Movement in the water?

Anything that could interfere with me doing my job—I was their exit plan. Time ceased to have any meaning for me. I didn’t need to count the seconds or worry about the passage of time.

Not yet, anyway.

McQuade was excellent at infiltration as well as search and rescue. He had enough skills to assist should Patch be injured. It would do the other occupants of this building a favor if she was in perfect health when she was found.

Locke might not have the weapons training, but he possessed computer savvy and the ability to bypass locks and other security measures. Based on an assessment of our skills, they were the ideal partnership to go in.

Just as I was the one who would make sure their exit was not compromised. Minutes trickled together. At the fifteen minute mark, I registered it and gave myself a brief thirty seconds to roll my head from side to side. Then resumed watch.

Just one minute before the thirty-minute mark everything went to hell. The distant sound of an alarm seemed muffled and the air even heavier. Skating my tongue over my lower lip, I held position.

The alarm could have nothing to do with them.

It could have everything to do with them.

We had one fallback plan if it went to hell. That involved me going for more backup to retrieve her since they would likely be dead.

Nice plan.

It would take too long. I also had more faith in McQuade than Locke did. Or maybe I just understood him better. Both men wanted Patch back. While we may only intersect on that one point, in the Venn diagram of our acquaintance, it was enough to make me trust them and value their retrieval as well as hers.

My internal stop-watch began the countdown. I barely made it past six minutes and the outer door banged open releasing the sound of the alarm which blared even louder, the pop of gunfire, and Locke moving at a dead run with a woman in his arms.

Relief flickered to life within me before I cut away from them to the door McQuade backed out of. He was still firing his gun, then he tossed something before he hauled ass.

The flash-bang went off inside. Seemed almost too easy to pick off the guards who came stumbling out.

Then again, they came out which meant they were going down. I had zero intentions of letting anyone recover to pursue them.

Pop.