Page 76 of Guarding Truth
Worth a shot. He texted Alana that he’d heard signs of life coming from warehouse number twenty’s loading dock. Without waiting for a response, he hopped over the railing of the ramp and climbed to the top of the truck. Light flickered from the window above, and Caleb’s adrenaline pulsed. He reached up and grabbed the ledge. If he made it out of this alive, he vowed to hit the gym more often, because hoisting himself up to the ledge was basically the equivalent of a pull-up. And he hadn’t done pull-ups since basic training.
He sucked in a breath and planted his feet on the wall, hoping for some leverage to propel him up. His arms shook, but once his forearms crossed the threshold, he grasped the wrought-iron bars covering the panes of glass. He swung his leg up and over the ledge. His breath came in gasps. The ledge was probably a foot deep and three feet wide, giving him just enough room to stand and take in the expansive warehouse floor below. The place was filled with rows of metal storage racks that held a variety of packaged goods ready to be shipped out. Caleb’s perch provided a view over the tops of the shelves.
Where was Alana? He checked his phone and realized the message hadn’t gone through. Evidence that he was in the right place, since the hackers liked to jam all signals in or out so they could control communication. This had to be where they were keeping Ivy hostage.
In the middle of the warehouse, there was a walled-off section that looked like offices. A man opened a door at the far left end, and Caleb caught sight of the room filled with monitors and computer equipment.
Jackpot. This was Rushmore’s lair. In the middle of a bustling warehouse, they had carved out space to run their operations.
Hiding in plain sight.
Toward the right side of the office area, a different man carried a person over his shoulder. He knocked on a door. It swung open, and Caleb nearly fell off his ledge.
Ivy was strapped to a chair. She turned at the man’s entrance and gaped when the person dropped the bundle he was carrying.
Juliette’s limp body hit the floor.
Where were the police? Noelle and Alana had called for backup before they’d arrived, so the message should have gotten out.
A second man carried something into the room. Or make that a woman, but from his distance it was hard to tell. Whoever it was, the person struggled with the weight of the load.
He saw a flash of long blonde hair. “Oh no, no, no.”
Noelle!
Movement outside his position caught his attention. Alana popped out from behind the truck.
He jumped down from the ledge and onto the roof of the truck, which made more of a crashing sound than he’d have liked. He scampered down and found Alana.
“What did you find?” Alana whispered.
“They’ve got Ivy, Juliette, and Noelle in a room with no windows in the middle of the warehouse.”
Caleb jumped off the dumpster to the lot below. “I think Juliette and Noelle were knocked out—they were both carried in.”
Alana growled and motioned for him to follow. They hiked back to the cars.
“I can’t call or text,” Alana said. “Detective Williams said he’d send backup as soon as he could, but there was that bad accident taking up their time. I wish I had stressed the urgency of the situation.”
Caleb blew out a breath, the cool air sending vapors swirling around his face. Every step toward the cars felt like another minute lost.
“How are we going to get them out?” Caleb asked. “Without knowing whether or not backup is on the way, one of us has to go for help.”
Alana shook her head. “I’m not letting you run in there all Jack Bauer–like, trying to single-handedly save the day. But the clock is ticking, and we need to do something.”
A knock on the window had him airborne in his seat.
Williams and Slaton hopped in the back.
“Wha-da-we-got?” Matthew asked in one word.
Alana turned to the officers. “Ivy, Juliette, and Noelle are being held in an interior room—Juliette and Noelle are unconscious we think, right?”
Caleb nodded. “Looked like it.”
“And we can’t get a signal to call for backup. Phones worked earlier but not now. I think they jammed the signals in or out of this area. Did you call the cavalry in yet?”
Officer Slaton hissed. “We were at the accident scene and left to check things out here. We got a judge to sign a search warrant, and when I last communicated with SWAT, they were gearing up. That accident has everyone scrambling.”