convinced her to leave the stolen laptop where it was so the authorities could come into the compound on the charge of theft. It would allow them to move faster than if they had to accumulate a case based on the documented evidence.
Hotwire gave the signal over the headsets that security was disabled. Three minutes later, Daniel indicated his man was down, and not five seconds later, Wolf signaled the same thing.
She and her dad headed in. She didn’t hear him moving, and she knew he couldn’t hear her either. Unlike when she’d been a little girl, she now knew how to move silently without leaving a trail behind her in the forest.
The office was exactly where her father had said it was. Only two sleeping quarters were attached to it, and they were at the other end of the long corridor, the mess hall between them and the office. Which meant that with the security system disabled, there was almost no chance her presence in the building would be detected.
Three computers were on different desks in the big office, and one of them was her laptop. She powered each one up. While they were coming on-line she started methodically taking pictures of the files in the cabinets. The memory card on her tiny digital camera could hold over one thousand images, and she had extra memory cards in her vest along with the jump drives.
She’d be able to walk out of there with the entire file system in her pocket.
The ding of Windows finishing its start-up routine indicated at least one of the computers was on-line. She plugged a jump drive into the USB port and started downloading the documents folder before doing a search for encrypted and hidden documents. Using techniques Hotwire had taught her, she found a second documents folder, this one both hidden and encrypted. She set it up to copy to the jump drive when the current application was finished and went back to taking pictures of the paper files.
Hotwire or the FBI could work on decoding it later.
“I’m headed to Position Three.” Hotwire’s voice came across her headset, indicating he was on his way to help her out. He must have turned his prisoner over to one of the other soldiers.
He arrived a minute later and immediately started working on a second computer. She said nothing, but dropped the remaining jump drives on the desk in front of him so he could complete the downloads.
It amazed her that groups like this one kept copies of incriminating documents. She’d already copied a memo from one of the members of the compound to the leader detailing his suggestion for taking courses from Tyler McCall and then disposing of the older man. She tried not to read the documents as she went, it would go faster that way, but her dad’s name had leapt off the page at her.
“Daddy?” The sound of a child’s voice in the corridor outside the office froze Josie’s blood in her veins even as she headed for the door.
The light in the corridor came on, and Josie came to an abrupt halt at the door, tugging down her night-vision goggles so she could see. It took precious seconds for her eyes to adjust to the light.
“Abel, what are you doing up?” The woman’s sleepy words came from the left of the door.
“I wanted to ask Daddy somethin’.”
“He’s not here. Daddy is on sentry duty tonight.”
“I know. I wanted to help him.”
That would have been a complication they didn’t need, and Josie was glad the child hadn’t gone with his father on his nightly rounds. She could see the small body near the doorway to the outside at the office end of the corridor.
“You’re too little.” The mother sounded less sleepy and a little impatient. Josie could not see her at all, but her voice came from the end of the hallway near the sleeping quarters. “Now, it’s time to get back to bed, young man.”
“Daddy’s in the office, Mama. I wanna ask him.”
Josie’s heart rate accelerated.
“Don’t be silly. Can’t you see there are no lights on?” Definite impatience this time. “No one’s in there.”
“But I saw lights. Little ones. Like Daddy’s flashlight.”
The quality of the stillness outside the room told Josie all she needed to know about what the mother thought of her son’s comments. “Abel, go wake the others. Now.”
Josie moved. She whirled into the hallway and sprinted for the boy before he could get out the door to sound the alarm. Hotwire was running for the woman.
The little boy lifted his arm, and it was only then that Josie realized he was carrying a gun.
“I’m going to help my daddy!” She heard the safety disengage and dove to her right as the child fired, but the bullet found its target. Pain that she’d felt once before burst through her thigh, and her legs collapsed beneath her.
“I’m down. Get out,” she said into the mouthpiece of her headset, and then blackness overwhelmed her.
Daniel ran toward the building with the office in it faster than he’d ever run in his life. His heart was beating so hard he could hear it. Damn it to hell. Josie had said she was down. They’d all heard the shot over the headsets, and it had sounded like thunder in his ear, but the sound from the building had been muted. The merc part of his brain automatically computed a low probability it had awoken others in the compound.
Hotwire had said he’d neutralized the mother and was headed toward the sleeping quarters at the other end of the building, but a child of approximately five years of age had made it outside. The child was armed.
Daniel saw the small body outlined against the dark buildings. He was wearing light pajamas, but he had a black object in his right hand.
This child had shot Josie.
Daniel approached him at a sprint and grabbed him from behind still in forward momentum mode. He clamped one hand over the boy’s mouth, used the other to disarm him and then immobilize him.
Figuring a quick knockout would be less traumatizing for the kid than a drawn-out battle against a bigger foe, he pressed against the carotid artery, and the child went limp against him. Daniel had a minute, maybe less, to get the small shooter tied up before he became conscious again.
He burst through the door to the building and came to a skidding halt in front of Josie.
Her eyes were shut, and her head lolled to one side. Blood was all over the floor under her, and one of her pant legs was soaked with it. The mother was against the opposite wall, her eyes dilated with shock, tears running down her face. She was gagged, but when she saw her son, she squirmed against her restraints and tried to speak.
Daniel used plastic ties to secure the child’s hands behind his back and his ankles together. Then he put the little one on his mother’s lap. He hated putting the tape over the little boy’s mouth, but they couldn’t risk him waking and raising the alarm.
When he finished, the mother looked up at him, terror in her eyes.
“Your son is fine.” It was all he could take time to say.
And frankly, he didn’t see the use of saying anything else. How many women and children had he seen hurt by the fanaticism of the men responsible for their safety? Not that women couldn’t be just as fanatic—and dangerous—which was why he did not untie the woman so she could cuddle her son. She might decide to try to finish the job the little boy had started.
Her eyes widened again, the fear that had abated with his words increasing, and he turned to see Hotwire running silently down the hall toward them.
“We’re not here to hurt you,” Daniel said roughly to the woman before turning away from her and her son.
“The others?”
“Neutralized.”
Daniel fell to his knees beside Josie at the same time Hotwire did. The other man already had his knife out, and he slit her pant leg. Daniel put his arm around her, prepared to prevent her from crying out in pain if she woke disoriented from her unnatural sleep.
“Is she still bleeding?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, but it looks like the bullet missed the bone.” Hotwire probed the wound, and Josie’s body jolted in involuntary reaction. “I’m not sure about her muscle, though. She’s going to hurt a fricken long time from this one.”
