“It’s great to see you both again.”
Fletcher extended his fingers and Sin placed her lit cigarette between them. He brought it to his mouth, and inhaled.
“Still bumming cigarettes, I see” Sin grinned.
“You know I don’t smoke,” Fletcher responded, blowing rings above Sin’s head.
“So now that we’re here, what’s the plan?” he said, handing the cigarette back to her.
Sin filled them in on what she knew about the mysterious ‘Joel’ and what she’d found out from Detective Anderson.
“So what’s our first move,” Garcia said.
“I want to check with the composite artist and then we need to figure out how to get onto Water’s Edge without being spotted.” Sin opened the door and led the two men back upstairs.
“What about Duggen’s men?” Garcia asked.
“If Bill trusts them, they’re good. We’ll be walking in blind for the most part, so we can use an extra man on the ground as well as another sniper up above. And they know the lay of the land.”
“Once we’re in position, what then?” Garcia asked.
“Then we rain royal hell down on anyone we come across,” Sin replied.
Fletcher emitted a slight laugh. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”
39
Sin called Jack and told him that there had been some new developments. “Grab Gonzales and meet me at HQ,” she said.
He didn’t wait for particulars. “We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Sin left Fletcher and Garcia in the conference room to read over the files and get briefed by Metcalf and King while she went to an empty office to clear her head.
She had just sat down and started to think the mission through when she heard arguing coming from the conference room. Sin jumped up and ran toward the noise to see who was involved; it was Jack and Fletcher.
“Hey!” she screamed, throwing open the door. “What the hell is this all about?”
Jack turned to her; his face blood red. “I just told this backwater son of a bitch that his presence wasn’t needed here and to go back to fighting for the highest bidder.”
“And I told him to fuck off!” Fletcher yelled.
Sin stood between the men who towered over her, and yelled at them both. “Sit down. I have no time for this bullshit. We have one hour to plan a raid on,” she threw her hands up in the air, “on a situation where months of planning by Agent Duggen and his men has gone to hell due to Rand and his testosterone-filled assholes. I don’t need two bickering a-holes of my own.”
She jabbed her finger at Jack and then pointed at Fletcher and Garcia. “These men are my family. They were the ones who kept me safe and fought alongside me when you and the rest of your glorious feds turned your backs on me.” She faced Fletcher. “This man,” she continued, pointing at Jack, “has a great strategic mind. He and Agent Gonzales have been working this case with me since the beginning and will continue to do so until it’s over.”
“What compound? What the hell are you talking about?”
Sin once again faced Jack. “Were we able to get a rendering of Joel?”
Gonzales stepped forward and handed Sin a file. “There are two pictures in there. The first is how the Stoklers remembered him the last time they saw him; he would have been twenty-one or two. The second picture is how Moe, the FBI’s artist, thinks he would look now.”
Sin opened the file and stared at both. “I’ll be damned,” she mumbled.
“Whatcha see, Boss Lady?” Garcia asked.
“We don’t have time to get into it right now, but there is quite a family resemblance to Vincent Ash here.” She looked at the men who were gathered. “We will talk about it later. For now, memorize the facial features. If you see this man or anyone who looks like him proceed with the greatest of caution. There is a good chance he is the Painted Beauty Killer.”
Sin pulled a thumb drive out of her pocket that was given to her by Duggen and plugged it into the laptop. She opened the file and pulled up aerial satellite photos of Water’s Edge Academy. “This is what we are up against tonight.” She looked to Duggen’s men and gave them a slight nod. “You both know the layout better than I do. Why don’t you take the lead?”
She watched Metcalf and King come to life. Metcalf didn’t hesitate to take point. “The building outlined in yellow is the one where there has been a great deal of activity; the one we believe is being used as a warehouse for both cocaine and money. The red ‘X’s’ are the points where the taskforce plans on accessing the property.”
“What’s the area by the water?” Fletcher pointed to a green section.
“That’s a makeshift dock that just began construction. They are using large sea floats and a wooden platform; in other words, it’s temporary. At the pace it’s going, we believe it could be functional by tomorrow. That’s the reason we’re moving tonight.”
Sin interjected, “The sudden construction is also the reason Agent Duggen and I feel Captain Rand and his men were probably captured.”
“They’re abandoning ship,” Fletcher said.
Sin nodded. “It looks like it.”
“With all this information,” Jack said, “why don’t we just join the taskforce on their raid?”
“Because there’s a good possibility that Rand and his men gave up any and all information they had. If that’s true, the taskforce will be facing an ambush. The five of us are going to secure the scene and eliminate any greeting party before the team initiates their mission at zero-two-thirty.”
“What about me and Gonzales?”
Sin didn’t look up from the monitor. “You two will be the conduit between our group and Duggen’s team.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning,” Sin looked him in the eye, “you’ll be in a truck monitoring radio contact. Neither of you will engage.”
Jack slammed his hand on the table. “That’s bullshit!”
“That,” Sin yelled back, “is an order!”
“Wait,” Garcia said, ignoring the yelling and staring at the satellite pictures, “what is this little building over
