“We saw a dozen go in.”
“But people will be inside too.”
“So at least fourteen. We have to find a way to flush them out,” Jerricho said.
“Now that’s a good idea,” Diesel said, looking at him. “What do you have in mind?”
“Gas?” he said immediately.
Diesel thought through the ramifications and asked, “Do we have enough gas masks to get her out?”
“If we plan to take her up through fresh air, it would be easier,” he admitted.
“No guarantee there’s any fresh air close by.”
“We also have to consider the difficulties of us getting in and out with the added gas element too.”
“Well, obviously we’ll need to be masked,” Diesel said.
“I know, but I was wondering about the guards.”
“Well, we can take them down with the gas, which will make them a lot easier. But what if more captives are there, not just Eva?”
At that, Jerricho winced. “Right, and, of course, you’ll want to save everyone, won’t you?” he said with a note of humor.
“Won’t you?” Diesel challenged.
“If I can, yes. You know tough decisions are likely to be made on something like this.”
“I know,” Diesel said. “That doesn’t make it any easier.”
“No, not at all. But … let’s take a look at the ventilation shafts,” he said.
As soon as they were set up in the new hotel, with everything available in front of them, Diesel and Jerricho went through the HVAC system online to see just what was available for pathways.
“We could probably put something in through here,” Diesel said, pointing, “but no guarantee that the air vents go all the way through.”
“If the gas doesn’t reach the prisoners, that would be just fine by me,” Jerricho said. “One person to carry is one thing. Carrying two or three? That’ll be an impossibility.”
“I know,” Diesel murmured. He studied the ventilation system and said, “I think we can do it. We come through this side.”
“And, even if we do,” Jerricho said, “what’s our exit strategy?”
The two now held the blueprints for the lab building itself in front of them.
And then Diesel saw it. “This set of windows on the first floor is near the ventilation shaft here. And a second-story balcony is above, which might come in handy.”
“But we don’t know where the prisoners are.”
“We’ll have to go room by room for that.”
“Which is dangerous and slow.”
“But we don’t have any better intel,” Diesel said. He studied the blueprints again and said, “If it were me, being the nice guy that I am, I’d give them all rooms with windows and fresh air to keep my prisoners healthy, but these kidnappers won’t care. Likely, if these scientists can’t do the job, they’ll shoot them and dispose of their bodies anyway. So why waste a better room and the chance of them being visible? Eva is probably in a basement, where they have no ventilation.”
“Which just means they’ll get sicker, weaker, all due to the poor living conditions. Keeps their prisoners docile.”
“Hell, they could be using the damn viruses on them,” Diesel muttered.
Jerricho looked at him. “Remember. We’ll think positively about humanity.”
“Yeah, let me know how that works out for you,” Diesel said.
Jerricho snorted at that. “Unfortunately we’ve seen too much of the other side of life.”
“I know,” he said, “but there’s always hope.”
With rudimentary plans in place and a message sent off to Shane, telling the Mavericks what their plan was, the two suited up and slipped out into the night. With full backpacks and carrying the bag full of the rest of their needed gear, they moved quickly to the building in question. They checked for video cameras and hadn’t seen anything other than the street cams, but that didn’t mean something else wasn’t here. That was always a problem. They had to make their approach stealthily and as quietly as possible and avoid those street cams. And they needed to take out as many people as they possibly could.
With Shane running intel in the background, they moved ahead to the car park, where the vehicles were, and into the entrance where the twelve men had entered.
He whispered to Jerricho, “I wish we knew if any of the twelve had exited.”
“We didn’t see anything on the cameras,” he said.
“No, and now we’ve disabled the cameras, so we can get in, but how long before somebody realizes they are down?”
“Hard to say,” he said, “but I wouldn’t give it much time. I suspect they’re already expecting some movement. But why would the Chinese deal with the Russians?”
“It depends whether it’s for or against them.”
“Meaning that, either they’re here for the scientists or they’re trying to take them?”
“Maybe one of their own was kidnapped as well,” Diesel said.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually had help with this?” he said. “We could have, you know, a joint effort between the two countries.”
“Well, let it be different countries than these,” he said with half a smile.
“Sometimes they’re okay,” Jerricho said.
The darkness was absolute. Mother Nature was being kind to them tonight with heavy cloud cover. The moon was up there somewhere, but not even a slice of it was visible in the sky. They headed for the door, and, just as he was about to enter, Diesel immediately grabbed Jerricho and pointed out a broken window off to the side. The two exchanged grim looks and nodded. Slipping inside via the window—and hoping against hope that the twelve who entered earlier weren’t only here to kidnap the same people—the two men entered the building and moved slowly forward.
They had the gas with them, and that was still the plan, but now, seeing that broken window here, all of a sudden gave rise to the possibility that some other enemy faction was in play. The men moved a little more slowly and a little more quietly. Something was going on that they couldn’t see, and they needed to know what it was before they got caught in the same damn
