Swinging herself up, she moved from the second floor to the third floor, then the third to the fourth before ascending to the roof. Shields gripped the balcony tightly before whipping her legs over the side of a waist-high glass fence. After rolling to a stealthy landing, she crouched behind an outdoor couch and waited for the guard to walk past her. The moment he did, she sprang from her position, surprising him. She jammed a needle loaded with a sedative into his thigh, resulting in him staggering backward before passing out.
“Good boy,” she said as she tousled his hair.
She stood and drank in the view, finding it nearly intoxicating. A large yacht lit by decorative lights churned through the water below. Other boats zipped past the big ship, all hustling in from the ocean for the evening.
What a life.
“The guards are down,” Shields said into her coms. “Ready to enter the house.”
“Perfect,” Mia said. “I’m ready.”
The sliding glass door had been left open, and Shields took full advantage. Once inside, she affixed the device to the computer in Sinclair’s office. Shields sat in Sinclair’s chair while she waited for the signal from Mia that she was in the system. Amidst the ambient light from outside, Shields stared at two of the walls plastered with personal photographs of Sinclair with famous people. There was one of him with software magnate Bill Gates, next to one with global soccer star Lionel Messi. The largest photograph was in the center where Sinclair posed with three former U.S. presidents.
“Would you look at that,” Shields said to herself. “That’s from Madeline Young’s funeral.”
After perusing the room, Mia announced that she was in and downloading all that she could. However, their subdued celebration was cut short when Mia let out a string of expletives.
“They’re shutting me down,” Mia said. “I think they know we’re there. Get out now.”
“Roger that.”
Shields snatched the device from Sinclair’s hard drive and raced down to the second floor. However, as she round the corner of the wrap-around porch, she tripped over the leg of the first guard, who’d apparently regained consciousness. She skidded to a stop and looked up to see a man hustling in her direction with his weapon trained on her. Scrambling to her right, she rolled around the corner, away from the street. A bullet pinged off the wall, a suppressor keeping the gunfire almost inaudible.
Shields considered her options quickly. Picking a side and making a run for it was a fifty-fifty proposition. She decided that the best option was up.
Shields pulled herself up and waited until the guard was directly below her. As he approached her position, she dropped down on him, crushing him with her leg. He yelped in pain before she kicked him in the head, knocking him out for a second time.
Confident that he wasn’t going to wake up for a few minutes, she sprinted toward the front gate and entered the street.
“Come and get me,” Shields said over the coms. “And hurry.”
A few seconds later, Mia roared around the corner. As she came to a stop, she pushed open the passenger side door. Shields climbed inside before Mia sped away.
“What took you so long?” she asked.
“I had a zombie I had to put down again,” Shields said. “He was hard-headed, so I had to teach him a painful lesson twice. So, did you get anything?”
“Not what I was looking for. I must’ve triggered something in their system for them to react so quickly. But I was able to erase all the security footage.”
Shields slammed her fist on the dashboard.
“Don’t worry,” Mia said. “We’ll get what we came for.”
“And how do you suppose we’re going to do that?”
“Well, I did a little spying while I was waiting for you to get inside,” Mia said. “And guess what I found?”
“Surprise me.”
“I found a picture on social media of Sinclair taken not fifteen minutes before I saw it. Someone posted it publicly before turning the image private. But it was on Sinclair’s yacht.”
“Do you know where it is?” Shields asked.
Mia nodded.
“Then forget the computer,” Shields said. “Let’s go pay Mr. Sinclair a visit and get the information straight from the horse’s mouth.”
CHAPTER 32
HAWK DROVE WHILE ALEX rode in the front seat with her laptop. Black rested in the back, checking all his weapons and complaining about the choice of radio station.
“We need some good rock ’n roll to get us amped up,” Black said.
Alex sighed. “You don’t seriously think we’re going to shoot our way out of an off-the-grid prison site, do you?”
Black shrugged. “If we must.”
Hawk adjusted the rearview mirror and tried to suppress a grin.
“You two are made for each other,” Alex said.
“How’s Led Zeppelin sound?” Hawk asked with a hint of a smile.
“Kashmir?” Black asked.
“You got it,” Hawk said as he selected the song from his phone and then cranked it through the SUV’s sound system.
Alex rolled her eyes as the two men bobbed their heads to the beat.
When the song finished, Alex cleared her throat. “I hate to break up your little jam session, but we do have some interesting things to discuss that Mia sent us.”
“Okay,” Black said. “Let’s hear it.”
“You remember our good friend, Lance Drisi?” Alex asked.
Hawk nodded. “Uh huh. The anagram for Falcon Sinclair’s given name.”
“Right,” Alex said. “So, it turns out several shell companies that we found connected back to Drisi Enterprises have paid out millions of dollars to some of the most powerful people in the world over the past three years.”
“Like who?” Black asked.
“I’m hard pressed not to find a world president or prime leader from a major country on this list,” Alex said as she scanned the names. “It’s unbelievable. He’s bought just about every person on this list.”
“What about President Young?” Hawk asked.
“Now that is one name that’s missing,
