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“Let’s check the windows. Do you have the mirrors on you?”
Will patted his bulletproof vest. “Yup.”
We crouched low to the ground with our hands over our weapons. Maxine’s voice pleaded for Ed to respond, but there was no sound coming from inside the barn or the garage.
With our backs against the white aluminum siding, Will pulled out his mirror and extended the metal rod attached to it.
Slowly, he raised it above our heads and in front of one of the garage windows. Twisting it, we saw several tools hanging in a line on the opposite wall, and a wooden table in the middle. For a brief second, the mirror caught what looked like a black jacket before it disappeared.
Will moved the mirror further down the window.
There.
A man paced back and forth inside the garage. He wore a brown delivery uniform with a black jacket on top. He wore a hat as well, but even through the dirt on the window, I recognized him as Ed Chapman. The man who had pointed a rifle at me. It was payback time.
“Where’s the governor?” I mouthed to Will.
He moved the mirror further down the window and the reflection caught another figure.
It was a woman tied up in a chair with a gag in her mouth. Her head dropped down to her chest, her short blonde hair covering her face. Despite that, I knew it was Nikole’s mother.
“Is she alive?” Will whispered.
“Yes.” I couldn’t be sure, but we had to plan accordingly. We couldn’t take any unnecessary risks that would put her life in danger.
“What now, captain?” asked Will.
Even though I’d been the leader of our special ops group, Will was more in charge of our operations back home. So, the title stunned me a bit.
“We wait until we know what his next move is.”
Will nodded, never questioning my instincts. He lowered the mirror, and we waited in hiding until Chapman made the next move.
Except, it wasn’t Chapman. It was Maxine who moved next. Chapman’s phone rang and his filthy language pierced through the thin window. “Now she’s fucking calling me,” he swore. “Well, it’s too late Maxine!”
My heart sank. What was too late? Was it too late to save the governor? I wouldn’t know how to console Nikole if that were true. Anger rushed through my body, but I had to squash it, otherwise it would interfere with my decisions.
It felt like an eternity until Chapman made another sound from inside the garage, but a groan reached my ears and both Will and I looked at each other. Hope filled my chest, and I strained to listen.
It wasn’t Chapman. It was a female moan. I was sure of it.
“She’s alive,” Will whispered, and I nodded.
Holding his earpiece, Will relayed the message to Jager.
On the other side, I heard Nikole’s relieved cry. The sound was a dagger and a bandage to my heart. It both hurt and healed it. This woman was going to be the death of me. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Jager,” I said. “Maxine must keep calling Chapman and tell him that it’s not too late. That if the governor lives, he won’t be tried for murder. But if he waits, that could all change. Tell him to give himself up now before it’s too late. And put the call on speaker so Will and I can hear through your earpiece.”
“Roger that.”
Chapman’s cell phone rang again. He ignored it. The third time it rang, he yelled at it but finally answered. “I don’t want to talk to you Maxine, you traitor! You’re standing outside there while I’m locked in here.”
Maxine’s voice shook, but she relayed my message. “You think that matters to me? I’m already going to prison. What does it matter what they’re locking me up for? It’s over. All of it.”
What was over? As Jager said earlier, a desperate man had nothing to live for and nothing to lose. We needed something to keep him going. But what?
“It’s not over,” Maxine’s soft voice rang through my earpiece just as Will pressed his earpiece closer. Maxine was going about this solo, without our guidance. I was both impressed and terrified. She wasn’t trained. If she said something that would upset him, it could all go to shit fast.
