Page 65 of Dichotomy

Unease prickled in my gut as a plan was hammered out. This wasn’t the first mission I’d had to sit out over the last few months, but it felt wrong not having a part. Not gearing up along with the rest of them. My guys were going to be there on Tuesday, but I wouldn’t. They would be walking into danger without me at their backs, and I hated that. It was just nerves, but being forced to be on the sidelines while the men I was falling in love with went into danger to protect my organization felt wrong.

CHAPTER 27

EVELYN

The low hum of the van’s engine mirrored the low hum of anxiety thrumming through me.

“Everyone in position?” Agent Ethan Mercer, Dominic’s SID contact, asked through the comms.

“In position,” Dominic confirmed.

One by one, my guys sounded off, followed by the eight SID agents spread throughout the rail yard.

Liam had tapped into SID’s comms as soon as we arrived, although they were listen-only on our end. Dominic and my guys were wearing a second set of earpieces, a closed channel that fed directly back to Liam and me.

Liam and I were safely parked a few blocks away, monitoring the rail yard through the cameras we’d placed the night before and the body cams worn by Alexander, Marcus, Sebastian, Adrian, and Dominic.

It was a poor substitute for actually being there, but I had to take what I could get. The guys wanted me back at HQ with Maya, but that was too far away. It was bad enough they were going into danger without me. I refused to be a mile away in case something went wrong. My team was already scattered across the city in case he didn’t show up or something went sideways.Izzy was at the hospital with Danny and Grace, as we still couldn’t connect Grace’s shooting to Kingfisher directly. I wasn’t taking the risk that it wasn’t an isolated incident perpetrated by one of the many powerful people we had pissed off over the years, so Izzy and Danny were on high alert.

Maya was stationed at the Archers HQ. They were prepared to post all the information we had on Director Keller and Judge Jefferson public if something went sideways. They were also responsible for calling in the cavalry—their father, Captain Patel—if we needed backup. Agent Mercer had agreed with Dominic that involving the local police was a bad idea when we didn’t know how far this reached. There would be no backup for my guys outside of the SID agents if things went sideways.

My gut had been churning since we made the plan. Kingfisher was a formidable enemy; we couldn’t underestimate him. We had one shot at this. I glanced at the clock on one of the monitors. Thirty minutes till the meeting time outlined in the emails. Beside me, Liam was solemn, his usual playful personality nowhere to be seen as he typed rapidly.

Fifteen minutes before the meeting time, a white box truck turned into the rail yard.

“Incoming,” Liam said to the guys. “Box truck approaching from the west. Two in the cab.”

A SID agent called out the same thing a few moments later. “Everyone, hold your positions,” Agent Mercer said. “No one moves until I say so.”

The box truck rolled to a stop, but neither the passenger nor the driver made any moves to get out. I strained to make out the identity of either occupant, but the camera angle was wrong.

“Can we see who’s in the truck?” Alexander asked.

“Negative,” a different SID agent replied.

“Negative on our end, too,” Liam said. “The camera angle isn’t right. Checking traffic cameras now.”

I stopped pacing behind Liam and sat down as we traced the box truck’s journey.

“There!” I pointed out an ATM that was across the street from a traffic camera that showed the box truck at a red light. The camera would have a perfect view of the driver and passenger.

Liam’s fingers flew across the keys as he hacked into the ATM camera. “Got it.”

The picture quality wasn’t great, and I ran one of Maya’s programs to enhance it. I sucked in a breath. “Director Keller is the passenger. Don’t recognize the driver.”

“Tracking the driver now,” Liam said.

The truck’s engine cut, and I inhaled. This was it.

Nothing happened. Seconds stretched into minutes, the rail yard suspended in a terrible stillness.

What was happening? Had the director sensed something was off? If they drove away now, we’d lose our only chance to catch him like this. We’d never get another opportunity this clean. Were they stalling for backup or waiting on their “shipment”?

The questions spun faster and faster in my brain as the silence stretched on. Minute after minute ticked by. At two minutes to the meeting time, a train’s loud horn screeched through the silence as the rumble of a freight train got closer. The roar of the freight train rumbling through the rail yard drowned out the camera’s audio.

“We lost audio,” Agent Mercer said. “Hold your positions until I say so. We’re going to have to catch them in the act.”

I tensed even more. My muscles already felt too tight for my skin. Without audio, it was harder to make a case. But if we had to wait for the director to do something, how much longer would those women have to suffer?