A second later, the door shudders violently as something heavy slams against it. A battering ram, no doubt. The impact reverberates through the room. The door’s hinges strain under the pressure. Stella and I hold our breath.
The assault on the door continues, each strike louder and more forceful. I hear the grunts of effort from the people outside. My heart is racing as fast as my mind. Would the Bauds have a siege ram? Unlikely. Then again, they could improvise it from a heavy log.
“Did you recognize the voice?” I whisper to Stella.
She shakes her head.
I could ask who they are, but with the force left in me after fighting Jean-Claude and Yvonne, I doubt I can outshout the noise. It doesn’t matter. We’ll find out soon enough.
The door groans as the lock finally gives way. It flies open, revealing at least a half dozen figures. They wear tactical gear and balaclava, and their weapons are at the ready as they pour into the room. I don’t dare to believe my eyes, but there’s little doubt left. This isn’t RAID, GIGN, or another French special ops unit. These are my people.
Swiftly, they sweep the room. I know some of the men as they shoot me delighted looks. But first things first. They check every corner, including the toilet cubicle, take Jean-Claude’s pulse and handcuff him, and check Yvonne’s ties, their heavy boots echoing throughout the space.
I wrap my arm tighter around Stella, signaling they can’t touch her. Then I point to the spy cam. They unhook it from the wall and turn it off.
“Clear!” several agents shout.
One of the men pulls off his mask, grinning at me. Like I thought, it’s Elias, Intervention Unit chief from MESS, the Mount Evor Secret Service.
“Is Theodor alive?” I ask him right off the bat.
Protocol doesn’t require that I use “prince” or “his royal highness” when in the presence of uninitiated foreigners like Stella and her parents. Not that Elias would give a shit about protocol at this time.
“He is, unharmed,” he replies.
“And Elise? And Jordan?”
“Elise is doing great. Jordan didn’t make it.”
I nod. After that, he clasps my hand and pats my back with his other hand. More handclasps and forearm clasps follow. This isn’t protocol for extraction ops, but the guys are so relieved to find me alive, and I’m so happy to greet each of them despite the pain in every part of my body. Some wipe off a stray tear before reaching for my hand. A few forego the customary greeting and give me a hug instead.
Elias turns to Stella. “Mademoiselle Jezequel, you are the one who texted Adam, right?”
“Yes,” she breathes, visibly intimidated and overwhelmed.
“I owe her my life and my sanity,” I say.
Elias thanks her for saving his friend as do the others.
Out of the dozen men in the room, half are MESS agents, and the other half are from the MINDFUCH Intervention Squad. I may not know all their names, but I’ve seen them before, when I went with Theodor to Paris. Their boss, Nikolai Smirnoff, is among them.
“We were losing patience,” he says. “Scouring town after town in the area.”
Elias adds, “The two Vosiers were on our schedule for next week.”
OK, so that explains how they got here so fast. They were already in the area. But something doesn’t add up.
“Why were you combing through towns and villages when we’d crashed over the mountains?” I ask. “And, how come you were still searching a month after the crash?”
“We received new intel last week,” Elias says enigmatically.
“We’ll explain everything after we get you out of here,” Nikolai adds.
As the guys prepare to pick me up, I gesture for them to hang on, “I made a promise to Stella. No retaliation against her parents, no reporting them to the French law enforcement, no reprisal of any kind. We let them be.”
The men look at Elias who’s the highest-ranking officer in the room.
“A knight’s word is as binding as a signed contract,” he says to Stella. “If you ask me, your folks deserve serious punishment. But if Darrel promised you they’d get away with his abduction, then you can count on it.”