I frowned at her, trying desperately to take her seriously, but barely able to keep from bursting out laughing.
She finally let out a long sigh. “Fine. I can tell it’s useless to try to pound sense into your thick skull, so let’s get the computer set up.”
I made coffee while she fussed with the laptop and just before nine, she had the split screen all set up. When the guys did their check-ins, sounding off in the coms, I was sitting on the edge of my seat. Patsy’s helmet cam was on one of the screens and the other screens showed helmet cams from Mars, located across the street in sniper position, and Mickey and Candy at the front door to the office.
Candy would go into the room first with Nash, Raven, Miguel, and Alain to be followed by Mickey who’d be the final guy making entry. Lincoln Snow’s team was at the ready, holed up in an office in the building next door. We also had Sarah Connor, SAC of the ATF, who just happened to be Lincoln’s wife, set up in second sniper position, replacing what should have been me. Snow’s team were ready to swoop in and ID Aguilar and make arrests the second Patsy and Napoleon began their rappel from the roof. Timing had to be exact, but Tac Team One was good at that.
The entire office was L-shaped, about fifteen hundred square feet, divided up into eight offices including one at the very back looking out onto Ventura Boulevard, and a kitchen, off to the right side. The back office was the largest, reserved for Tawantinsuyu Imports chief executive officer. As it turned out, the new leader of the Lima distribution network, Oscar Aguilar, was the new CEO so the team would probably need to mow through the lower-level thugs to get to him first.
As I watched the screen which Judy had transferred from the laptop to my big screen TV in the living room, giving us a bigger, better view, Candy held up a thermal imaging camera at the office door. It clearly showed how many bodies were located in the room just beyond. Three heat signatures lit up the screen in orange. Candy held up three fingers, showing the men behind him what to expect as they breached the door. When he turned, the men grouped around him were ready to make entry with him.
One man came forward and Candy stepped back to make way for him. The man—who I could now identify as Miguel from his wide frame, began circling the edges of the door with det cord. They planned on breaching with explosives which made a hell of a lot of sense for causing general chaos and confusion.
Candy began the countdown in the coms as they stood back. “Snickers, Plenty, go to rappel. Repeat. You’re a go!” Candy said.
My heart raced, watching the box on the upper right, noting the view of twinkling lights coming from the hillside houses behind the commercial buildings on Ventura Boulevard. It was weird seeing everything from Patsy’s point of view through the lens of his helmet cam. He glanced left and Napoleon stood beside him in position on the roof of the building as they readied themselves for the drop. The moment I thought it, Patsy replied, “Rappelling now!”
His helmet cam blurred momentarily as he dropped off the roof, then refocused as he came to an abrupt stop, and swung a sledgehammer at the corner of the office window away from the entry door. I could hear the twin strike of Napoleon beside him before one more heavy blow imploded the window inward and they swung in.
The office door exploded a second later, Candy shouting. “Breach! Breach! Breach!” There was a loud explosion as a flashbang suddenly whited out the screens, and the boss ran into the room with the rest of the team at his back. I just caught what was left of the splintered door from the perspective of Mickey’s helmet cam, as he brought up the rear.
The constant rat-a-tat-tat of the automatic rifles had my muscles on instant alert but from where I sat in my wheelchair, all I could feel was frustration at not being able to see what was happening properly. I gripped the handles of the chair in a death grip as I waited for the smoke to clear.
As we’d expected, the three cartel thugs were heavily armed. When the room came into focus, Judy gasped, and I automatically flicked a glance toward her to find her pressing her hand over her heart. She made a rapid sign of the cross, andI quickly turned back to the box showing Mickey’s helmet cam. Three gunmen were down in the front room, all dead or dying—their blood splattering the walls, and furniture.
The captain rounded the corner and moved slowly down a hallway, using hand signals with the team and pointing to various closed doors before he passed by. He continued down the hall. More flashbangs sounded behind Candy as they cleared the offices.
“Front office, clear!” Nash shouted.
“Second office, clear!” came Alain’s voice.
“Third office, clear!” Raven reported.
The team went office by office but I kept my eyes trained on the box showing Candy in the lead as he made another turn and walked carefully down another long corridor with offices. More rooms were cleared. One idiot thug thought he’d rush out of the room and open fire. He screamed as Patsy took him down.
The familiar sound of heavy panting from multiple coms reached my ears. My adrenaline had kicked in, and I knew it had for these guys too. Dressed in full tac gear, helmets, and carrying deadly firepower, they were ever on the alert as they moved in sync. We’d done this multiple times in the Middle East and other places. Here, my brothers were rooting out dangerous killers, just as they’d done many times before.
I darted a glance at the lower left corner of the screen as Mars spoke for the first time. “Target acquired, Captain. Repeat. Aguilar in my sights. ’E has an AR-15. I just need ‘im to move a few feet more…” His words trailed off.
Mars’ view from the building across the street where he was perched was clear. Peripheral flashes could be seen in the officewindows as he zeroed his sniper rifle in on a figure who’d come into view through a big window in the largest back office.
It was clear to me that it was Oscar Aguilar.
The man was older, still dressed in an expensive suit from the day and standing stock still in the middle of the office, stance wide, pointing the semi-automatic rifle at the door.
I held my breath. The second Candy reached the door, Aguilar would open fire.
“Whenever you’re ready, Mars, Connor, take the goddamned shots!” Candy shouted over the din of flashbangs and gunfire as others cleared rooms behind him.
“Roger, taking the shot,” Sarah confirmed.
Though the words were spoken quietly, it wasn’t more than three seconds before there was a sudden spit of two sniper rifles, coming only a split second after one another. The sound further ramped up my adrenaline. My heart pounded as the window glass shattered with the first shot from Sarah, making a hole for Mars to shoot through. I watched in relief as the man in the expensive suit crumpled to the ground. Mars’ almost instant second shot had found home.
“Whoo ‘oo!” Mars shouted. “Target down. Repeat. Target down, Captain Sorensen.”
“Good shooting, Mars and Sarah!” Candy yelled back, kicking the door in. He rushed into the room with the rest of the team, and his cam showed him walking up to a bleeding body. He kicked the AR-15 away and squatted beside the man, reaching out a hand to check his pulse. Blood leaked from a hole in his neck, staining the carpet red. “Oscar Aguilar is dead,” Candy confirmed. “Target eliminated.”
The shouts of men celebrating was easy to hear in the coms.