I quietly climbed onto the top of the building and went through a roof hatch. Aware that my body was hurting, I used extra care when I climbed down onto one of the main roof rafters. The old wooden building below me had been gutted years ago, leaving most of the space open. This meant I had a very good visual on most of the building. I silently set up my rifle and scope and calibrated it before I set up the high-powered dart rifle.
“I’m in place,” I whispered to my team.
“Alpha, you’re up first.” Andrusha’s voice came over the comm.
“Roger, ready, over.”
In the far back corner of the building, one of my men waited in the shadows while a single lone guard stepped to the open doors and lit a cigarette. I shot the dart into his neck, and my guy stepped in behind him and caught him before he hit the ground. He dragged the guy’s unconscious body into the shadows before carefully cleaning up the cigarette on the ground.
“All clear,” he said, and he stepped back into the shadows.
We repeated that pattern ten more times as we quickly and quietly drugged and hid the unconscious bodies of all the guards.
I waited at the top, watching the small wooden line of offices below. Everything remained silent.
“Come on, come on,” I muttered, as I moved my scope, searching.
One more lone guard, when he lost communication with his buddies, stepped out of the second office and hesitantly peered into the shadows.
My dart hit him in the side of the neck. Within seconds, he crumpled to the floor.
“We’ve got the office covered,” said a voice into my headset.
“Wait for me,” I told the team.
I moved downstairs. Flanked by my team, I moved toward the office.
This time, I had a live weapon in my hands.
When I opened the door, an older, rumpled-looking man sat on the couch with his hands tied in his lap and his mouth gagged. He was alone.
Without my instruction, my team cleared the room and then disappeared. I moved toward the older man and gently took the rag out of his mouth.
“Are you Mr. Asterdam?”
He looked slightly frazzled. “Yes, are you here to help me? I’ve been kidnapped.”
“We know. You’re safe now.”
“My wife, do you know how she’s doing?”
“As far as I know, she’s fine. Are you hurt?” I tried to assess how he was doing.
“My granddaughter—do you have any news about her?”
“She’s okay.”
Relief made his body sag. “Are you the police?”
“Not quite.” I took out my water flask and handed it to him. He drank heavily before he looked closer at me.
“I think you’re the one who is hurt, son. Who banged up your face?”
“It’s a long story. We traveled a long way to figure out where you were.”
“You’re a private company—my wife hired you?” he guessed, still trying to figure out who I was in this puzzle.
I gently worked to cut the ties from his wrists. “I see where Blaire gets her sharp and inquisitive mind.”
He studied me even closer. “You’re close to my granddaughter.”
Whoa. This wasn’t how I wanted to introduce myself to her family. “She’s been instrumental in helping find you.”
He leaned forward. “There is some information that I need to retrieve off one of my ships.”
“We found it. How are you feeling? Can you walk?”
He rubbed his wrists. “I can walk, but I desperately would like a bath.”
If he was asking for a bath, he was going to be just fine. I stood up and helped him to his feet. I spoke into my microphone. “Subject is safe.”
“Building is clear,” my team lead said into my ear.
“We’re coming out.”
I put my arm around the older man. “Come on. I’ve got someone who wants to see you.”
Andrusha spoke in my ear. “Can I bring out Blaire?”
“Affirmative. Building is secure.”
We started to walk, and the older man spoke to me. “You found the data on the boat? Have you been in touch with the Canadian government?”
My tone was dry. “We’ve been in touch.”
His shoulders sagged in relief. “That’s good. That’s very good.”
We walked across the empty building and came out to the parking lot. Ahead of us, coming out of the shadows, were Blaire and Andrusha.
“Pappa!” she cried as she sprinted toward us.
“Oh, my darling girl.” The older man stopped and held out his arms.
I stopped moving so I could watch the reunion. I couldn’t take my eyes off Blaire’s beautiful face as she ran toward her grandfather. She looked so incredibly happy. I almost couldn’t believe I was, in part, responsible for making her feel that way.
Andrusha and I made eye contact. He had a huge smile on his face, showing a rare display of softness. We silently communicated everything we needed to say with one steady look.
Long fucking week, hey, buddy?
You don’t know the half of it.
It’s over. You made it.
I pulled my eyes away to watch Blaire. Arms flung out in a ready hug, she was three feet away when I heard the shot. Before I could react, the old man stumbled.
The look on Blaire’s face would haunt me until the day I died.
“Noooo!” Her scream echoed around us as he stumbled into her arms.
Andrusha sprinted toward us. “Flash came from the building to the north.”
I knelt down and focused my rifle and nightscope on the large brick building, quickly but systematically checking out each window.
The building was too big. We were sitting ducks out here. “We need to take cover.”
I could hear the rest of the team yelling instructions and locations to each other in my headset as they strategically focused on that building in an attempt to give us cover.
“Go, go, go,” someone yelled in my ear.
I picked up the older man in my arms, ignoring how my body screamed in protest at the effort. Andrusha had put his entire self between Blaire and the building, and together, we ran back to the shelter of the old cannery.
Once we were safely inside, I set the older man down on the ground. I pulled off my bag and dug for my medical kit. I tore open bandage after bandage in an attempt to stem the bleeding, but no matter how much pressure I put on his wound, my hands were immediately saturated in his warm blood.
Blaire was cradling the older man’s head in her lap. “No, Pappa, it isn’t supposed to go like this.”
The old man held her hand and stared into her face. “Tell your grandmother I love her.”
“She knows that.”
“The first time I saw her, I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was my whole life.”
Blaire was now openly weeping. “She says the same thing about you.”
I continued to try and stop the wound from pulsing blood, without any success.
Off to the side, Andrusha was on the phone. I knew he was calling the police and an ambulance. We had already made the decision that if this extraction got bloody, we would remain above the law and contact the authorities.
Andrusha knelt down beside me and held out his hand for the bandage. “They are five minutes out.”
He was letting me know I had a short amount of time to hunt down my hunter.
I was so torn. I didn’t want to leave Blaire or her grandfather, but I also needed to avenge her grandfather’s impending death.
“Go,” Andrusha told me. “I’ll guard them with my life.”
I nodded my thanks before picking up only my high-powered rifle. I looked down at Blaire. She was sobbing as she and her grandfather said their goodbyes.
Feeling more than helpless, I was motived to go to any length to destroy the man who had done this to Blaire. I moved out into the yard. Sticking to the shadows, I sprinted toward the building where the shot had come from.
All my men had their weapons focused on the abandoned building. They were covering me enough that I could get inside.
I tried to clear my mind of the fact that I had left Blaire holding her grandfather while he bled out into the dirt.
Focus. I looked around. If I were the sniper and this were my job, and I had just hit my target, I would not wait around. He had probably packed up and was moving toward a hidden getaway vehicle. I sprinted through the main part of the empty warehouse. When I got through the doors on the other side, I saw the red glow of taillights right before they disappeared around a bend.
Blaire’s grandfather was dying.
And the person who had shot him had just gotten away.
I picked up an old metal can and heaved it across the cavernous floor.
“Fuck,” I yelled at no one in particular. “Fucking fuck fuck.”
I wanted to scream out my rage at the injustice of it all. I now had Blaire’s grandfather’s blood on my hands, and the only person I had to blame was myself.
One of my team members cautiously approached me from the side. “Did he get away?”
“Yes.” He’d be dead if he hadn’t.
“Andrusha thought it’d be a good idea to lock up the live weapons before the cops get here.”
I let out a low breath. “Good idea.”
“Want me to take your rifle?”
Without speaking, I handed my guns off to him. He disappeared back into the shadows, and I slowly moved through the building, dreading to see Blaire.
I had completely and catastrophically failed her. Every single thing I had done for her this past week meant nothing because of this outcome. Even worse, we had been so close to success. And, as a final blow, she had to witness her beloved grandfather get shot.
There was no way she would ever forgive me. My chance at redemption had slipped through my fingers.
This was the end.
Suddenly, every part of me hurt. So much. It was like all the adrenaline and focus had drained out of my body and I was left with only pain and regret.
I could hear the sirens approach. I stood in the middle of the yard and watched as police cars drew up with their flashing lights. Then the police were getting out and taking a stance behind their doors with their weapons drawn.
My entire team had moved into a straight line to flank me. Including Andrusha.
“On your knees. Hands on the back of your head,” the police screamed at us, pointing their weapons at us. “Face on the ground.”
In a humiliating end to my failure, I slowly dropped to my knees. I hurt so much I could barely get my hands over my head. When two cops approached and bent me over to push my face down, I took one last look at Blaire. She was sitting on the ground, hunched over her grandfather, rocking him as she cried.
I made eye contact with Andrusha. He slowly shook his head.
Blaire’s grandfather was dead. And it was my fault.
Two hours later, we were still trying to unsnarl ourselves from the accusing glare of the police. I spent an hour walking a forensic analyst and two detectives through our approach. Then two detectives grilled me for another hour.
They didn’t seem to believe that we had saved the grandfather using nonlethal measures, but they didn’t have any evidence to prove otherwise. They did manage to find a casing from a sniper rifle in one of the windows from the building next door—but they still seemed determined to pin his death on us.
“Don’t leave town,” one of the detectives told me.
I found Andrusha at the van.
He studied me. “You okay?”
I ignored his question as I took off my plated vest. “Where is she?”
“The detectives are trying to speak to her.”
I was well aware that I had not only kidnapped her, taken her across international lines and committed multiple felonies in multiple countries, but I had also failed her. If she told them the truth, I would go to jail for a long time. And the worst part was I probably deserved it. “Okay.”
“She’s refusing to speak to them until she talks to her grandmother and tells her what happened.”
What happened was the old guy had died on my watch. If I hadn’t tried to rescue him, he might still be alive. She told me to call the police. Would it have made a difference if I had? I felt like I didn’t fit inside my skin anymore. Everything felt wrong and painfully uncomfortable. “Before we went on site, why didn’t we search the surrounding buildings?”
Andrusha looked at me critically. “We addressed the primary threat—the men who were holding Asterdam.”
“We should have cleared those buildings.” I could barely contain my sheer frustration at myself. It was spilling out.
Andrusha gave me a steady look. “We had a ticking clock. Drake told you that it was only a matter of hours before they figured out their information wasn’t coming and gave the kill order. We were outmanned and outgunned. We needed to have the element of surprise on our side. And we had no idea how quickly people would figure out that Drake was dead. We didn’t have time, and we were prioritizing for the best outcome.”
“Drake told me this sniper was coming for me.” I looked at Andrusha, feeling sick to my stomach over all of this. “I basically brought the guy to the door.”
“Maybe, but we both believed that if the sniper was around, he would make you the target, not anyone else.”
My jaw tightened at the truth of that statement.
“Don’t forget that this entire mess got dropped in our laps without our consent,” he added. “You didn’t make a single call tonight that I wouldn’t have made myself.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt like the walking dead. “How is she doing?”
“She’s hurting pretty bad. She’s been asking for you.”
I tried to imagine having to face her after her loss, knowing I was responsible. “No.”
“You sure that’s the route you want to go?”
“Leave it. Are we free to go?”
“One of us should accompany her home, at least until she is joined by her legal team.”
I stared straight ahead. I could do just about anything in the world, but at this moment, the idea of facing her pain was an impossible thought. “Good idea. Can you do that for me?”
“You want me to drive her home?”
I nodded, too ashamed to look at him. I already felt like a broken man. To see her anguish would completely destroy me. “I have something I need to take care of.”
He didn’t speak for a long moment. I braced myself for whatever truth might come out of his mouth, but he went easy on me. “The doctor is waiting at the office for you.”
“Don’t need him.” I didn’t deserve to be healed. I didn’t deserve to be put out of my pain. Tonight, this pain was my punishment. For not being able to save the person she loved so much.
“This isn’t your fault, you know that?”
This time, I did turn and look at him. “That’s where you’re wrong.”
