Over thirty men were assembled by the time Thorn arrived. Dressed in shades of black, green, and gray, they milled about the same garage Thorn had woken up in several hours earlier. They ranged from burly Irishmen to wiry Cubans and included a few of everything in between. Just the sight of them standing there - the way they carried themselves, the tension in the air - stirred things long dormant inside of Thorn.
“You sure you’re up for this?” Thorn asked, his voice low. He had shut the engine off but made no effort to climb out, the engine ticking and the muffled din of conversation the only sounds.
“She’s my sister,” Nio repeated, staring at the crowd, his eyes a little larger than usual.
Thorn considered telling him that that wasn’t the answer he was looking for, but let it pass. “When we get out here, remember, you are an IT expert. You’re coming inside to dig around while I grab Iggy.”
“I got it,” Nio said, his reflection visible in the passenger window as he stared out.
The story was weak and they both knew it, but under the circumstances it was the best they could do. The truth was, Thorn hated the idea of bringing Nio along. It wasn’t some sort of misguided jargon about working better alone, but rather the men he was used to working with were trained and competent.
Nio was a complete wild card. There was no way of knowing how he might react when bullets started humming by, if he would become a complete liability.
Shaking away the idea, Thorn climbed out and examined the lot before him. As a whole they cut an imposing group, all heavily armed, carrying assault rifles and wearing protective vests.
Many gave he and Nio measuring glances as they passed, though nobody said a word.
Together they made their way inside the garage to find Turner and Cardoza leaning over a table, a tall man in black beside them. All three turned and openly stared as they approached, waiting for their arrival.
“You’re early,” Turner said.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones,” Thorn said, motioning to the room.
“No use in waiting, I guess,” Turner said.
Thorn extended them a rolled up print out. “Blueprints of the grounds we pulled from satellite. One of our men was inside yesterday and said they read true to form.”
“You’ve already had a man inside?” Cardoza asked.
“We had to plant an access point to enhance our satellite imagery.”
Turner and Cardoza both nodded, accepting the information without comment.
Turning to the man in black, Thorn extended his hand. “Thorn Byrd. I assume you’re the man in charge tonight?”
The man accepted the handshake. “Bron Delaney. And yes, these men did ask me to lead our part of the operation.”
“Works for me,” Thorn said. “Our main objective is to get inside. How that happens is up to you.”
Cocking an eyebrow, Delaney gave Thorn a measured look, a bit of wariness around the edges.
“Let me guess,” Thorn said, sensing his thoughts and moving to cut them off, “Marines?”
The eyebrow lowered itself back into place as the man looked at Thorn square and nodded.
“I could tell,” Thorn said. “No power struggles from us, you know what you’re doing.”
Hooking a thumb to his right, Thorn said, “This is Nio Garcia, our IT guru. While I’m searching for the hostage, he’ll be poking around to see what exactly this is all about.”
Nio nodded in greeting to the group.
The men nodded in response and Turner said, “You’re certain something large is afoot?”
“In the last three hours, seven different men we flagged from surveillance have shown up in various port cities across Europe. Too much to write off as coincidence.”
“Agreed,” Cardoza inserted.
Setting the blueprints down on the table, Delaney unfurled them as the others grouped up around the table. “We were told the place sits right on the water, so we sent three boats up the coast a few minutes ago to block off any escape routes. They should be in place shortly.
“On foot, we have twenty-eight men, four teams of seven,” he continued, his gaze and his hand both working over the blueprints, taking everything in. “The east side of the property looks to be sheer cliff, so we’ll assume no exit that way.”
He paused there, continuing to look over things, before saying, “We’ll send a team over the wall on the north and south sides. Put the last two right through the main gate.”
He glanced up to Thorn and Nio. “You two will come through the main gate with my teams. Once inside, do what you need to do.”
Thorn glanced at Nio, both nodding in silence.
Chapter Forty-Nine