“Count me in,” Draden Freeman volunteered.
“Not doin’ much in this next week,” Rubin said with a small shrug.
“Likewise,” Diego added, which wasn’t a shock to anyone. Rubin and Diego watched Ezekiel’s back whether he liked it or not. It probably had something to do with him looking after them when they were all on the streets.
“I had a hankerin’ to see China,” Mordichai objected.
“Me too,” Malichai added.
“Too late,” Ezekiel said. “We’ve got our five-man team.”
“Well shit,” Mordichai said. “That woman of Trap’s is still tryin’ to learn to cook and on her night, I swear the woman’s tryin’ to poison us all. I might pay one of you to stay home this trip and give me a break.”
“My woman’s going to hear what you have to say, Mordichai, and she’ll tie you up to the ceiling,” Trap threatened.
The others hooted because it was a very real possibility.
Joe waited for the laughter to fade. “Major General has given his permission to incorporate the women if you need them as backup or in any other capacity. Cayenne and Bellisia, obviously not Pepper, Wyatt, so don’t give me that glare, although she did try to pay me to ship you out.”
That brought smiles. Pepper was in her first trimester and already Wyatt was a wreck. Even with being a doctor, he was nervous, standing over her, ordering her around, walking with her three times a day, watching every bite of food that went into her mouth, making certain she was taking her prenatal vitamins and generally hovering. It wouldn’t have surprised Gino if Pepper had tried to bribe Joe to send Wyatt out on a mission.
“Was that Whitney’s idea—to send the women—or Major General’s?” Ezekiel asked.
Joe frowned. “Good question. If Whitney planted that seed, it would be best not to let them anywhere near Shanghai. If it is an ambush, they’d be right back in Whitney’s hands—or worse—Cheng’s.”
There was a small silence. No one was willing to risk their women, but on the other hand, Bellisia and Cayenne were both lethal and would be a huge asset if needed.
Ezekiel shook his head. “I don’t like it. Too convenient. Whitney wants them back. He’s not getting them. I know Bellisia would want to go to help Zara out, but until I know Zara isn’t working with Whitney to make that happen, I want Bellisia right here where she’s safe. Cayenne as well. Mordichai will just have to put up with their cooking.”
This time it was Ezekiel who waited for the laughter to fade. “We need intel on where she’s being held. Do we have any?”
“Whitney turned over all his intel on Cheng to Major General and he’s sent it to us. You should consult Bellisia as well to double-check it. She might remember more than she already gave me. She was actually there and might have a better understanding of where they might be holding Zara. She said the top floor, nearest the roof, was where they took prisoners they interrogated, so her best guess was that they would hold her there,” Joe said.
Ezekiel was all business. He nodded. He took having four of his colleagues, brothers really, entrusted to him very seriously. “What did she tell you about Zara?”
“She goes in without a weapon. She’s an industrial spy, not a government spy. She can’t take pain at all. Bellisia said if Zara hadn’t been so brainy, Whitney would have gotten rid of her a long time ago. He wants them all to be stoic. No matter how much he tried to condition her to pain, she couldn’t take it.”
Gino knew exactly what that shit meant. The woman was subjected to pain in order to gain a higher tolerance for it. That was Whitney’s fucked-up way of thinking. He’d like to put a cap in the bastard’s head. Torturing girls. Children. Experimenting on them because he found them in orphanages and considered them throwaways. Yeah, he wanted to go to Shanghai.
“What do we know about Cheng?” Ezekiel asked.
“Bernard Lee Cheng was born of an American mother, an actress, and a very ruthless businessman there in Shanghai. His mother was beautiful and his father powerful. Between the two, he had contacts in both countries and grew up to be very, very powerful, more so even than his father,” Joe said. “He inherited the business from his father and has built it beyond anyone’s imagining. There isn’t a secret anyone has in any government that he doesn’t eventually find out about.”
“And Bolan Zhu? What do we know about him?” Ezekiel persisted.
“Cheng’s right-hand man,” Joe said. “He’s a little murkier. Served in the military and acquired a certain reputation. He’s the enforcer for Cheng and scares the shit out of just about anyone he comes in contact with. His expertise is taking apart people, and he does it efficiently. There’s very little about his personal life. Like Cheng, he doesn’t have a permanent woman, but there have been many. None last more than a few weeks for either of them. Nothing is known about his parents. Nothing at all. His life started there in the military as Bolan Zhu, but his earlier childhood was wiped out.”
Joe looked around the room. “There’s nothing about this that’s good. Not one damn thing. I don’t like that Whitney called Major General personally. I don’t like that Major General suggested the women go along. I don’t like that we can’t get to you if things go to shit, and the number-one thing you can count on is things always go to shit.”
Ezekiel shrugged. “You keep everyone safe here and we’ll get the job done and bring her home.”
“Be prepared for a virus. Gino, you’re on the woman. You can find the capsule and hopefully get it out before it breaks open. If not, you’ll only have a couple of days to figure out the antidote. Whitney wasn’t generous enough to give us one,” Joe said. “If she’s working with Whitney and is any kind of a threat to us, Bellisia, Cayenne, Pepper or the children, kill her.”
Gino nodded, although there was a nasty taste in his mouth. He didn’t like killing women. It was a line he’d drawn, but sometimes, out of necessity, it had to be crossed. When that happened, it stayed with him. He could put away the others, but women haunted him. He remembered each of the few, the circumstances and the way they looked crumbling to the ground. He looked away from the others, but he nodded all the same.
No one could be allowed to be a threat to their family. The men in this room, their women and children and Wyatt’s grandmother, were family. They had one another and fought together and pooled resources to stay alive, carving a fortress out of the swamp in order to better defend themselves against anyone trying to harm them.
“You’ll go in with the contractor’s crew and once in Shanghai, you won’t have much time so orient yourselves immediately. For those going, you’ll do a night jump, HALO from a commercial charter plane, the company working in Shanghai uses. You’ll land on the roof of this building. You’ll have to watch for the series of water tanks so you’ll need to land north to south with the predicted winds.”
A high-altitude, low-opening jump—a HALO—at night was done often, but this would be a precision landing with no room for error, and if there was a guard on the roof … The room went silent. A jump like that might really be a suicide mission.
“What kind of security they have up there?” Gino asked.
“Cameras, no guard. That’s where Rubin is going to come in. You’ll have to jump first out of the plane, Rubin, and disrupt those cameras as you’re coming down.”