Chapter
46
THE EXTRA-LONG SEMI THAT had passed the van earlier had doubled back and parked. From the trailer had emerged three black SUVs. There were eight men in each vehicle. Each man was armored, had night-vision optics, and was loaded with weaponry.
They headed toward the front of the neo-Nazi complex.
From the rear came ten more men who had parked their motorcycles a quarter mile away and made the last part of the trek on foot. They were armored and had night optics too, and were also loaded for bear. Or at least for neo-Nazis.
Robie was leading this group. They crossed a rise and then swiftly made their way down it. Three hundred feet away was the cluster of buildings with a fence around it. Robie checked his watch and waited five minutes. Then he signaled his men forward.
A hundred feet away they stopped. Their optics revealed clear green images of the perimeter patrol. There were only three of them. Robie’s group moved forward again to within fifty feet. Rifles were aimed and red dots appeared on the chests of each of the perimeter uniforms.
Robie checked his watch again. He followed the second hand as it made its way around the clock face.
Then the three shots rang out and Robie started to run.
Instantly, three rifles fired and the three perimeter men dropped where they stood. They weren’t dead, merely tranquilized. Robie and his team didn’t want to deprive the men of a long prison sentence.
Robie was over the fence in a few seconds, followed by five of his men. They dropped down inside the compound and immediately received fire. They took cover and returned it, this time with live rounds.
Meanwhile, in the front, the electric-powered SUVs had moved so silently with lights out that they were nearly at the gate before the guards there could react. By then it was too late. The gates crashed inward and the SUVs hurtled into the inner yard. The men sprang out of the vehicles and raced straight toward the main building.
The two guards there were quickly surrounded and trussed up.
Reel had shot the guard in the hall who had been eavesdropping on her and Dikes’s “lovemaking.” She hurried on and shot another neo-Nazi who appeared in front of her with his weapon out.
A moment later she was slammed against the wall and the gun fell from her bound hands. A foot kicked it away. She recovered her balance and stared up into the face of the huge Albert, dressed in his black SS uniform. He smiled down at her still in her underwear as he slid his tongue along his mouth.
“I’m gonna have some fun with you, sweet thing.”
Reel struck so fast Albert had no time to react. She slammed her foot into his crotch, doubling him over, and then whipsawed around and struck him in the right kidney with her elbow. He screamed in fury, but only for a second. Using the wall opposite as both a launch point and for leverage, she pushed off and slammed both feet into his buttocks. Bent over as he was, Albert crashed headfirst into the wall opposite. The top of his skull hit first, driving his neck upward to an impossible degree and his head back so far that his neck broke.
Dead Albert dropped to his knees. Reel was already racing onward and never saw him slump to the concrete floor.
She heard a scream to her left and raced down that hall.
One man stumbled out of a doorway, a knife sticking out of his chest. He slumped to the floor, dead, his cap falling off his head on the way down.
Laura appeared in the doorway, saw Reel, and said, “They separated me from Julie. I think she’s down this way. Hurry.”
The two women raced down the hall and toward the room at the end. There was a crashing of glass, screams, and then gunshots.
Reel shouted, “That’s Julie!”
She and Laura sprinted forward.
“Julie!” screamed Reel.
The door was bolted, but she shot the lock off and burst into the room.
And stopped.
Two men lay on the floor, their bodies covered by shattered glass. Julie was flattened against one wall.
There was movement at the window.
Reel pointed her gun that way and then caught a breath.
Robie clambered through the empty window and dropped to the floor. He put his pistol back into his holster and looked at Julie.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head and stepped toward Robie, her feet crunching over the glass that littered the floor. Robie put his arm around her and then looked down at the men.
“I think they had orders to kill Julie in the event of an attack.”
“So you shot them through the window,” deduced Reel.
“So I shot them through the window,” confirmed Robie.
His walkie-talkie squawked and he spoke into it and then listened.
“We’re secure. No casualties on our side. Most of the assholes just gave up.”
“Well, not the one who really counted,” said Reel.
“No prison for Mr. Dikes?” said Robie.
“Not in this life,” replied Reel. “Let’s hope in his next one. For all eternity.”
Robie pulled his knife and severed the bindings on Reel’s hands. He took off his jacket and draped it around her.
Julie looked from Reel to Laura. “Is she your daughter?”
Reel rubbed her wrists and shook her head slowly. “I’d like you to meet FBI Special Agent Lesley Shepherd, Julie.”
Shepherd nodded at Julie and gave her a shy smile. “I just look really young for my age.”
Robie said, “The FBI doesn’t like people being kidnapped. They provided all the ground assets we needed.”
Julie said, “FBI? So, super agent Vance?”
“She cares about you a great deal, Julie. She’s the reason we were able to put this all-out effort together.”
Reel looked at Robie. “Any problems finding us?”
He shook his head.
“How did you track them?” asked Julie. “I heard Dikes and his men talking about the steps they’d taken to make sure you couldn’t do that.”
“Our friends at National Geospatial,” answered Robie. “They sort of run the spy satellite network.”
“The DD of the CIA spoke with her counterpart at Geospatial,” added Reel. “And they dialed up several satellites. They tracked us all the way to our rendezvous with Dikes’s men. They placed an electronic marker on us at that point. There was no way to lose us. They simply followed using multiple eyes up in the sky. The actual technology has a specific name, but it’s classified. I’m just glad it worked.”
“Very hard to lose a bunch of satellites,” said Robie. “They fed us the location on the ground. We passed by the van carrying Reel and Shepherd. We were on motorcycles and in a semi. We surrounded the place and waited for the signal.”
“Signal?” asked Julie.
“Gun fired three times in a row by Jessica,” said Robie.
“But how did you know she’d be able to get to a gun?”
Robie smiled. “That’s where the element of trust comes in.”
“I did what I needed to do,” said Reel. “And then fired the gun.”
“And that’s when we came charging in,” said Robie.
“And saved me again,” finished Julie.
Reel went over to her and knelt down. “You wouldn’t have needed saving but for me. I was the reason you were taken.”
“I told them a false story about you. That you were still in WITSEC. I wanted him to be surprised when he found out what you really could do.”
“He was surprised.”
“And I was never really afraid.”
“Why not?” asked Reel.
“I knew you’d come and save me.”
“How could you be so sure?”
Now Julie smiled. “That’s where the element of trust comes in.”