Chapter 26

RPOV

I felt a relief wash over me as we sat in the helicopter watching land and sea pass below us. The fact that we had completed the mission in just three days was utterly amazing. As I looked across to Ash and Zeph I felt a compulsion to ask them something, something that I didn't really do, and it surprised me.

"If either of you two need a job there's one for you at Rangeman"

I knew they sometimes did contract work for some of the alphabet agencies or even on occasion got involved with some of the mercenary units working on government contracts.

"Might take you up on that Ranger"

"What do you reckon Zeph?"

"Beats the shit out of some of the work we've been doing"

"You mean you two knew each other before this job?"

"Yeah, we've worked a lot together"

"Okay, call the office at Trenton and ask for me"

I wasn't sure if they would do it, if they would enjoy the work that we did, but there were contracts we took on for the FBI and Homeland Security and they could certainly manage some of those jobs and they'd get a kick from bringing in some of the FTAs we handled.

Thinking of that made me wonder where Steph was, the funeral was yesterday, I knew how much she hated those things, how emotional she would get. Hell, I wished I'd been able to be with her, to hold her and comfort her. Why I would think that, I had no idea but then the thought of her being in my bed certainly made me glad we were on our way home, a thought I'd never had before, something to think about later.

We handed over Serrano as we landed, I just hoped he would never see the light of day, but now we had the debrief to get through.

"Major are you saying that that your team managed to pinpoint Serrano through the voice of a girl?"

"Yes, Serrano had taken her and was threatening her harm unless her Grandmother revealed the whereabouts of people from her village"

"And you just walked in and captured him?"

"Not quite, I've already told you several times the detail of my entry into the house"

"So, the soldiers who left, where did they go to?"

"I have no idea, but my contact assured me the village people were safe"

"Any ideas what happened to these soldiers?"

"None really. They left to capture the village people, maybe Serrano got some false information on where they were. I assume without Serrano around they'll disband and maybe head from where they came from. A lot of those soldiers were just kids"

"Okay so this contact of yours"

"Colonel I've been through this a dozen times; I will be leaving now"

I stood up from the table barely able to contain my anger, eight hours of this and I was past caring. I had a desperate need to get home, not something that I had ever felt so strongly about until now. My nerves were making me feel on edge and for some reason I suddenly thought of Steph, she needed me, how I knew I had no idea and maybe I was just tense. The look on my face and the way I held my body must have got through to someone but the answer they gave me had me pause as I reflected on its meaning.

"Very well Major, I hope the next mission goes this well, but I will expect you to be more cooperative at the briefing"

Shit did that mean they already had one lined up, had I done myself a disservice by completing this one so quickly and efficiently?

I powered up my phone on the way to the airport, I needed a pickup at the other end and somehow, I had the feeling that any news wasn't going to be good.

"Are you back?"

"Yes Tank"

"So it didn't happen?"

"No, we completed it in record time"

"Hell, you'll need to tell me how you managed that. Debrief over?"

"Yes. Pickup in four hours"

"I'll send Santos"

"Tank"

"Okay, okay. We can't find Steph"

"Since when?"

"20 hours ago"

"How the hell could you lose her?"

"That's the strange part of this whole situation"

"Keep talking"

"We had a good take down in the morning, well Steph did. When we came back to Rangeman she was going to be watching the video from the funeral. You know see if she spotted someone or something. Well the shit hit the fan, we had multiple alerts go off, so I had to deploy most of the men. When we came back, she'd gone, walked out through the lobby"

"Trackers?"

"They're not in the system"

"How the hell can that happen?"

"Mateo reckons that we did have a virus because we lost some files from the system as well"

"The alerts?"

"When we finished chasing our tails there was only one place that showed any evidence of a break in"

"What does Hector say?"

"He's sure there's no virus but can't work out how the alerts went off or how the files were lost"

"The video Steph was watching?"

"One of the files missing"

"So no one had seen it?"

"No, you think she saw something, and it spooked her?"

"Might have, no way to know"

"We've checked the usual places. The trackers and her watch were in her apartment. Strange though, we found her phone out in the carpark"

"Did anyone see her?"

"Well I'd say that guy who works there"

"Dillon?"

"Yeah him, he seemed real evasive when I spoke with him, I think he knows something but is too scared or worried to say what he knows"

"Okay, keep looking, I'll meet with Santos, I might have an idea of where she went"

I knew something was wrong, thank god the mission had turned out as well as it had, hell it could have been weeks before getting back home. As I waited to board yet another army plane, I tried to work out why she'd disappear from Rangeman. She went there when she needed to be somewhere safe, where no one could get to her. She knew the men would keep her safe, protect her, so why run? Unless she thought the danger was inside Rangeman itself, which would be why she'd ditch the trackers and why Dillon wouldn't talk to Tank. Did that mean I had someone inside Rangeman who wanted to hurt her? Shit until I found her, I couldn't be sure, but if what Tank had said about the alarms going off and files being erased and then the fact that her trackers weren't on the system, it all pointed to just that. I had an enemy inside of Rangeman.

I watched as a taxi approached and Ash and Zeph came and joined me to wait for the plane, which had just taxied near to us ready for us to board. I wasn't surprised to see Ash; he'd travelled down with me, but I was to see Zeph. As soon as we'd boarded, the plane taxied to the runway and then we felt the fast acceleration for takeoff. This was a smaller faster plane so hopefully we should be landing sooner than I thought.

"Where you heading for?"

"We thought we'd have a few days to catch up on sleep and then pay you a visit"

I didn't expect that response from them, hell when I'd suggested they came to Rangeman I thought maybe that would be some time in the future, when they'd explored other avenues of work.

"The offer still open Ranger?"

"It is, in fact I may just have a job for the both of you"

Nothing more was said as I started to formulate a plan for my arrival. I sent a message to Santos and then took the opportunity to close my eyes and get some rest. I had a feeling the next few days were going to be stressful. Once the plane had landed, we walked across to the waiting SUV where Santos was lent against the door waiting.

"Mission postponed?"

"Hell no Santos, we're just that good"

"Good to see you Ash, so what the hell is going on?"

"Santos this is Zeph, I want you to take him to Rangeman, keep his back to the cameras and go straight up to seven, fill him in on everything that's happened since that first episode with the missed alarms"

"That why you wanted the Merc?"

"Yeah, I want the men to think I'm back at Rangeman but need time to unwind"

I took the three hoodies that I'd asked Santos to bring with him, passing the black one to Zeph and a beige one to Ash. With the hood up Zeph could pass as me, he was a similar build to me with dark skin and hair.

"Where's the Merc at?"

"Parked just outside of Trenton like you asked"

I handed my phone to Santos as Ash and I got into the back seat and we were soon on our way. I felt a little more relaxed than I had done, for some reason I just knew where Steph might be hiding and that made the turmoil inside of me subside to a manageable level. I could tell Santos was trying to figure out what I was doing so waited patiently knowing he wouldn't be able to keep quiet.

"Ranger, what you up to?"

"I think I know where Steph is"

"Where, we've checked everywhere?"

"Did you check the warehouse?"

"Yes, it was all locked up. I don't have a fob to get in. You think she'd go there?"

"Only one way to find out"

Ash and I were soon in the Merc driving into Trenton, we both had sunglasses on and the caps that were in the car; hopefully no one would recognize me.

"You not going to ask what's going on?"

"Nah, I'll figure it out when you feel ready to tell me. You're still hyper at the minute so once you start to come down then I'll get a clearer idea"

I took a circular route through the back streets and alleys stopping as the double doors opened in the front of the building. Once inside the second doors opened and I drove through parking the car in an empty space. I'd left the fob in this car just in case I decided to pay another visit, not realizing it would be quite so soon. No one knew of its existence and only Santos knew I still owned the building, he said he'd checked here, was I clutching at straws thinking she'd be here?

As we exited the car, I fobbed open the second door that led up and into the lounge area. I went straight through the darkened room heading for the stairs throwing "Stay here" behind me to Ash. Running upstairs, I went into the bedroom hoping against hope to see her asleep on the bed, I felt myself deflate as I walked through the door, finding nothing.

She wasn't here but just as I turned to look into the second bedroom, I heard a scream coming from the lounge downstairs. Taking the stairs two at a time I was soon at the bottom of the stairs and took in the sight before me as I entered the lounge. The couch had been tipped backwards and Ash was low to the ground in front of it, I'd never seen him look so worried before. But it was the sight of Steph that had me drawing in a breath, she was lent against the wall on the other side of the couch, a gun was in her hands as she pointed it toward where Ash was.

Her hands were shaking, and tears were streaming down her face. She looked terrified and I suppose seeing a stranger come in had triggered her reflexes. The small lamp had been switched on, probably Ash's doing but at this moment in time I had to pull Steph from the shocked state she was in. As I carefully moved toward her, I called out her name, "Babe" hoping my voice would do it. Then crouching on one knee beside her my left hand went to the gun pulling her arm down so it pointed to the floor. With my right arm around her I pulled her into my body but her grip on the gun didn't relent.

"Babe, let go of the gun, you're safe"

When there was no response to that I fell back on using her full name.

"Stephanie, let go of the gun"

I knew I'd raised the loudness of my voice but at least she let go of the gun allowing me to engage the safety and slip it into my pocket. Instead of relaxing into me as she normally would she became tenser, if that was possible, and as she looked toward me she began shaking her head and trying to pull away.

"Babe, it's okay"

"No, you can't be here"

"Well I am, so tell me what happened"

I held her tighter as she began to squirm against me, I had no idea why or what she was thinking.

"You shouldn't be here, you'll be annoyed with me, you should be away, you shouldn't have come"

Shit, she thought I'd be annoyed at her, was that because she thought I'd left the job I was on to be here?

"Babe, the job is finished, and I've just got back home. I'm not annoyed at you, why would you think that?"

I felt her relaxing slightly, but she was still so very upset.

"Breathe deeply, follow my breathing"

I said as I turned her cheek onto my chest, relieved when after a few minutes she was starting to calm down.

"You're not annoyed with me?"

"No, I was worried about you"

"A man was here"

"That's Ash and he's a friend"

I felt her breath hitch up again as she whispered.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know, he scared me when he approached me"

"Babe I'm proud of you for how you reacted, Ash knows better than that"

I heard Ash move and watched as he started to right the couch, but noticed he wasn't holding himself well, in fact he seemed to be stooping.

"Let's sit on the couch and I'll introduce you to him properly"

I lifted her as I stood and sat down on the couch, keeping her close to me because now I had her in my arms, I felt a calmness come over me. Ash pulled up a chair that he must have found and sat opposite us, then held his hand out toward Steph.

"Hi, I'm Ash, I've sometimes worked with Ranger"

Her Burg etiquette kicked in as she took his hand in return.

"Hi, I'm Steph"

"You sure pack a hell of a kick Steph"

"I'm so sorry, I didn't think, I just reacted"

"What happened Ash?"

Because I was curious how Steph had gotten the better of him.

"When you went rushing up the stairs, I bent over to switch the lamp on, I wasn't aware that Steph was on the couch. She stood up on the seat and landed her foot, or maybe her knee in my crotch and then as I fell forward, she must have leaned back too far because the couch tipped over taking her with it"

I watched as he looked at her then smiled.

"You know Steph you are one hell of a lethal weapon"

I saw the start of a smile on her lips and leaned into her to kiss her head, hell that had been a close one for Ash. He wouldn't know of the times she had shot someone when she felt she had no way out and they were threatening to kill her.

"Babe how about you tell us why you're here"

I watched as she bit her lip and as she looked down at her hands, hell she was so open with her emotions sometimes it was as easy as reading a book to know how she felt. But then there were times when she shut right down, I wondered if she knew she was doing it when that happened. I heard her take in a deep breath and then waited patiently as she put her thoughts in order ready to start her story.

"We'd just got back from the station and Hector had uploaded a video onto the server, so I suppose to keep me out the way Les suggested I took a look, see if I recognized anyone or something seemed off"

"What video Babe?"

"Les set up a camera at the church for Buckley's funeral. Anyway, I was watching for Gauge, he turned up at the end and introduced himself to me, and I saw him on the video talking to someone at the back of the church. I didn't know who it was so was going to head down for a rest but when I got onto the corridor outside, the man was there, watching me. He was in a Rangeman uniform, so I panicked, most of the men I knew were out because of the alarms going off"

"Can you describe him?"

"I can show you"

I watched as she reached down into her bag and brought out her laptop, intrigued to know what she was about to show us.

"I don't know why I did it and I know I wouldn't normally do it but I uploaded the video file onto my laptop, I'm sorry I know you don't like people doing that"

"Babe, you did well to do that and I don't mind that you did it"

I watched as she opened the file and swept the mouse over the screen to take the video toward the end and looked in amazement at the face she was showing us.

"Shit"

"Did I do wrong?"

"No Babe, I think maybe he's responsible for the files that went missing and probably set off the alarms as a diversion"

"Who is he?"

"Mateo McGannon, he works with Hector and is a key player in how our systems operate"

"Yeah but Ranger if he's still there then he doesn't know you've found Steph"

I looked at Ash wondering where he was going with that response and then began to wonder if we could maybe flush out what he was up to.

"If Steph stays here, I'll need to get a few things brought in and she'll need someone with her"

"Hey, I'm here, maybe I can do some digging on him. Hell Steph did I hurt you?"

I looked at where his eyes were focused on Steph's shoulder, seeing a damp area on the black T-shirt.

"It's fine, I think it happened when I fell"

"Babe you may have pulled out the stitches, I'll get Bobby to call over and check it out"

"What happened?"

"She was shot"

"Shit, maybe you need to tell me everything from the beginning and then I can get a handle on what the hell is going on"

Good luck with that because I hadn't a clue what connected everything together.

"Okay I'll let Steph do that. I'll order some things to be delivered here, if someone sees you Ash, they'll just see a stranger moving things in. Only four us of know of this place so we'll keep it that way"

"Keys to get in?"

"I'll get you a fob, it opens all the doors and there's a security system that can be used"

"Babe, you okay now?"

"Yeah"

"I'm gonna head back to Rangeman and we'll be back here at 1800hrs"

"Ranger you shouldn't use the computers or Wi-Fi at Rangeman, if this man knows the systems, he'll be watching out for anything out of the ordinary"

Hell, he had made a valid point but if anyone was going to be staying here, they'd need better furniture and probably beds, not forgetting all the accessories that went with those.

"Okay, you order the things we need and use this"

I took a black Amex card from the side of my bag and passed it to Ash.

"Get whatever you need"

"A car?"

"Smart ass"

"I'll leave you the one we came in"

"No Ranger, the fewer ties to you the better. I'll use my card and send you the bill"

I stood up from the couch prepared to leave but just needed the feel of Steph for a little bit longer and pulled her against me, I knew we had an audience in Ash, and suddenly wished he wasn't here. Hell, I had so much to do yet I wanted to stay here, something to think about later.