Chapter 66
RPOV
As I brought my fists away from the roof of the car, I rested my forehead against the glass of the window. That's when I saw it, something that had no right to be sat there on the front seat. I opened the door and just looked at the empty bottle of Arak that was now in my hand.
"Why's that there?"
I turned to Santos as all sorts of theories went through my head. That Ehsan had been involved was a strong possibility but why would he have been here? That's when I remembered what he'd said to Steph and me when we were at his building. For some reason Steph had touched something inside of him, he was protective of her. Wasn't that what he was doing when he'd attacked Morelli?
"Ranger?"
"It belongs to Ehsan"
"You think he's involved in this?"
"Those men downstairs had been killed efficiently. I'd say he was the one to do it"
"Why?"
"To help Steph"
I saw the look that Hector gave Santos and suddenly I was feeling just a little insecure. Wasn't that how I had felt about Steph to start with when I first met her? An attraction that developed into the need to protect her. I shook my head and threw the bottle back into the car turning to the two men with me.
"I need teams fully kitted out"
"Where we heading for?"
"Ehsan's building"
"For Estefania?"
I just nodded my head and then turned to return to Rangeman, with me on one side of Nate and Santos on the other.
"Shit Ranger, we'll never get inside there"
I totally understood what Santos was saying. There was no way to access the building through the garage, that would be too obvious to any Homeland agents still in the building and we needed to get Nate to Bobby quickly before even attempting to pull teams together.
As we entered through the lobby, I was pleased to see that it seemed quiet, I wasn't hopeful though that Homeland would be finished. Hector and Santos took Nate to the elevator while I headed for the stairs. Once on five I found Tank in his office, with the door shut nursing a finger of brandy.
"That bad?"
"Those agents thought being here gave them carte blanche to every square inch of this building"
"Just tell me that they don't have their hands on that briefcase"
"They don't have their hands on that briefcase"
"Have they finished?"
"Yeah, just. Wilt helped out and kept them away from places. They took a load of stuff from the roof and they want your apartment sealed off for future evidence collection"
"We'll use an apartment on four"
"Where's Steph?"
Tank asked as he looked behind me. Not seeing her I think made him take a good look at me and what he saw didn't please him.
"Calhoun. He got hold of her?"
"He tried but failed. Cal was hurt when there was an explosion in the tunnel and Nate was beaten up"
"Then where is she?"
"Ehsan, I think it was him who went in and stopped them from getting hold of her"
"Is that a good thing or bad?"
I looked at Tank as he said that trying to work out why Ehsan was even here, then the pieces started to fit together.
"Calhoun knows that I'm not going to do any more jobs after my contract finishes. He wants me to join an elite team that he says he has. He thinks that that if he gets rid of Steph, or uses the threat to hurt her and Rangeman is damaged I might agree"
"Okay I can follow that logic, but where does Ehsan come into it?"
"Because Calhoun knows that Ehsan doesn't want to continue with the work he does. He needs to replace Ehsan, but he also needs to get rid of him"
"Why the game with that briefcase?"
"A terrorist explosion here and a briefcase that points to Ehsan, or Ethan Parker. Calhoun gets his terrorist attack and gets rid of Ehsan"
"Shit"
"That about sums it up. Now I need to go get Steph"
"Everything here is solid. I had Matthew contact all clients that the explosion in no would impede on our service"
"Good thinking"
"Yeah well, I can't take the credit for that, it was Miguel's suggestion. Hal's organized the men for duties and Slick took some of the men down to the gym to destress after the excitement that we had"
"How are we for teams to go with me?"
"We'll hit the gym"
I assumed from that comment that Tank would be going with me so was keen to see who would be in the gym. I had to say that the men with Slick looked to be an excellent group to form the teams that we needed.
"Slick, call the men around"
As the men gathered around me, I chose my words carefully because I had no idea what we'd be walking into.
"Ehsan has Steph in a safe place, though I have a feeling that Calhoun will know where they are. I need some volunteers to go there, secure Steph and possibly Ehsan and kick some government arse"
"I'm in"
"Me too"
Echoed around the large cavernous area as every man who was stood in front of me volunteered to help.
"Slick, organize into three teams and then have everyone suited up and in the garage in 20"
I needed to get my own equipment together so headed back to my office and pulled out my ready bag from the closet. I had a change of clothes and two guns inside so along with a vest hanging from the door was ready to go. As I started down to the garage, I called Bobby, wanting to know how Cal and Nate were doing and also to inform him of our latest job.
"Ranger. I just got back from the hospital. Cal will be there overnight. He's okay, concussion and a broken arm"
"Nate?"
"Cracked ribs and bruising"
"Anyone else injured?"
"No. The apartment was empty. Ella hadn't been up there because she knew Steph was getting ready for our visitor"
"Good. We're putting teams together"
"I'll be there, just let me get my field bag sorted"
As the phone went dead, I knew I was smiling. Bobby hadn't asked why or where, he'd just be with us. I had a good set of men working here in Trenton, the core team, well they were my brothers in arms, loyal to a fault and would follow me anywhere. The men, I had no doubt in my mind when I'd seen who was in the gym with Slick.
Slick had known that there would be fallout from this morning, so he'd made sure that the best men we had were down there, preparing themselves just in case. As I came into the garage, we had three teams of three, the core team, Bobby and Hector all ready to roll.
We used four cars to travel to the area near to where Ehsan's building was, all taking different routes just in case I was wrong. There was no way I wanted to lead Calhoun there but somehow, I just knew that he'd already be aware of where Ehsan would be.
One team were to secure the outer fencing on the west perimeter, another on the east leaving a team and the rest of us on the perimeter where I knew there was an entrance. The cars would be parked up a few blocks out with the men travelling on foot to the fence. We had no idea what to expect so expected the unexpected.
From the vantage point of an old building, I used my night vision goggles to scan the area. All seemed quiet, maybe too quiet.
"Ranger, the beams aren't there. When you went inside that building there were infrared beams covering the area between the fence and the building"
Did that mean that the security had been turned off by Ehsan because he expected me to turn up or had someone compromised his system. I continued to look beyond the barren area into the building and could see the heat images of someone travelling up, no doubt in the elevator. As they reached where I knew Ehsan's living quarters were their images disappeared.
"Three people have just gone up in the elevator"
"Men are inside the building, patrolling"
"How many?"
"Maybe six, it's difficult to tell because parts of the structure block their heat signatures"
Everyone was busy watching but Hector had a laptop on his knee. I had no idea what he was thinking he could do.
"Hector?"
"There's a laptop being used, scanning the systems inside"
"Where?"
"In the building"
"Move forward and take cover, be prepared for anything"
Were my orders to the men. I watched as they disappeared into the night, knowing that all of them were wearing mics and earbuds so would report anything they saw. Santos, Tank and I moved toward the place where we knew the gate was located and positioned ourselves in the undergrowth, out of sight. It was then that we all heard the sound of an explosion and watched as flames engulfed an area below the living quarters. I knew that area would be reinforced but had concerns about the structural integrity of the building.
My heart clenched as I thought of where Steph could be, maybe she'd be safe inside. That was all that was holding me together as the need to run into that building came to me. I felt an arm holding me back and turned to stare at Santos.
"The beams, they've come back on"
We watched as two men ran from the building trying to evade the falling masonry and saw that as they crossed a beam exactly what the beams were for. The sound of gun fire came and pierced through the quietness hitting the men out in the open.
"The elevator Ranger"
Looking into the back of the building were two figures descending, but even as the elevator moved, I could see the figures lurch to one side and then watched as they suddenly fell. Dust blew out from the building, evidence that stonework was falling. A third man who looked to be wearing infrared goggles was brave enough to try stepping over the beams and that's when we heard the retort of a rifle and watched as he fell.
"That bullet came from the side of the building"
"Can you see the shooter Tank?"
"Negative"
Did that mean that Ehsan was firing from inside? I had absolutely no idea what was happening. The men that I assumed belonged to Calhoun were trapped inside so what would Ehsan do next? We couldn't help as I was sure that the fence was now electrified, the beams would detect us engaging the guns that would shoot us down. It was a stalemate with Steph trapped inside.
"Something's going on inside there"
I turned to Santos not sure what he was seeing.
"I'd say there are two men just inside the entrance, but I could swear I saw movement over there"
Watching through the goggles I concurred with the statement that two men were stood by the side of the large entrance and that they were probably staying there because of the infra red beams and firing rifles. I turned as Hector shimmied forward on his stomach and came alongside of me.
"I'd say those beams are feeding into a sophisticated system that automatically fires when the beams are broken. The other device that was working, it's stopped. Not sure what that was about but it stopping, reactivated the beams and the firing"
Maybe that was how Calhoun and his men gained access into the building, some type of hacking system. Why they would have stopped using it confused me because now they were trapped inside the building. Did that mean that Ehsan was back in control? I focused back onto the building to try and work out what was going on. Normally waiting and watching was a strength of mine, I'd spent many hours keeping surveillance and waiting for the right moment to move. Now, all of my patience seemed to have left me. I was so worried as to what was happening inside that building, especially as we still had no idea where Steph was. The goggles were showing movement from inside, but none that seemed to make any sense.
It seemed we didn't have long to wait to see what that movement would result in. The two men were suddenly stood in the middle of the entrance with their hands above their heads. They didn't seem to be carrying any weapons. They also seemed very reticent to move forward, who would blame them, no one wanted to walk through an area where they could be shot. Two figures were behind them and as I looked carefully, I could tell that they seemed smaller.
"Is that Steph?"
Asked Tank. I wasn't too sure, to me she looked different, her figure wasn't that rounded. I think we all looked on in amazement as the two men suddenly fell to the floor and the two figures behind them high fived each other. They stepped out and turned to look up at the building as though looking for something or waiting for something to happen.
Suddenly the beams disappeared, and floodlights swathed the area with light intense enough that I removed my goggles. I was on my feet in seconds running through the gate with the others behind me. I watched as a figure removed a hat and ran her hands through her hair knowing that it was Steph and seeing more clearly another woman walking next to her, with similar curly hair. As I approached, I saw Steph smile but then my eyes fell to her shirt. It was covered in blood.
"Bobby, Steph's hurt"
Was what I shouted as I ran to her and tried to lift her up in order to lay her down for Bobby to tend to her.
"Hey, it's not my blood, I'm okay"
"Sheesh, can someone sweep me off my feet like that?"
I looked up to see the dark haired woman watching us.
"Babe?"
I looked down at Steph as she pushed herself to a sitting position and followed her gaze as she looked toward the other woman who was no stood next to me.
"This is Ava, AKA Foxy"
Booby soon arrived and insisted he checked Steph over even as she was laid down on the ground. I could tell that she was getting annoyed and when she pushed herself up again and started to stand Bobby conceded that the blood wasn't hers.
"You have to get to Ehsan, he was shot but we think he must still be alive"
Her eyes were pleading with me and who was I to refuse my Babe.
"Is he?"
"He kept me safe Ranger and he worked out what Calhoun was up to"
I turned to find Santos as he stood over the now handcuffed men and shouted out to him.
"Santos, take a team and Bobby. We need to get Ehsan out. He's badly injured. Slick take another team and sweep the area for any more men"
I watched as the two teams disappeared into the building and as Hector followed them. No doubt Hector was more interested in how the computerized system had kept us out.
I turned back to Steph, seeing that she looked a bit shell shocked and picked her up, pleased when she didn't complain and snuggled closer to me as I started to carry her to where the cars were parked..
"Bring the cars in and secure the area. Tank"
"I know. Deal with the police that are sure to be on their way"
"Are we going back home?"
Yes, was all I said because somehow, I also needed to tell Steph that our apartment was in ruins.
