SEALs of Honor: Devlin Read online

  The others shook their heads.

  He gave them the new coordinates. “They’re taking a turn off the main highway.”

  “I presume the swallow goes from point A to B. It doesn’t follow the roads, correct?” Easton asked. “That makes the most sense, but not if it’s coded to follow some kind of a navigational system.”

  “I have no idea. Never thought to ask her that. Why doesn’t she just have a system where she can punch her father’s code into the laptop? That should work. Why have the swallow in between?”

  Ryder said, “That would be the easiest, but I think her mind leans toward complicated details.”

  “Her father must’ve been quite something in his day.”

  “Besides, this was done a long time ago. ID chips are different now. Bristol and her father’s were probably never upgraded. They just created a new program to find them.” He shook his head. “I’m sure Tesla would understand that.”

  “Tesla does understand that,” Tesla said in his ear. “And you’re right. These chips are quite old. Bristol and her father had always talked about getting upgraded models, but because these were deep in their flesh, it wasn’t something they wanted to remove. At the same time there was no need to because they were perfectly capable of finding each other.” Her voice dropped as she said, “I just never considered we’d be tracking both of them down. Of course, the swallow has another purpose as well,” Tesla said. “Don’t forget it’s weaponized.”

  “When you say weaponized, how close does it have to get?”

  “The instructions have a spec sheet attached. The last model had to get within one hundred yards, which is a hell of a long shot. But Bristol said she did a ton of improvements on this one. She liked this one more for personal protection. But not everybody will sit around with a drone flying close by. We often argued on the applications for each of these because without a market, inventions are hard to sell.”

  Devlin nodded. “Right. But if we could alert the drone that the person they were guarding was under any kind of imminent threat, that would be a huge help.”

  “I believe she was working on something like that. Some kind of early camera awareness that some person was holding a weapon. The problem is, a person can hold lots of weapons that would put someone else in danger. How do you determine if a person is holding a weapon in a threatening manner or just showing off a weapon for others to see?”

  He sat back and stared out the window. “It’s hard to believe what she’s doing is even possible.”

  “Hundreds of people around the world are currently working on this. She just happens to be one of the most gifted in the area. But she’s also the most underfunded. She’s doing this on her own. If the military had any idea what she was capable of, they would do a complete flip out and offer her half the world.”

  “Sure, and if the enemy found out, they’d do a complete flip out, and they’d offer her the entire world. Tesla, we need somebody in the military to look at this.”

  “I know. I’ve been thinking about that.” Her voice had a distant echo ring to it.

  He smiled. “Surely between all of us, we know somebody.”

  “Between all of us, we know a lot of somebodies. But it’s a matter of knowing the right somebody.” Then she gasped. “I’m getting feedback from the swallow,” she exclaimed.

  He frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “Now that the swallow is up and targeted, we’re getting the vitals on her father. Because it’s close enough. I’m not sure I can switch the swallow over to her. But that would allow us access to the condition she’s in.”

  “And her father?”

  “Probably sedated from the looks of his vitals,” Tesla said. “But he’s alive. And we’ll hang on to that.”

  “Right.”

  “It’s closing the gap on the GPS location. The swallow’s still flying, but its speed is slowing. Let me check.” Silence was on that end of the phone for a moment. “Yes, speed is definitely slowing.”

  Ryder asked, “Coordinates?”

  “The swallow is not far ahead,” Devlin said. “According to Tesla, the vitals for the father are low, but stable. She’s assuming he’s sedated. We don’t have an update yet on Bristol’s condition. However, the police have been alerted. Apparently at this point about a woman crying for help.”

  Ryder said, “I still need new directions. It feels like I should be turning here somewhere soon.”

  “Turn on the roadway exit coming up,” Devlin said. “Then go four blocks forward. And take a left.” With those instructions completed, Devlin added, “We’re almost on top of it. We’re looking at another couple hard rights.” He quickly read off the address and glanced out at the streets. “This is a much different area than before. This is a very high-class community. And it’s gated.”

  “That’ll be a bit of a problem,” Easton said.

  “Like hell it is,” Ryder said. “We’ll just go over the top.”

  “Why the hell aren’t a ton of police vehicles around here? If she was standing on the back of the boat, screaming for help, surely a half-dozen cop cars would be on her tail very quickly.”

  “Unless the kidnappers got out of traffic immediately and drove in here and parked.” Devlin hated to bring it up. “No guarantee they are still together.”

  Into his phone, he said, “Tesla, we’re outside the gated community. The swallow coordinates that we have say the McEwans are in there. I don’t know how to bring the swallow back.”

  He now stood outside the parked vehicle with the laptop on the roof of the car. The men had already gone to check out access to the community. In the daytime, chances were they didn’t have any kind of electrified fence over the top of the wall. This secured compound wasn’t to keep people out; it was to keep vehicles out.

  “Okay, got the instructions here,” Tesla said.

  Devlin quickly typed in the commands, made several mistakes and had to retype it. Finally, by the time he was done, he looked up to see the swallow coming in for a landing on top of the car. He stared at it. “That’s amazing.”

  “It is, but are you sure you wanted to call it back?”

  He said, “I’ve got the small remote thing she had as well. If we keep this on standby, she’ll be able to control it if I give her the handheld, right?”

  “I’m not exactly sure how her new system works,” Tesla said. “But when she puts the swallow on alert, she should be taking the remote with her. Otherwise how would it work?” She shook her head. “Don’t forget I’m only helping out. These aren’t my babies. Even with the instructions, I can only absorb so much, so fast.”

  When Devlin finished, he put the laptop back inside the vehicle, and the swallow sat atop the car, which he was hesitant to leave. But he didn’t know what else to do.

  His phone buzzed with a text from Ryder. “We found a house, and the boat is parked in the driveway. It appears to be deserted. But of course, there is no guarantee. Easton’s gone to check the boat.”

  Quickly Devlin sent back confirmation he was on the way. He walked around, looking for the easiest place to scale the stone wall. He clicked on Ryder’s GPS and followed the trail to where he stood. He walked up to him behind a cedar hedge. “News?”

  Ryder pointed to a house two doors down, the one with a large sailboat, schooner-type thing, on a trailer parked in the driveway. Then he saw the boat window. “Oh, my God, you can still see the word Help! on the side.”

  “Yeah, that means it’s the same boat as seen on the highway. So she did get herself free, but we have no idea what happened after that.”

  They didn’t wait long. A vehicle drove up, parking in the drive next to the boat, and two men hopped out. Ryder took as many pictures as he could from where he stood with his cell phone.

  Devlin waited, knowing Easton was inside the boat and could get caught any time.

  But the men marched up to the front door and went inside. Devlin and Ryder crept along the side of the house and came
up on the blind side where the boat was. In the garage Devlin could see the truck used to pull it. What they needed to do was disable all the vehicles.

  Devlin opened the driver’s door, reached underneath and disconnected the wires behind the panel. It was a simple enough trick to put it back together again, if they knew what they were doing. But at the moment, he didn’t think anybody inside had that kind of know-how. He searched the truck quickly but couldn’t find anything of interest. Back outside, he checked out the area. Ryder and Easton both stood at the edge of the garage, out of sight. They motioned him over. He stuck to their side.

  “The boat’s empty. Found blood at the front area, and a bit of a mess in terms of cut tape and a sheet. No sign of either of them.”

  “Are we assuming they’re in the house then? In that case I want to disable that car.”

  Easton snorted. “Screw disabling. Let’s go take out the tires.” He pulled out his pocketknife, opened the blade casually and walked down in the shadow of the boat. He peered around the edge, then dashed to the car.

  They couldn’t see what he did, but Devlin trusted him to stab both tires on the far side. He came back around the front, reached under and cut the side wall on the front tires as well. He closed the knife, slipped back alongside the boat and rejoined them.

  “Two vehicles are not moving. Let’s go into the house.”

  They could gain access via three doors that they knew of. One door went inside the garage, plus the front door, and potentially at least one, if not two, rear doorways. Devlin chose to take the back. He slid around the house and did a full check. Found a large porch, downward stairs to some kind of a basement entrance as well as double French doors off the deck. A nice house. A large swimming pool. It was fenced but only four feet high. The easily scalable backyard was empty.

  He slid down to the basement entrance, and his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and checked it. Tesla. She’d set the swallow onto Bristol’s coordinates. According to the reading, Bristol was in the house as well.

  Exactly what he needed to know.

  Chapter 17

  She could hear sirens in the distance. She was sure help was coming. But it was obvious the driver had suddenly been aware of something going on, and she was likely responsible. The vehicle made several high-speed turns and corners. At one point she was afraid the boat would go sideways, sending her crashing to the ground. The truck came to a sudden stop, and the vehicle following behind them stopped too. Two men came out of it and held a pistol at her.

  Slowly she raised her hands in the air. Had she done enough that the cops would find them, or had she just been stupid, putting herself in a worse situation? One of the men jumped into the back of the boat; the others got into the vehicle.

  She sat next to her father. She crossed her arms and glared at the man holding a gun on her. The boat proceeded, once again back on track. But they only drove for another few minutes. Then suddenly she was inside some residential community with big fancy houses all around.

  The vehicle drove into a garage with the boat remaining outside.

  “Now I’ll take you inside that house. I’m totally okay just putting a bullet in you right now,” the man said. “But they seem to think you’re worth more alive than dead.”

  She had no idea why he would think that because she was still a nobody. At the moment she was just one screwed, bankrupt inventor, who thought she could do better.

  The gunman was talking again. “I’ll put you in a bedroom with your father. If you’re good, we’ll leave you together. If you’re not, well, … I want you to go very quietly. You’re not to attract any attention. The bullet doesn’t care whether it’s you or your father. As a matter of fact, it would be a hell of a lot easier to just kill him here.”

  “No, I’ll be good. I’ll be good,” she said quickly. “Just don’t kill him.”

  He shook his head at her. “From what the guys said, he’s crazy anyway. What the hell do you care?” He motioned her to go ahead of him.

  As she got to the deck of the boat, to the back where the ladder was, she could see two men waiting for her. And really she had no choice or chance to escape. She slid down the ladder, and the first man grabbed her arm, moving her into the garage, then through the door into the house. She barely had a chance to look around. It had a big open layout with tile floors, which looked expensive as hell. Upstairs she was shoved into a room.

  “Four men will be in this house. If you want, I can tie you up. But you seem to be able to get out of bindings, so there is not much point. However, if I see you out of this room, and I don’t give a shit what the reason is, even if you need the toilet, I’ll put a bullet in you. Might even start with your hands. If I see you outside this room for any reason,” he repeated for emphasis, “I’ll take out another body part next, probably a knee. See how you like spending the rest of your life as a cripple, and if you do somehow escape, your father is dead meat.”

  She sat down hard on the bed and wrapped her arms around her chest. “I won’t go anywhere.”

  Inside she was seething. As threats, they were damn effective. Her father … and the last thing she wanted was to lose her hands. She winced at the thought.

  The gunman moved off to the side as another man brought her father’s frail body in. She stood, and he laid him down on the bed. He didn’t say a word to her, just turned and walked back out again.

  As the door closed, she sat down and buried her face in her hands. What the hell would she do? No way could she give up. She’d been so close to success by getting free in the boat. In her mind she went over and over it again, wondering what she should have done differently. How was it that nobody got the cops to her in time to save her from this?

  She shook her head. Was that what the world had come to? See somebody in distress … and do nothing? She wondered how many YouTube videos would show up of her screaming in the back of the boat when nobody came to her rescue.

  At the same time, this type of thinking wasn’t helping. She was with her father, and if nothing else, she’d face death with him too. They’d been alone together all their lives. This was nothing new.

  Her mind swept toward Devlin. On the cusp of finding somebody she really wanted to spend time with, it was all being snatched away. That was so not fair.

  He’d walked into her life in Afghanistan and had made himself right at home. She didn’t want him to leave.

  She wanted a promise that he was meant for her. She didn’t really know how he felt, but at the same time, she did realize he was attracted to her. Every time she turned around, he was at her side. The gentle gestures, the smiles, the startling little kisses. She wanted that, and so much more.

  As she stared down at her father, she realized how alone she’d been for so long. She’d lost him mentally and emotionally, and it hurt in more ways than she’d really understood. But now that somebody was potentially in her life, it would make detaching from her father that much easier.

  She’d been in a lot of pain for a long time. She was so ready for some joy. And these assholes were trying to take it away from her. What if she didn’t survive any of this? So much had been going wrong. Even if she came out of this with her life, she worried she wouldn’t with her business or house. Where would she put her father if that happened?

  Instead of getting depressed, it made her mad. She’d worked so damn hard for this. Sure, she’d been an idiot. She shouldn’t have signed the stupid contract. Tesla had warned her about it. But she hadn’t seen any other way. Yet she knew in the back of her mind that she’d had a plan. But she hadn’t expected to get screwed on it. If she could just give them the fifty drones. That was what counted, what the contract stipulated. And now she had something far more advanced and fantastic.

  But she had to get out of here, and she had to do it now.

  Where the hell was Devlin?

  She walked to the window and stared out. Another vehicle drove up, and two men ran into the house. She sat down on the bed besid
e her father, reached down to grip his hand and whispered, “If nothing else, we’ll be together.” She bowed her head, waiting for the men to join her upstairs.

  Still there had to be something she could do. Surely there had to be a weapon, a method to escape.

  *

  The basement door was locked, but Devlin had it picked and open in seconds. He quickly sent a message to Easton and Ryder, saying he was in the basement; the door was unlocked, and they were to join him.

  He did a quick sweep of everything around him and found it empty, except for the weightlifting area. Several aluminum weightlifting bars without the plates affixed were on the side. He picked one up, felt the heft of it and smiled. He could do a hell of a lot of damage with this.

  Hearing a noise behind him, he stepped against the wall and waited. Recognizing both Easton and Ryder, he motioned to the stairs and said, “I only see one way up.”

  They nodded and came behind him.

  With his ear to the door at the top of the stairs, he listened. No sounds heard. Hoping for the best, he turned the knob and let the door disengage from the frame. Still nothing. He pushed it open. Then they were inside a small hallway.

  With the three of them on the main floor they fanned out. And again found nobody.

  Only the upstairs was left. Hopefully Bristol and her father were there.

  Devlin glanced at the stairs. They were always tricky. One would creak, no matter how careful they were.

  Ryder had a completely different tack. He grabbed a handrail and walked up the molding on the side. He hit the first landing, repeated the process and was up the second half in three strides. Easton followed. Devlin picked up the rear.

  At the top of the stairs were four doors. All closed.

  That’s when he realized this was completely wrong.

  No matter how many people were up here, no way the doors should be shut and not a sound heard.