Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 113741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
“You brought him to your opening?” Porter said. “Is that right?”
“Yes…?” Gage responded, his eyes snapped up.
“It was everywhere, plus I have to keep my eye on you, Synclair. We know you’re working something. But did you know he was involved?” Porter said as he lifted the photo for a closer look. “Is he wearing a tool belt?”
“I didn’t know of his involvement. It’s a long story, but he didn’t know either. He’s the electrician on the gallery remodel. These are his sister’s kids. The best I can tell, she didn’t know, but they’re both Abdulla’s children. He wasn’t around much. He died when Lynn got pregnant with Emalynn, the little girl in the picture.”
“How did you meet him?”
“Like I said, he was the electrician on this remodel,” Gage said, pulling the picture back in the file.
“You just randomly met him?” Porter asked.
“Yes.” Gage nodded.
“You’re giving up a lot here, Synclair, for someone you’ve known a few weeks.”
“His sister died giving birth. He adopted the children and raised them virtually by himself. He’s a good man, one I’m lucky to know. He doesn’t deserve any of this,” Gage said, closing his laptop and shoving the papers back in the files on the table. This part of the conversation took an awkward personal turn, one he wasn’t sure he wanted to take.
“Does he know what you’ve given up?”
“No, but he will. I want him kept safe at all cost,” Gage said, as the government computer dinged and Porter looked down.
“It looks like we’re a go. You ready?” the general said, closing his laptop.
“Let me get my duffle.”
Chapter 23
For the first time in Gage’s life he took a backseat to the events unfolding around him. Gage stayed in the background, close to General Porter, answering questions as needed, but that became his entire roll in the capture of Ahmed Abdulla. The last six years of his life had been dedicated to apprehending Ahmed Abdulla. He’d spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to track every movement of the guy to this moment. Now, as the military worked, he stood back, watching, his arms crossed over his chest, his legs spread apart, his back straight, and his head held high. He watched everything going on around them.
From this side, it was interesting how the military worked. Gage had only watched them in panic mode after one of his reports, while they were playing catch up. Since he turned this all over to them before the report, he got to watch them work as a well-oiled machine, and he was honestly impressed as hell. They never faltered. There was no indecisiveness, just clear decision and immediate action by some of the best trained people he had ever seen.
They now stood in a makeshift command post, about an hour north of the infiltrated church. Gage watched all the video feeds from the ten or so LCD monitors stacked on top of one another against a wall. They were connected to video cameras, attached to helmets of the Special Forces teams currently raining down a bunch of whoop ass on the unsuspecting church. It looked like a bad ass, sci-fi, military based movie from where Gage stood, but the intel he’d shared had been dead on. They followed his maps and it didn’t take much for them to know exactly how to proceed into the church yard.
The helicopters swooped in, troops descended from every direction, even those strategically hiding in the basin ridge area. Gage’s men laid down their weapons, and everyone in the church compound surrendered to the forces. One of Gage’s contacts had discovered weapons onsite only hours earlier, but they weren’t used. Abdulla did the same as every other person in the compound and bent to his knees, spread out on the floor, and waited to be arrested. There was no fight against the incoming troops. Not one round of gunfire took place.
Gage watched as they took Abdulla into custody. He willingly put his hands behind his head and allowed himself to be cuffed. His ankles and wrist were chained and he was carried out of the compound to a waiting helicopter without one word said. Abdulla was the only one removed, and it didn’t take long. Not more than a few minutes after landing were they circling back into the air with Abdulla in custody. And just like that, his last report completed, and he wasn’t involved at all. It surprised him how okay he really was about it all. Now, he needed to get in front of the guy and make sure he never said a word about Emalynn and Hunter for the rest of his life, however long that may be.
“Synclair, thank you,” the general said, and smacked him on the back with a good hard whack. “It went off exactly like you said. The information on the structure was dead on. Good job, son. Like you being on this side so much better!”
Gage stood there, his arms still crossed over his chest, watching the screens as the helicopters faded off into the sun and the on-ground troops faded back into the dense, dry forestry surrounding the old mission. It was a dusty, dry area in the middle of the morning, during the summer. It looked hot on the video and sweat trickled down Gage’s back to prove the point. He wore his normal investigative attire: an old, worn T-shirt, and khaki walking shorts, and a bandana tied around his neck in easy reach to help keep the flying dust from his nose and mouth. His eyes never left the screen and he watched everything, making sure nothing happened to the helicopter until he couldn’t see it any longer.
“Where are they taking him? You agreed to a meeting,” Gage said as his eyes left the screen to focus on the general.
“El Paso. We’ll leave in a few minutes. We need to get out of here.” As he spoke, they folded the command center back up and had everything completely dismantled within minutes. The whole operation, from the time they’d landed in Mexico, had taken less than two hours.