Raiders

CHAPTER TWELVE

With so little time to prepare, Mason was less confident about this mission than any he had ever done before. Now, as they piled into a black Mercedes SUV and began their journey into Frankfurt, his mind was swimming with plans. Ezra’s briefing about the location had been exactly that — brief. It was no Fort Knox because Linus and his team were not expecting any trouble but things could still go wrong and he didn’t want his crew’s blood on his hands. He knew what that felt like already.

The Spiders were holding Eva Starling in an old safehouse in Innenstadt just off Berliner Straße, one of the main streets cutting through the center of the city. It was a built-up area, with thousands of pedestrians, cars, cabs and lots more that Ezra was keen for the team not to trash.

Mason was well-versed in techniques of what those in the trade called ‘building clearing’, and the Raiders knew how to conduct a tactical raid better than anyone. Between them they had more than enough experience, and they liked to break the rules by using unorthodox weapons like Ella Makepeace and her uncanny methods of manipulating people’s minds.

As they raced through the streets of Frankfurt, Mason turned the Mercedes SUV into a mobile office, and shifted in his seat to address the rest of the crew. “As ever, this is all about the details,” he began. “After Ella works her magic, we go in as planned, breaching the two entry points and search the property room by room. Two two-man teams, one covers and one searches. Spiders to be taken out on sight and the target to be extricated under cover.”

“Are they inward or outward opening doors?” Zara asked.

“Inward,” Ezra said. “Already checked.”

“We’re not taking the whole bag of tricks then?” Virgil asked. “Sledge hammer, hydraulic spreader, j-hooks and t-bars?”

Mason shook his head. “That’s why Ella’s going in first. She’ll get the front door open without so much as a punch, right?”

Ella nodded. “Just watch me.”

“Looking at the floor plan of the safehouse,” Milo said, “it looks like you want a buttonhook entry at the front because you can get two inside quicker.”

“Got it,” Mason said. “All right, we’re good to go, and Virgil can keep Ezra company here in the Merc. Remember, it’s not the first bullet that wins the battle, but the first accurate bullet.”

“Your weapons,” Ezra said, twisting in the front seat. From a small bag in the passenger seat footwell he handed each of them a gun and a box of ammunition. “I’d say try not to use them but I doubt the Spider crew will play it that way. They’re trigger happy and like death for the sake of it. Also, it’s highly likely they have several local thugs in there as well. Be prepared for that.”

“Got it.”

“With the exception of Miss Makepeace, Mr Risk and Virgil here, you’re all former military or police so you know how the game works.”

“How many years were you with the LAPD?” Milo asked Zara.

“Seven.”

He gave her a smug look. “Is that all?”

“It’s long enough.”

“At least ten years on Call of Duty and GTA,” he said proudly, crossing his arms behind his head. “That’s all I’m saying, beeatch.”

Zara rolled her eyes and the Merc pulled up outside a burger joint. Ezra opened his door first, and climbed out into the fresh air. It was summer and dusk. The tops of the highest buildings were sparkling with the setting sun but everything at street level was already starting to get dark. Birds sang in the trees on the sidewalks and people were milling around with smiles on their faces.

“All right,” Ezra said, businesslike. “Don’t forget — we need Dr Starling alive at all costs. She is an innocent party in all this. The Spiders will not kill her so long as she has the information they need. She will understand this and will have withheld critical information so they keep her alive, but I do not want her getting hit in the crossfire.”

“And what about you?” Ella asked Ezra. “Aren’t you joining in the fun?”

“As former DIA and NSA, I’m too close to the US Government. If I get caught shooting up a safehouse in Frankfurt I’m going to lose my pension for sure,” he said with a smile. “I’ll be monitoring radio chatter out in the SUV, and at some point after I know Dr Starling is safe, I have to return to the States. We’ll talk about that at the debriefing.”

The safehouse was up a side road to the north of the main street, nestled in a fold of boutique shops and kebab houses. They made their way closer to it, keeping on the same side of the road so they were well out of view. Mason ran through the plan one more time.

“Ella goes in first, remember?”

“Holy smokes,” Zara said. “You only briefed us a half hour ago.”

Mason gave her a flinty look. “You know the way I do things, Zara.”

She raised her hands. “I’m sorry.”

“Ella goes in first,” he repeated. “She works her magic on whoever opens the door then the rest of us go in hard and fast from our positions. Me and Caleb are going in right through the open front door, Zara and Milo go in through the skylights. All good?”

“All good,” Caleb said. “Ella wearing a wire?”

She shook her head. “No wire. I’d make less of a stir if I turned up in a pink tutu. And don’t even think about asking how I know that.”

Zara and Caleb shared a high five. “Last one to draw blood is buying the beer tonight,” Caleb said.

Zara agreed.“You sure you can afford it, big man?”

“All right,” Mason said. “Check weapons and then everyone into position.”

Zara Dietrich jogged around the rear of the safehouse with Milo at her side. When they arrived, she rapidly studied the form of the building in preparation for the climb to the top floor. Buildering was not an art form to take lightly, but her martial arts career had depended on the same agility and nerve when it came to learning the craft of climbing up buildings with no safety ropes.

Zara used the barest minimum to ascend any building, and now was no exception. In her bag of tricks were the usual array of sky hooks, camming devices and suction cups. She knew how to use them and she knew when to use them.

She made the ascent easily enough; the safehouse was only four storeys high and she had scaled skyscrapers in her prime. When she reached the roof she lowered an anchored rope down for Milo who promptly climbed up and joined her. Then she prised open the skylight and radioed through to Mason.

“We’re in position.”

“All right. Ella’s in position. Everyone wait till I give the word.”

Ella Makepeace straightened her shirt and skipped up the steps to the safehouse. She knew what she was doing and she wasn’t nervous. She had never been nervous. Confident and popular at school, cocky at college and never any stage fright. The only thing that frightened her was that she found it so hard to think about anyone other than herself. With the exception of her relationship with Ben, almost everything she had ever done had been all about her — her pleasure, her wealth, her power, her fame.

That was where the Raiders came in.

Working for Mason’s world-class asset recovery crew had enabled her to give something back and help others in a way that being a c-list TV celebrity could never do, even if she was just a casual part of the team.

She knocked on the door and a second later a woman swung it open. Ella recognized her at once from the briefing: Molly Cruise, and she immediately started talking to her. A minute later, Molly walked out of the house in a daze and turned right on the sidewalk.

Ella radioed the rest of the team. “Molly’s just going to get me a coffee from the place down the road,” she said quietly into her mic. “I told her to wait there for me. She won’t realize what’s happened for hours.”

‘How the buggery fuck does she do that?” Milo said.

“That’s confidential, Milo,” Ella said. “You know that. I’m coming back to the SUV.”

“Okay everyone,” Mason said. “Ella’s got the door open and sent Molly Cruise down for a latte. We go in three, two…”

Zara closed her eyes as she listened to Mason counting down. Even at sunset the heat in Frankfurt was still hot, and a heavy humidity was stifling the city. The hum of the main road traffic filled the air and the sound of laughter and mischief floated across from a café a few doors away. From their position on the roof she and Milo had an elevated view of the city. In the west, an orange ribbon divided the industrial skyline from the sky above. When the sun finally sank beneath the smog, the night, with all its pleasures and horrors, would begin for real.

A stark memory of her time in the Los Angeles Police Department burst into her mind. She had been tracking down a notorious serial killer called the Choker along with the rest of her team of detectives. They were a hard-boiled crew of men. There had been another woman on the team — Alice — but she was the Choker’s latest victim. Now, they were all just about ready to burn the freak alive, but there was just one problem.

They had to catch him first.

When they tracked him down, it was to a crack house in Lincoln Heights. Once upon a time in the west, the place had been a former recording studio with twelve bedrooms but by the time Lieutenant Dietrich pulled up in her unmarked Ford Club Wagon it was a broken-down warren of danger and filth. Lurking somewhere inside was the Choker, and she decided she was going to scale the south wall and get in on the top floor.

The memory was cut dead by the sound of Jed Mason: “…One, all teams go!”

She lowered herself down through the skylight and touched down on the unpainted floorboards below like a cat. Pulling her gun, she slid a round into the chamber and silently crossed the loftspace on her way to the door. Milo was just seconds behind her.

She reached out to turn the handle when she heard gunshots coming from downstairs, and then Caleb Jackson’s voice crackling through the earpiece. “Asset’s not where she’s supposed to be… sweep the whole house!”

She ran forward, joined now by Milo, and they reached a white-painted door. “We’re on our way, Cal!”

Zara moved to open the door when Milo stopped her. “Wait — you hear something?”

“No, what?”

“Someone’s coming!”

Zara leaned in and also heard footsteps outside the door. Reaching for a grenade on her belt, she turned to Milo and gave him a wink. “Put your mask on! This could get dangerous!”