Villains and Vixens by Charles Dougherty

Author:Charles Dougherty [Dougherty, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

19

Bob and Mike joined Mary and Aaron and me just as we finished breakfast. Jill Hardwick came into the dining room shortly before Mike and Bob arrived. She sat apart from us, still eating.

"Just pretend I'm a fly on the wall," she said, after we all exchanged greetings with Mike and Bob. "I told the others that I just want to pick up as much background as I can."

"Good enough, Jill," Bob said. "Finn, it sounds like you kicked a hornets' nest the other night."

"Funny, but hornets' nest reminds me. I thought a wasp stung me right before I fell from that tree. That's what their tranquilizer dart felt like. Hit me on the side of the neck. Then I felt myself falling, and that was it. Out before I hit the ground, I guess."

"I remember the same feeling from when they got me in Charleston," Mary said.

"So you were up a tree, Finn?" Bob asked.

"Yes, to see over the wall. Sorry if I'm not making sense. I can't remember who knows what."

"That's all right," Mike said. "Glad you're okay, Finn. Any idea how they spotted you?"

"Yes, thanks to what Aaron told me a little while ago. He and Mary should tell the story, Mike. I don't remember much after the dart until they showed up and cut me loose. And what I do recall is scrambled."

"I know that feeling," Mary said. "It'll fall into place once you hear things from the beginning. It did for me, anyway."

"All right," Mike said. "Aaron and Mary, you're on. Finn?"

"Yes?"

"Chime in any time, if something comes to you."

"Okay."

"We first suspected Finn was in trouble about 24 hours ago," Aaron said. "Mary joined Jill and me for breakfast, and she was worried because she couldn't get in touch with Finn. Mary?"

"Finn called me the night before last, right before he left the motel to go to Grissom's place."

"Shit," I said.

"What's wrong?" Mary asked, as all eyes shifted to me.

"The motel. I forgot all about it. I left my duffle bag there."

"That's all taken care of," Aaron said. "We have it. Don't worry. Mary?"

"Finn told me he was going out on a night reconnaissance mission. He didn't say where. And we didn't discuss it beyond the fact that he was going. He didn't have much time to talk; he said he'd call me before breakfast the next morning. That would have been yesterday, about this time, when he was supposed to call. He didn't call me, so I tried to call him. I went straight to voicemail. So I told Aaron, and he took it from there. Aaron?"

"I put the team to work locating Finn's phone. In a few minutes, they called back. It was inside Grissom's perimeter, pretty much dead center in the compound. They gave me a position accurate within a meter, and Grissom's compound is about 100 meters square, so we figured Finn was in there. That wasn't part of the plan. He was supposed to check out their perimeter security and see if he spotted any activity that would show whether Grissom was there.

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