Chapter 30

Before I left the room to talk to the girls, I called Captain Jensen and explained everything to him. He said he would have everything ready in less than 30 minutes. We had been expecting the call, so everyone had been on alert and ready anyway. We just didn't expect the complication of Julie being taken hostage. I told him Amy, Megan, Victoria and I would go in. He didn't like that, of course, but he knew better than to argue by now. I knew he would have a force right behind us in case it got messy. I was fine with that; this time we were going against people almost as well trained and almost as good as we were. Who knew what we might find. Besides, there was always the possibility this was a setup. We had to be ready for anything.

When I walked into the family room where the girls and Victoria were talking, the first person I noticed was Megan. She was looking at me with big, sad eyes, crying silently. Nobody else had noticed her yet. Dear, sweet Megan — she almost always knew ahead of time what was happening. I couldn't even imagine the heartbreak and emotional trauma, the horror that that sweet girl must go through every day, knowing what was going to happen and not being able to talk about it or do anything about it. She was so empathetic — I realized the way she was looking at me that she was crying because of the pain I was feeling, not because she knew an awful result of Julie's capture. She smiled slightly through her tears, thereby telling me that the end was not necessarily tragic.

I told the girls and Victoria to get ready, that we were on in less than an hour. Over the years, I had spent the most time with Amy, so she probably knew me better than the others did. She was the first to pick up by my demeanor that something was not quite right. She came over and took my hands in hers, looking deep into my eyes, worry in her eyes.

"What's wrong, Daddy? Something is not right." Can't fool the little genius.

"He has taken Julie hostage. We have to rescue her, too." I tried to keep my voice from breaking, but I don't think I succeeded completely. Two heads turned towards me; three sets of eyes, flat and devoid of all expression, looked at me. In the few days that Julie had been with us, all the girls had learned to love her deeply. I almost felt sorry for the guy that had taken her, and what he was going to experience tonight. Almost. It was bad enough up to this point with everything he had done to our family, to Mommy's babies. Now, I didn't know what might happen. My girls were well and truly pissed. The only thing worse than messing with Mommy's babies was to mess with Mommy at the same time. Amy and Megan turned and walked out of the room without saying anything. They would do their talking when they got there, and the sooner the better. Victoria stayed behind to talk to me.

"Did I hear you right? Are you taking Amy and Megan with us on this?" She didn't look or sound pleased.

"You bet I am. I wouldn't go into a situation like this without them — or you." Nice save, Patrick!

"Are you out of your mind? We are going into an area probably filled with trained agents, and we are going to have to baby sit a couple of teenage girls? I don't want my daughters hurt!" She was trying to be nice, knowing I was upset already, but she was not pleased.

As upset as I was, I laughed at her. I shouldn't have, but I was letting off steam. From her point of view, she was correct. Of course, she had never seen them in real action before.

"Victoria, if there is going to be any babysitting going on, it is likely to be those two looking after us." She looked at me, not understanding what I was telling her. "Believe me, honey. I have seen them in action before; I have been in action with Amy before. You are very good, honey, but Amy is better that you and I combined, and Megan is as good as or better than Amy is. They are much more likely to save our butts."

I could tell she didn't believe me, but she also knew in the present mood I was in she was not going to win. She gave a fatalistic shrug and left the room to get ready.

Amy was the first one to return, in about ten minutes. Yep, you guessed it; she had on the natty black jumpsuit again, soft black moccasins, hair in a ponytail. I didn't even want to know what she had in those pockets, but I was sure it would be interesting, as well as entertaining. It was amazing how they could hide things in those pockets without bulges showing. I didn't insult her this time by asking her how many guns she had. Her eyes were still flat. She scared the hell out of me just looking at her, and she was on my side. Megan was the next one in. Blue jump suit, black boots, hair in a ponytail also. She came in so quietly I didn't even notice she was there until she reached up and kissed my cheek. How she moved with absolutely no noise in boots was beyond me, but she did. Like I ever understood anything about these girls. She had no expression on her face, and was very quiet, fatally quiet. I think she scared me more than Amy, just because such intensity and feeling of deadliness was so unexpected in such a sweet, quiet, pretty little girl. They both looked good enough to eat — I was going to have to take them out some night wearing those things. Maybe not — I would be fighting off the boys, or they would be beating them up!

Victoria came in next. I always wondered what she wore when she was 'working'. She had on a black sweatshirt, black jeans, black slippers, hair in a ponytail (was the hair in a ponytail significant with these girls when they went into action?) and — I kid you not — a black beret on her head. I saw the girls eyes open wide when they saw that, and then they both bolted out of the room. They came back two minutes later, Megan with a dark blue beret and Amy with a black one. I wondered what kind of weapons they had in the berets. Victoria looked casual, relaxed, and almost ready for a nap. If it wasn't for her eyes, she could be a Mom taking her girls to soccer practice. She would be kicking balls tonight, all right. I had never seen her ready to work before. Something was different, something... indefinable. I wasn't sure what it was; a type of reserve I had never seen before. Victoria was normally reserved anyway. She was boisterous sometimes and could be a lot of fun, but usually she was more like Cindi was; classy, quiet, reserved, cultured, and sexy as hell. Tonight, she just looked quiet and deadly. I left the room and came back wearing a bright orange hunting hat. All the girls looked at me as if I was crazy. I told them I wanted to make sure they knew it was me when they saw me, as I didn't want to tangle with any of them tonight. They all gave me a cold little smile, but it did break the tension a little.

They each put on a double holster, one gun on each hip. I guess they decided we weren't hiding anything tonight. Amy and Megan, not being as experienced as Victoria, and maybe a little nervous, working with Mom the pro for the first time, started practicing drawing their weapons as we waited to go. It was the first time they had used pistols with the short mini-silencers on them, and I guess they wanted to see how it would affect drawing them. I saw the interested look on Victoria's face as she watched them, as they speeded up faster and faster, drawing with both hands, until finally it was almost a blur. She glanced at me with an impressed look on her face, apparently settling the argument of whether the girls were going or not. While we were waiting, we spent the time with Victoria, going over the layout of the building.

We were all surprised when Captain Jensen walked in, instead of just calling us from the car as we expected. He was dressed in a similar outfit as Victoria. Amy and Victoria looked at him in astonishment; apparently, it had never occurred to them that he might go too. I didn't expect it either. He explained that he had shown Becky how to run the phones and radios and how to coordinate everything. He said he was pleased at how quickly she learned, and the spunk she showed. One unit had asked her authorization number to give him commands. He smiled in remembrance of the man's voice and eagerness to follow orders after Becky was done with him. Oh, and she did give him her authorization number. We stared at him, wondering if he was talking about the same Becky we knew.

Megan just smiled and nodded slightly to him once, as if she knew all along that he was coming. She also looked like she knew his capabilities. He had grown just as fond of Megan as he was of Amy, and I guess he decided his little granddaughters were not going into danger without him there to watch over and protect them. I knew just how he felt. I didn't bother to tell Amy and Victoria that he could shoot the eye out of a snake at 50 yards. We were almost ready to go when Victoria suddenly ran back into the other room, and emerged a minute later with a silenced Uzi machine pistol. I hoped we wouldn't need that, but if it made her feel better, I was all for it.

Once outside, we all piled into a black suburban, with another one behind us, presumably with our backup. I was beginning to feel like 'Men and Women in Black'. I just hoped it wasn't dark in that building, or we might not see the three women again until it was all over. On second thought, the bad guys wouldn't see them either, and it didn't matter whether I did or not. From the looks in their eyes, I doubted Captain Jensen or I would even be firing our guns.

As we drove to the headquarters, I talked to him about the plans and preparations. The police had been notified that something would be going down in their area and to respond very slowly to any reports of shots fired. As usual, we had air support up, in case someone besides us decided to get cute. We had been promised clear airspace in the area. Of course, we realized that all this preparation just meant that the word would probably leak out to the bad guys before we got there. Just in case, we had some men on the other side of the building, to draw their fire if they tried to prevent us from getting out of the cars. The cars were bulletproof, so I wasn't worried about that. We usually picked them up cheaply, every time the Secret Service replaced theirs.

The ride to the target was uneventful. The real pro at this, Victoria, fell asleep on the way, catching a catnap. This was just another walk in the park for her. She was so cool and I was so impressed; I loved her even more that ever. Amy and Megan sat in the back, cuddled together, whispering and giggling the whole way there. Me, I was a bundle of nerves. I was getting way too old for this. If these jackasses would ever stop messing with my family, maybe I could retire from the field work and let the young ones take over. Yeah, right — like I'd ever let any of my babies go on something like this without going along to give the bad guys someone to shoot at. The more bullets aimed at me, the less that could hit my girls.

Amazingly enough, when we got there, it seemed we were not expected. At least, no one shot at us as we got out of the car. I tried to get Victoria to let the girls take the lead, but she just looked at me as if I was nuts and went up there with them. You almost couldn't see the three of them as they glided effortlessly up to the entrance, flattening themselves against the wall. I watched Victoria, the unspoken leader of the group, giving hand signals to the group. I wondered why they didn't just talk in their minds, but then I realized Victoria was very new at that and probably couldn't do it as well as she would want. I realized I didn't know if she even had a connection with anyone other than me. Besides, this was second nature to her. Amy was to go in first and break right, Megan next and break left, and Victoria would scoot up the middle. I was impressed how she gave herself the most dangerous part. They worked together smoothly, as if they had been doing this for years. It was clear from the start that the two girls were so impressed with the opportunity to work with Mom in her environment that they just made her leader, whether she wanted it or not. She took to it like a duck to water; this was what she did.

Then they were gone. I had blinked and missed them going in. Paul (Captain Jensen) and I moved up next, and just as we were about to enter, we heard four quiet coughs from silenced weapons. Apparently, it had begun! We hurried in, to find the two sentries that had been guarding the front lobby now guarding the floor. Very closely. We checked to make sure we would not have to deal with them later from behind us. Nope. My girls never miss.

I looked around, trying to find them. It was indeed dark in the building. I wondered if that meant the other guys would have night vision scopes. If so, Victoria knew enough to know that flash-bangs made that advantage a huge disadvantage. I didn't even bother to wonder if we had any with us. I couldn't see the girls anywhere. Then I saw a small movement at the end of the foyer. Yep, there was one. I saw the door open, but never did see anyone go through. I heard a double cough, then sensed more than saw two shapes glide through the door. Damn! These girls were good! I began to feel sorry for the other guys.

Paul and I played water boys, bringing up the rear to offer a drink to those that really did the work. I had learned long ago, and remembered it again last time I worked with Amy, to lead with your strength. Let the good ones do their thing, and give them any support they needed.

When we got to the doorway, and went through, we were once again alone. I saw a couple brief flashes of movement, and then saw a body slowly sinking to the floor, flanked by two small forms. Apparently, Amy and Megan were getting tired of guns, or maybe they just wanted to show off all their skills to Mom. Then I saw the glow of a cigarette on the opposite side of the room and realized why they didn't want even the cough of a silenced gun. As they lowered him to the floor, they dropped him the last couple of feet, making a relatively loud noise as he hit. I couldn't believe those two could be that clumsy! Then I smiled, as I saw the cigarette turn towards them. I saw another shape behind him (how the hell did Victoria get there, without him seeing, and that fast?) and I saw Victoria's hand all but take his head off. Then she lowered him to the ground also.

The dark, mysterious shapes wandered around the room, flashing into visibility every now and then. They were holding something in their hands, quartering the room. I realized they were looking for alarms, traps, cameras, anything to announce our presence. I saw Amy (?) lift Megan (?) up and watched as she slipped something over the front of what must have been a camera. Then I heard a slight coughing noise and the tinkle of glass and metal as Victoria took care of something on the other side of the room. Amy stepped into a beam of light, fiddled with something for a minute, then grinned at me and held her cell phone up to her ear. I opened mine and pressed the button under the new icon that appeared on my display. Suddenly, I could hear Julie speaking to someone. She sounded scared, but not panicky. Amy had used the microphone trick. I didn't think she would try it again, after it didn't work with Katie's phone, but it worked just fine here. I couldn't hear what Julie was saying, but my heart rejoiced just to know she was ok. Amy grinned again, then put her cell phone away and headed to the door.

Megan and Victoria flattened themselves against each side of the door while Amy seemed to be fiddling with something, some kind of panel, next to the door. I realized she was disabling an alarm of some kind. The fact that the other two were trying to be out of sight made me nervous that maybe disabling this alarm was not a sure thing, and so Paul and I ducked out of sight also. I saw the little light on the panel turn green as Amy disabled the alarm. I had just sighed a big sigh of relief when the door opened and one of the guards walked out. Fortunately, Paul and I were out of sight, and the girls were pressed up against the wall, so he didn't see anyone before he closed the door. That's when I noticed that he indeed had night vision glasses on. So much for the element of surprise.

I'll say one thing for Amy; the little twerp has a sense of humor. I'm not sure if it is a good one, but it's there. Before the guard had a chance to see anyone, she reached out with her halogen flashlight in her hand, pointed it directly at his eyes at a distance of about six inches, and turned it on. The effect was roughly the same as sticking a red-hot ice pick in his eyes. He would have screamed in pain if he had time, but three different hands hit him at the same time — face, neck and chest. The sound that came out of his mouth as he hit the floor would not have been heard ten feet away, and definitely not through the closed door. Paul and I came up just in time to hear Megan scolding Amy.

"Amy, that was mean!" She whispered quietly. I could see she was not really offended; she just wanted to give Amy some shit. I had detected an occasional ornery streak in Megan; it didn't show often, but it was sooooo funny when it did. Usually people took her seriously, because it was so unexpected from her. Amy fell into the trap.

"It was not! He was looking right at where Daddy and Paul were! I couldn't take the chance he would see them! You know I would never do something mean like that without a good reason!" Amy acted indignant. We all looked at her for a second, then we all burst out laughing quietly, Amy included. Even she couldn't buy that.

"Oooh! Paul, is it? And just what have you two got going together, huh? I don't get to call him Paul! Just how well do you two know each other, anyway? Is there something you want to tell us, Amy?" Megan was really on a roll. Even I was floored by this demonstration of humor and teasing from her. Maybe we shouldn't take her on any more of these jobs. Then again, maybe we should take her on more of them. The girl was becoming positively human. Amy was so unsure of this side of Megan that she bit on the hook again.

"Wha... But... I never... Just because I once... Daddy knows I would never do that again! Megan!" Oops. Megan was so inexperienced at teasing she didn't realize she had crossed the line and hit a sore point. Amy looked like she was about to cry. With Megan's empathy, she immediately realized she had screwed up somehow and was getting upset too. I figured I needed to get this stopped right now; we had a job to do, and although this teasing was healthy for a while to let off tension, it was getting out of hand.

"Amy! Megan was kidding. Megan! Don't tease Amy about that subject; she's still a little sensitive about it. You two hug each other and knock it off; I'm sure Julie is not enjoying herself right now. Let's go!" Sergeant Daddy, to the rescue. The mention of Julie sobered them quickly. Well, in Amy's case, for at least three seconds or so. They hugged and apologized to each other, and then Amy turned on me for fun.

"You want to go first now, Daddy? You and Mommy could work together. We'll back you up." Amy smirked at me. I had no doubt she would back me up, but she would probably let me make a fool of myself first. Two can play this teasing game.

"Hell, no! I'm too old for that crap. What do you think I brought you teenagers for? Lose one, what the hell, it's fun making another one! Fish bait. Cut the shit and get your asses moving, girls!" The 'fish bait' and 'making another one' remarks got me slaps from all three women. We were ready to go.

Amy moved up to the alarm panel again, as it had reset after a certain time. She spent quite a while punching in an endless series of numbers. Finally, the light turned green again, and she looked back at us with an impish grin on her face.

"I reset the code! Only we can get in and out now. It won't work for them!" She giggled at her own ingenuity. I have to make sure I never get this girl mad at me! I also made a mental note to change the code on the safe and other things more often!