The two women raced down the hall and toward the room at the end. There was a crashing of glass, screams, and then gunshots.
Reel shouted, “That’s Julie!”
She and Laura sprinted forward.
“Julie!” screamed Reel.
The door was bolted, but she shot the lock off and burst into the room.
And stopped.
Two men lay on the floor, their bodies covered by shattered glass. Julie was flattened against one wall.
There was movement at the window.
Reel pointed her gun that way and then caught a breath.
Robie clambered through the empty window and dropped to the floor. He put his pistol back into his holster and looked at Julie.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head and stepped toward Robie, her feet crunching over the glass that littered the floor. Robie put his arm around her and then looked down at the men.
“I think they had orders to kill Julie in the event of an attack.”
“So you shot them through the window,” deduced Reel.
“So I shot them through the window,” confirmed Robie.
His walkie-talkie squawked and he spoke into it and then listened.
“We’re secure. No casualties on our side. Most of the assholes just gave up.”
“Well, not the one who really counted,” said Reel.
“No prison for Mr. Dikes?” said Robie.
“Not in this life,” replied Reel. “Let’s hope in his next one. For all eternity.”
Robie pulled his knife and severed the bindings on Reel’s hands. He took off his jacket and draped it around her.
Julie looked from Reel to Laura. “Is she your daughter?”
Reel rubbed her wrists and shook her head slowly. “I’d like you to meet FBI Special Agent Lesley Shepherd, Julie.”
Shepherd nodded at Julie and gave her a shy smile. “I just look really young for my age.”
Robie said, “The FBI doesn’t like people being kidnapped. They provided all the ground assets we needed.”
Julie said, “FBI? So, super agent Vance?”
“She cares about you a great deal, Julie. She’s the reason we were able to put this all-out effort together.”
Reel looked at Robie. “Any problems finding us?”
He shook his head.
“How did you track them?” asked Julie. “I heard Dikes and his men talking about the steps they’d taken to make sure you couldn’t do that.”
“Our friends at National Geospatial,” answered Robie. “They sort of run the spy satellite network.”
“The DD of the CIA spoke with her counterpart at Geospatial,” added Reel. “And they dialed up several satellites. They tracked us all the way to our rendezvous with Dikes’s men. They placed an electronic marker on us at that point. There was no way to lose us. They simply followed using multiple eyes up in the sky. The actual technology has a specific name, but it’s classified. I’m just glad it worked.”
“Very hard to lose a bunch of satellites,” said Robie. “They fed us the location on the ground. We passed by the van carrying Reel and Shepherd. We were on motorcycles and in a semi. We surrounded the place and waited for the signal.”
“Signal?” asked Julie.
“Gun fired three times in a row by Jessica,” said Robie.
“But how did you know she’d be able to get to a gun?”
Robie smiled. “That’s where the element of trust comes in.”
“I did what I needed to do,” said Reel. “And then fired the gun.”
“And that’s when we came charging in,” said Robie.
“And saved me again,” finished Julie.
Reel went over to her and knelt down. “You wouldn’t have needed saving but for me. I was the reason you were taken.”
“I told them a false story about you. That you were still in WITSEC. I wanted him to be surprised when he found out what you really could do.”
“He was surprised.”
“And I was never really afraid.”
“Why not?” asked Reel.
“I knew you’d come and save me.”
“How could you be so sure?”
Now Julie smiled. “That’s where the element of trust comes in.”
Chapter 47
Nicole Vance sipped a mug of hot coffee as her team processed the scene.
She glanced over at Robie and Reel and Agent Lesley Shepherd, who were sitting in chairs inside one of the rooms of the neo-Nazi facility. Sitting between Robie and Reel was Julie, huddled in a blanket and drinking hot chocolate.
Vance walked over to them and said, “We’ve had our eyes on this group for a while. Domestic terrorism in addition to just being scumbags. They were smart how they went about it. Never left any evidence or witnesses behind. They had their hands in lots of things, though, we believe. Including human trafficking and arms dealing.”
“Nice people, just like the assholes they were emulating,” said Robie.
“And with so many of them in custody it might lead us to other places and more arrests.”
“I wish you nothing but the best on that.”
She glanced at Julie. “You need anything else, Julie?”
The girl shook her head. “I’m just glad Jerome is okay.”
“He was lucky. His skull is apparently a lot harder than they thought. He’s still in the hospital, but the docs have assured me he’s going to be okay. We’ll get you home on a pair of Bureau wings as soon as we can.”
“I’ve got a lot of homework to catch up on,” admitted Julie.
Vance glanced at Robie. “How jaded youth becomes.”
Julie shot a glance at Shepherd and then looked over at Reel. “So where is your real daughter?”
Reel looked down at her hands. She said quietly, “I don’t know. I had to give her up for adoption a long time ago.”
“Why?” Julie wanted to know.
“Because I was really still just a kid myself and I had no job. And then the job that was offered to me didn’t provide for a baby in tow.”
“Right,” said Julie, both looking and sounding disappointed.
Reel got to her feet and turned to Shepherd. “Lesley, I owe you more than I can ever repay.”
Shepherd took Reel’s offered hand and shook it. “Are you kidding? My honor.”
Reel turned to Vance. “Can I ask a favor?”
“How can I say no?” said Vance.
“Can I take a couple of photos?”
“Of what?”
“I’ll show you.”
The two women left. Robie turned to Julie.
“You sure you’re okay? They didn’t…you know, do anything to you?”
“Other than smacking me around, the creeps left me alone. But that wouldn’t have lasted. The head guy was a psycho.”
She drew closer to Robie. “Did you know that Jessica didn’t know where her daughter was?”
“No. I just recently found out she had a daughter. She’d never talked about it before.”
“Do you think she regrets it? I mean, giving up her kid?”
“I don’t know. I guess most mothers regret it, don’t they?”
Julie shrugged and looked somber. “Some don’t have a choice. Like my mom. But she always wanted me back.” She thought for a few seconds. “I think Jessica regrets it.”
“I think you’re right.” Robie put an arm around her shoulders. “And I know Jerome will be glad to get you back.”
“Are you going to make this, like, a habit?”
“What?”
“Saving me.”
She was joking, but Robie frowned. “I hope I never have to again, Julie. Considering it was our screwup that got you involved in the first place.”
“We got out okay.”
“No one can count on that to keep happening.” He was about to say something else when a woman appeared in the doorway.