Alex leaned over the rail of the boat and threw up for a third time. Whose bright idea was it to get on a boat? Roxie rubbed his back, and his humiliation was complete. He’d wanted to be a hero. He wanted to be Dalton or Grant. Instead, even Humphrey was more macho than he was. What hero got seasick the second they left shore?

“Maybe we should move back onto land?” Roxie suggested.

“No,” Alex said, wiping his mouth and taking a sip of water. “It’s a good plan.”

He took a deep breath and looked around the boat. It was a confiscated drug smuggling boat the DEA had lent them. The deck of the small million-dollar yacht had an outdoor couch that was actually storage space. Two agents were going to be hiding there in order to surround whoever came for Dan’s phone. The Coast Guard was out of sight, but fully armed and ready to move in to surround the yacht as soon as they were given a signal. Inside in the large saloon on the main level would be Kirby with three agents and the phone. One agent in the empty refrigerator, one in the bathroom, and Kirby sitting at the kitchen table with an agent that freakishly resembled Dan March. Lizzy had helped with supplying the right clothes and haircut from the last time she’d seen him, which no one bothered to fill in Kirby or anyone else about.

Alex and Roxie would be hidden in one of the bedrooms while Knoll would be operating the cameras in the main bedroom. The whole living room was rigged with cameras and bugs. Audio and video of the apprehension would be taken. Knoll, as attorney general, lectured the agents nonstop over the last hour of the flight about what to say and what not to do.

Alex walked on wobbly legs toward the living room. AG Knoll had been handpicked by Birch just two weeks before. He’d been confirmed three days ago, and now he was in on the biggest takedown in history. Birch had told Alex that Knoll was a former JAG lawyer before becoming a prosecutor. He was levelheaded and didn’t scare easily. Alex didn’t know about Knoll, but he was scared shitless. The AG was dressed in a freaking suit, sitting with his legs crossed and flicking a piece of lint off his tie. Alex guessed he really didn’t scare.

Roxie slid her hand into his, and Alex realized he was shaking. God, he was embarrassing himself. Roxie looked nervous, but she wasn’t puking over the rail like he was. Alex took a deep breath and felt his stomach roll. He swallowed hard as everyone turned to look at them.

“Are you ready, son?” Kirby asked him.

Alex nodded. He didn’t trust himself to speak when his stomach was pitching a fit.

“One minute,” Roxie said cheerfully as she took out her phone and cranked up some heavy metal. Kirby looked assaulted, Knoll bounced his leather-clad foot to the music, and the agents were a mix of confused and amused.

Alex and Roxie opened their computers side by side in the small built-in booth in the kitchen area. They sat shoulder to shoulder and someone placed a trashcan next to Alex with a smirk. Alex would have been insulted, but the fact is, he would probably need that trashcan.

Alex hooked the phone up to his computer and nodded. Kirby leaned over the table and turned the phone on. No one spoke as the guitar wailed and the bass strummed. The phone’s screen popped up, and Alex went to work breaking into it.

“Got it,” Alex said as he pulled up the phone’s GPS app.

“I see it. I’m inputting the information now,” Roxie said, chomping on a piece of gum. Her entire being was focused on her computer.

“We’ve got action,” Alex said as his fingers flew over the keys of his laptop. His program tore apart the app. Instead of seeing what a normal person saw, he saw numbers, data, and code. Code that gave him the unique signature of the person currently accessing the GPS in Dan’s phone.

“Come on,” Alex muttered as he followed the digital crumbs the intruder left.

“It’s a Mexican IP address,” Roxie said, her eyes never leaving the screen.

“Dude.” The high Alex felt as he outsmarted the person on the other end of the internet rushed through him and pushed the nausea down. “Duuuude . . . come on, come on. Yes!”

“What?” Kirby asked but Alex didn’t answer.

“I’m closing in on it.” Roxie said.

“Verifying.” Alex double checked the location and pulled up a satellite image of the location.

“Got it,” Roxie said. “Are you ready?”

“Go,” Alex ordered, knowing they had found them. Roxie read off the GPS coordinates. “It’s a match. We found them, and it’s right where Lizzy and Dalton thought they would be.”

“Where?” Kirby asked as he and everyone else squeezed in to look at Alex’s laptop. “Is it Manuel’s main compound?”

“No. It’s on the northwest side of Laguna Salada.”

Kirby looked at the map. “Pull up images for within a quarter mile of the border. There has to be some structure we’re missing.”

“There’s a small solar field here that feeds electricity to this cell phone tower.” Roxie pointed to the screen.

“Enlarge it,” Kirby said, moving to stand behind them.

Alex zoomed in and cocked his head. “There are tire marks leading from the main road to the solar field, but no cars can be seen.”

“There,” Roxie said excitedly. “Zoom in closer.”

Alex did so and saw the back end of cars hiding under the solar panels. “There’s a structure under the solar panels.”

Kirby slapped his back and Alex grabbed the trashcan and puked.

“Sorry,” Kirby cringed. “You two did good. Give the coordinates to the drone.”

Roxie sent them off to Grant who was carrying the Raven drone. He would assemble it and fly it from his location. Soon a feed came online as the drone was launched.

“Here we go,” Kirby said, crossing his arms over his chest and watching.

---

He looked into the television where he projected the videoconference. “What the hell am I looking at?”

“It’s the location of Dan March’s cell phone, señor.”

He sat up on his couch with surprise. He’d been woken in the middle of the night by Manuel, and that normally didn’t bode well. The past two days had been shit, and he was plotting his next move. He’d put this whole plot into motion, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Birch Stratton ruin it for him, no matter how many people he had working with him now. He shook his head. He’d been cut off from the president, and it worried him.

“Dan March? That bastard. Where the fuck is he?”

“Ten miles west of San Diego, heading into port.”

Right now he needed Dan. He had thought he was dead, but the son of a bitch must have survived and slowly made his way back from the South China Sea on a boat. “Go get him. Give him whatever he needs—men, food, weapons. I don’t know how the president found out about us, but we need to shut him up and fast. Send him to DC with orders to take Birch out once and for all.”

“I’ll send my men now.”

He disconnected from the video call and ran his hands over his face. Where had everything gone wrong? Well, at least one thing he was sure of. He didn’t become as rich and powerful as he did by giving up when things got tough. No, he would fight this to the bitter end. Presidents came and went, but power . . . you held on to that. You accumulated that over time. And he’d accumulated a lot of power. Enough power to take down a sitting president, that was for sure.

---

“So, do you love her?” Dalton asked Grant as they lay on the ground of the mountain, hidden by rocks.

Grant didn’t answer. Below them was the entrance to the tunnels. Grant maneuvered the drone to the coordinates Alex had given them, but so far he didn’t see any movement.

“Stop pretending you can only do one thing at a time. I’ve seen you lay cover fire as you carried out a patient. You can damn well talk to me while you play your video game,” Dalton ribbed.

“Of course I bloody well love her,” Grant said, zooming in on the solar panels.

“Have you told her?”

“No. I’ve been a wee bit busy. But when I do, it’ll be more romantic than your proposal.” Grant grunted. “There’s no movement.”

“Do you feel that?” Dalton asked.

Grant pressed his hand to the rock and closed his eye. “There’s a vibration.”

“Get ready,” Dalton said quietly into his coms. “Is everyone in position?”

“Yes,” came the soft replies.

A moment later the door below them opened and six men rushed out speaking quickly in Spanish. Grant grabbed Dalton’s ankles and Dalton reached down to the door before it shut and wedged a piece of cardboard along the top of the doorjamb. The door looked closed, but there was enough of a buffer to prevent the lock from engaging.

No one seemed to notice as they tore the camouflaged tarps from the helicopter. The pilot climbed into the helicopter and the five men stepped into the back as the engine was turned on and the blades began to spin.

“There’s only room for one more person on the return trip,” Grant said after pulling Dalton back up and hiding behind the rock.

“That makes sense. They think they’re picking up Dan. But where did they come from?”

“There must be a structure under the solar panels.” Grant and Dalton rolled onto their stomachs and hid their heads as the helicopter took off. From the air, their camo would hide them well enough.

They listened to the helicopter take off and fly west toward San Diego before moving. Grant moved the drone to see the cars beneath the structure and confirmed people were there. Grant dropped to the ground outside the door and propped it open with a rock. Dalton hurried to the various cars covered by the tarps and slashed all the tires as Lizzy, Janet, and Valeria made their way to the door.

“Six men left with the intention of coming back with seven. Taking the helicopter tells me they’re interested in speed and getting Dan March back here immediately. We don’t know how many are left behind, but if Manuel is here, there will be some tough fighting ahead of us,” Grant told them as Dalton jogged over to join them.

“The middle SUV is ours. I took off the distributor cap.” He held up the small object that would prevent the car from starting and put it into his pocket.

“Manuel always has four men with him,” Valeria cut in. “Two like to act tough and shoot anything that moves, but they’re easy targets since they can’t hit a target to save their lives. They’ll just spray the area with a rifle. It’s the two quiet ones you need to worry about. One is good with knives. He’s the one with a beard. The tallest is a crack shot. Go after those two first.”

“We need either Manuel or Roland alive. Preferably both,” Lizzy told them. “If this is indeed where Sebastian was taken, and if Sebastian is telling the truth, then Roland may very well be here and can lead us to the head of Mollia Domini.”

“Got it,” Janice said, looking at the body cam she was wearing. “Ready for us to turn this on?”

“Let’s go,” Dalton said as she as Lizzy turned their body cams on. Dalton and Grant slipped into the tunnel. Grant felt Valeria’s hand tap his shoulder letting him know she had his back. Grant looked at Dalton and then to the lights. The tunnel had electricity.

“There could be cameras,” Grant whispered.

Dalton nodded and halted the group with a quick hand signal. He reached up and inspected the wiring. He pulled out his knife, and with a quick slice the lights went out. Grant lowered his night-vision goggles and felt Valeria’s tap again. She was ready. He tapped Dalton and they were off.

The tunnel smelled of earth and was noticeably cooler than outside. The walls were reinforced with wood as thin wires connected the exposed bulbs that hung along the wall by nails. What was more interesting were the metal railroad tracks down the middle of the tunnel. It was probably used to move heavy amounts of drugs into the US. When he looked back, he noticed Janet aiming her camera at them. Valeria was three feet behind him, and Lizzy was similarly behind Dalton. Both had their weapons drawn.

Grant looked ahead. They moved quickly and quietly farther down the tunnel. The tunnel seemed to go on and on before it began to widen. Railroad carts were off to the side. A forklift was ready to be used. Shovels, crates, and old pallets were stacked against the wall. Ten yards ahead of them was a door that matched the door on the outside of the mountain.

The tunnel was over half a mile long and let out on the other side of the border. The distance lined up with the cell tower he saw from the mountains on the US side. Grant motioned for the women to take cover behind the forklift as he and Dalton got to work with the explosives. Explosive breaching wasn’t the first thing they wanted to do. It was dangerous, and it took knowing the precise amount of C4 to use. Too little and the door wouldn’t open, but Manuel would know they were there. Too much and the whole tunnel could collapse on them.

Dalton and Grant fell to the ground and set up the detonating cord, blasting caps, and C4 along a wooden lath. Grant used his teeth to tear the specialized tape to bind everything together. Carefully, they lifted it to the door. As Dalton held it, Grant taped it to the metal. Lizzy, Valeria, and Janet pushed a heavy railway cart to the right of door. Grant wanted to yell at them for not staying put, but he knew exactly what they were doing, and it was the right call. Grant stepped back behind the nearby forklift to the left of the door and felt Valeria grab his arm behind him as Dalton primed the det cord and lit it. Dalton headed for the rail cart feet from the door where Lizzy and Janet stood pressed against the wall.

Instead of hiding, they readied their weapons. They looked down briefly as the C4 exploded and then they charged forward. The rush of battle filled Grant as he and Dalton raced through the opening with guns raised.