Love Immortal (37 page)

“Hold tight Honeysuckle. I’m close by. We
will get you out love, and I will never leave you again.”

He was close, he was close. Relief washed
over her as she realized people were looking for her.

Chapter 50

Collin stood up from the chair. His muscles
were tight and his shoulders hurt. He must have been sitting in
that chair longer than he had thought. He looked at his notes as he
moved his head from side to side trying to get the kinks out of his
neck and walked to main room. The pandemonium in the room assaulted
his senses like a tidal wave. He stopped at the entrance, watching
what appeared to be complete disarray, soon realizing that the room
was controlled chaos, each person working on their task, attempting
to bring about Jewell’s release.

He scanned the room until he saw Sheriff
Payne on the other side of the room. He carefully maneuvered his
way around and through the confusion toward where the Sheriff was
standing. Sheriff Payne gave Collin a smile as he moved to one of
the tables that had a blueprint of the warehouse. The S.W.A.T.
platoon member smiled at him as he handed the sheriff a rolled up
copy before turning back to his work. The sheriff walked back to
where Collin was standing and took him gently by the arm, leading
him outside.

“Were you able to learn anything?” Sheriff
Payne resisted the urge to ask Collin what he had been doing in the
other room.

“Yeah, I think so.” Collin took the map from
the sheriff and unrolled it on the sidewalk. He studied it for a
minute, pulling his notes out of his pocket and compared them with
the map. “I’m not entirely sure, but I think that she’s here.” He
pointed to an interior room on the map. Collin showed the sheriff
his notes and explained how he had reached his conclusion.

“Did you get any other information?” Sheriff
Payne asked after they had finished with the map.

“Well, I think that they keep a guard in the
room. And there are about nine people, maybe more.” He looked at
Sheriff Payne, and then down at his hands. “They want me.”

“Well we already know what they want!”
Sheriff Payne responded. “But that other information… Let me see
what I can do.” Sheriff Payne held the door for Collin. Collin
hesitated before going inside, his gaze lingering at the end of the
street in the direction of the warehouse. They wanted him. If they
had him, they would let her go. “I know what you‘re thinking.”
Sheriff Payne interrupted his thoughts. “We don’t know if
surrendering you to them would help Jewell. Don’t get any crazy
ideas. Let these guys do their job and stay where I can keep an eye
on you.” Collin sighed and walked inside.

The sheriff walked straight to Jeff Wagner,
the sea of chaos parting before him. As he reached the table where
Wagner sat, he laid out the blueprint and pointed to the room that
Collin had shown him. “Here, this is the room where they’re holding
her.”

Wagner looked up from the documents he had
been studying to Sheriff Payne. Wagner’s eyes studied the sheriff’s
for several seconds before he looked down at the blueprint lying on
the table. The room the sheriff had indicated was one of the key
locations the S.W.A.T. team had been considering. “Are you
sure?”

“Relatively,” the sheriff responded.

“May I ask how you know this and where your
information comes from?” Jeff was looking at the sheriff, not so
much with suspicion, but doubt. Wagner had been a S.W.A.T. officer
for over a decade and information like this didn’t usually fall
into lap.

“I have a source that has some inside
information. For safety reasons, I can’t tell you anything
else.”

Jeff nodded his head once in acknowledgement.
“Do you have any other information?” The sheriff sat and explained
everything that Collin had told him.

After he was finished speaking with Sheriff
Payne, Wagner called his team together to discuss their plan. The
three guards patrolling outside would be taken with non-lethal
force, subdued, and placed into custody. That would leave at least
six captors inside, one in the room with Jewell. If the S.W.A.T.
team rescued Jewell rather than negotiating her release, it would
have to be well planned and swift. There was a risk that the
captors would kill Jewell if an alarm was raised.

Another concern was access to the building. A
master key to all locks in the building had been provided by the
building’s owner, but they would need to eliminate the outside
guards. There had been nine individuals rotated through outside
guard duties. They changed individually on three hour shifts, one
guard being changed every hour. But it was impossible to determine
how many remained inside the building. It was assumed that all
captors were armed at a minimum with a gun and a sword.

Collin sat quietly in the corner, listening
as the S.W.A.T. team made plans. He also tried to figure out how he
would escape Sheriff Payne to go with the team when they left to
rescue Jewell.

Finally, after more than two hours of
discussing details, they decided they would move at four o’clock
that morning. By planning the rescue early in the morning, it was
more likely that fewer of the captors would be awake. It was just
after one a.m. so the team laid down for a few hours rest. While
everyone was resting, Collin slipped silently out a rear door and
headed down to the warehouse where he planned to wait until the
S.W.A.T. team arrived.

At three thirty, the S.W.A.T. team donned
night vision goggles, loaded non-lethal weapons, and checked their
handguns as well. The plan was to cause as little death as
possible.

* * *

Collin sat near some landscaping that
decorated the perimeter of the warehouse. From where he sat, he
could see the S.W.A.T. team assembling just outside the range of
the warehouse lights. Their dark uniforms made them difficult to
see in the black night. Collin’s gaze shifted between the S.W.A.T.
members and the guards circling the building’s perimeter.

As Collin watched, the S.W.A.T. team formed
into a single file line, moving to the corner of the warehouse
where they wouldn’t be seen until the first guard turned the
corner. Collin could see both sides of the corner, the side along
which the guard would walk, and the side along which the S.W.A.T.
team waited.

Benjamin Lindgren was thirty-two years old.
He had been a full member of the Obsidian Knights for almost six
years. His specialty was weapon design. His father was a
bladesmith, a skill that had been passed down in his family for
generations. Benjamin had been helping his father to craft swords
since he was old enough to pull himself up using the anvil.
Lindgren blades were some of the finest blades in the world. Many
of the Obsidian Knights, not just in his Order, but from around the
world, owned Lindgren Swords. Of course, a sword was the quickest
and easiest way to kill an infidel. A properly sharpened sword
could easily slice through bone and flesh, severing a person’s head
from his body

This was the third time Benjamin had been
outside, endlessly circling the building. As he walked, he
practiced his sword formations. The sword that he carried was not a
replica. This was a real, high carbon steel, heat treated and
tempered blade with a double edge sharpened until it could split a
single hair. He also carried a Glock 21 45 mm pistol. He was well
armed. He sighed and slid his sword home into its hand tooled
leather scabbard and continued his relentless circling.

Benjamin paused before he rounded the corner
that would take him to the street side of the warehouse. He glanced
up at the landscaping that separated the warehouse from the
buildings on the other side; he thought he saw something move. He
pulled out his PolyTac Xenon flashlight and held it at shoulder
height, pointed towards the trees. With his other hand, he released
the clasp on his holster, pulling his pistol out slightly and
letting it drop home, just to make sure it was clear of the
holster. After carefully scanning the trees and bushes for several
minutes, he decided that it was probably just a dog that he had
seen. He put his flashlight back in the flashlight loop on his
belt, and secured his gun in the holster. Laughing at himself, he
rounded the corner of the warehouse.

There was a pop, and something hit his chest,
hard. Benjamin was wearing a bullet proof vest so he wasn’t
concerned that he had received a mortal wound and he quickly
realized that there hadn’t been enough force behind the pellet that
hit his chest to have been a bullet. These thoughts went through
his head instantaneously as he reflexively looked down to where he
had been shot, moving his hand to his chest. That’s when the gas
hit him. He recognized it immediately as CS; pepper spray. Turning
his head to the side, he tried to inhale to warn his partner on the
other side of the building, but as he took a breath of the poisoned
air, the burn in his throat and chest caused him to choke and start
coughing, forcing him to his knees. He could feel the gas as it
invaded his nose and mouth, penetrating and saturating his sinus
cavities.

In the next moment, he felt rough hands
securing his wrists behind his back and he was jerked roughly to
his feet. He tried to get a look at his captors, but the chemicals
made it impossible to open his eyes. He was dragged some distance
from the warehouse before he was shoved into the back of a car. The
door slammed and the car immediately pulled away. Benjamin didn’t
believe in Karma as such. He was a devout Christian, a warrior and
servant for the Lord, but in those few moments, he had his first
thought that maybe kidnapping the girl to get to the infidel was
not such a good idea after all.

* * *

Shawn “Kountree” Robins had known that he
wanted to be S.W.A.T. ever since he was a little boy. He was point
man because he never missed. This occasion was no different.
Squatting silently against the wall, Kountree could hear the snap
of a gun holster being secured, and a flashlight slipping into its
holster. The muted footsteps in the grass let Kountree know exactly
where his target was, even though Kountree couldn’t see him. At the
moment that his target was visible, Kountree fired the tear gas
pellet, hitting the startled guard square in the chest. As
Kountree’s target clawed at his face, the arrest team, wearing gas
masks, secured the man and carried him to a waiting NOPD squad car
stationed a few blocks away.

The second and third guards were also taken
down without incident, succumbing to the gas before they were able
to sound an alarm.

On schedule, the door to the warehouse opened
to let out the next guard. Kountree expertly placed his shot
directly in the exiting guard’s chest, while Jayce Miles fired a CS
gas shell inside the open door. Within seconds, the five member
team had moved in to secure the gas infested room. Even though they
were wearing masks, the gas made the team’s eyes water and noses
burn. From here, they would avoid using gas to shelter Jewell as
much as possible. While it was non-lethal, the affects would
traumatize and frighten her, making rescue that much more
difficult.

Kountree entered first, quickly scanning the
room with his night vision goggles. The rest of the team followed
closely behind in single file. The reception office was dark and
empty; the door leading to the other offices was securely closed.
The team moved quickly to their areas of responsibility, securing
the room and stood silently, waiting for their next command.

After ensuring that the area was clear,
Kountree opened the door to the main office scanning for captors.
The hallway outside the office was clear. Kountree used hand
signals to silently move the team into the hallway. The team
quickly moved through offices other than the one holding Jewell to
make sure they were clear.

When the conference room was the only room
that remained Kountree slowly reached for the door handle,
signaling his men to be ready. As he began to pull the handle down,
he heard movement inside the room. He slowly released the handle
and moved his men to the far end of the hall. He whispered into his
headset, letting the command center know that the office area had
been secured with the exception of the conference room, which was
occupied. He waited for several minutes while the tactics unit
worked to make a plan.

Outside, Christopher Mills, a member of the
S.W.A.T. team scanned the surrounding area. It was little more than
ten minutes after the infiltration team entered the building when
he saw the lone man running alongside the building. He quickly
turned his rifle toward the target and sighted. As he carefully
took aim, he realized that the young man running alongside the
building attempting not to be seen was Collin Sykes. Christopher
sighed and lowered his weapon. He should probably shoot him with
the pepper pellet just to teach him a lesson, and keep him out of
harm’s way, but while the pellets were classified as non-lethal,
they still had the potential to kill. Christopher quickly
communicated to the rest of the team that Collin was entering
through the front entryway.

Kountree cursed under his breath when he
heard Christopher’s message through his headset. If he made it into
the building, there could potentially be two hostages instead of
one. Kountree pointed at Ryan, and then pointed at the door to the
reception area, signaling him to intercept Collin and escort him to
safety. With Logan guarding the warehouse door, and Ryan moving to
intercept Collin, his team was down to three; three men against at
least six.

Kountree watched as Ryan stood up and started
moving towards the reception area’s door. Ryan hadn’t had time to
take two steps when the door to the conference room opened and a
man stepped out. His eyes immediately found the S.W.A.T. team
hunched at the end of the hall, and turned to signal the alarm. As
he did, the man pulled a pistol from a holster on his hip. Ryan
instinctively raised his rifle and fired an OC pellet at the man
standing in the doorway. The man stumbled backward two steps and
then, despite being incapacitated by the painful gas, fired off six
shots blindly. It was then that Collin opened the door leading into
the hallway.