member of the same society as the satellite re-tasker. Within the Bellator Dei, he’d been treated as a subordinate, a pawn to be used, someone without a voice, without a choice, in his actions.
Today, however, while in the company of some of the most brilliant minds he had ever met, he’d been treated as an equal, and even deferred to as they made decisions regarding this mission.
It had given him emotional whiplash from first being the main suspect to then being a part of the discussion about who the potential traitor within the Masters’ Admiralty side of the MPF might be. Background checks had already been run, so unfortunately there was no clear suspect, but he’d carefully looked at the dossiers Owen and Devon had given him, looking for anything that might indicate a Bellator Dei connection.
There hadn’t been anything, but those hours of working with them had made him really feel like a member of the Trinity Masters. He was here because he wanted to be, because it was the right thing to do. The Bellator Dei needed to be stopped.
There was a second bomb disposal team at the back gate. Langston was with them, but Luca had yet to see the other man. Oscar also hadn’t seen his brother. He and Selene were in a van with Sidika, the woman who’d come to Boston with Owen and Milo, and they were helping watch the various camera feeds that had been set up to monitor the areas around the compound for any incoming problems via satellite images.
“We’re ready.” The speaker was Jennika Davis, an American NSA agent—and a very likely candidate for the person who had enough power to re-task a satellite.
She motioned him over to a second van that was pulled up near the gate. Luca hopped inside and put on the headset when she passed it to him.
“This is the live satellite feed.” She pointed to one of several monitors. “It’s cropped so you’re only seeing the compound. Here, here, and here are the feeds from our snipers.”
Three people—Sarah, Vadisk, and Claudette—had managed to make it onto the roofs of buildings closest to the wall, Vadisk by retracing his exact steps from the first raid, and Sarah and Claudette by jumping from the tops of the chain-link fences onto the roofs. He’d watched their jumps via video feed from their body cams, and it had been both impressive and horrifying.
“Hit this button to talk to them.” Jennika pointed at a small panel with a dozen identical silver switches. A piece of tape was stuck to one of them. “Flip it down to come back on the main comms line.” She pointed at his headset.
Luca nodded, then scooted his small stool back and unfolded a printed image of the compound on his lap. He’d drawn over the top of it, outlining the main building in thick black lines. Owen had helped him number them, then taken a picture of his map and sent it to everyone. They would use his map to guide the whole operation. It seemed insane that they were putting their faith in him, considering Owen had tried to arrest him for lying to a federal officer twelve hours earlier.
Luca looked at the image then closed his eyes, thinking back to what he’d been taught about land mines. Undoubtedly the curriculum had been changed and updated since his time in “school.”
But what hadn’t changed was the layout of the buildings, or the way they thought. Bombs were blunt instruments, land mines especially so.
He opened his eyes and looked at the map, studying the location of the first land mine, which they’d found only because Owen had noticed the recent disturbance of the flagstone.
Luca flipped the switch so he could speak to the three people on the rooftops. He took a breath and started giving directions.
“At the steps of building two, is there a cross?”
After a second there came a reply. “No.” The voice was female, with a Nordic accent.
There had been a cross there. If they moved it, it was because they didn’t want to risk it being damaged.
“There,” Luca told them.
“I have it,” a second female voice said with a French accent. “The base of the steps.” A second later, there was the cracking sound of a rifle being fired.
Followed shortly by the loud boom of a land mine detonating.
On the satellite feed, a puff of dirt appeared, the delay only a matter of seconds.
Owen leaned in. “Nice one, Luca.”
Luca nodded, looked down at