Tempest - Kris Michaels Page 0,21

us, but he's doing another gig for Homeland, so the trip was for nothing."

"I need to break into a mansion off of A1A tonight."

Smoke clapped his hands together and rubbed them excitedly. "Excellent. Where are the schematics?"

He shrugged. "Don't have any. There was nothing in the public databases and the recorded deed for the place also seems to have disappeared."

"Oh, that kind of place. Okay then, I'm assuming you've done a drive by?" Smoke rubbed his hands together.

"Yes, I did." He headed back into the garage and picked up the plastic bags with his dinner inside and placed them on the kitchen counter. "Manned gate house, twelve-foot brick walls around the front and sides of the compound, open access from the beach. The windows have opaque capacity which leads me to assume cutting edge tech." He'd planned on countermanding the alarm system, but unless he knew what type of alarm they used, he could fuck it up.

"Tough. Well, how long do you need to get inside?"

He shrugged. "I can preposition at the water's edge, but the run to the house and the time to pick the locks or find a way in? Roughly a minute, maybe a few seconds longer."

Smoke narrowed his eyes and glanced at Browning. "Feel like taking down a substation tonight?"

Browning rolled his eyes and drew an exaggerated breath. Smoke ignored his partner and pinned him with a sharp gaze. "If they have an emergency generator, they'd still have to clear all the alarms which a power failure would cause. Even if the alarms are hooked into an uninterrupted power supply, the outage would fuck with them. You could get in, lock the door and do what you need to do, but once in and the generator is running, you'd be on your own. If they have the interior alarmed, you'd be screwed."

"There are occupants and staff. They won't have the interior alarmed."

"Except maybe the opaque window area." Browning sighed loudly, tipped his chin toward Smoke and then signed, "Why do you always end up blowing shit up?"

Smoke looked at Browning and gaped. "Because it's fun!" He pointed to Browning and then looked at Tempest. "He does have a point, though. The asshole." Smoke shoved the smaller man, and they both cracked up laughing.

The easiness between the two men was remarkable. He crossed his arms over his chest giving Smoke's plan some consideration. "How long would you need?"

"Oh... forty-five minutes or so from the time we leave here. I'll need to make a pit stop at the marina and gather a few bits and pieces. Taking out a substation is easy. Hop the fence, nuke the middle breakers which will trip the outside breakers, and then boom. Lights out. The fun part will be determining which substation serves the house, but we can find it. Sage, get your computer."

Two hours later, after grilled steaks, baked potatoes and a salad Smoke had whipped up, they had a decent plan. "At sunset we leave." Tempest glanced through the large picture window which showcased the intercoastal waterway. If he were inclined to sell the house now, he could ask millions of dollars for the lot, but he enjoyed the simple little house and the neighbors who only lived in Florida four to six months out of the year.

"That works. Traffic should be light going to both locations by now." Smoke dropped his feet onto the coffee table and stretched back. He glanced around ensuring Browning had gone down the hall giving them a moment together. "So, you're back in the game?"

"I have a few personal items to accomplish, and then..." He shrugged.

Smoke tipped his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Who are you going after, and where do you need us? As long as we don't have an assignment, we can help."

He nodded his head toward the hallway. "You trust him? Implicitly?"

"Without reservation. He's saved my ass a time or two, and I've pulled his bacon from the fire, too."

"Where did you meet?"

"Guardian loaned me to Homeland for a project down in Cuba. Didn't do much except skipper a massive yacht around, but..."

"Loaned you?"

Smoke chuckled and shrugged. "I needed to lie low. A certain celebrity and I were in the same place at the same time and the paparazzi clued in when some asshole mistook me for him, snapped a picture of me, and posted it on Instagram at the exact same time someone else posted a picture of that celebrity across town. It went viral. So, bobbing around in the