Maverick (Elite Ops 2)

It was huge. There were more sitting rooms in the damned place than there was anything else. Heavy, dark wood furniture graced each room. The green aura cast over it by the night-vision device gave it an unearthly appearance as Micah felt the hairs at the back of his neck rise.

“Scanning floor.” Reno’s voice slid over the communications link as his team reached the second floor.

“Scanning three,” Clint announced as his team reached the third floor.

It was too damned quiet. The silence was heavy and filled with premonition as Micah moved through the rooms and headed for the kitchen.

“Maverick clear and moving to the kitchen,” he informed the other agents.

“Black Jack moving in to your left,” Travis informed him.

“Heat Seeker to your right,” John stated.

They met at each doorway that led into the huge dining room and came to a stop. Weapons raised, the clicks of the safeties disengaging echoed in the silence.

“Son of a bitch,” Heat Seeker breathed out roughly. “Live Wire, we have a small problem here.”

“Report,” Jordan demanded.

“Looks like Orion beat us to the bait. We have a hit, and it’s messy.”

Heinrick was spread out on his mahogany dining room table. His legs were chained to a heavy metal rod chained to a heavy hook in the ceiling above.

He was naked, his lower body lifted, his wrists chained to hooks at the floor, his head lying over the end of the table.

His throat and wrists were sliced. His eyes were opened wide, his expression one of horror as he stared back at them.

The scent of blood and death lay heavy in the room as the skylight painted a wash of moonglow over the macabre scene.

“Maverick?” Jordan snapped into the receiver. “What do you see?”

“Death,” he stated before looking around the room.

There was a painting propped on the floor; where it should have hung was an open safe that had been recessed into the wall.

Micah caught Travis’s attention and pointed to the safe.

“We have an open safe, digital code; it’s empty,” Travis reported.

“Teams two and three moving in,” Reno reported.

“Team one, secure the scene; I’m coming in,” Jordan ordered. “Pin lights only and watch where you step. Let’s not leave anything for the authorities to find when the body’s discovered.”

Micah stared at Heinrick, then back at the safe. The contact Jordan had used for intel on this assignment had said Orion’s employer had something on him, something that kept Orion from making his retirement plans. Evidently, Orion had found that information.

Was it the information that Orion was CIA? Or something more?

“Tehya, check in with Nik,” Micah ordered as Jordan moved into the room.

“Checking, Maverick,” Tehya stated.

Jordan eased in beside him and stared at the scene as Micah’s narrow beam lit the area.

“Hell,” he breathed out roughly. “Black Jack, you missed something. How did the bastard get in and out on us?”

“The same way we got in?” Travis asked. “Or he could have been waiting for him.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Reno growled. “Orion was supposed to be at the party. He can’t be in two places at once.”