Orchid Beach (Holly Barker 1)

f his men joined him. Two remained at the back gate, ready to cut the padlocks, and two were at the generator. He was waiting for only one more radio signal, from those two. He pressed the handheld to his ear. The silence continued.

“Three,” a voice said, finally.

“Three,” Harry repeated.

“We’re ready,” Harry said to the command group. “Anybody got a reason not to proceed?” He looked around the group, but nobody said anything. Harry nodded at Jackson.

“Cut the power,” Jackson said into the phone.

After a moment, the answer came back. “All power cut.”

“Here we go,” Harry said. No further commands were necessary.

Holly watched the main-gate guardhouse through binoculars. Suddenly, the light inside the little structure went off. “Go!” she said to her driver. The man slammed the vehicle into gear and accelerated down A1A. Holly kept the binoculars to her eyes, counting, “…three, four, five.” The light in the guard shack flickered, then came on again. She could see a figure, dressed in black, waving both hands over his head. The guard was down, and the gates were opening. “We’re in,” Holly said.

Ham watched as the desk lamp inside the main entrance of the com center went off, then, five seconds later, came back on. “Thirty seconds,” he whispered. He watched the seconds tick away on his wrist, and when the lights went out a second time, he stood up and sprinted for the front door. Just as he had predicted, the guard inside unlocked the door and stepped outside, looking around him. Immediately, two men were on his back, cuffing and gagging him.

Ham raced through the front door and stopped for a moment, listening to the handheld radio on the desk. A shrill whistle came from it. “Their radio frequencies are jammed,” he said. He waved his men ahead of him; they were the experts in breaking into buildings, after all. He followed four of them upstairs, while others searched the ground-floor offices. They burst into the second-floor computer room, illuminating it with powerful flashlights while each office along the wall was searched.

“Nobody here!” an agent crowed.

Ham picked up his radio. “Four,” he said.

“The com center is ours!” Harry Crisp yelled, and everybody yelled with him.

Holly’s van roared through the open front gate of Palmetto Gardens and hung a right. “It’s less than a mile,” she said to the driver. Then she saw something ahead and to her left that nearly made her heart stop. The country club building was ablaze with light. She rolled down her window, and as they passed, she could hear the bass thump of incredibly loud music coming from the building. “Stop right here,” she said to the driver.

“We’re supposed to go straight to the security station,” the driver said.

“Godammnit, stop right here!” she yelled.

The man stopped, and Holly got out of the van with Daisy. “Wait here,” she said.

“You’re going to get us in a lot of trouble,” the driver said.

“I’ll take the responsibility,” Holly replied. “You just wait here.” She ran up the driveway toward the clubhouse, keeping to the grass verge of the roadway, ready to jump into the bushes, if necessary. Ahead, she could see the parking lot, and it was full. A man with an automatic weapon stood guard at a corner of the building; she couldn’t go farther without engaging him, and she couldn’t see into the clubhouse from where she stood. She ran to an oak tree, holstered her weapon and began climbing. “Daisy, stay and guard,” she said to the dog.

Daisy sat down at the base of the tree and stared into the darkness.

Holly stopped when she was twenty feet up. She had a clear view of the dining room, and what she saw appalled her. The huge room was jammed with people in evening dress, dancing to a rock band. This was no staff party, she thought. She climbed back down the tree, dropping the last six feet, then ran back to the van with Daisy and got in. She picked up the radio. “Harry,” she said.

“No transmissions, except as planned,” Harry’s voice said irritably.

“Listen to me,” she said. “Emergency.”

“Go,” Harry replied.

“There’s a huge party going on at building CC. You read me? There must be three hundred people in there, you understand?”

Harry slammed his fist on the table. “Holy shit, we’re in trouble!”

“What is she talking about?” Jackson asked.

“The country club! They’re all at the fucking country club, and our people are going to be hitting empty houses!”

“Can’t you change the orders?”

“I guess I don’t have a choice,” Harry said, looking at the team lists on the table before him. He pressed the transmit button. “Attention all parties,” he said, his voice cracking with tension. “Emergency change of plans. Teams one, two, three, continue as planned and hold your objectives. All other teams—everybody else—mass two hundred yards from the clubhouse building. I say again: all other teams except one, two, and three, mass two hundred yards from the clubhouse building and wait for further instructions. Employ maximum concealment possible, maximum concealment. Team four, immediately on securing your objective, penetrate and neutralize security at clubhouse. Use extreme caution and any necessary prejudice. Team four, report when original objective secured.”