KACELA The SUV that Earl, Mouse, Tank and I were in parked next to the first hanger.  I watched for a moment as Nellie and Jarrett’s SUV continued on.  I grabbed my duffle bag and hopped out, slinging it over my shoulder.  I reached in and pulled out my backpack that housed my laptops and other technology I thought might be useful on this trip before heading to the back of the vehicle and helping Mouse grab his boxes of toys.  I had never been on a private jet before, and I think my face said how impressed I was because Earl outright laughed at me.  “So much better than coach,” he teased.   I sat in a luxurious leather recliner and peeked out the window to see Mouse instructing someone on how to stow his many boxes of things he thought he may need on this trip. “He doesn’t plan on using all of that, does he?” I asked Earl, mildly.  He looked over my shoulder, crowding my view at the window.  “Hell,

KACELAEarl carefully did a three point turn and I hopped out of the jeep, using my phone to take pictures of the view.  I posed a few times so that Earl could take my photo with the overlook as background.  This gave me an opportunity to make note of where the cameras were.While I was making duck lips at Earl’s camera, the gate behind him began to open.  Earl saw the look on my face, and he turned, stepping to the side.  A large limousine was easing out of the gate. I ran over to it with a huge grin on my face and knocked on the window in the backseat.  Like a farcical movie, the window slowly lowered, and a grinning face looked out at me.  It was Atith.“Can I take your picture?” I gushed, turning to take a selfie with the man’s face in the frame.  Atith grinned even bigger and obliged, moving so that I could get a good photo.  I intentionally made it bad and showed it to him with a

KACELA The plane took off without incident. Mouse and one of the attendants pulled the stairs up and latched them just as the plane took off. No one seemed the slightest bit put off and I wondered, yet again, where Nellie had found the plane and crew. “What happened?” Tank’s deep voice broke through my thoughts. I shrugged. “We saw an opportunity. We took it.” Tank waved his hand. “Better come up with a better story. I put off the King several times already. He’s going to be calling again any minute and I know he’s going to want to hear this.” I bit my lip. I didn’t want Wyatt worrying about me and I certainly didn’t want him blaming Earl. “You had better not blame me,” Earl grumbled. “We were supposed to do intel only and next thing I knew you’re taking selfies with the target.” He tried to keep the stern look on his face but wasn’t able to. He gave up. “It was freaking brilliant,” he said, turning to Tank. “We’re up there, trying to look like some dumb tourists

WYATTI was sitting in my office staring at my phone.  Lia was sitting on the couch, leaning back with her eyes closed.  We were waiting for updates from both teams.Nellie’s team had successfully taken out their first target.  They were in and out without anyone knowing.  They had slipped in while everyone was sleeping and injected a fast acting poison into his foot.  The needle mark would never be found, and the death would be ruled as natural.  Quite opposite of Earl’s team’s first target.  That one had made national news. I knew that Kacela was busy in this exact moment, acting as bait.  I was trying to be calm, cool, and collected but I also knew that I was failing miserably.“Stop that,” Lia commanded from her spot on the couch.  She hadn’t opened her eyes.“Sorry,” I said.  I had been clicking a pen on and off for the last five minutes.&nb

KACELATo kill some time, I sent a message to Wyatt to keep his warriors at home.  It would be easier for them to meet us somewhere in the US since that was our next destination and I hoped we’d be heading there soon.We sat, all of us dozing off and then jerking awake.  Mouse kept up a constant search on his computer, looking for news stories.  About two hours later, I got a ping on my phone indicating that a video had been sent to me.I opened it up to see a scene through night vision goggles.  They were walking through a house, checking rooms.  They finally came to a bedroom and the door was opened.  The person wearing the camera walked up to the bed and shook awake the female occupant.She looked up at the man with some alarm and mostly irritation.  “Julia?” a voice asked off camera.“Yes?” she said in some irritation.  Then the noise of gunfire filled the screen and she fell