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“Yeah.”
“If anything unusual happens, call me.”
“Will do.”
“I HAVE ONE individual. He looks to be standing post at the rear of the house on the bay side.”
Rapp, Coleman, and Dumond had all donned headsets equipped with lip mikes. Using the van’s secure communications equipment, Dumond had uplinked to a satellite so they could communicate with the chopper and see what they were viewing in real time.
Rapp listened intently as the faceless voice described the situation at his house, the van rocking slightly as they drove east on Highway 214. The lower screen in front of Dumond showed a picture that looked like a film negative—black and white with varying shades of gray in between. The shots were being taken by an IR thermal imaging camera. The picture on the screen changed to one filled with mostly black and areas of red, yellow, white, and blue. Rapp stared at an area he knew to be his kitchen and listened to the technician say, “The curtains are drawn, but I’m getting two…maybe three more heat signatures on the inside…that’s on the first floor of the house…and possibly one more upstairs on the second floor.”
Rapp lifted his eyes to the area above the kitchen. He eagerly asked, “Can you tell if any of them are female?”
“The guy in back is definitely male. The people inside are sitting down, so I can’t tell.”
“What about the one upstairs?”
There was about five seconds of silence and then, “It could be male or female, it could be a dog. I can’t tell. I’m only getting a small heat signature.”
“Are you getting any audio?” asked Rapp.
“A little background noise, but that’s it. I think they might have the TV on.”
“Can you get me an idea of what’s happening on the other side of the house?”
“Affirmative. Give us a minute to
relocate.”
Rapp pushed the lip mike on his headset up and said to Dumond, “Get Irene on the horn, and tell her to get the Special Operations group airborne and en route to my house immediately.” While Dumond was making the call, Rapp looked at Coleman and asked, “What in the hell is going on?”
“It looks like someone is having a party at your house.”
Rapp actually smiled. This was good news. He finally had an enemy he could engage. “What do you think the chances are that the Professor is in there?”
“Based on his cell tower usage, I’d say it’s a pretty good bet that he’s sitting at your kitchen table as we speak.”
Rapp looked at his cell phone. “We could confirm that pretty easily.”
“How?”
“Call him right now. The bird should be able to pick up the noise of his phone ringing.”
Coleman thought about it for a second and said, “Wait until the time is right. Let’s get out there and get the SOG in place. We don’t want to spook him.”
“All right.”
“Do you think that’s Anna upstairs?”
“I hope so.”
The faceless voice came back over their headsets. “We have a couple of cars in the driveway.” Rapp, Coleman, and Dumond looked up at the screen and watched. “We also have one individual standing near the front door. He appears to be carrying a weapon. Let me see if I can get a little closer.” The picture zoomed in on the warm body standing on the front porch. The man’s body was mostly red with a yellow glow around the edges. Near his waist was an elongated area of blue.
Coleman spoke before the technician did. “It looks like a machine pistol with a suppressor attached to the end.”
“Either that or an assault rifle.” Rapp squinted at the image.
A second red figure appeared on the front porch and then a third. Rapp’s immediate fear was that they had somehow sighted the chopper. Using their call sign, Rapp asked, “Libra Three, have you been discovered?”