Page 65 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

THE SANDBOX AT FBI headquarters displayed multiple angles on the house in Culver City, some from the sky and some on the ground.

A twelve-man SWAT strike force was in position; a strict neighborhood perimeter had been established.

If anyone was still in the house, they’d have no way out, barring some unknown drug-cartel-style tunnel running beneath the property.

This tip could be nothing—or everything.

“Go,” Nicky said.

On the other end of the phone, Jeff Penney gave his team the signal.

There was almost too much action to follow. Team leaders had helmet-mounted cameras transmitting in real time. Nicky tried to keep up with the video feeds and get a sense of the layout of the house, but it felt like playing a dozen first-person-shooter games at once.

Bam! The front door was knocked open. Pistols up, officers fanned out in every direction.

Bam! The back door rocked off its hinges, affording her a glimpse of more strike force members coming in through the side windows.

“Clear!” A two-man team checked every corner of the ground floor; another pair cautiously made their way up the single flight of stairs to do the same on the second.

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

Nicky followed the flurry of action, looking for any clues that Tim Dowd or Boo Schraeder had been here. But the place appeared to be just another Airbnb awaiting its next guest. There were no signs of life.

“Make sure you have people outside the house check for any escape routes,” Nicky said.

“All due respect, Gordon,” Jeff said, “this is not the first house we’ve breached.”

Nicky ignored that. “And if you find Dowd, you take him alive.”

“Last house was a bust,” Jeff reminded her. “I don’t think Dowd would be stupid enough to hole up so close.”

“I need to know you hear me,” Nicky said.

“Hey. If it comes down to Dowd or the hostage, and Dowd tries something funny, he’s a goner.”

“Damn it, Penney, listen to me—”

Her admonition was interrupted by an explosion of shouts and commands. Something was happening on multiple screens. Nicky found the video feeds that displayed the helmet cams of the team heading into a windowless room. Pistols and rifles up, all of them spreading out.

They were here.