The Last Time I Saw Her

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Gripping onto the hand strap located above the open section of the large Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, Lauren kept her eyes pinned to the Smoky Mountains below her as the vast aircraft continued its ascend through the immense wilderness as it had been for the last 2 hours.

"Dave, are we in position yet?" the raven haired girl sternly asked as continued her focus on the area below her.

Refreshing the coordinates upon his GPS chart plotter, the dark eyed controller quickly responded. "Not for at least 20 minutes".

"Jauregui" Skylar urgently shouted as she readjusted monitor to make sure what she was seeing was correct. "I picked up 3 unidentified targets on our thermal screens about 5 minutes out"

Closing her eyes in frustration, Lauren knew exactly who it was. "Seriously? Already?" was all she was able to mutter out.

"What? A couple of Caminiti's men?" Aiden questionably asked.

"No. It's the girls." Lauren harshly returned before making her way behind the hazel eye brunette. "Bring up the infrared camera"

"Are you sure? How the hell did they get out all the way over here?" Aiden retorted.

"They always find a way. Caleb probably told them about our whereabouts. Why is it taking so long for the camera to come up?" Lauren aggressively asked.

"The thermographic camera isn't working. It looks like whoever is using the woods for their exertion was smart enough to place hot spots all around the area to distort all infrared cameras" Skylar quickly answered before trying to see what else she could do on her end.

"Caleb Rivers?" Aiden asked. "Isn't he that video game lackey back in Miami?"

Shooting an annoyed look at her co-leader, Lauren decided not to fuel the statement. "He's the boyfriend of Dinah jane. If I know anything about that group, I know he's is going to be the ears for the group so he's probably giving them the directions as the girls is following"

"And how did he figure out where to go?" Aiden judgmentally asked.

"If you're asking if I told them, you must be out of your mind. You think I'd leak our plan to ordinary civilians and our lives at even greater risk?" Lauren sternly asked as she looked at her co-lead square in the eye. "If you don't trust me, tell me right now and I will leave this case"

"I trust you with my life Jauregui" Aiden calmly stated. "When you mentioned they'd find ways to be involved in the case, I didn't realize how involved they'd get. You are my co-lead and I we wouldn't be where we are without you"

"Glad we got that cleared up. From what I recall from the girls files, I believe kordeis used her mother's jet to get as close as possible. Andrea kordeis private jet is the only thing I could think of that the girls could use at their disposal since she's currently running for senate. Dave, if we me make our jump here how far are we going to be off from our target?" Lauren asked as she shifted closer toward her coordinator.

Calculating the directions as quickly as possible, the dark eyed intellect responded, "We'd be about 141 miles out"

"Shit. So you're telling me we either risk 3 civilians for our intended target or risk Caminiti realizing we're here?"

"I'm pretty positive Caminiti already knows someone is coming granted those girls aren't even hiding the fact that they're coming" Dylan answered.

"Or how about the fact that it looks like a group of 20 plus men are surrounding the girls right now?" Skylar fearfully responded.