“We think he’s sleeping inside,” Mahoney informed me as we jogged through the woods until we had the ramshackle house in view.

“It’s almost noon,” I said.

“Farley works a late-night shift. He got home at six this A.M. His girlfriend’s in there too.”

I didn’t say anything.

“What? What are you thinking?” Mahoney asked as we watched the house from a thick stand of woods less than fifty yards away.

“You said he has a girlfriend in the house? That doesn’t sound right, does it?”

“I don’t know, Alex. According to surveillance, the girlfriend’s been there all night. I guess they could be the couple. We’re here. My job is to take Rafe Farley down. Let’s do it. . . . This is HRT One. I have control. Ready! Five, four, three, two, one. Go. Go!”

Chapter 38

Chapter 38

MAHONEY AND I WATCHED as the breach team moved quickly on the small inconsequential-looking house. The six agents were outfitted in black-on-black flight suits and body armor. The side yard was littered with two more junked vehicles, a small car and a Dodge truck, and a lot of spare parts for appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners. There was a standing urinal out back that looked as if it had come from a tavern.

The house windows were dark even though it was midday. Was Audrey Meek in there? Was she alive? I hoped that she was. It was a huge break if we got her back now. Especially since everybody thought she was probably dead.

But something about the raid bothered me.

Not that it mattered now.

There is no “knock and announce” protocol when HRT is involved. No talking, no negotiating, no political correctness. I watched two agents breach the front door. They started to go inside the suspect’s house.

Suddenly, a muffled boom. The agents at the front door went down. One of them didn’t get up. The other got up and stumbled away from the house. It was awful to witness, a complete shock.

“Bomb,” said Mahoney in surprise and anger. “He musta booby-trapped the door.”

By then, the four other agents were inside the house. They had gone in through the back and side doors. There were no more explosions, so the other doors hadn’t been booby-trapped. Two HRT agents approached the wounded pair at the front of the house. They pulled away the agent who hadn’t moved since the blast.

Mahoney and I ran as fast as we could toward the house. He kept repeating “fuck” over and over. There were no gunshots coming from inside.

I was suddenly afraid Farley wasn’t even in the house. I prayed that Audrey Meek wasn’t already dead in there. Everything was feeling so wrong to me. This wasn’t how I would have done the raid. The FBI! I had always hated and distrusted these bastards, and now I was one of them.