“I have two hot spots in the backyard. One is definitely the hot tub. Another is the grill,” said Gupta. “Wait. Hold on. I have what looks like two people in the hot tub. Switching to night vision.”

“You might want to close your eyes,” said Devin.

Marnie took her hand off his shoulder. “Seriously?”

When the image shifted back to night vision and zoomed in, Gupta started laughing.

“I think it’s safe to assume the kids aren’t home,” said Marnie. “Unless that’s one of their kids.”

“Can you zoom in any further,” said Berg, “and pull up pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Barber?”

“Are you sure? I’d like to keep my dinner down,” said Gupta.

Graves started typing and clicking, replacing the image on the left with the Barbers, while Gupta zoomed in so close that Devin could barely watch. The action had the figures facing the back of the property, both of their faces fully exposed to the drone’s camera. If either of them had looked about fifteen degrees above the top of the tree line that separated their yard from the fairway, they might have spotted the drone—but they were clearly too caught up in the moment to notice.

“Looks like the Barbers to me,” said Berg. “Definitely William Barber. A little difficult to positively ID Stacy.”

“I say we hit them right now,” said Rich. “It doesn’t matter if that’s Mrs. Barber. Actually, I’d prefer if it wasn’t. We could use that as leverage.”

“Get Alex, Mike, and Rico back here immediately,” said Rich. “We’ll gear up and head over. Devin and Marnie, you’ll drive us to the drop-off point on Crooked Branch Lane, right off One Hundred Sixth Street, and peel off. We’ll let you know when we’re five minutes out from extraction. You’ll pull into the circular driveway right in front of their house for the pickup.”

“Whoa. Whoa. Wait a minute,” said Devin. “I’m going into that house with you.”

“So am I,” said Marnie.

“Not a chance. This is a last-second decision to pile into an unknown situation,” said Rich. “I need a single team thinking and acting as one. Not a split crew that I have to coach along. If this were tomorrow or later tonight, after we talked through the plan a number of times, I wouldn’t hesitate to bring you in with us.”

“We’re grabbing two middle-age, clearly out-of-shape adults who have been going at it in a hot tub,” said Marnie. “We’re not abducting a CrossFit couple.”

“Either we’re in or this is a no go,” said Devin.

“What exactly does that mean?” said Rich.

Berg held a hand up. “He’s right.”

“This time,” said Rich. “The two of you better keep up. Emily and Jared. You’re driving.”

Emily popped up from the foot of the bed and glared at Marnie. “Are you fucking kidding me?”