They saw no movement at the big iron gate. He put the van in park as the large SUV carrying the remaining Secret Service detail pulled up. Technically, legally the Secret Service had the lead on this mission due to the danger to the vice president. However, their boss and Colonel Jenkins agreed that since Rick’s team’s original mission was to capture and subdue Chukuwereije, and since they had specialized training in urban assaults, they would take the lead until the Secret Service could secure the vice president.

McBride and Fisher leaped out of the van, making surprisingly little noise for their size and weight, and investigated, finding the guards dead. Fisher figured out how to open the gate and initiated that, then the two rejoined the team.

Rick was grateful the van he’d rented was an older model and he could turn off all the lights. He didn’t drive all the way to the front door. Instead, he parked just out of view of the house, and everyone quietly got out. They didn’t bother shutting the doors behind them.

Weapons ready, they stayed low and hugged the shadows, spread out tactically more than ten feet apart with overlapping fields of fire, and prepared to meet any threat.

The Secret Service had given Colonel Jenkins the schematics of the house, and as far as Rick could reckon in the precious minutes he’d spent studying the layout, he decided they’d breach the front door as a team. He didn’t have enough shooters or time to reconnoiter or split them up.

They encountered no resistance. Clearly, the enemy did not expect anyone to challenge them from the outside. The front door stood slightly ajar. At Rick’s signal, Fisher pushed it open and kept a grip on the large iron door handle while sweeping the room at knee level with the pistol grip of the M4. Behind him, McBride swept the room at eye level. Moving his weapon in the opposite direction, Rick sought targets at waist level. They’d practiced breaching rooms like this for hours in places like Fort Bragg, Fort Benning, and improvised tactical shoot houses on forward operating bases all over the planet.

They entered an empty foyer. Swanson walked backward into the room, covering the team’s back with sweeps of his carbine. Beside him, Waller alternated facing forward and backward, protecting their left flank, while Peña did the same on their right. The six men covered every inch of space around them and moved as if they were a twelve-legged beast, in perfect concert.