Wesley’s idea to use the blood inside the human they’d caught at Fort Mason had worked like a charm. The human had led them to a large warehouse in Potrero Hill as if he were a homing pigeon. While a Scanguards employee escorted him back to HQ where he would be debriefed—or rather, where they’d wipe his memory—Blake and his men got ready for their rescue mission.
Thanks to their contacts with the city, Thomas had already sent the blueprint of the warehouse to a computer in one of the vans they’d arrived in. But what had really helped in strategizing their approach was Lilo’s blood.
Blake pulled in a fortifying breath. Because he’d bitten Lilo only a few hours ago, her blood was still strong inside him, and as soon as they’d gotten within a block of the warehouse and out of the van, he’d smelled her. He’d been able to identify where in the building she was being kept.
Blake now looked at his colleagues, who were putting on their goggles. They weren’t for night vision; the vampires didn’t need that. Instead, they functioned as thermal imaging devices. Blake shouldered a rope with a hook at its end, as well as some climbing gear. His backpack held several stakes, small-caliber handguns and enough ammunition to take out half an army. He wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
“You know what to do,” he said and turned his back to his colleagues.
“You sure you wanna do this alone?” John asked.
Blake looked over his shoulder. “I have to. If we go in guns blazing, they’ll have enough time to kill Lilo and Hannah. Wait for my text.”
Not waiting for John’s response, Blake turned into the next street and walked around the block until he reached the street behind the warehouse Norwood and his cronies were holed up in. He knew he didn’t have much time. In less than an hour the sun would rise, and any rescue attempt would have to be delayed.
It was easy to find the building that stood directly behind the warehouse. It was a plumbing supplier, and the building was two stories high, whereas the warehouse had three levels.
Blake assessed the building on both sides. No fire escape. He’d have to do it the hard way. Blake lifted the rope off his shoulder and got ready. Luckily this had been one of the many things he’d been taught during his training at Scanguards many years ago: how to swing a rope onto a roof and hook it on the ledge so he could climb up.
It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked in all the cat burglar movies, but on his second attempt, the four-pronged hook found purchase. He pulled on the rope to make sure it held and ascended. His vampire strength made the climb easy. Once on the roof, he unhooked the rope and crossed the flat surface until he reached the edge. There were no windows on this side of the red brick building, but there was a gap of about two yards. Easy to jump, if the buildings were of the same height, but not even he could jump up twelve or fourteen feet to the roof of the warehouse.
He made sure the rope was properly rolled up, before he swung it again, aiming the hook at the ledge of the warehouse’s roof as if he were swinging a lasso at a calf. This time he succeeded on the first try. Again he pulled at the rope to make sure it didn’t loosen.
Then he wrapped part of the rope around his right hand, held onto it a little higher with the left and stepped back a few feet. He ran and jumped toward the red brick wall feet first. When the soles of his feet hit the wall, he bent his knees, absorbing the impact, and steadied himself.
He took a breath and listened. Had somebody heard the bang against the wall? He waited another few seconds, but heard nothing in response, so he climbed the rope and reached the roof. Not even taking a second’s rest, he rolled up the rope and crossed the roof, being careful not to tread too heavily for fear the occupants would hear him.
When he reached the ledge, he inhaled deeply, letting the scent permeate his body. Lilo was somewhere below him. He laid flat on the ground and edged forward, looking down. There were several windows along this wall, one about six to eight feet below him. He slid back and rose, reaching into his backpack to retrieve his thermal imaging goggles. He put them on. Then he fastened the rope to an old chimney a few feet away.
Blake tied the rope around his waist, giving himself enough length to reach the window, then started to lower himself over the edge. He gripped the rope tightly and released more and more of it, until his feet touched the window ledge. He looked through the window, but it was painted black. Luckily, this was no obstacle for his goggles.
Inside the room he perceived two bodies, though he couldn’t tell whether they were vampire or human, because the heat signature of either species was the same. However, Lilo’s scent was strong here. It was seeping through the single-paned window. Blake made a quick assessment of the window and its mechanism. It was latched in the middle, meant to be opened at the top and tilted inward, rather than opened to the side. A little inconvenient to enter through such a tight space, but not entirely impossible. He’d worry about that after he’d managed to open it.
Blake reached for a knife in one of his many pockets and wedged it in the gap between window frame and lintel, sliding it to the latch in the middle. When he felt the lock, he wiggled the knife until he heard a click. He kept the knife there. Checking that his rope was holding, he let go of it with his other hand and then reached for the window, pushing it inward slowly and silently, until it had tilted to a forty-five degree angle on its bottom hinges.
He took off his goggles and hooked them onto his belt. It was dark in the room, but even without his night vision he would have known who was inside: Lilo’s scent was strongest here.
“Lilo,” he whispered.
He heard somebody stir, then he saw her and Hannah appear in his field of vision, looking up at the window.
“Blake!” Lilo said.
“Shhhh,” he cautioned, and put his finger to his lips and motioned Lilo and Hannah to approach. He took off his backpack and reached it through the opening, before he let go of it to drop it into Lilo’s waiting hands.
Checking out the window’s opening once more, he held onto the window frame and balanced himself on the ledge, releasing the rope. Once he was without the safety of the rope he reached inside the room, gripping the metal frame of the window that was anchored to the inside wall. He pulled up his knees and swung his legs through the opening, catapulting his body forward into the middle of the room, where he landed. The impact was hard, but he rolled off instantly.
Immediately, he listened for sounds from within the warehouse, but nobody seemed to have heard him.