Chapter 1
The compound in Russia was in utter chaos. International FBI had requested assistance from various locations within the States. No warning. Just calls for help for boots on the ground ASAP.
Destini Monroe, an agent from the Minnesota office, was among those called to join this takedown. She had been with the bureau for almost two years. She had to prove herself every step of the way. Perhaps whatever this mission was, her superior would see she had what it took.
Special Agent in Charge Maxwell, the man in charge of her office, simply entered the office where agents worked and told them they needed to be on the aircraft in half an hour. She and those agents scrambled to gear up and make their way to an unknown assignment.
Hours later, she and her fellow agents were surrounding a Russian complex with an agency she’d never heard of before, Alpha Defense. An agency with enough pull for the executive branch of the government to send them to another country in a takedown no one knew was coming. A compound that belonged to an organization no one even knew about. An organization made up over a hundred years ago of women trained as terrorists. Boudicca. Female orphans taken and trained in combat skills that rivaled other countries. Women who gathered Intel by any means necessary. Women trained as assassins.
As Destini watched all the activity around her, she tried to wrap her brain around all she’d learned in the amount of time it took to arrive in this country. As she and many other FBI agents stood near their agent in charge, another man approached.
“Agent Maxwell,” this man greeted as he extended his hand.
“Swanson,” her boss greeted back. “Care to share just what the hell is going on here?”
“We’ve been in the process of bringing down this organization.”
“And by in the process, just how long exactly has this been?” Maxwell was not happy.
“A few months. We’ve gathered enough information to warrant being here,” Swanson responded. “We simply need assistance as we know there are quite a few to apprehend.”
“Months,” Maxwell scoffed. “And yet, we’ve heard nothing of this.”
“It was a matter we needed as much information as possible. Make no mistake, this is an organization you do not want to continue.”
“And, let me guess, you and your team are the ones in charge,” Maxwell was showing his displeasure.
Destini was getting the distinct impression these men not only knew one another but there was definitely a background between them that was causing this animosity.
“I don’t have time to go into a pissing contest with you,” Swanson’s authority evident. “My team and I have been gathering Intel on this group and how they’ve grown beyond what we ever could have imagined. The leader of this group and his son are one of the biggest arms dealers I’ve ever seen. I have one of my best agents in there,” he said as he pointed to the complex that looked more like a high security prison than anything else. “The information he has gathered on not only Ivanoff but others who are here to purchase weapons is what has brought all of us here today. We have computer tech with schematics of this building thanks to the agent inside these walls. All of my agents have this information and will require assistance from you and your agents.”
“You’ve had someone inside?” Maxwell asked.
“Yes. Defender Winters has been instrumental in gathering all of this information. He has provided us with the layout of most of this compound. I have agents who will be making their way inside to bring this compound down. Literally.”
Destini was floored with what she was overhearing.
“My main focus here is getting my man out of there safe. He and who he has been working with in gathering this information. But, make no mistake, Boudicca is going down,” Swanson said sternly.
Destini could see Maxwell wasn’t pleased with this. However, he had no option but to comply since he and the other FBI agents had literally only known about this group for less than twelve hours.
***
Intense fighting had been going on for two hours. FBI agents accompanied those with Alpha Defense to infiltrate the building to find and bring out their undercovers. These Boudicca women were fierce fighters. They defended this compound with everything they had. Destini had to admit, these Defenders, as Alpha Defense agents were called, were good. They were doing more than holding their own with these lethal women.
The compound was huge and was like breaking into a prison. Women positioned in guard towers were shooting at those trying to enter.
Alpha Defense snipers surrounding the complex were keeping those in the towers busy so those on the ground could get in. As Destini made her way toward an entrance with two other FBI agents and a Defender, a loud explosion sounded, and the flames lit up the night sky. She watched as a helicopter exploded and was now crashing to the ground. Occupants had no way of surviving.
She turned and discovered the team she was with was no longer with her. She called into her com system and received no response back.
“Sir,” she shouted, hoping to be heard over the chaos all around her, “I’ve lost the location of my team.”
“Who is this?” Swanson’s voice came through her line. She found that odd, but what about this mission wasn’t odd?
“Agent Monroe.”
This Swanson guy was getting on her nerves. He took being in charge to a whole new level.
As she awaited his retort, which would no doubt be filled with anger, the nearby door burst open from the inside.
Destini turned, weapon drawn as she saw two women, one helping another come out of the door.
“Stop!” Destini called out to them.
The two women, both blonde, looked at her.
“You must take her to medical!” the one helping the other woman called out to her in a thick Russian accent.
“No, you are both coming with me,” Destini responded.
“Monroe, report!” Swanson’s voice came in her com.
“Two women, Russian, trying to get out of the building,” Destini answered, her weapon still aimed at them.
“Chief Swanson,” the woman who held the other woman’s arm over her shoulder spoke. “Arina needs medical.”
“Monroe, they’re ours,” Swanson told her. “Help get our Defender to the northern field.”
As Destini approached the women, the one helping removed her the woman’s arm from around her neck and pushed her into Destini.
“Hey!” Destini shouted as the woman turned to return inside the building.
The woman turned to her.
“Get her to medical. I must go back for warrior.”
“Leah! No!” the injured woman called out to her rescuer. The woman never stopped. Just ran back through the door they’d just emerged from.
Destini went to the injured woman and knelt down. She was dressed in medical scrubs and very weak.
“Hey, you okay?” Destini asked her.
“She’s going to get herself killed,” the woman said emotionally.
“Let her know the other Defenders are inside,” Swanson instructed. “We’ll get her.”
“Your boss says there are Defenders in there. She’s gonna be okay.” She then lifted the woman’s arm around her neck and lifted her to stand. “Let me get you away from here.”
Destini walked with this wounded woman as quickly as they could considering the amount of pain the woman was in as they made their way to the northern field.
“Where are you wounded?” Destini asked as they got further and further away from the fighting.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” the woman weakly responded, holding her other arm across her abdomen.
As they approached an area in a northern field, men ran toward them. They took the woman from Destini and laid her on the ground.
“Wells,” Swanson said as he now approached and squatted down near the wounded woman. “You’re going to be okay.”
Destini could see this woman was in excruciating pain. What she didn’t see were any gunshot wounds, stabbings, nothing to indicate what she was wounded from.
“Where’s Eric?” the woman weakly asked her superior.
“He’s doing his job,” Swanson reported before standing. He gave non-verbals to the men to take this woman somewhere. Destini hoped for medical attention.
“What the hell is going on here?” Agent Maxwell demanded as he now approached.
“I told you,” Swanson responded, annoyed at having to explain this situation.
“How the hell are you and your teams hooked up to our coms?” Maxwell’s anger was off the charts.
Swanson chuckled.
“We’ve got the best IT guy around.”
Maxwell stepped up to Swanson and poked his finger in his chest.
“When this is over, you will be giving me a more detailed explanation for all of this Captain!” Maxwell said before he turned to her. “Where the hell did she go?”
“Still can’t keep your underlings in line,” Swanson scoffed as he walked away.
***
Destini was tired of this posturing Maxwell and Swanson seemed to keep doing. Obviously, there was some history. Right now, she saw the more immediate need to get their job done.
While the men bickered back and forth, Destini turned and quickly made her way back toward the compound. Since her com link was now connected to Alpha Defense for some unknown reason she couldn’t understand, she could hear all that was going on around her.
Destini focused on a conversation between two Defenders. She didn’t know who they were, but one of them definitely had a casualness about all that was happening around them.
“What the hell does she think she’s doing?” the one with a deep voice asked.
“Boss says we gotta go,” the other answered, the casual one.
“See ya outside,” came the deep voice response.
“Defenders!” Swanson’s shout came through the line. “I will not repeat myself. Get your asses out of there! This place is about to blow!”
“You two want to haul ass?” another Alpha Defense leader said in their coms. “Cutting it kinda close.”
Destini saw many running from the building. Her fellow FBI agents running alongside Defenders to safety. She couldn’t tell if the two she had concentrated on listening to were among them.
“Monroe!” one of the agents called out to her as he grabbed her arm and to get her moving with them. “Let’s go!”
As they ran along, she kept turning to look over her shoulder.
“I think there are a couple Alpha Defense still in there!” she shouted to be heard and tugged on her arm. “We have to help them!” she demanded as they now stood looking at one another.
“Look, these guys seem to know what the hell they’re doing,” he shouted back. “Move before Maxwell really gets mad.”
As they made it to the perimeter, the loudest explosion she’d ever heard filled the night and shook the ground. As if in slow motion, the complex began crumbling to the ground. She stood immobile watching this until her com link crackled. The two she’d heard inside were having the strangest conversation.
“Adams,” the one with the deep voice called.
“Yeah?” the other answered tiredly.
“I’m still kicking your ass when we get home.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way Buddy,” he chuckled back.
She shook her head at their conversation. They sounded jovial.
***
Back in the States, Destini and the other agents sat at their desks. They were all still dealing with their impromptu mission.
Shouts came from Agent Maxwell’s office. Even with the door closed, all within the bullpen could hear.
***
“You summoned me here,” Mike Swanson, head of Alpha Defense stood before Agent Maxwell’s desk.
“Close the door,” Maxwell ordered and waited for him to do that before proceeding. “Just what the hell did you get the FBI involved in?” Maxwell’s displeasure
“I didn’t pull you into anything,” Swanson responded. “That was all on the DOD.”
Maxwell sat back in his chair.
“And just when did you get such influence?” he asked Swanson.
“You asked to know more about this Boudicca group after the raid. I’m here to provide you that. Nothing more.”
“You’re still one cocky son-of-a-bitch,” Maxwell shot back.
“You aren’t my commanding officer anymore,” Swanson remained calm. He knew calm angered the man before him.
“You know what your problem is Captain?” Maxwell shouted as if Swanson could have set a timer to it.
“I’m not Captain anymore either.”
“You are damn lucky we didn’t have casualties in that little raid of yours!”
“I know and have faith in my team. Are you saying you don’t in yours?”
“You’re going to fall one day,” Maxwell snarled. “And I will be sitting on the sidelines with a bucket of popcorn.”
Swanson simply gave him a smile. His Alpha Defense team was made up of the best of the best. He led them using their strengths. And he’d go to the mat for any of them. Something this man and the military never afforded him.
Swanson nodded to the file on Maxwell’s desk.
“That’s the information you requested,” he said as he opened the office door. “Be sure to let me know if you need anything else.”
“Mark my words!” Maxwell called after him as he strode through the bullpen as though he hadn’t a care in the world. “Your arrogance will catch up with you one day!”
***
“Monroe,” Maxwell called to her when the head of Alpha Defense had left, and he’d calmed down. “A word.”
She rose and went into his office.
“Close the door,” he instructed as he sat behind his desk and concentrated on a file.
She did as he asked and went to stand before his desk. She could see it was a formal request. So, she stood and waited for him to begin.
He stopped reading the file before him, sat back in his chair, and looked intently at her.
“Just what the hell were you thinking when you went back into that complex?”
“Sir, our mission was to apprehend as many of those women as we could. My presence was needed there.”
“You just decide these things now?” he asked rhetorically. “Just do what you want and not wait for orders?”
She’d had similar conversations with him in her time here. She took her job seriously.
“I was doing the job.”
Maxwell glared at her. He’d just finished with another rebel from his past in his office.
“One of these times, this rebelliousness of yours is going to get you killed.”
“That is not my intent Sir.”
Damn, she even sounded like Captain Swanson.
“Intent or not, you getting killed on assignment means a crap load of paperwork for me.”
“All due respect Sir, we were called in for an emergency assignment. I knew there were agents from us and Alpha Defense still inside. I had a job to do.”
“Well, since you take doing your job so seriously, here,” he said as he handed her the thick file he’d only moments before been reading over.
“Sir?”
“It’s time we learn just what the hell this Boudicca group is about. That is a file from Captain Swanson and all his team has compiled. You are to go over it so we can close out this assignment completely.”
She simply looked at her superior. She knew that he knew she hated paperwork.
“Sir, the compound was completely destroyed. We apprehended at least two hundred women.”
“Yes, and our International divisions are doing their best to make sure these women apprehended are being processed to the full extent of the law. I want you going through this file so we can close it on our end.”
“Yes, Sir.”
She turned and made her way back to her desk. She loudly dropped the file on her desk before plopping down in her chair and giving a heavy sigh.
