Page 11 of Shadow Target

“I imagine that got your interest?”

“Yeah, it did. I called up their office, got an interview booked, and flew to Alexandria, Virginia, where they are based. I went through three different levels of interviews and, on the third one, I ended up with the president of the firm, Jack Driscoll himself.”

“I was impressed with Shield Security,” Shep said. “I was glad Delos was reaching out to one of the top agencies in the world. Considering how this mission was gonna play out, we needed real security from people who knew how to provide it.”

“When I sat down in the room and met Driscoll, I soon found out he was an ex-SEAL,” Willow fondly recapitulated. “He’d been warm and welcoming, which I hadn’t expected. But I figured out quickly if you worked for Shield, you would be treated as family, not just another number or employee.”

“Right,” he agreed, meeting her glance for a moment. “I felt the same way when the Marine Corps, working with Delos, approached me. I guess I popped up on their radar screen. I’d been selected to work undercover as a Delos employee, along with my Seabee construction crew. I went in for the interview. I’d also had no expectation of ever meeting the top dog, but there she was, right there from the git go.”

“When did you join this undercover operation with Delos?”

“Two years, eight months ago. You?”

“About the same time frame. For when I joined Shield Security I mean. I basically went from military to civilian status and a new job within three months’ time.”

“No grass grows under your feet,” and he saw her face thaw.

“You’re a Marine officer. Why’d you decide to switch to undercover work?”

Shrugging, he said, “Even I get bored. I just wanted some peace. Something less dangerous, if possible, in my life. Delos is a global entity and frequently works with well-known security agencies and military branches. I figured they knew what they’re doing and might provide what I wanted.”

And that had all been shortly after she’d walked out on him. They had both left the service, but in different ways. Willow wanted to ask more, but she withheld her questions. Surprised that they were talking to one another like old friends with a common past, she found herself hungering for more of just this kind of communication. “Yeah,” she murmured, “I was tired of dropping bombs. It got old after a while.”

“How’s your brother, Ben?”

Her heart tumbled. Ben was her older brother, two years older. This was the FIRST time that Shep had EVER asked about any member of her family. On her part, she’d opened up to him, filling him in on her family history in an effort to get him to talk about his own upbringing and kin, but he never had. “Well,” she said, her voice growing low with pain, “right now? He’s somewhere on the Syrian-Turkish border. He’s fighting with the Kurds against ISIS. He quit the Army, even though he’d risen to the rank of a Delta Force operator, and just suddenly went to work with the Kurds.” She risked a glance over at him, seeing the shock in Shep’s narrowing blue eyes.

“One of the most dangerous places on the planet. Especially now, since the Russians are in Syria along with ISIS and all we have, as a much smaller contingent over there, are our black ops special forces. Turkey considers the Kurds terrorists. That’s not a good setup.”

“I wanted him out of there, but he loves what he’s doing,” Willow muttered, frustration bleeding through her tone. Her hands opened and closed nervously on the steering wheel as she made another turn onto yet an even smaller, narrower side street. Several pink, yellow and light-green stucco condos, all four to five stories tall, stood along this meticulously clean and beautifully landscaped street.

“The last I remember you telling me about him was that he was home for R&R. He has a condo in San Diego, has a lot of SEAL friends around Coronado Island, and hangs out with them when he wants a breather from the nonstop war over there.”

“That was three years ago. And that was his idea of civilian leave,” she said, frowning. “Ben’s thirty now. He’s been a mercenary for hire to the Kurds since then.”

“He must like that life?”

“I don’t know. Do you remember that Ben has ADHD? That my parents had him on Ritalin until about sixteen when he flushed the medication down the toilet? He refused to ever take it again.”

“I’ve never forgotten anything you’ve told me about your family,” he admitted, holding her somber gaze. Not that he’d ever inquired about them, but she would fill him in on her family whether he asked or not. Another sore point about him… she’d accused him of being selfish, not caring about anyone but himself. Shep had to admit she was right. “Ben was out of control as I remember. He was in and out of juvenile detention and then got mixed up with selling drugs in his late teens. He always wanted action, couldn’t sit still, and needed to be in some kind of emotional storm or drama.”

“That about sums it up.” She slowed and turned into a driveway blocked by a fifteen-foot-high black wrought iron gate manned by two Ethiopian soldiers with M4s bought from the US Defense department. She pointed to the pink building in front of them as she dug out her identification, rolling down the window and handing it to the soldier on her side. “The condos on this street are all US people of some sort,” she explained to him. “They could be operatives under cover, diplomats, legit businessmen, wives whose husbands are over here in the military, and so on. General Hakym posts twenty-four-hour protection on these buildings and we’re grateful.”

“Wyatt Lockwood was saying that Hakym has a very tight, trustworthy and, ya know, loyal connection to the Ethiopian President and our State Department heads.”

“Yes,” she said, nodding to the soldier in his green uniform as he returned her ID case, saying good morning to her in broken English. Stuffing the ID into the thigh pocket of her flight suit, as the gates slowly whirred open to allow them into the complex, she said, “that’s good to know. There’s a Somalian who is called ‘Shadow Devil’. His real name is Tefere David. He’s a real hyena in case Lockwood didn’t brief you on the sick bastard.” She eased her SUV forward on the concrete driveway, heading toward the ramp sloping down into the tunnel beneath the complex that led to the underground parking area.

“Yes, I got solidly briefed on him,” Shep said. “He’s a sex-trafficker. Have you had any confrontations with him out at any of the Delos charities?”

“Yes,” she said grimly, easing the SUV into her parking space and turning off the engine. “A month ago, Dev and I landed on a dirt strip outside one of the villages about an hour after he’d attacked it.” She sighed and shook her head. “The bastard kidnapped four young girls, all around twelve and thirteen. From the village, not from within the Delos enclosure. When we drove from the strip in our Jeep and arrived at the village, all hell had broken loose. Those four families were in absolute anguish over the loss of their daughters.”

“What did you do?” and he met her pain-filled expression.

“Got on the sat phone to Delos immediately. Wyatt was there and patched us through to the State Department. They, in turn, contacted the general and he flew out a platoon of thirty soldiers to help the village and try to capture that bastard and save the girls.”

“Why the hell couldn’t he have given those outlying villages any protection?”

Sighing, Willow unsnapped her seatbelt, hitting the button to close the windows, and opened her door. “Because he didn’t have the men to do it. Welcome to our world, Shep. There’s a lot to clue you in about, and I’ll do that over the next week as we prepare to get you and your team out to those Delos charities to double their security. Because David’s shifted to terrorizing the Northern Ethiopian area.”

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