Page 29 of Red Line

“It’s Red,” Black said through gritted teeth, “so until I hear otherwise, I’m going to believe she’s fine but might need help. We’ll get that covered. So, if she can safely get to you in Vienna and work with you on this, that would be best. I need to make that happen. Either way, I need someone at a ball this weekend. I’ll send you a file with the details.”

“Okay. Until then, I’ll be working on finding Red. Poole is JSOC’s priority, but if they can hand Poole off and move on to check on Red, you’re right. That would be ideal. If JSOC says that’s a no-go or the team is going to be in the field on the Poole mission past sunrise, we’re going to have to go another route.” Grey paused. “We have people in the area that can do it. Like you, my concern is that, if possible, I don’t want to blow her cover. Having the CIA actively functioning in the area of an explosion right there on the border—with so much else going down and everyone extra sensitive—would be diplomatic chaos. I agree, we need this to be shadow work, which takes a special forces skill set, especially if she somehow got scooped up in someone’s net.”

“Kidnapping?” Black asked.

“I was thinking hospital. But that kidnapping is a possibility. Suddenly, we have a new asset who shows up with information. Information that we haven’t heard verified for accuracy. We don’t know what’s happening with Echo right now. One of the scenarios was that we were getting played, sending in a SOF for an ambush.”

Black glared into the camera. “And at the same time, a bomb goes off, and Red’s missing? Game that one out.”

“If they grabbed her and then blew the building, and the explosion was devastating enough, it could cover her disappearance. It would take some time for the metaphoric dust to settle. There would be time and space for a thorough and enhanced interrogation.”

“Yeah. Agreed,’ Black said. “That has to be part of this calculation. I need Red, her body, or if that’s not possible at the scene, then a significant DNA sample, or we need to go hard on finding what happened between our phone call and now.”

Grey leaned into the camera. “Agreed.”

“Okay, get a yay or nay on Echo taking this on, and if it’s a no-go on their end, then we need to juice up a different team.”

“Got it. I’ll let you know what I find out.” Grey dragged a hand down his face. “Yeah, this isn’t like Red at all. Something is going very wrong.”

Chapter Ten

Nomad

Nomad sailed the air, and it was glorious!

The arc of the Milky Way, unimpeded by light pollution or much of a moon’s glow, was a river of stars.

The landing, though …

The success of a HAHO depended on precision. Nomad toggled this way and that, using the current to help him get to the exact X to meet up with his team.

This X was in the desert, where a layer of dust and sand covered a surface baked into a hard crust. It was hell on the ankles. Sand landings were abrasive as hell when you hit a dune. But sand landings on baked earth were the worst.

As soon as he got his boots under him, Nomad yanked off his protective clothing and oxygen. Gathering the chute and equipment, Nomad checked the GPS, then jogged the distance to the rendezvous.

He’d come close to the X, but a new pin had dropped, signifying an updated rallying point.

When he joined the team, Nomad saw why. There was a slight indentation where they dumped everything that wouldn’t serve this mission and its cover. The dirt was too hard here to do much with it. They had a shovel with them, but any digging would be obvious, hence the utility of the indent.

“There he is,” Havoc said. “We thought we’d lost you, sunshine.”

“Had my head in the clouds.” Nomad piled his things with the others’.

T-Rex sent that pin to headquarters so the brass could make a decision. American soldiers at a base to the southeast might be able to retrieve the equipment.

They stretched the camo cloth over their pile and moved heavy rocks along the edges so a high wind wouldn’t send one of their parachutes sailing off to some sheep farm and rouse curiosity.

Meanwhile, Ty and Rory had gone in search of the vehicle intelligence had promised them. Aside from the multitool that each of them had clipped to their belts, Rory was the team’s only weapon.

And if this turned out to be some kind of ambush, Rory could sniff out any bombs or bad guys that might be in the area.

The ping of a pin dropping onto their map told the team that the vehicle had been located; they were good to go.

With Havoc at the wheel, the team drove through the dark of night.

It was an hour’s drive, and there was literally no one and nothing out this way. Not even the goats mentioned in jest.

There was no way they would have made it if Grey hadn’t come through with an SUV for them.

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