Page 47 of Shadow of the Moon

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Amberly had the windows rolled down and the truck off hoping to hear anything from the ranch. Devlin had turned off the coms unit, but she breathed shallowly in case she missed a whisper or other sound.

Her gut was churning, and she didn’t know how to make it better. So much was riding on this night. They needed a twelve-man CIA Insertion team to effectively carry out this plan. Instead, it was just the two of them, and Dev was doing the bulk of the work at this second.

Did she drive up the driveway in the hopes of being closer in case he needed her? No, because if she did that, somehow they would miss each other. She would wait until he called her, then get in there as fast as she could.

Getting out of the car, she paced along beside it for about ten feet, then crossed back. She was so worried for Devlin. So much had changed in four days.

This was a stupid plan. They should have waited until Regent was leaving and take him out on the truck or something. Instead, Devlin was in the middle of the hornet’s nest.

Grabbing her phone, she looked for a text or anything. Nothing. Brown had her new burner number. That niggling thought bugged her again. How had he learned about Hatchett’s granddaughter?

She typed off a message to Brown, asking him.

Frank heard I was looking and said he helped find them a place out there. We’ve got a team on the ground in Antigua looking for him.

Amberly’s stomach twisted. Frank. Her friend. Or at least, she thought he was her friend. Frank Callypso had been there for her her entire professional career. When everything had gone down with Devlin, he’d been a literal shoulder to cry on. She’d eaten meals at his house with his wife, and listened to him complain about his kids moving away.

Frank had been in charge of the escort team the night Regent was moved. If he’d known SAC was going to remove Regent… then he’d probably known that Devlin was going to be set up as the fall guy.

Her heart ached at the thought of her friend taking part in terroristic activities. Yeah, he’d bitched about some of the country’s policies. More often, he bitched about the politicians. Had it been such an anger that it would impel him to take action against the country she thought he loved?

She stared down at the message on her phone.

Brown, where is Frank now?

He’s taking a couple of days off. It’s he and his wife’s anniversary.

No, it wasn’t, but Brown, who’d only been there a short time, wouldn’t realize that. His anniversary is in May, right after his wife’s birthday.

The phone rang in her hand. “So, what are you saying, Temple?”

“There are enough inconsistencies that I believe Frank Callypso might be Regent’s inside CIA man.”

“Fuck, that’s what I thought you were saying. Let me do some digging.”

“See if you can ping his phone.”

“Just a minute,” Brown murmured, and it sounded like he was holding the cell phone with his chin. She heard computer keys clacking. Then a long silence. “Temple. His phone was last at a Bozeman, Montana tower.”

“Are you fucking kidding me,” she hissed. “What the fuck do I do?”

Brown sighed on the other end of the line. “I’m going to continue digging, but right now, the fact that he’s out there and not because of you makes me think he’s in collusion with known domestic terrorists.”

Her eyes burned, and she blinked. Frank Callypso, her mentor and friend, was playing dirty.

Dev squeezed the trigger…just as some guy ran up the steps of the porch, fouling his shot. That man went down, and he saw Regent jerk, then lunge to the side for cover. So, he’d hit him, but hadn’t killed him.

“Fuck,” he hissed, acquiring the next target. The man sitting beside Regent with a beer in his hand never even moved as he died, just dropped the beer. One man sailed off the edge of the porch and Dev caught him in the neck. He skidded on his face and was still. Dev jerked his scope back to where Regent had gone down, but his view was obscured by a truck. He scanned back and forth, very carefully controlling his breathing.

Where the fuck had he gone?

There was movement at the back of the truck as someone started shooting an automatic AR 15. They were firing wild, though. They hadn’t actually seen where he was, just thought they knew. There was a small building down the hill from the cabin they were aiming and firing at.

Dev took the shooter out, watched as another man peered out from behind a vehicle and started to fire. At the very least, he’d ruined most of Regent’s plan by taking out these men.

By his count, he’d killed four and wounded two. The first guy might still be alive, though he had to be in pain.

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