Page 68 of Stand Fast

He focused on her slowly, his throat moving as he swallowed. “Nasar.”

Ice splintered throughout her body. “What?” she whispered.

“Nasar,” he repeated, then his face twisted and he bared his teeth as a terrible cry of pain echoed off the walls.

“Let go,now,” one of the nurses snapped, and shoved Jaliya backward. They pushed through the double doors leading to the operating room.

Shock kept her rooted to the floor for a moment as her mind struggled to compute what Barakat had just said.

General Nasar was The Jackal. And he had coordinated tonight’s op with FAST Bravo.

Stricken, she yanked out her phone and dialed Taggart as she spun and ran for the door. It rang and rang in her ear, but he didn’t answer.

“Shit,” she whispered, hanging up and trying David. “Come on, pick up. Pickup.”

He didn’t.

She swallowed back a scream of frustration and helplessness and ran as fast as she could, trying other numbers, with the same result. By the time she reached the building the TOC was located in she was gasping and light-headed, sweating despite the icy cold air.

She flung the exterior door open, her boots thudding on the linoleum floor as she ran for the second door on the left. Everything was brighter. Louder. Including the thud of her heart in her ears. Zaid was out there, and his team. They didn’t know. Didn’t realize the danger they faced.

Wrenching the TOC door open, the distinctive sound of gunfire from the live feed hit her and she stopped dead.

Her blood pressure took a nosedive as six pairs of eyes jerked to her. She looked at Taggart, the terrible news she had to deliver frozen on her tongue as he stared at her and shook his head, face grim as he muttered, “All hell’s breaking loose down there.”

Chapter Seventeen

What the fuck was happening?

“Contact, ten o’clock!” Freeman shouted.

Zaid scrambled after Rodriguez over the rocks and dove behind the cover of a group of boulders on the hill above the road. “What the hell?”

“You guys see anything?” Rodriguez shouted to Kai and Prentiss, pinned down a dozen yards or so from them in a shallow gulley.

“Negative,” Prentiss yelled back.

The rest of the team was scattered in two remaining groups nearby. Cover here was scarce, so they had to make the best use of what they could find.

Zaid kept his head down and waited for a break in the firing to steal a peek at what was happening below near the road. Shit had gone sideways in a matter of seconds. They’d walked into an ambush moments ago, but he had no clue who was firing at them, as there hadn’t been any enemy reported in the area. Was there a tunnel system nearby where the enemy had hidden?

“Fall back,” Hamilton ordered, his voice tense.

Oh, shit. They had to be badly outnumbered or outgunned for their team leader to give that order. He snuck a peek through a gap in the boulders, his chin brushing the ground.

“How bad?” Rodriguez asked, sprawled out next to Zaid on his belly with his weapon to his shoulder.

There was enough ambient light for him to make out the shapes of the men moving around by the convoy through his NVGs. More men than they had with them. “Bad.” His pulse drummed hard and fast in his throat.

“Khan and Rodriguez, fall back on my command to the north behind the ridge. The rest of us will provide cover fire,” Hamilton ordered.

“Roger,” Zaid replied, then clamped his jaw tight and maneuvered his weapon into position.

“Go.”

Though every one of his instincts told him to stay put, Zaid obeyed his team leader, shoved to his feet, and ran like hell for the ridge above. The volume of fire picked up immediately.

Light from the tracer rounds streaked past him in the darkness, thudding into the rocks and ground, kicking up sprays of dirt.

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