Page 5 of Stand Fast

“Not right now.” She transferred her gaze back to their informant, and spoke to him in Dari. She spoke it perfectly, without so much as a trace of an accent. She must have been raised speaking it since she was a child. “You’ll be paid what we agreed on. If what you told us is true, you’ll get a bonus. I’ll be in touch.”

Not bothering to wait for a response, she nodded at Zaid and headed for the door. He pushed out of his chair and followed out behind Taggart, leaving one of Rabani’s team members to finish up with Barakat. Probably handing out the dough and maybe arranging a ride for him back to his village.

Outside the room with the door closed, Zaid waited a discreet distance away while Rabani conferred with Hamilton and two others from the taskforce. Taggart offered him a nod, his piercing aqua eyes warming a fraction as he half-smiled. “Thanks for helping out.”

“No problem.”

His commander clapped him on the shoulder once. “See you at the briefing this afternoon.”

“You bet.” Zaid stood where he was as Taggart strode down the hallway, hands in his pockets while Agent Rabani finished up with her team members. She glanced over at him, her eyes locking with his.

She stared at him for a heartbeat, then put on a stiff smile. “Thank you for your help.”

“My pleasure.” Except the real pleasure would be getting to know her better, because she intrigued him. There were so many things he wanted to know about her. Where she was from, why she’d joined the DEA and chosen to be stationed here. Afghanistan wasn’t for everyone. He’d wanted to talk with her socially over the past few weeks, but hadn’t yet had the opportunity. He’d have to think up an excuse.

“Well. I’ll see you later.”

He nodded and watched her walk away in her combat boots, her rounded hips swaying with each confident stride she took. Strong, yet feminine. Sexy, but professional. The woman was a mass of contradictions, a puzzle he wanted to figure out. But she was also a fellow special agent, and pursuing her was a big professional no-no.

Damn shame he’d sworn off the whole dating thing, because she was the first woman who’d sparked his interest in a damn long time.

Chapter Two

Outside the office window, sheets of gray clouds obscuring the distant mountain peaks promised more snow as The Jackal finished up a call on his personal, encrypted cell phone.

In mid-conversation, he waved a signed document at his assistant, who was flipping through a stack of folders in the doorway. The younger man took it and hurried from the room as The Jackal grunted a terse reply to the person on the other end of the phone and ended the call.

He set the phone down on the desk to get more work done. Just as he picked up the pen, his phone rang again, showing the number of one of his most trusted sources.

As trusted as a source could be, that is.

“Speak,” he said.

“Is your end secure?”

“Of course.” He personally swept for electronic devices each morning whenever he came here, and he changed personal phones every few days to keep anyone from tracking him.

Only a handful of people knew his true identity. The ones who did would keep his secret until their dying breath. That ultimate sort of loyalty was easy enough to buy in this country, where so much of the population lived in abject poverty. Having money made so many things easier.

“What have you got?” he asked his source.

“I’ve just been told that the DEA has offered a bribe to someone from one of our villages.”

He stilled. “Have they,” he murmured. He was well versed in the dealings of the DEA. Very little went on pertaining to the opium trade in this country that he didn’t know about before it happened. He made it his business to know.

“Yes.” His man named a village they had used to smuggle shipments in and out of a few weeks ago.

“Who is it?”

“I haven’t found out yet.”

He scratched his beard. “They want him as an informant?”

“Yes. He went to Bagram to meet with the Americans about it.”

Ah. Interesting. He must be extremely motivated to risk such a thing. Either poverty or revenge. “And did he agree to work for them?” The Americans must consider him important if they’d asked him to meet at Bagram.

“No one knows.”

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