Page 29 of Beautiful Vengeance

“Why?”

The sharp chime of a ringtone went off. Trinity removed her arm from Kiyomi’s waist and fished her cell out of her pocket. “That’ll be Rycroft,” Marcus said.

Alex Rycroft, former NSA legend. Trinity had done contract work for him over the past few years, and he was close with another Valkyrie named Briar.

As soon as Rycroft had heard about the threat against them all, he’d stepped up and offered to help spearhead their mission. He had enough contacts and pull with intelligence agencies all over the world that he continued to be a valuable asset for them, acting as their liaison without compromising their location or identities.

Trinity answered the phone, watching Marcus. “Hey, good timing. I hear some of us are going to London?” She paused, listening, then nodded. “Understood. We’ll meet you there.”

“What’s going on?” Kiyomi said to Marcus as Trinity ended the call.

His eyes were grave. “The SAS is conducting an op to raid a militant camp in the Syrian Desert tonight. Rahman’s suspected to be there.”

She stopped breathing, her heart beating faster. “Capture or kill order?”

“Capture. It’s my former squadron. One of my former troopers is the assault team leader. They want us in the ops room when it happens so you can help ID Rahman and his inner circle. And also because they feel you could offer real-time insights on what he might do.”

Because of her…intimate association with him.

A protest rushed into her throat but she swallowed it down. Wanting to bring Rahman down personally was secondary to nailing his oily ass to the wall. If the SAS captured him, then she could come up with a plan to kill him once he was in custody.

Kiyomi straightened. “When are we leaving?”

****

It had been more than two years since Marcus had stepped foot in this place, and yet it felt like yesterday as they cleared initial security and drove beneath the SIS building at Vauxhall Cross on the south bank of the Thames.

Alex Rycroft was waiting for them next to the secure elevator in the underground car park beneath the building. A tall, fit man in his mid-fifties, he’d been a vital part of the current Valkyrie mission from its inception.

Upstairs, Marcus’s former commander was waiting outside the ops room. “Laidlaw. Good to see you.”

“Ken.” Marcus shook his hand.

Ken turned to Kiyomi, an intrigued smile on his face. “And you must be Ms. Tanaka.”

She shook his hand. “Hello.”

After exchanging pleasantries with Rycroft and Trinity, Ken gestured for Kiyomi and Marcus to follow him into the secure ops room. “We’ve got a headset for you,” he told Kiyomi, gesturing for her to approach the bank of monitors mounted on the far wall, and the team of analysts monitoring them from desks below.

Marcus followed and hung back with Ken as another aide spoke to Kiyomi and explained what was going on. The first two screens showed views of the target camp; one via satellite and the other via thermal-imaging drone. “What are the odds that Rahman’s there?” he asked Ken.

“Upwards of ninety-percent.”

Marcus watched Kiyomi as she stood in front of the monitor showing the drone footage. Her posture was relaxed, her expression calm, but he knew what this op meant to her.

She would have mixed feelings about not being there, but at least if they captured Rahman tonight, they would be able to interrogate and pump him for intel. He wished he could be leading the op and capture Rahman for her. Kill him even, once they had what they needed.

Someone handed Ken a sat phone. He answered, spoke to whoever it was for a moment, then passed it to Marcus. “It’s Rory.”

A sudden, suffocating pressure closed around his lungs as a picture of his mate’s face flashed in his mind, bringing with it other images he wished he could forget.

He forced in a deep breath and took the phone, blocking the rush of memories. “Rory.”

“So you are still alive. I wasn’t convinced until just now,” Rory said dryly in his Geordie accent. “How are you, mate?”

“Fair t’ middlin’. How are things there? The lads ready?”

“Always. I hear you’ll be watching it live?”

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