Page 113 of Over the Edge

He nodded in understanding.

Trevor went first, and she waited tensely above while he cleared the space below. Finally, he waved for her to join him. She made a quick check for any footprints they might have left behind, and seeing none, descended the ladder. She closed the hatch quietly behind her.

Despite the ticking clock, she stopped about halfway down the ladder and rigged a trip wire with a snap-pop tied to the end of it. If anybody opened the hatch, she and Trevor would hear a warning snap of sound. A few seconds of precaution now could make all the difference if or when things hit the fan.

She finished climbing down the ladder, and her feet touched a hard dirt floor. She turned to assess the dark room through her NOD’s. This space was similar in size to the building above and also held wooden crates stacked along one wall. They were the right shape for weapons and ammunition.

Two tunnels led out of the space, one pointing north toward the edge of the compound. The wall that ringed the compound was only about twenty feet beyond their current location. But the tunnel itself appeared to go further than that, disappearing to a black point somewhere ahead, outside the walled compound.

This must be a bolthole for Haddad to escape through in the event of an attack.

The other tunnel led toward the center of the compound.

Which way?she signaled.

Trevor considered both tunnels, then pointed at the one leading deeper into the compound. She concurred. If she were Haddad stowing a valuable prisoner, she would keep him closer rather than further away.

Trevor advanced into the dark tunnel slowly, taking his time. She schooled herself to patience behind him. He was as aware as she was of the minutes slipping away. But haste got soldiers killed. Better to go slow and cut it close than get sloppy and make a fatal mistake.

Still. If Kenny was here at all, they had to be getting almost close enough to reach out and touch him.

Be here, Ken. And for God’s sake, be alive.

Cal sworeunder his breath as Jojo announced, “We’ve got movement. Four men moving fast toward the building Trevor and Anna went into. Am I cleared to shoot?”

“Axe, Leo, Jojo. You three will shoot with me on my command. Call your targets. Single shots to the head.” They would count off the four men from left to right and each take one to kill.

Jojo said, “I have Number One.”

“Number Two,” Leo said grimly.

“Number Three,” Axe chimed in. He sounded as zen as if he were meditating. But then, he always went beatifically calm just before all hell broke loose.

“Number four,” Cal bit out. “On the word, Go.” He centered up his target, putting out of his mind the fact that they only had about three more seconds to have an unobstructed line of sight on the cluster of men running for the building. He counted evenly, “Three. Two. One. Go.”

He pulled smoothly through the trigger. At this range, just shy of fifty yards, he could shoot the eye out of the eagle on a quarter. The other guys were nearly as good at this range, too.

In his NOD’s, a light green mist exploded in the air where the four men had just been standing. All four targets dropped. The sound suppressors on their rifles weren’t full-on silencers, but the spit of noise was muffled enough that they stood a decent chance of people inside those thick-walled stone structures not hearing four rifle shots at close range.

He didn’t have to tell his team to keep their eyes on their weapon sights and fingers on the triggers. They all knew the next few seconds would tell the tale of whether or not anyone had heard the shots.

He scanned the compound alertly, looking for any movement whatsoever.

Nothing.

Ten seconds became twenty.

A minute passed.

Still nothing.

Praise the Lord and pass the potatoes. They’d just bought Trevor and Anna a few more minutes to do whatever they were doing inside that building. He couldn’t fathom what was taking so long, given how small a structure it was. He just hoped more men wouldn’t be sent out immediately to look for the first group.

He was tempted to send in a few guys to help Trevor and Anna, but he knew absolutely nothing about the situation he would be sending his people into. Like it or not, he had to sit tight a little longer, do a bit more surveillance, and learn the lay of the land before he put more lives at risk. It sucked, but it was the right thing to do.

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

Anna had a mini-panic attack about once a minute as they crept forward in the dark, damp confines of the narrow tunnel. But she did her breathing techniques to clear her mind the way she’d been taught, and she settled down each time. Yet again, the sheer quality of her training impressed her to death.

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