Page 105 of Over the Edge

“Assuming we can get to Haddad’s hideout before all hell breaks loose,” Lily remarked.

She was not wrong. They were currently about fifty miles north of Tarazan, approachinga bridge across a massive, rushing river he’d never heard of. Darya-e-Shiveh, or something like that. It started here in the high mountains of Zagistan and flowed down into Kyrgyzstan. The only other bridge across the river in this region was in Tarazan proper, and they didn’t have time to figure out a way to cross it without running into Haddad’s men. So they’d opted for this approach from the north. It was risky, given that winter was closing in fast, and it would force them to trek on foot for miles to reach the valley Haddad’s hideout was in, but it was their only option.

Once they got across this beast of a river, they would have to hope and pray they found roads or unmarked tracks that would carry them south and west into the mountains reasonably close to Haddad and his men.

The attack was tonight. The Reapers didn’t have enough time to hike very far on foot before then, even assuming his back wouldn’t crap out long before they got to their target.

He wished he knew where Trevor and Anna were. They’d gone radio silent the moment they’d left American soil, and he hadn’t heard of even a sighting of them, since. Not that he expected to. His guys—and gals—were highly trained professionals.

One thing he did know: the silence from Anna meant she’d successfully convinced Trevor to let her go with him on the mission. The two of them definitely had a thing between them, but neither had acted on it before they left. He was interested to see if that would still be the case after this intense time alone together in a high stress situation.

He had no idea how to handle two of his female SEALs falling in love. That hadn’t exactly been an ongoing problem on the teams before. He was inclined to wait and see if Sherri and Griffin or Anna and Trevor found a way to make it work before he outlawed it out of hand.

Their truck banged across a rickety bridge that looked ready to sweep away any minute into the rushing waters below.

“That’s a big ass river,” Axe commented.

“Almost as big as your ass,” Leo joked.

Axe grabbed Leo by the collar. “Let’s find out if smurfs can swim.”

Cal joined in laughing with the others as Leo protested being called Smurfy for the thousandth time. The guy should have figured out by now that the harder he complained about the name, the more it would stick.

Leo had earned the moniker at his bachelor party when his Reaper brothers had waited for him to pass out drunk and then dyed his entire body bright blue with shoe dye. Apparently, his wife wasstillchippy about spending her honeymoon with a blue man.

Cal surreptitiously popped another morphine tablet. By taking it now, the painkiller should be fully worn off by go-time, tonight. Assuming they found a way to get to Haddad’s compound before the attack Ronan had warned them of, and assuming they found Kenny once they got there.

It would come down to a race against time, and his backhadto hold up.

Propped on her elbows,Anna stretched out beside Trevor and gazed through binoculars at Haddad’s compound below. A beige camo net concealed their position several hundred feet above the buildings on a dry slope due east of the compound. It had taken them several hours to make their way this close on the exposed slope and, moving like snails, to set up a hide.

They only had an hour or so of daylight left to learn the layout, watch movement patterns, and most importantly, figure out where Kenny was being held.

They’d numbered each building in a grid before them, and she murmured, “Two females exiting building four, north side.”

“Roger. I’ve got two boys entering building nine. I identify it as a barn.”

“It’s about feeding time for animals, or they could be milking goats.”

“One woman has entered building two, the other is entering building six. Both are residences.”

One by one, they identified various structures—two probable barns, eight definite residences, and a large structure in the middle that was likely a communal area. Two small buildings were not identifiable from the human traffic.

Trevor murmured, “My guess is one of those two small buildings is where Kenny will be. Good news: they’re off by themselves. Should make them easier to access.”

“Or, they’ll be guarded come nightfall and be impossible to access,” she replied.

“Have a little faith, Anna.”

“This from the guy whose plan was to come out here and die?”

“It’s still a valid plan. If you and I don’t make it out of this valley, there will be a stink by both of our governments.”

“Only if our government knows this is where we were taken out.”

“I plan to make a radio call in the blind before we go in.”

“Risky,” she commented. “Haddad’s people may monitor radio frequencies.”

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