“We’re at our final destination. The helo is stowed, and we’re getting set up.” Cole wasted very few words bringing her up to date. “Sat phones are powered on. You should start receiving requests for confirmation.”
“Okay.” She looked up at the wall of monitors and checked the one in the upper left corner. Number one appeared, followed by two, three, four, five, six, and finally seven, Boone’s phone.
“All seven confirmed operational,” Luna said. “Have you connected with our contact yet?”
She was pretty damn confident their lines were secure and encrypted, but they’d agreed not to use Khalid’s name, just in case. If by some miracle Udall managed to tap into theircommunications, it would confirm what he already suspected—that Khalid was helping them.
“Yes, he met us when we arrived. Hold for a sec.” Cole’s voice was muffled, like he was holding his hand over the phone. “Sorry. We don’t want to risk our target seeing our team member around town, so our contact is taking him, Calliope and Hawk out to do some reconnaissance.”
Keeping Boone out of sight for as long as possible made sense. And Hawk and Calliope were both gifted trackers. He’d learned from his grandfather in the mountains on the reservation he grew up on. Calliope’s dad and granddad taught her everything she knew about tracking in the swamp where they lived. Having them on their team gave them a massive advantage.
“There’s a small restaurant in the hotel where our target is staying. Eddie and I are heading there now. Viking and Lucas are going to get into position and will check in with you once they’re in place.” They were going to be on the rooftops of two strategic locations in town. “We want to get eyes on our target and his errand boy.” Hamsa Sherzai. “Hopefully, they’ll lead us to what we’re looking for.”
The poor girls Udall planned to use to build his new enterprise.
Caleb slipped on the extra headset. “Cole, this is Caleb. Do you have a confirmation on the number and whether or not they’re all from the local area?”
“Negative on both,” Cole said. “Once we know how many there are, we’ll figure out a way to get them home or to Every Last Child’s care center about fifty miles from here.”
“I’ll start working that from here.” Luna welcomed the distraction.
What better way to keep her mind occupied than planning a way to help a group of scared innocent girls? Her past gave her a bit of an insight into what they might be going through and how terrified they must be.
“Any issues with the threat you received?” Cole asked.
“Nothing, but I’ve been holed-up on the compound.” She’d made sure to bring clean clothes and already had some toiletries in her locker at the workout facility.
“Good,” Cole said. “I’ll pass that on to a certain concerned party.
“Thanks,” Luna smiled.
“I’ll check in as soon as I have any more intel.” Cole ended the call.
She blew out a breath.
“You’re doing great.” Caleb set his hand on her shoulder and gave it a little shake. “When will the satellite be over the area?”
Luna checked the time on the monitor clock.
“Should be able to get a visual in about forty minutes.” She glanced up at the monitor with their biometric data, and everything looked good.
They were all in such great shape, any anomalies would stand out.
“Have you eaten anything?” Caleb stood.
“I had some eggs this morning.” Luna hadn’t been able to finish them. She didn’t bother to tell him about the slice of pizza she almost threw up.
“How ’bout I run out to a drive-through and grab us something.” He tugged a key fob from his pocket. “You need to keep your energy up.”
“Drive-through works for me.” She gave him her order, stood and walked over to her desk. She pulled her wallet from her bag, dug out some cash, and held it out to him. “Here ya go.”
Maybe she could choke down a burger.
“Put that away.” He made a shooing motion. “I’ll be right back.”
He used his ID card and the retinal scanner to open the door, stepped into the hallway, and waited until the door closed behind him.
Luna shoved her wallet back in her bag and heard a pinging sound. She swung around and checked the monitor to see whose number it was and recognized it immediately. She rushed over to the console, sat down and tapped the button to accept the call.
