They all chuckled, happy for the moment of levity.
“Let’s head out.” Boone dialed the ops center number programmed into his phone, and it rang two times.
“Is everything okay?” Luna asked.
“Yeah, everything’s good. I just need you to do some research for us.” Boone told her about the ruins and updated her on everything else they’d learned. “We’re headed up there now to do some recon, but anything you can tell us about the place would be extremely helpful.”
He took the lead as they headed up the path. Calliope was behind him, and Hawk brought up the rear.
“Okay, I’ll find out what I can and will send it to the whole team.” Computer keys clicked in the background.
“Thanks.” He slipped his water bottle out of the side pocket of his backpack. “Love you. We’ll talk soon.”
“Love you, too.” She ended thecall.
“How’s she doin’?” Hawk took a long chug of water. “I remember how tough it was for Charlotte the first time I went on an op after we met.”
His fiancée was a child advocate and therapist. She worked at Dulce’s foundation now, but she used to work for a big nonprofit that was charged with the welfare of children rescued from traffickers. She accidentally uncovered some disgusting things about the heads of the NGO, the nongovernmental organization that had been providing a good chunk of the funding. She risked her life blowing the whistle on several powerful people who were involved in a scheme to take advantage of the very children they were supposed to be helping.
“She’s doin’ pretty good, actually.” Giving her something to research would help occupy her mind.
They spent the next hour or so following the directions Khalid had given them, and just as he’d said it would, the path came to an end. They stood and stared across the small field.
“Holy shit. When he said there would be a large patch of rose bushes, he wasn’t kidding.” Calliope popped open the top of her insulated bottle and took a long swig of water. “How the hell are we going to get through that?”
Dense bushes with small greenish-yellow leaves, sprinkled with a few remaining white blossoms and riddled with a considerable number of impressive thorns, had become intertwined and tangled and were now like an impenetrable wall spread out as far they could see.
Hawk walked closer and tried to look through them, then craned his neck to look over the top. “We’ll have to go around.”
Calliope’s gaze traveled over the area and stopped on a large tree.
“Hang on a sec.” She slid her backpack off, set it on the ground, and dug out a pair of work gloves. “Let me take a look.” She tugged them on, tightened the Velcro straps around her wrists, and jogged over to the tree. Without hesitation, she started climbing with the ease of a squirrel. Branches snapped and shook and leaves rustled and drifted to the ground as she made her way up. “It looks like … if we walk north about fifty yards, there appears to be an opening carved through the bushes. Almost like someone took a machete to it.”
“That must be how Udall’s getting to the ruins.” Boone swiped his sleeve across his brow.
The sun was at its highest point in the sky, and the temps had jumped about fifteen degrees since they left the hangar this morning.
Calliope made her way down as easily as she made her way up and jogged back over to them.
All of their phones beeped simultaneously with an encrypted message.
“Details of the tomb.” Hawk glanced at his sat phone, then tucked it into his backpack.
“Perfect timing.” Calliope peeled off her gloves, shoved them in her pack, and lifted it off the ground.
“Let’s take a breather while we look over this information.” Boone led them over to sit in the shade of the tree Calliope had just climbed. They ate protein bars and drank some water while they read through what Luna sent them.
Boone’s phone pinged again. This time, it was Cole.
“Hey—”
“Where are you guys now?” He sounded like he was running.
Boone dropped a pin on the GPS map for their location and sent it to Cole. “What’s up?”
“You guys need to get the hell out of there,” he said. “We lost our target in the market. When we spotted him again, he was headed your way and at a pretty good clip, too. If I had to guess, I’d say, by now, he’s only about a mile from your location.”
“Do you think he spotted you guys?” He’d be surprised if he had.
