Cole had a shit-ton of experience working in the shadows.
“Not sure, but let’s play it safe and assume he did,” he said.
“Got it.” Boone ended the call. “Udall’s on his way here.”
No other words were needed. They all hopped up and gathered their bottles, wrappers, and backpacks. They dragged a branch over the dirt to hide their footprints as they ran across the dry, brown grass to a thick stand of trees about twenty yards away. Calliope scrambled up a tree while Hawk and Boone unholstered their weapons and crouched down behind a couple of trees.
Several minutes later, a man’s voice could be heard in the distance.
“I should be ready to move ’em out tomorrow sometime.” Udall appeared over the hill—and he was alone. “I’ve got a guy at the airport who’s agreed to fly ’em out for me. Hang on a second.” He slowed to a stop and stared back down the trail for a few minutes.
Had he spotted Cole and Viking tailing him? Like Boone, his old teammate was specially trained to sense a threat. Andnow, being a fugitive with the US government hunting him, his vigilance would be heightened.
Udall turned three hundred sixty degrees, taking in the entire area. Boone held his breath when he stopped and his gaze lingered on the tree line, then he started moving again.
“What? No, nothing’s wrong.” He walked along the wall of rose bushes, in the direction of where the path had been cut through. “How’d I get a pilot? Money talks, my friend. Money talks.” His voice faded as he disappeared from view.
Calliope whistled a bird call, letting them know the coast was clear, and climbed out of the tree.
Boone’s palms itched with the need to take him out and rescue those poor girls. But Udall wasn’t alone in this enterprise, and Dark Ops wouldn’t be happy until all of the parties involved were taken down.
Boone just hoped they got to the girls in time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Lunahadn’tbeenworkingfor Darks Ops all that long, and she was still adapting to how quickly things could change. Their current operation was a prime example. They’d gone into it thinking the whole thing might take a couple of weeks to resolve, but then Khalim showed up at the hangar late last night with some important information that escalated the urgency.
He was a well-respected elder in town, and people tended to trust him, so when a man who owned a vegetable stand in the market heard something that troubled him, he sought out Khalim’s guidance.
Weeks earlier, the man had noticed an American fitting Udall’s description asking around about the girls-only day school located on the south side of the Hunza River. He had some bullshit story about how he was thinking of moving his family to Aliabad. The vendor became suspicious because the locals all knew the only reason most people settled in Aliabad was because they were originally from there or because they were hiding from something or someone. Unfortunately, he’d gotten busy with his vegetable stand and forgotten all about it. Until yesterday, when he overheard the same American telling someone on the phone that he thought he was being followed.
The timeline for when this occurred coincided with when Cole and Viking were tailing Udall.
His rising suspicions and the fact he’d already arranged a way to transport the girls out of the country forced the team to accelerate their operation to take him down as soon as possible.
That night, right after Khalim left the hangar, Hawk and Lucas were sent to scout out the airport. They’d spotted an old Cessna 408 Courier with the tail numbers scratched off being gassed up on the far end of the airstrip. The plane was big enough for Udall’s purposes, and aside from the team’s helo, it was the only aircraft at the airport that couldn’t be accounted for. So Hawk and Lucas disabled it by disconnecting the hydraulic lines.
According to the sheep farmer, Udall seemed to head up to the ruins every other day. If he kept to that routine, he should be up there today. They wanted to be in position before he arrived, so the team loaded up with their weapons and other essential gear and set out for the ruins well before daylight.
Luna was sitting at the main console in the ops center, checking that everything was ready for her to support the team, when that odd feeling of dread returned, threatening to derail her concentration.
“Ops center, we’re a go.” Cole’s voice cut through her looming anxiety before it could fully take root.
Time to focus.
“Activate body cams.” Luna looked up at the wall in front of her and watched views from each of their body cameras flash on separate flat screens.
After they turned them on, they each gave a thumbs-up for her benefit and said, “Test, test.”
“All cams are operational.” It was dark there, but their cameras were equipped with enhanced imaging and infrared capability.
The team gathered in a circle and went over the plan one more time. They each wore black tactical clothing with Kevlar vests loaded with all sorts of paraphernalia. They also had black tactical helmets with the most high-tech night-vision goggles available.
“Viking and Calliope will provide overwatch.” Cole pointed at them, and they nodded once.
“Lucas, you take the north side of the ruins. Hawk, you take the south,” Cole ordered. “Eddie and I will position ourselves on the east side. Boone, you find your way into the main section of the ruins and see if you can hear anything. Our primary objective is to get Udall and find those girls.” Cole kept his voice low. “Activate earpiece comms.”
They all reached up and tapped the small device tucked inside their ears. One by one, all seven of them said, “Test, test, test.”
