“Shit. Is this going to be a thing?” I don’t know why I’m asking. Of course it’s going to be a thing. “Don’t answer that. Just…call me when everyone’s safe in Boston.”
“Everyone? Or—?”
An alarm cuts through the low hum of hospital noise. A man in a white coat lurches through the door. Blood drips down his temple.
“The American woman said…to come here…”
Ford grabs the doctor by the arms. “What happened?”
“He had a gun. Made me bring him into the little boy’s room. He took them.” The doctor’s eyes roll back in his head and Ford eases him down to the floor.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed. The world tilts and spins until my feet hit the cold floor. “I’m right…behind you,” I manage. “Fuck.” Ford’s already out the door.
The IV rips from the back of my hand when I shove at the mattress to find my gun. I stumble into the hall. Two guards almost mow me down racing toward Mateen’s room.
Ford crab walks back into the hall and shouts, “Stay down and away from the windows! Where did the boy go?”
A young woman rushes around the far corner. My God. She’s the spitting image of Lisette, but taller and curvier. “The boy? Mateen? What happened? Where are they?”
One of the nurses pops her head up from behind a desk. “His doctor wanted him to have an MRI.” She points toward the elevator. “They went that way.”
“Parking garage.” Ford jerks as I grab his arm to stay upright. “Get the fuck back in bed, Nomar.”
“The hell I will.” We haven’t worked together in twenty years, but I have an idea what he’s planning. “Go. I’ll cover the elevator.”
Taking off at a run for the stairwell, Ford calls for the two guards to follow him. “We go first,” one of them says.
“No. I’m a former United States Marine…” The door to the stairs closes softly, cutting him off. I jab the elevator call button again and again. It’s stuck one floor down. Shit. This is taking too goddamn long.
If I didn’t think I’d die trying, I’d follow Ford, but we’re three flights up. Where the fuck is Trevor? The spook wasn’t supposed to leave the hospital. Not until Lisette and Mateen were in the transpo to the airport.
The doors whisper open with ading. Thank fuck. I brace myself against the back wall and check my weapon. The edges of my vision dim. A spasm wracks my torso. If Faruk gets them out of the garage…
No. Ford will get there first. Joey’s with them. He’ll do anything to save her. Including get himself killed. He’s been out of the field for too long. I’m the deadliest operator in the Afghan theater and I’ll die before I lose anyone else.
* * *
Lisette
My knees slam against the floor of the dirty brown van. “Mama!” Mateen whines from behind me.
“It will be okay, baby. Quiet now,” I manage through my tears. Joey stares wildly around the garage, but no one else is here. Where is Trevor? Ford?
Zaman pulls a zip tie from his pocket. “Hands. Now.”
“Please… I will not make trouble,” I whimper.
He growls and advances on me. “You have already ‘made trouble.’ Any more, and you will not be worth keeping alive.”
Expendable. I…am expendable.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I offer him my wrists and cry harder. Faruk will throw me into the well for weeks for what I have done. The scorpions come out at night. Their stings bring on such terrible fevers, I will promise Faruk anything to let me up.Anything. It is how hepersuadedme to marry him.
The hard plastic is so tight, my hands start to tingle in seconds. My scalp prickles as Zaman grabs my hair and slams my head into the side of the van. Dazed, I do not fight when he gags me.
The greasy cloth is sour against my tongue. Nausea crawls up my throat. Mateen watches me, his big eyes full of tears.
“You next.” Zaman holds up another zip tie and gestures to Joey. “Behind your back.”
