“Shit, man. Sorry I forgot for a minute.”
Aaron sat up and shoved a hand through his brown hair, not surprised that it was already dry in this heat. Normally his hair was thick and straight, but here it curled a little bit. “It's all right. When’s the rest of team supposed to get here?”
He was so tired of the guilt eating him alive. He needed action, needed to do something to fix the problem, but more than anything he needed to get Celine Latimer back in his arms even if he didn't understand why.
“How about right now?”
Aaron spun around to see Hunter enter the room, dressed in desert BDUs and carrying a “Got some new intel.”
Their team leader, Hunter, and his brother, Ranger, assistant team leader were followed by Jared, Hoyt and Cord, the team’s snipers. Riser, weapons specialist and assistant medic came before Ethan.
The men circled around the long table and watched in silence as Hunter pulled some papers from the folder he'd been carrying. “Our satellites caught an explosion here, in Helmand province.”
“Helmand? What the hell is out there?” The province was nearly all desert, a few poor farmers spread out over the whole area, definitely not populated.
“Not much, but one of our drones happened to be on a fly by and caught some movement and started recording. About thirty minutes later, satellites detected a fairly large explosion. We pulled the feed from the drone and this is what we found.”
Hunter threw down the papers, which turned out to be photographs. Aaron snatched up the nearest one, nearly crushing it in his grip when he glimpsed the photo. A line ofblack SUVs parked in front of a ramshackle village. Multiple men with guns. Two women being carried to the line of vehicles.
Aaron pulled the photo closer. One girl had short blond hair, just like Celine.
“How the hell did you get this?”
“Luck, man. The drone was in the right place at the right time. That’s it.”
Explosions in the Middle East were about as common as popsicles in July in Mississippi, but not out in the middle of the desert with no witnesses and minimal casualties. That was the exact opposite goal of any terrorist organization's standard operation procedures.
“You able to track the vehicles?” Aaron asked.
“We got a plate on the first one, the other is unmarked. Traced the number back to a compound in the middle of Kabul. Pulled the satellite footage, it’s about a four-hour ride from here.” Hunter handed over another aerial photo of a compound surrounded by a large concrete fence.
“You get a name?” Aaron asked.
“Just a fake. Abdul Jamar. He came into existence about a year ago. But I've still got intel searching for records, just in case he's used that name before.”
Hunter's phone chirped at his belt buckle and he answered it, stepping from the group of men. “What do you have for me?”
While Hunter stepped into his conversation, Aaron tapped on the girls’ photo again. “Did you get a shot of them being carried into his compound?”
“No, unfortunately. But I'm working on it. Can't tell if they were unconscious. We'll have to plan on carrying them out.”
“And make sure me and Riser are on the ground for medical. I've got my bag ready to go.” They could be drugged or knocked out or worse.
His stomach knotted just thinking about all the possibilities of what Celine and Caroline had been through. He'd been in enough battles to see the truly ugly nature of some men and the vicious evil they were capable of doing to women. He nearly broke out in a cold sweat thinking about what he'd seen before and the fact that Celine could be suffering right now without anyone there to protect her.
“Ranger, interrupt me if you disagree, but I think we should break into two teams. One for assault/breach and one for support by fire. We can put our snipers on over watch,” Aaron said.
Hunter shoved his phone into his pocket. “Change of plans. A’idah just confirmed they've contacted Sven Panchenko. He's supposed to arrive this afternoon.”
“You sure?” Ranger paled.
Aaron tried to read him, but he avoided his gaze. “Who the fuck is Panchenko?”
Hunter's deep voice filled the silence. “Russian human trafficking. His boss, Dmitri, has a particular fondness for young blondes.”
Dread rolled through Aaron. Girls that went into Russia that way never came out alive. “We move, now.”
“They're moving the girls for the drop. Meeting in Herat Province, remote location. Mountains are thick up there, so if we move in early, we can set up high for an ambush,” Hunter said.
