“What are you saying?” Matt asked angrily. “We’re giving up? Letting the son of a bitch get away with it all?”
No fucking way he’d let that happen. If he had to, Matt would go after Bukhari himself.
“No, Turner,” Ryker shot his thoughts down quickly. “That’s not at all what I’m saying.”
Without giving the man a chance to explain, Matt asked, “How do you suppose we get to him, if he’s so goddamn untouchable?”
The cunning agent gave him a sideways smirk. “We call in reinforcements.”
Each of the R.I.S.C. operatives shared a look before Gabe said what everyone else was thinking. “You’re talking about calling in another team.”
Ryker nodded. “One your men are already familiar with.”
Matt finally understood. “You mean Ghost and Fletch and those guys?”
Ghost and Fletch were two of the Delta team members that had aided them in Gracelynn’s rescue. At first, the team was hesitant to go into an op with a team they knew nothing about. Especially when the op was as important as rescuing one of their women.
Turns out, Ghost and that whole crew were actually pretty cool guys. More importantly, they were kick ass operatives who knew what they were doing.
“Along with a couple other agencies, Homeland has been working closely with this Delta team for the past two months.” Ryker leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he explained Delta’s play in this particular game. “They’ve been working various angles, gathering as much intel as possible on Bukhari and his alleged side operations while infiltrating multiple networks believed to be tied to him. A couple weeks ago, Ghost reported hearing chatter about Bukhari’s interest in some sort of injection to make soldiers stronger. Less vulnerable.”
“Kat’s formula,” Matt mumbled, more to himself than anyone else.
“We believe so,” Ryker acknowledged him. “Sloane Anderson copped to having Kennedy send pictures of the lab from every angle to the same number that accidentally texted your girl. Rumor has it he’s ordered the construction of a lab identical to the one at Anderson Biomeds in in a warehouse near the Mehrabad.”
“They took her to fucking Tehran,” Matt growled. Tossing his folder onto the coffee table, he stood and ran a hand through his hair before pacing the room nervously.
Tehran was the capital of Iran. With a population of over nine million, it was polluted, traffic was horrendous, and it was suffocating as hell.
The idea that Bukhari had taken Kat there, was holding her in a fucking warehouse, filled him with an unprecedented level of hatred and rage. The only thing keeping him from punching a hole in the goddamn wall was the fact that this was Gabe’s house. Not his.
“The warehouse was built on a large stretch of undeveloped land west of the airport, between it and the hospital,” Ryker continued with what he knew. “It’s on the outskirts of District Ten.”
Swallowing a swig of coffee, Gabe sat his mug down and looked at the agent. “No offense, Jason, but if Ghost and the others have been in place for two months and they still haven’t found a way in, what makes you think they’ll be able go after him now?”
Matt watched Ryker closely, wondering the same damn thing, himself.
“Katherine Marsh is a United States Citizen.”
“No shit,” Matt popped off impatiently. With his hands on his hips, he barely controlled his rising temper. “You gotta give us more than that, man. We’re talking about saving her life.”
Sighing, Ryker explained. “Until now, the only thing we’ve been able to solidly tie to Bukhari are crimes against his own people. Even then, he has so many Iranian government officials in his pocket, any allegations we’ve tried to make have bounced off his ass like he’s made of fucking rubber.”
“And this time?” Gabe raised a brow.
“This time, Delta can use their contacts to confirm Bukhari is holding a U.S. citizen against her will. They get photo evidence of that, especially since this particular civilian has the capabilities to help save American lives? That shit opens him up to whatever hell we can bring down on him.”
“Then we go in, right?” Matt asked anxiously. “I’m cool working with Delta on this, but I want to be there when they breach.”
“I figured you would. Which is why I contacted Ghost before I left the office to come here. He and his men are already on it. The second we get confirmation Katherine’s there, we’ll fly your team in to join them for the takedown.”
“You mean rescue,” Matt corrected Ryker.
“Takedown, rescue. Whatever you want to call it.”
Needing to make sure the man knew exactly where he stood on this, Matt locked his narrowed gaze with the agent. “Let’s get something straight, Jason. Kat’s not some goddamn pawn in whatever game Homeland’s trying to play. We go in that warehouse, with or without Delta, our primary objective is to locate Kat and get her to safety. Period. Everything else is secondary.”
Ryker sat back in his chair and crossed his arms loosely at his chest. “Agreed. Bravo’s objective is to get to Kat. Delta, however, is a different story.”
