The clothes. Hair. The faces she could see.
It was them. The hostages they’d come here to rescue. But she and the other agent were already too late. Because those hostages?—
They’re already dead.
“Bastard knew we were coming,” Keith growled from beside her.
The sound of incoming choppers was barely audible inside the room.
Julian pushed himself up from the crouched position he’d been holding near the macabre pile of the deceased. The beam of his flashlight remained lower, near her feet, when her friend faced her once again.
“I think someone might be missing.”
Natalia frowned at his words. “Missing?” She took a step toward him. “What do you mean, missing?”
“I counted the bodies, and if our intel’s correct, we’re short by one.”
With a scowl, Keith groused, “They’re probably on the bottom of the damn pile.”
“Nope.” Julian shook his head. “I thought so, too, until I squatted down to be sure.”
Just then, a voice sounded from the earpiece in her right ear.
“Second floor is clear,” one of the agents on the task force relayed.
“Copy that,” Natalia responded immediately. “Check the roof, then reconvene at the entrance to await transport.”
She, Julian, and Keith would be flown out during the initial exfil. Others would stay back, keeping the building—and more importantly, the bodies of those who’d been senselessly lost—secured until arrangements could be made to fly them all back home. To their families.
I’m so, so sorry.
Guilt threatened to crush her where she stood. But the alarm in Julian’s voice when he spoke up a moment later overrode everything else.
“Did you hear that?” Her closest friend and colleague slid a frown her way.
“Hear what?” Natalia took several more steps toward him…and the bodies behind him.
Julian swung his weapon to his left. The narrow beam from his flashlight landed on an opened doorway none of them had seen before now.
They hadn’t seen it because they hadn’t been expecting it to be there.
Natalia had previously memorized the entire structure’s layout, both inside and out. And one thing she was one hundred percent certain of, was that extra space…
It shouldn’t be there.
“I think someone’s in there!” Julian spoke excitedly as he crossed the distance between the bodies and the doorway. “It could be the missing hostage!”
“Julian, wait!” she warned as Keith cursed beneath his breath.
But her friend with the biggest heart she’d ever known either didn’t hear her or, the more likely scenario, chose not to listen.
Julian opened the door. He disappeared into the room.
“I see him!” he hollered back from the shadowed space. To the person she and Keith had yet to lay eyes on, they heard Julian say, “It’s okay! I’m American. I’m here to help.”
Hope bloomed at the possibility that at least one of the hostages had managed to survive.
“I’ll call it in.” Keith held back.
