"Buyers are rabbiting," Nadia said. "Let them go. Focus on securing the package."
Mara continued providing cover fire. A guard tried to get to one of the vehicles. She put him down before he reached it. Another attempted to circle around to Winter's position. She stopped him with a shot that dropped him in the courtyard. The compound was chaos now, exactly what they'd planned for. Controlled chaos where Shadow Veil dictated the tempo.
"Package secured," Nadia reported. "Moving to secondary rally point. Overwatch, status?"
"Clear. No additional threats visible. You're good to move." Mara watched as her team began extracting the women through the east wall breach. They moved in groups of three, covering each other, getting the traumatized women over the wall and into the waiting vehicles on the other side.
It took twelve minutes to get all fifteen women out. Twelve minutes of Mara covering their movement, dropping anyone who tried to interfere. When the last woman cleared the wall, Nadia's voice came through again.
"All packages secure. Assault teams withdrawing. Overwatch, collapse to extraction point."
"Copy. Collapsing now." Mara began breaking down her position. She field-stripped her rifle, packed it into her kit, and gathered her spent casings. No trace left behind. That was the rule. Ghost in, ghost out.
She was halfway down from her elevated position when she heard the vehicle. Close. Too close. Coming from the direction she needed to go. Mara dropped into cover behind a rocky outcropping and watched as an SUV rolled past. Four men inside. Armed. Not compound guards. These were better equipped. Better trained.
They drove past her position toward the compound. Mara waited until they were clear, then continued moving toward the extraction point. She keyed her comms. "Overwatch to Actual. Heads up, additional hostiles inbound to compound. Four personnel, armed, military-grade equipment. Might be reinforcements."
"Copy, Overwatch. We're clear of the immediate area. Double-time to extraction."
Mara picked up her pace, moving through the rocky terrain with practiced efficiency. The extraction point was two kilometers from the compound. Not far, but far enough that she was alone out here with no support if something went wrong.
She made it another kilometer before she realized she was being followed.
The sound was subtle. Rocks shifting behind her. Footsteps trying to match her pace and failing. Mara dropped into cover again and scanned her backtrail. Nothing visible. But someone was there. She was sure of it.
She keyed her comms. "Overwatch to Actual. I've got a tail. One or more unknowns tracking my position."
"Can you shake them?" Nadia asked.
"Working on it. Continue to extraction. I'll loop around and lose them."
"Negative, Overwatch. We don't leave people behind."
"I'm not asking you to leave me behind. I'm asking you to get those women to safety. I'll handle this and meet you at the extraction point." Mara moved quickly, changing her route, trying to force whoever was following her to reveal themselves.
She heard Nadia arguing with someone in the background. Then a different voice came through the comms. Sloane. "Overwatch, this is Shadow Lead. You have fifteen minutes to make extraction. After that, we're coming for you."
"Understood, Shadow Lead. I'll be there." Mara killed the transmission and focused on moving.
She almost made it.
The ambush came from a direction she hadn't expected. Three men, emerging from cover she'd already cleared. Professional. Coordinated. They'd been waiting for her, which meant they'd known her route. Known where she'd be.
Mara went for her sidearm but a rifle butt caught her in the temple before she could draw. The world went sideways. She hit the ground hard, vision swimming. Hands grabbed her, pulled her upright. She fought back, got an elbow into someone's ribs, a heel into someone's knee. But there were too many of them and her head was ringing from the blow.
Something covered her mouth. Chemical smell. Sweet and wrong. Mara tried to hold her breath but her lungs were already burning from the fight. She gasped and the world started to fade. The last thing she heard before everything went black was someone speaking in Arabic. Calm. Satisfied.
Then nothing.
Fifteen Minutes Later - Extraction Point
Nadia checked her watch for the fourth time in as many minutes. "She should be here by now."
Winter stood by the vehicles, helping Kira get the last of the rescued women settled. All fifteen were accounted for. Some were in better shape than others, but they were all alive and they were all safe. The operation had been a success by every metric except one.
Mara still wasn't there.
"Try her comms again," Sloane said. She'd taken tactical command when Mara had gone silent, coordinating the extraction and making sure everyone was accounted for.
