The world stopped.
Logan heard the words. Understood them individually. Missing. Iraq. Taken. But strung together they didn't make sense. Couldn't make sense. Mara was in Louisiana. Safe. Just busy with work. Not in Iraq. Not missing. Not taken.
"When?" The word came out rough. Barely recognizable as his own voice.
"Approximately thirty-six hours ago. Her team has been trying to locate her. They reached out to me because they need help. They need people who know the region and who have resources they don't have access to."
Thirty-six hours. Mara had been missing for thirty-six hours and he'd been sitting here in North Carolina thinking she was just busy. Leaving voicemails. Getting annoyed that she wasn't texting him back. While she was God knows where in the hands of God knows who.
"Iraq," Logan said. The word tasted like metal. "She was in Iraq and didn't tell me."
"She was running an operation. Rescue of fifteen trafficked women near Erbil. It went well. They got all the women out. But during extraction, Mara was providing overwatch and got separated from her team. Someone ambushed her. Took her." Ghost's voice was clinical. Factual. The way he delivered information when emotion would get in the way. "Her team found her gear. No blood. Vehicle tracks heading toward Mosul."
Mosul. The city where they'd pulled Steele. Where Nazari had held him. Where everything had gone to hell months ago.
"Nazari." Logan's hands clenched into fists. "You think Nazari took her?"
"I don't know. Her team lead, Sloane, she sent me everything they have. It's not much. Professional ambush. Someone who knew her route. Vehicle tracks heading northeast. That's all we've got." Ghost pulled out his phone and showed Logan a map. "This is where they lost her. This is the direction the tracks headed. That puts them somewhere in this region if they continued on the same bearing."
Logan stared at the map. At the red circle marking where Mara had disappeared. At the arrow showing the probable direction. His mind was already working tactically. Distance to target. Insertion options. Resources needed. But underneath the tactical thinking was a cold rage building. Someone had taken Mara. Someone had hurt her, because you didn't take a trained operator without hurting them. Someone was holding her right now and she was alone and scared and he was here instead of there.
"I need to talk to Hawk." Logan headed for the door.
"Logan, wait." Ghost caught his arm. "We don't have authorization for this. Iraq is complicated right now. We can't just roll in there without clearance from command."
"I don't care about clearance." Logan's voice was flat. Cold. "Mara is in Iraq. Someone took her. I'm going to get her back. With or without authorization."
"That's not how this works and you know it. We're military. We have rules. Chain of command. Operational parameters." Ghost didn't let go. "You go off half-cocked and you'll get yourself killed. Worse, you'll get Mara killed."
Logan knew Ghost was right. Knew that rushing into Iraq without intelligence or support or authorization was suicide. But the alternative was sitting here doing nothing while Mara was in enemy hands. While whoever had taken her did things he didn't want to imagine.
"Then what do you suggest? We file a report? Wait for command to decide if they want to authorize a rescue? How long does that take, Ghost? Days? Weeks? How long do you think Mara has?"
"I suggest we do this smart. We coordinate with her team. We build an intelligence picture. We figure out where she is and who has her. Then we put together a plan that has a chance of actually working." Ghost finally released Logan's arm. "Hawk's already working on it. He got the message from Sloane twenty minutes before I came here. He's in the SCIF right now pulling everything we have on the region."
"Why didn't you tell me that first?" Logan was already moving toward the door again.
"Because I needed to see what you'd do. Needed to know if you could think tactically or if you were going to let emotion drive you into making stupid decisions." Ghost followed him into the hallway. "You're no good to Mara if you're dead, Logan. So we do this the smart way. The way that actually gets her back alive."
They walked quickly through the compound toward the SCIF. Logan's mind was racing. Mara had been in Iraq. She'ddeployed to his old operational area and hadn't told him. Had spent days planning an operation and never mentioned it. He'd been texting her good morning messages while she was probably already in-country preparing to assault a compound.
Part of him understood why she hadn't told him. She didn't want him to worry. Didn't want to burden him with information he couldn't act on. But a bigger part of him was angry. Angry that she'd made that choice for him. Angry that he'd spent three days thinking she was just busy when she was actually in danger. Angry that he might have been able to help if he'd known.
But anger wasn't useful right now. Getting Mara back was useful. Everything else could wait.
They reached the SCIF and Ghost keyed in the access code. Inside, Hawk was standing in front of multiple screens showing satellite imagery and intelligence reports. Bulldog, Risk, and Joker were already there, all of them looking grim.
Hawk turned when Logan entered. "You heard."
"Ghost told me. What do we know?" Logan moved to the screens, forcing himself to focus on the information instead of the emotion churning in his gut.
"Not much more than what Ghost already told you. Sloane sent us everything they have. Mara was providing overwatch during an extraction. Got separated from her team. Someone ambushed her using tactics that suggest military training. They took her alive based on the evidence. Vehicle tracks heading toward Mosul." Hawk pulled up a different map. "This is the last known position. This is the probable route based on terrain and road networks. I've got ISR assets redirecting to cover this area but it's going to take time."
"We don't have time." Logan's voice was hard. "Every hour she's in enemy hands is another hour they're interrogating her. Hurting her. We need to move now."
"We need intelligence first. We can't assault a target we can't locate." Hawk's tone was patient but firm. "I know you want to do something. I know sitting here feels wrong. But rushing in blind will get her killed."
"So what's the plan?" Bulldog asked.
