"No changes. Same rotation. G.I.D.E.O.N.'s been monitoring their communications. Nothing unusual. They're not expecting trouble."
"Good."
They drove through darkness. Turkish countryside giving way to Iraqi border territory. The crossing was quiet. Money had changed hands. Guards looked the other way. The kind of unofficial border control that existed everywhere if you knew who to pay.
Iraq looked the same as Turkey in the dark. Just roads and darkness and the occasional distant light marking a village or compound. But Mara felt the shift anyway. They were in country now. Hostile territory. Operating without official sanction or support. If something went wrong, no one was coming to help.
The safe house was exactly what Winter had promised. Small. Isolated. Defensible. Supplies stacked and ready. Two vehicles in the garage. Escape routes mapped and memorized.
Mara checked her watch. 2100 hours local time. Five hours until insertion.
"Get some rest," she told the team. "We move at 0130. I want everyone sharp."
Nadia stretched out on one of the cots Winter had provided. Kira organized her medical station. Sloane reviewed the compound layout one more time, whispering details to herself like a prayer.
Mara couldn't rest. She sat at the small table and stared at the map. At the compound where Amira and Karim waited. At the route they'd take. At the thousand variables that could go wrong.
Thought about Harry's basement. About Vivienne's house. About the auction where Tallie Porter had appeared like an avenging angel and given Mara a second chance at life.
Now she was the avenging angel. The one who showed up when nobody else would. The one who kicked down doors and dragged people out of hell.
In five hours, she'd prove it.
Or she'd die trying.
Either way, Amira and Karim weren't being left behind.
Her phone buzzed. Quinn. Back at L'Abri Sûr monitoring everything through G.I.D.E.O.N.'s systems.
"Compound's quiet. No changes. You're still clear for 0200 insertion."
"Copy," Mara replied.
"Mara?"
"Yeah?"
"Come home safe."
"That's the plan."
She ended the call. Looked at her team. Three women who'd survived their own versions of hell and decided to become something sharper. Something that cut back.
In five hours, they'd find out if that was enough.
Mara closed her eyes. Not sleeping. Just waiting. The way she'd waited in that cage. In that basement. On that plane.
Except this time, she wasn't waiting to be saved.
She was the one doing the saving.
And nothing was going to stop her.
AFTERMATH
The backup vehicle's engine screamed as Nadia pushed it hard through back roads that barely qualified as roads at all. Mara sat in the passenger seat with her rifle across her lap and blood on her hands that wasn't hers. Behind her, Kira was working on Amira Nazari's head wound while the woman held her son and whispered things in Arabic that Mara didn't need translated.
They'd gotten them out. Mission success. Amira and Karim were free. Safe. On their way to a new life that didn't involve being sold or executed.
