Gunfire intensified above them. Hawk's team clearing rooms. The sound of boots pounding on stairs. Shouts in Arabic. The chaos of combat spreading through the building like fire.
Nadia moved to the first locked door and placed a small breaching charge against the lock mechanism. Not enough toblow the door off its hinges but enough to compromise the lock so they could force entry. She looked at Mara. Ready.
Mara nodded.
Nadia triggered the charge. The small explosion was sharp and immediate. The lock mechanism shattered. She kicked the door open and Mara went through, weapon up, ready for anything.
The room was empty. Just furniture. A desk. Filing cabinets. No prisoner.
That left one door.
They moved to the second locked door. Nadia placed another charge. This time Mara's pulse was racing for reasons that had nothing to do with tactical concerns. This was it. Behind this door was either Steele or empty space. Either the man she'd left behind or confirmation that Quinn's intelligence had been wrong.
The charge detonated. The lock shattered. Mara kicked the door open.
The room was dark. Small. Maybe three meters by four. A single chair in the center with a figure slumped in it, hands zip-tied behind his back, head hanging forward like consciousness was optional.
Mara's breath caught.
Steele.
Even through the darkness and the tactical gear and the blood and the bruising, she recognized him. The build. The way he held himself even while restrained. The presence that had made her pulse kick up in that compound three days ago.
She crossed the room in three strides and dropped to one knee in front of him. "Steele. Can you hear me?"
His head lifted slowly. Like the movement cost him everything. His face was a mess. Split lip. Bruised jaw. Swellingaround his left eye. Three days of interrogation written in blood and pain.
But his eyes. Those dark eyes that had looked at her through smoke and chaos. Those eyes that she'd seen every time she closed her own for the last three days. Those eyes were still sharp. Still aware. Still fighting.
They focused on her face. Confusion first. Then recognition. Then something else that made her chest tighten.
"You came back," he said. His voice was rough. Raw from dehydration or screaming or both. But it was his voice. The same calm certainty she remembered even though the circumstances had changed.
"We don't leave people behind," Mara said. Her hands moved to the zip ties, pulling her tactical knife to cut through the plastic. "Can you stand?"
"Can try." His words were slurred slightly. Pain or drugs or exhaustion. Probably all three. "Might need help."
Kira was there immediately, medical assessment already running. "Pulse is weak but steady. Breathing's labored. Possible broken ribs. Leg wound is infected." Her hands moved over him with professional efficiency, cataloging damage. "He needs a hospital. Soon."
"He'll get one." Mara finished cutting the zip ties. Steele's hands came free and he brought them forward slowly, wincing as circulation returned. "But first we need to get him out of this building."
Nadia spoke from the doorway, weapon covering the corridor. "We've got movement upstairs. Guards responding to Delta's breach. We need to move now."
Mara stood and offered Steele her hand. He looked at it for a moment, then took it. His grip was weak but present. She pulled him up and he made it halfway to standing before his left leggave out. The leg she'd seen bleeding three days ago. The wound that had gotten worse, not better.
He started to fall. Mara caught him, one arm around his waist, taking his weight. He was heavier than she'd expected. All muscle and body armor and the dead weight of someone who'd been through hell and was running on nothing but will.
"I've got you," she said.
His arm went around her shoulders. Instinctive. Necessary. The only way he could stay upright. They were close now. Closer than they'd been in that compound. Close enough that she could see the pain in his eyes. Could see the three days of torture written in every line of his face.
Close enough that when he looked at her, really looked at her, something passed between them that had nothing to do with the mission and everything to do with the moment in that compound when their eyes had met and the world had shifted.
"Knew you'd be trouble," he said. The words came out half-slurred but there was something in his tone. Something that might have been humor if they hadn't been in a basement in Mosul with gunfire getting closer.
"Right back at you," Mara replied.
Kira moved to his other side, taking some of his weight. Between the two of them, they got him moving toward the door. Slow. Too slow. But moving.
