“Physical functioning at seventy percent. Mental at ninety,” Hawk said wryly. He knew Jed would figure that if he could joke about his condition, then he wasn’t too seriously injured. His tone of voice became more serious. “At least my legs aren’t broken, so I can do a lot of hiking.”
“You’re fortunate Amber came to get you when she did, then,” Jed said. “Our observer contacted us and said that they took you down at the brothel.”
“I suppose an observer can’t lift a finger to help out, can they?” Hawk asked. He watched Amber set up the links to his laptop, sitting in bed beside him. She had even managed to snatch that from Dilaver’s man. What a woman. He caressed between her shoulder blades and she looked up at him inquiringly. He shook his head. “She’s almost ready to link.”
“He was too far away to help, Hawk, and wasn’t even sure whether you were alive. He did say you took down fifteen of Dilaver’s men before shots were fired. There were several fights happening and he thought he saw someone shoot you. We were hoping it wasn’t you, but since we had no contact from you for a while, we had to accept the possibility.” There was little emotion in Jed’s voice. “Tell Amber I’m ready whenever she is.”
“She’s almost there.” Amber was enabling a direct video link with Jed so they could consult back and forth using visual aids such as maps. Hawk could do it himself, but he wanted to let Jed see how much he trusted Amber at this point without going into a full discussion in front of her. He knew the other man would get his not-so-subtle message. “How long before you can get back to me about what Dilaver and this new person, Greta, are planning?”
“Give us a couple of hours. Probably this evening, before you leave the area.”
“Good.” By then he should be a bit more rested and able to process all the new information. To be honest, his mental state wasn’t at ninety percent. He needed to be very alert, especially during the first leg of their journey, when they had to sneak past Dilaver-controlled road posts.
“Link’s ready,” Amber said.
“Okay, Jed, everything’s secured at our end. We’re ready to transmit.”
“Hang on.” There was a pause. “Ready to link up here. There we go.”
Hawk leaned closer to Amber. A moment later, Jed’s face appeared on the screen of his laptop. To his surprise, instead of his usual attire of jeans jacket, the COS commando team leader was wearing a tuxedo.
“Did we interrupt something important?” Hawk asked. Like all computer linkups, it took several seconds before his question was transmitted through to wherever Jed was.
“I always dress up for dinner,” Jed replied with a straight face. “You don’t look so good, Hawk. Hello, Ambrosia, long time.”
“Jed, it has been a while.” Did he imagine it or did her voice lower a notch? Hawk resisted the urge to turn his head to look at Amber. “How have you been?”
“Good. Can you handle this route?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem.” Amber tapped on the keyboard. “I’m transmitting the map I’ve prepared. Hawk’s coordinates match a few areas. Time being the key thing here, which of these routes should we head for?”
“We’re printing it right now. Hang on.”
Jed disappeared off-screen for a moment, then reappeared with a piece of paper. He studied Amber’s map, then talked to someone off-camera to the right of him. It sounded like French, but Hawk couldn’t make out the words. It totally fascinated him to see how comfortable the other man looked all suited up, looking so civilized. He looked far from the “Stefan” he knew in Asia, a jeans-clad weapons dealer, carousing with the local kingpin’s sister and making shady deals with dangerous characters. Hawk would never have imagined Jed McNeil would even fit into surroundings that required a dress code.
Jed looked up, his silvery eyes unerringly directed at Hawk. “First, I agree that you should abandon the initial plan to destroy every cache of weapons shown here. The most important thing is to get to the target weapon. Once you have it, you can contact me again and I’ll send a contact to pick it up. Second, we have compared your coordinates with the aid and relief dropoffs by manned and unmanned U.S. aerial vehicles the last six months. Although your physical description of the woman doesn’t fit, we have reason to believe that Greta is the same handler that had worked as a secretary to Deputy Director Philip Gorman’s task force in the CIA for the past ten years, so we have a paper trail. We’re transmitting a file photo. We have computed that the target weapon is in the cache between Elbasan and Tirana at ninety percent.
“The third factor is still an unknown. We’re concentrating on all political activities in that part of the world in the next seven to ten days and putting out a code red alert. From what little Dilaver hinted to Ambrosia, the target weapon is to be used after a decoy has been activated. There’s an international summit going on in Skopje right now and the main meeting with certain world leaders present in two days. That, however, will be off the seven-day deadline, so we’re assuming that either the event or threat is a decoy and there’s another target. Keep your cell or your watch close by, Hawk. Someone will contact you. Check for messages whenever you can.”
“Will do,” Hawk said.
“Still the same prepared guy, aren’t you, Jed?” Amber asked.
Jed gave her the barest of smiles. “Still trolling for information, Ambrosia?”
“I can’t help but notice that little pin on your collar, that’s all. You’re at this summit already, aren’t you?”
Hawk frowned. “Wait a minute. You’re here in Macedonia, Jed?”
Jed’s expression remained blank. “It’s just a pin. We’ll talk soon. Any messages for Admiral Madison?”
Hawk straightened up at the mention of his commander’s name. “Please let him know that I’m standing and ready for the team.”
Jed nodded. “Talk to you soon. Amber, consider yourvezasettled.”
A favor. So, there was a history between Jed McNeil and Amber. He turned his head just in time to catch her smile at Jed.
“No more free rides for you, Jed McNeil,” she told him.
