Page 27 of Her Sensual Protector

He heard a man scream.

Two more shots.

“Down!” It was Nic’s voice. He must have been shouting at Raiden.

Three more shots in rapid succession.

Another scream.

Absolute silence. It was deafening. It seemed to stretch on forever. Leo always wondered how in the hell Max stood this, not demanding that Nic and Raiden report into him.

“We’re clear. No more tangos.” Nic said.

Asher began checking the bodies outside the cave to ensure nobody was alive. Cullen went into the cave to ensure all of the ‘dead’ were dead.

“We’ve got signs of a prisoner having been held here, at some point,” Raiden said.

Leo broke down his rifle, looked over, and saw that Ezio was doing the same thing.

“Kane, they left a camera tripod,” Raiden said.

“Guys, we’ve got to go. Another weather system is coming in,” Kane said. “We’ve got to move.”

They made fast time getting back to the helicopter. As soon as Wilma saw them, she started up the bird. There was no laughter as they headed back to Bagram.

“Tripod?” Kane said to Raiden.

“Yep,” came the subdued response.

“Chances there’s a video out there somewhere. Don’t know of what, if there wasn’t a body,” Kane said. It was clear he was confused.

“Kane,” Leo started. “Do you think it was possible that they were doing an internal message between just the Haqqani Network?” Leo paused. “Or maybe something to Siraj?”

“I can’t understand why a tripod. Why not just film it with their phone?” Nic said.

“Nope, they try to make these really pro. They’re going to be pissed when they find out they left it behind. But in answer to your question Nic, they do use their phones, they just put it on the tripod,” Kane explained.

By the time they got back to Bagram, they were whipped. After they cleaned up, Max had found them an even tinier closet to meet in since, even at six o’clock in the morning, the smelly larger conference room was taken.

“You did good out there.” Max took a moment to look each and every member of his team in the eye. He didn’t need to say or do more than that. Coming from Max Hogan…well, it was the highest praise you could ask for. Not even hearing something from an Admiral could make you feel better.

Max then turned to Leo. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, Leo, and I think you’re on to something. We know that they’re not going to kill Squires until Siraj is here in Afghanistan, so maybe they wanted to upload something on a website just for them, or send something to their leader.”

Kane pulled his laptop out of his duffel. “I’m on it.”

“All of you, including you, Kane, go find a bunk and get some shut-eye. Tomorrow’s another day. We’re going to find these sons-of-bitches.”

Leo laughed when Max pulled the laptop out of Kane’s hands. “No more toys for you.”

“But, Dad,” Kane whined. “Just a little longer.”

“You can have it back in the morning.”

9

Daisy woke up to the sound of her laptop squawking at her. It was a Skype call coming in. She looked at the phone on the nightstand and saw it was nine a.m. She bolted out of bed; how did she sleep so late?

She scooted over to her computer. It was Rayi.