Page 34 of Her Faithful Protector

He looked the group over. Nobody looked tired, everybody looked as fresh as the moment they had jumped out of the plane. He was probably the one who looked the most strung out if he had to guess.

Nic watched as Kane went over to Max and grabbed his tablet out of his pack. That damn thing could handle gale-force hurricane winds and rain, a little drizzle here in the jungle was nothing.

He watched the two of them put their heads together and talk over some things as Kane pointed to things on the tablet. Please God, say Kane knew something…anything.

“I got nothing,” Zed said. Nic heard him in stereo as his voice came over his receiver and Zed came out from the road on the right. “The mud’s too deep; it washed away whatever tracks might have been there.”

Two minutes later, Cullen echoed Zed’s words when he came back to the team. Max motioned for everyone to gather round.

“There are two villages along each fork in the road, if you can even call them that. They don’t have names. We know about them through satellite photos that have scanned them in the past.”

Everybody pressed to look at Kane’s screen so they could see what in the hell he was talking about.

“That doesn’t look like a village, that looks like three little houses,” Ezio said.

“Yeah,” Leo agreed. “Village my ass.”

Kane looked up and glared at both men. “They’re villages. Look at how much land has been cleared. From the satellite, we’re lucky that we’re seeing the three buildings. God knows how much more there is.”

“I’m shutting up now,” Leo said.

“Tell me more,” Ezio demanded.

Nic was in Ezio’s camp. “Where does the road go after the so-called village?”

“It takes about eight more hours before they finally get to Once de Mayo.”

“That has to be their final destination, right? They need internet and a bank. They won’t get it where there are just three damn houses,” Nic asserted.

“Don’t be so sure of that,” Kane said slowly. “They could have quite the set-up in the middle of nowhere if they have someone who knows what they’re doing.”

“Okay, that’s the left fork,” Asher said. “What’s behind door number two, the right fork?”

Kane tapped his tablet and showed another part of the jungle. “This is village number two, again there is no name. This time we have five buildings. It is on the way to Villa Hermosa.”

“Zoom in further,” Raiden demanded. Kane did. “It doesn’t look like there is much of anything after that. At least with Once de Mayo, it takes them to a main highway eventually. Villa Hermosa just goes deeper into the jungle.”

Nic had a bad feeling about that. “So the kidnappers go to the no-name village, then they move onto Villa Hermosa. Anywhere between there, they can hide the hostages until they get paid. The other way leaves them more exposed.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“It’s a crapshoot,” Cullen spat out.

“You called it,” Max agreed. “We’re splitting up.”

Before Max could assign anybody Nic threw out his preference. He didn’t give two shits about protocol at this point. “I want the right.”

Max gave him a cool assessment. “Nic, me, Raiden, Cullen, and Zed are on the right. The rest of you go with Kane to the left.”

Nic perked up. Max was sending five to the right and four to the left. That meant he had the same kind of feeling he did. They better be damn well heading out at a fucking run.

“We need to shut this shit down,” Max said. “We’re going full out, got it?”

Everybody nodded, most of the men grinned.

“Let’s move.”

* * *