Hawk (The Quiet Professionals, Book 2) (54 page)

Jamming the nozzle into the tank, I curse myself. How could I have been so stupid? What mistake did I make? I stare at the cyber beast, disbelieving. What was the weak link? How did I show my hand, reveal my identity?

I’ll get away. Vanish. They’ll never find me.

An icy wind blows up the back of my spine. The hairs on the back of my neck prickle in a very clichéd, overdone way. And I know.
Know
—

Something’s wrong
.

I look up just in time to see the gas station owner staring out the window. At the same time, I hear an almost inaudible swish.

Something cracks. Pain explodes across the back of my skull. My forehead slams into the extended-length van. “What the—?”

A hand lands on my shoulder, shoving me forward, back into the van. “Not a word.”

Heart hammering, I obey. I’m not stupid—there’s a gun to the back of my head, and the man seems much larger, so my hands go up. Like a good little boy.

How the heck did I end up here?

There’s a pinch in my neck, and then the world swims out of view.

T
he percussive
thwump-thwump
of a chopper dragged Brian from the black void. He groaned, hearing his own heartbeat in his ears. As he bent to the side, around the laptop, he used the rocky, snowy terrain to pull himself to his knees. He glanced down, expecting to see a cannonsized hole through his abdomen. Instead, a large hole in the military-grade casing of the laptop stared back.

Brian almost laughed—but another noise yanked him around. Sounded like…a dog. Up here? Goats, he would understand, but a dog? Middle Easterners viewed dogs as dirty or something, didn’t they?

Wobbly legs made it hard to stand, but he wasn’t going to die on his knees. But sure as the mountain tried to bury him in snow and Fekiria left him, a dog—a big ugly dog—came bounding over the rise barking his fool head off.

Leading them straight to me
.

Brian took aim at the dog’s brindle coat.

Wait…

His heart thudded when two men in tac gear appeared over the rise. Then three. Then four.

“You just standing around, waiting for a rescue?” came the voice of Captain Watters.

Potent relief blasted through Brian’s veins as the brute of a dog slid to a stop at his feet. The brindled Bullmastiff’s bark echoed through the mountains. “Yeah, well, never work harder than you have to.” His knees gave out. Propped against a rock, he tried to avoid the tears. Tried to avoid the emotion drowning him.

But then he remembered— “The attack.”

The captain jogged to him. “Easy, easy.”

“The attack. Osiris. They’re hitting the team. Tomor—what day is it?”

“Easy, Hawk. Easy.” The captain’s gaze swept over him, that thick brow knotting. “You’re pretty messed up.”

“Listen.” He tapped the device strapped to his abdomen. “I’ve got it. I’ve got what we need to stop the attack. Stop Osiris.”

Hands probed his shoulder.

Fire lit through Brian. His hand swung up on its own. “Augh!”

“Shoulder’s tore up,” Harrier said. “Frostbite. Fever. Sprained ankle. Bullet wound in his thigh.”

Brian looked down, confused. Surprised. Disoriented.

“C’mon, Hawk. You’ve played hero long enough. Let’s get you back to the base. You can tell us everything there.”

Titanis slung his arm up under Brian’s and lifted him to his feet. Brian was frozen and numb. Didn’t care about pain. Just wanted to get home and— “Fekiria!” He twisted toward the captain. “Did you find her? Is she okay?”

The commander’s eyes said everything.

That meant— “She’s out here. Struck out before sunrise.”

Captain Watters tugged him onward. “At the base, Brian. Tell us at the base. We need to get you warmed up.”

“I’m not leaving without her—”

“If you die, you can’t help us find her. If you die, you can’t tell me what you know about that laptop,” the captain shouted as the rotor wash of the helo drowned out any further argument.

It didn’t touch down but hovered a foot above.

Brian hoisted himself on board then laid back. A medic went to work, tending the visible wounds, not removing his clothing. And that’s what Brian dreaded—finding out what damage had been done to his hands and feet. To his shoulder.

To Fekiria.

God…bring her back to me
.

H
ell hath no pain like frostbite.

Brian growled as the the pain dug through his skin and tissue layers. Forget the bullet they’d extracted from his shoulder and leg. Forget the sprained ankle. His fingers were swollen and borderline purple, as were his toes. His little toe was black. The doctor promised he’d be a freak show losing that one. If not more.

Forget all of that.

“I don’t have time for this,” Brian bit out, his irritation growing when he spotted Captain Watters and Falcon enter the room. Double Z waited in the hall.

“You’re hypothermic,” the nurse said. “You don’t have a choice.”

“A woman and two girls are out there dying because—”

“Hawk, stand down. That’s the hypothermia talking—makes you combative. They’re okay.”

“No,
I
am combative”—he gritted his teeth and hissed as pain dug its way through his fingers—“when nobody listens to me.”

“We’re listening. Are you?” The captain leaned forward. “I said they’re okay.” He twisted his torso and looked at his girlfriend waiting outside. “Fekiria was found.”

Brian stilled. Stared at his commanding officers. “You’re not just saying that?”

The captain smiled. “Fekiria called Zahrah on a phone—some farmers found them in the mountain. Took them in. Let her use their phone. We sent a chopper out to pick them up.”

“Seriously?” Brian felt like he could cry. “How are they? The littlest one, she was coughing—” He saw the look Captain Watters gave, and every ounce of his body froze again. “Tell me she’s not dead.”

“She’s unconscious and critical.” The captain rubbed a hand over his face. “It doesn’t look good.”

Brian tried to swallow but couldn’t. His heart rate bleeped rapidly on the machine. “And…the others? Fekiria?”

“Same condition as you. Maybe a little worse.”

Brian closed his eyes. Fekiria…he didn’t want her to go through the pain he was experiencing. Frostbite was nothing to sneeze at. In fact, with the purple hue on his nose, he might not have a nose to sneeze with.

At least they were alive. At least they were alive. He repeated the words over and over, but it didn’t make him feel better. “What about the laptop?”

Again, Captain Watters went all serious. “The bullet that saved your life might have destroyed it.”

“But the hard drive?”

“Bullet went right through.” The captain stood at his bedside. “Techs are flying the hard drive to a lab at CECOM to see if they can pull any data off it still.”

Communications-Electronics Command would take time. Time they didn’t have. A low growl turned into an all-out shout. Brian squeezed his eyes. Was it all a waste? “The attack.”

“Burnett’s on his way. We’ve got a team assembled to review what you’ve said.”

“Slusarksi?”

“Missing.”

“Son of a biscuit,” Brian groused. “Are you freakin’ kidding me?”

The captain laid a hand on his good shoulder. “Hey.” Their eyes met. “You’re alive. You saved three women. Now, tell me what you know.”

“Ch–Chinese.” Tremors violently shook his body, but he fought to speak around it. “There was a woman in the shanty. She was Asian. Chinese, I’m pretty sure. There were others there before Fekiria and I took shelter, but they left. Probably because of the storm. I guess. Anyway, I woke up to this Asian chick sticking a gun in my face.”

Captain Watters eyed him, as if he didn’t believe him. As if Brian was talking about dragons and fairies.

“What?”

“You’re sure they were Chinese?”

“Dude, I might be losing fingers, but the frostbite didn’t get my brain. I know a Chinese chick when I see one.”

Falcon shrugged. “She could’ve been North Korean, Japanese…”

“She said
zăoshàng hăo
.” Brian glared at Falcon. “That’s Chinese for ‘good morning.’ ”

“What else?”

Brian thought through the scenario. Thought through what happened. “She and the other guy in there started arguing. I have no idea over what, but I swear he was ready to put one between my eyes.” Did she save his life? Intervene? Did any of that matter with what they planned? “The attack is huge. They have all our names and base locations. They’re going to hit on the twenty-fourth.”

His teammates shared a look.

“What?”

Falcon shrugged. “That was yesterday.”

“But…” Brian blinked. Had he read it wrong? Decoded it poorly? That didn’t make sense. “And their chopper, it was—”

“We have sat images of it. The techs are trying to enhance the images of her face so we can identify her.”

A doctor came in but hesitated when he saw the captain and Falcon.

The captain patted Brian’s leg. “Warm up. We need you back.”

Brian gave a nod as they left him. Any other day he might argue to Egypt and back, but right now, he wanted sleep. About a year’s worth. Yet at the same time, he didn’t feel they had time to sleep. But if he slept— “Hey.” He leaned his head up, grimacing at the tug of pain in his shoulder. “Let me know when she gets here? That…that she’s safe?”

Captain Watters gave a knowing smile. “Of course.”

Camp Eggers, Afghanistan

26 February—1320 Hours

Hands and feet bandaged, Fekiria sat up in the bed. “I didn’t think we’d make it out alive.” She looked to her right where Sheevah lay asleep, her hands and feet bandaged also, and her nose sported a large white salve.

“It’s a miracle.” Zahrah eased onto the bed beside her, brushing a strand of hair from Fekiria’s face. “I still can’t believe all you’ve told me.”

She met her cousin’s brown eyes. “God was watching over me, over all of us. That’s what you were going to say, right?”

Zahrah seemed to wilt. “Please—let’s not fight now.”

“Psalm 57:1.”

Her cousin blinked, her lips parting in question.

Fekiria had been truly hateful toward the two people who were probably the most precious to her in the world. “Mitra’s Bible… She had me read to her the night she died, and I…” She looked to the small stand were the tattered book lay. “It helped me make the hardest decision.”

Zahrah applied more medicinal cream to Fekiria’s dry, cracked lips. “To leave Hawk.”

She nodded. “I knew he would not try to save his friends.”

“Loving a warrior is hard. Dying in the line of duty is an honor to them. They would rather take that road than to dishonor their sacred oath.”

“When I first met him, I saw no difference between him and my father and brothers.” Fekiria wished she could see him, to see if he held it against her.

“And now?” Zahrah’s words were so soft and encouraging. Her cousin knew what happened on that mountain. Not just the logistics but the emotional element. Except the kisses. She hadn’t told anyone about those. “A lot more than your pinky toe was lost on that mountain, wasn’t it?”