Titanium Security Series 4 - Extinguished (12 page)

“Couldn’t help it,” Dunphy wheezed between peals of laughter. “It was t-too good an opportunity to p-pass up.” He doubled over and howled some more, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes.

“Fuck you.” Gage shot Blake a pissed off glare for good measure and stalked off in the direction of the bathroom. “Pain in my fucking ass, Dunphy,” he said over his shoulder.

“Not as big as the pain you gave my ass last week,” Dunphy called out, and earned a raised middle finger from Gage just before he slammed the bathroom door behind him and locked it for good measure.

“Mess with the bull, you get the horns,” Blake told his spotter as he stripped his pants off and slid under the covers.

“Nah, it’s all in fun. He was out so deep, I just couldn’t help myself. He’s been in such a piss poor mood ever since we got here, I figured I should lighten things up a bit.”

Well, no wonder. “On top of everything else he’s worried about Claire, just like you’re worried about Zahra.” Claire had just lost her brother to suicide, and Zahra had recently learned her convicted felon father had been involved in the plot to kill her and Dunphy. The entire team had been on edge until Alex had finally uncovered the mole within the NSA.

Dunphy didn’t deny it. Instead he shoved to his feet and stretched, but now that his mischievous itch had been scratched and satisfied for the time being, he was serious again. “And you’re worried about Jordyn.”

Of course he was. Kickass or not with a weapon, he didn’t like her being in danger over here. “Like you’re not?”

He shrugged. “Do I wish her, Claire and Zahra were all still stateside with added security? Hell yeah. But they’re not, and the truth is with all the shit that’s gone down with us all stateside over the past few weeks, they’re not facing much more of a threat here than they would be back home by themselves. And the Brits Alex brought on for security are solid. At least we know the girls will be well taken care of while we’re out hunting.”

Blake hoped so. Although he still thought it odd that Alex would insist Jordyn accompany them to the range yesterday. Had he wanted to see her shoot firsthand? She’d hit pretty much everything, shooting nearly as well as him and Hunter. Unless Alex expected her to go out in the field for some reason? Blake didn’t like that thought one bit. He knew Jordyn was good and could take care of herself if necessary, but putting her into harm’s way like that wasn’t supposed to be part of her job description.

“How’s Zahra doing, anyway?” Blake asked to change the subject.

Dunphy climbed into his own bed. “She’s tough, man. Way tougher than anyone would ever guess from looking at her. My girl’s got a steel backbone inside that delicate frame.”

“That’s good. Her and Claire work really well together. I’m not surprised Alex wanted to bring them both over here.”

“Yeah, those two are a technological powerhouse together.”

Gage emerged from the bathroom and stalked past Blake, pausing only to slug Dunphy in the chest on his way back to his bunk. At the muffled oomph and quiet snicker, Blake smiled and closed his eyes. He’d just dropped off to sleep when someone flicked on the lights overhead.

“Wake up, ladies, our ship has just come in.”

Rolling over, Blake squinted at Hunter outlined in the doorway.

The team leader was primed and ready to roll. “And it’s taking us to Peshawar.”

It’d been nearly two years since he’d set foot in Peshawar, and it looked like nothing had changed.

Alex strode into the crowded market ahead of Hunter and Blake, who were providing security while Dunphy and Gage stayed in the vehicles. He was comfortable moving on his own in this kind of environment and was more than capable of protecting himself from threats, but having the security team with him meant he could focus almost entirely on the task at hand: finding his informant.

It had taken them two hours to drive here, and even this early in the morning the market was crowded. People filled the walkways between the open stalls crammed with clothing, household items and produce. The cloying smells of spices and body odor hung heavy in the hot, humid air that would only get thicker as the day progressed.

Alex turned sideways to squeeze between a group of men clogging the narrow walkway between two fruit vendors. He didn’t have to look to know Hunter and Blake were still behind him, ever watchful and maintaining a careful distance.

The locals stared at him, and not just because he was dressed in a T-shirt and cargo pants instead of the traditional men’s shalwar kameez. As westerners—even bearded ones—they all stood out here, except maybe for Ellis, because he was half black and had a naturally darker skin tone. Alex continued through the maze of stalls and people, intent on the prearranged target near the edge of the market. Like the others, Alex wore an earpiece for communication amongst the team but neither man following him would say anything over it unless a threat materialized.

At the last row of stalls he spotted the man he was supposed to meet. The twenty-one year old Pakistani the NSA had used a couple of times previously for information stood off to the side scanning the crowd, puffing on a cigarette. From his restless movements and the way his gaze kept flitting left then right, Alex knew his informant was a moment from bolting. He could practically feel the man’s anxiety from his position forty yards away.

Pushing through the crowd, he kept his eyes on the man. No bulges that might signal a hidden weapon, but it was impossible to be certain with the baggy tunic and pants he wore. When he finally spotted Alex, relief flashed across his face. He came toward Alex and jerked his head to the right, signalling for him to follow. Alex did, knowing his boys were right on his six. At the corner of a brick building the young man stopped and looked around before facing Alex.

“What have you got for me?” Alex asked once the pleasantries were out of the way.

The kid tossed the butt of his cigarette on the ground and crushed it beneath the heel of his leather sandal. “My brother-in-law,” he said in accented English.

“What about him?”

“He was working for Hassani.”

And the NSA as well. “How do you know this?”

“He told me. There was a meeting last night here in the city.”

“What time, and who with?”

“Nine o’clock. And you know who it was with.”

That coincided perfectly with the subsequent phone call they’d managed to trace back to a number linked to one of Hassani’s men at just after twenty-one-thirty hours last night. “Do you know what happened at the meeting?”

The man shook his head, running the back of his hand under his upper lip. There was fear in his eyes. “No one has seen him. His wife said he left at eight-thirty and didn’t return home last night. It’s not like him, he always comes home.”

Alex didn’t need to tell the guy that his brother-in-law was either long dead or wishing he was. Hassani had evidently found out about the man’s involvement with the NSA and had taken precautions to eliminate the threat. “What else do you know?”

“There was a car.” He licked his lips, gaze darting around the people milling past them before coming to rest on Alex once again. “Someone reported witnessing a scuffle between two big, armed men and another unarmed one last night in the area where the meeting was supposed to have happened, around the same time. My brother-in-law would never willingly get into a car with those kind of men. They headed west out of the city, toward the border.” He swallowed. “I went to the house when I got the call from my…friend about the incident. Another vehicle left twenty minutes later and took the same route. I followed them to the border and watched them drive across.”

Alex’s heart beat faster. His attention sharpened on the young guy, everything else funneling out. “Did you get the plate number?”

“Yes, of course.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, handed it to him. “I didn’t see who was inside and the windows were too dark for me to see how many people were in there, but…I think it must have been Hassani.”

Alex sure as hell hoped it was. As soon as he got Claire and Zahra to run the plate number, they could potentially get satellite or drone images from last night, or at least start a search now. Still, he played it cool, keeping his expression passive. “Anything else?”

The man shook his head. “My brother-in-law… Is he dead?”

“Most likely.”

He lowered his eyes and nodded, face pinched with grief.

“I’ll be in touch if I need anything else. You might want to lie low for a while though.” Alex reached out a hand. When the man shook it, Alex passed him the wad of US cash he’d been palming, then turned and quickly headed back through the market, taking a different route this time. He didn’t see Hunter or Ellis but he knew they were still out there keeping tabs on him.

Pulling out his phone, he called Claire and gave her the information to start tracking the plate and checking satellite feeds. Near the main street he turned right and headed for the alley where the SUVs were waiting. He was just about to turn the corner when out of his peripheral vision he caught a flash of auburn hair beneath a deep purple head scarf. He whipped his head around and stopped so fast he almost stumbled.

In a group of people crowded around a vendor, a woman stood with her back to him. At this distance he couldn’t see her face, but that glimpse of red hair he’d seen, the stance and the way she moved her hands when she talked…

Grace?

Impossible.

Pulse thudding in his ears, his heart careened wildly in his chest. Everything else fell away, his entire focus zeroing in on that figure in the crowd. Without even realizing he’d moved, he was jogging toward her.

“Alex, what the hell’s going on?” Hunter demanded in his ear.

He ignored the question, intent only on reaching the woman before she disappeared. The hope and desperation inside him were crushing his lungs, making it hard to breathe. Running now, he tore back across the road and pushed his way through the throng of people separating him from the woman. Just when he was starting to gain ground the crowd shifted and the woman was gone. Swearing silently, he jerked to a halt and scanned the market.

The sea of bodies swirled and eddied. In a gap in the distance he spotted the purple head scarf, the flash of red hair beneath it. Her name swelled in his throat, his brain demanding he shout it out, make her turn around. But it was already too late. She was lost in the crowd.

At the sound of running footsteps behind him he whirled around. Hunter stopped beside him, gaze scanning for threats, a scowl on his hard face. Finding nothing, he turned on Alex with a fierce glower. “What the hell was that about? We thought you were chasing a tango.”

“Nothing. Forget it.” Now that he’d been snapped out of whatever the hell state he’d just been in, he realized people were staring at the both of them. Not good, and especially not here and now when a terrorist network was trying to hunt them all down and kill them.

Alex mentally shook himself. He’d lost his fucking mind, thinking he’d seen Grace here after all this time. That was the only explanation. Last he’d heard, she’d taken a job in London with a humanitarian group a few months back. Maybe it wasn’t healthy or even ethical, but he’d kept partial tabs on her over the past four years, telling himself it was only to make sure she was doing okay after what she’d been through. After all, he was largely responsible for what she’d suffered. Little wonder she hadn’t returned any of his calls or tried to look him up after she separated from her husband.

Hunter eyed him skeptically. “You sure you’re good?”

He’d just hallucinated about seeing a woman he hadn’t seen or spoken to in over four years, then run blindly through a crowded market known to be frequented by members of the very cell he was trying to kill, with no regard for his own safety or for that of the team, let alone a thought to compromising the mission. Jesus. He really was losing it. “Yeah. Let’s get back to the trucks. Where’s Ellis?”

“Providing overwatch, because we thought you were about to get into the shit,” he muttered, turning and striding away.

Berating himself for his kneejerk and reckless—not to mention fucking stupid and flat out dangerous—reaction, he followed Hunter back to the vehicles. Ellis fell in step with them, eyeing him in confusion. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Alex snapped. He could see the vehicles, one parked behind the other, Gage behind the wheel of the first and Dunphy’s silhouette in the second. No doubt they’d heard the whole embarrassing incident too. Thankfully he was saved from any more questions by the vibration of his phone against his hip. It was Claire.

Anticipation stirred inside him. “Hey. Whatcha got?”

“The plates didn’t give us anything except that the vehicle definitely crossed the border last night at twenty-two-eleven, zulu.”

Eleven minutes after ten, local time. It fit with what the informant had said. “And the occupants?”

“Two men, but only one produced documents to the border guard. We’ve traced the vehicle via satellite to the Khyber Pass, but at the first checkpoint the authorities claim only the driver was in the car.”

He was ninety percent sure it had been Hassani in that backseat. And he was just as certain that their number one high value target was making cozy with the locals in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan right now. “Roger that. Have Evers and his guys meet us at the place we arranged, STAT. I’ll brief you again from the other side.” He hung up and walked around the hood of the SUV to slide in beside Gage, tapping his earpiece. “Saddle up boys, we’re headed across the border.”

****

It felt good to be on the move and finally across the border into Afghanistan, even if they were now traveling through the infamous Khyber Pass in the Spin Ghar Mountains. Blake sat in the back of the SUV. So far the traffic was relatively light, only a few minibuses loaded with civilians and the odd military vehicle carrying supplies toward Kabul. Everyone was quiet in the truck. Gage was focused on the winding road, Alex was talking and texting on his phone and Blake kept an eye out for any trouble.