Without a Net (36 page)

These were professionals, though. Just because their two targets were down didn’t mean they dropped their guard. Tactical scene officers came in to check for booby traps, and the nuclear and bio teams followed. All in all, it was a good forty minutes before the team allowed the first medic into the room, and he confirmed two kills.

It was all kinds of anticlimactic.

Ollie leaned back in his chair and stared at the screen as he realized it was all over. Sauvageot had been the last lingering fear that haunted his life. Or she had been the last rational fear, and Ollie had learned to deal with the irrational ones.

When Travis took his hand, Ollie looked over at him.

“You okay?” Travis asked.

Ollie gave him a small smile and a nod. He wasn’t sure if he was or not. Sauvageot had been a colleague if not a friend, and Ollie wondered what her life would have been like if Greyson hadn’t come into it. Would she have still turned dirty? Was there some flaw in her personality, or had her choice in friends changed her identity as a person?

Travis squeezed Ollie’s hand. “I love you,” he said softly, the words meant just for Ollie.

“I love you too.” Ollie held tightly to Travis. They sat like that for a time, and then the two-way feed from the van winked to life.

McGraw sat there in her tactical vest and helmet with a huge smile on her face. “We got our woman, Director. Mossad identified her, and I got visual confirmation. They’re going to process the body here, and then we can either request her body be transferred, or we can turn it over to her family to handle. Israeli officials don’t have a preference.”

“Good work,” Sewell said. She was right. Emily had busted her tail to bring Sauvageot to justice, and while Ollie would have preferred a trial, he wasn’t surprised at this end. Sauvageot had become so violent that he couldn’t imagine her surrendering.

Sewell had the only station rigged to send audio to McGraw, so Ollie called down the line of stations to her. “Thank her for us,” he said.

Sewell nodded. “Robertson and Goode send their thanks, Agent McGraw.”

Emily waved at the camera. “Hi, guys. It’s not exactly my pleasure, but you’re welcome.”

“With that, you two take off,” Sewell ordered them. “And I mean go home. Your overtime is killing my budget.”

Ollie was so unexpectedly exhausted he wasn’t sure he could leave, but Travis stood and tugged him to his feet.

“Yes, ma’am,” Travis said before he guided Ollie toward the exit of the secured communication room.

They headed for their desks. Immediately Travis hit the button that lowered the half walls, creating a semiprivate cubicle around them. “What do you need?” Travis asked.

“To turn off the thoughts that are spinning in my head,” Ollie admitted. That was all he needed to say, and Travis would take care of everything else.

“Deal.” Travis leaned in and kissed his forehead. “Let’s go home where I can tie you up and torture you for a few hours.”

Ollie hummed in anticipation. He’d had a rough road getting here, but it was worth every bump.

Loose Id Titles by Lyn Gala

Assimilation, Love, & Other Human Oddities

Blowback

Claimings, Tails & Other Alien Artifacts

Clockwork Pirate

Drift

Turbulence

Two Steps Back

Without a Net

Lyn Gala

Lyn Gala started writing in the back of her science notebook in third grade and hasn't stopped since. Westerns starring men with shady pasts gave way to science fiction with questionable protagonists which eventually became any story with a morally ambiguous character. Even the purest heroes have pain and loss and darkness in their hearts, and that's where she likes to find her stories. Her characters seek to better themselves and find the happy (or happier) ending. When she isn't writing, Lyn Gala teaches history in a small town in New Mexico. Her favorite spot to write is a flat rock under a wide tree on the edge of the open desert where her dog can terrorize local wildlife. Writing in a wide range of genres, she often gravitates back to adventure and BDSM, stories about men in search of true love and a way to bring some criminal to justice…unless
they
happen to be the criminals.