Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ty
Sometimes, Ty hated being at the beck and call of his job.
It was a sentiment he’d heard throughout his career with Delta Force from his brothers who missed births, deaths, and significant firsts. All of them were painful sacrifices made by military families. He knew all that when he’d signed up. And each time he reupped.
But this was the first time that Ty truly understood.
He’d hated to leave Kira after the robbery to head to the fort for what he’d thought was going to be a training evolution, and right now he was seething that he was back in the air on White’s jet, heading in the opposite direction from Kira.
His orders were to jump.
Ty jumped.
In two more months, he’d have more control.
And Kira would have the consistent support he wanted for her.
His stomach still gripped. Ty wasn’t celebrating anything yet, not Kira’s rescue, not Cerberus.
He’d hold off until it was all concrete—his boots on American soil, a handshake for Nomad letting him know his brothers had taken care of business, his mission was complete, and Kira curled on the couch reading her books, sipping her coffee, and looking carefree because the boogeyman that had haunted her life was gone.
There was one last box to check before that aspiration could be realized.
Fatima knew what the hell put Kira in danger; the CIA and FBI were champing at the bit to get her away from her husband’s punishments and over to the United States so they could better understand what they’d found hidden in the padding of the wedding album.
“Fine,” Ty had said, clapping his hands together, “let’s do it and get it done.” He’d said it even though Kira was unconscious at the hospital getting tested for what the kidnappers had doped her with.
She was under White’s protection.
White wouldn’t fail Echo, and she certainly would not fail Kira.
Yeah, Ty saw White’s face when she got over to Kira’s gurney.
White had to turn her protective duty over to a local CIA officer as she got Echo up to speed with their new assignment: Fly to Tanzania, save Fatima from her husband, and get her on the jet. Fly back to Spain to pick up Kira and White and head home. “Piece of cake.”
Not such a piece of cake when they found out they were flying in without the knowledge and blessing of the Tanzanian government. “William and Nadir have too many friendly and profitable connections. Nadir would get a heads-up.”
Echo had no idea where they were heading once they got to the city.
White said she’d figure it out, and White was damned good at her job.
For now, Echo silently ate the take-out food the pilots had picked up for them in the terminal.
They now had four pilots on board. The first two were crashed out, sleeping after days of pushing the limits on acceptable time in the cockpit.
The plan was that the fresh set would make the eight-hour flight to East Africa, they’d wait for Echo to grab Fatima, then the pilots would switch places, and they’d all convene in Spain.
There, they’d switch again to fly everyone back to D.C.
They had a full plane. Not a single seat would be empty when they flew back to the States.
As Ty thought that, home sounded so far away.
He hadn’t felt homesick like this since his first deployment half a lifetime ago.
This time, though, he was homesick for Kira.
With Rory passed out on his plane meds, Ty popped his own sleep aid and slung down a gulp of water. He knew his body, and he was primed for a fight; just give him a bad guy or a mission that would test his capacity, and he’d take it on.
But to be successful, once they were boots on the ground, Ty needed to be rested and ready.
He watched his brothers tip back their own sleep pills.
There was the rumble of the plane, then the next thing Ty knew, the pilot was coming over the intercom saying they had a half hour until they were wheels down, and they’d face their own customs encounter.
Luckily, the CIA jet had well-hidden cavities where they’d stashed all of what Tanzania would consider contraband.
They stuffed their BDUs in there for good measure.
White had assured the team that these compartments were lined with a polymer that thwarted scent-trained K9s as well as electronic devices.
It should be safe, and if it wasn’t? Then they had no idea what was in the walls of the rental jet. They were just there on a boys’ trip.”
“Do men do that?” Nitro had asked, “Go on boys’ trips?”
“Hunting, deep sea fishing, the big game, this doesn’t sound familiar to you, Nitro?” White asked.
“I never called it a ‘boy’s trip.’”
Fortunately, Tanzania was pretty relaxed, especially when some of the team were able to speak Kiswahili with some fluency.
The team left the pilots to do what they needed to be ready for a quick exit and went into the terminal to rent three SUVs.
Echo wheeled to the middle of an empty parking lot and called White on video.
“Alright, I’ve got some things for you.” She looked exhausted. Echo had slept; she’d worked straight through.
“White?” Ty said softly.
“Absolutely, sorry, Ty, it should have been the first thing out of my mouth. The hospital confirmed Rohypnol. Kira has been released, and we have her secured in a CIA safehouse. She’s in the tub right now, and I need you mission-focused because she wants to go home.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ty, I’ve got her. I promise.” White paused and pulled a noisy breath into her nostrils. “Now, as to this mission’s notes.”
“I hope one of them is an address and a headcount,” Jeopardy said.
“Stop jumping ahead in the story,” White scolded.
“Listen up. As Ty and T-Rex know, William Davidson had a brain aneurysm and died shortly after he reached the hospital. That player is now off the world stage. Iniquus patched Christen through to Fatima’s phone so they could run their magic machine—whatever they’ve got going on in their technology department—to try to geolocate her.
Fatima’s phone goes straight to voicemail. Her voicemail is full.”
Ty painted a hand over Rory, who was still groggy from his sleep meds.
“Iniquus used the contacts in Kira’s cell phone to get Nadir’s phone number.
Christen called to talk to Nadir about what had happened with her father that spurred the call for a medivac helicopter, and to thank Nadir for being there for her father as a dear friend.
Christen managed to keep him on the line long enough for Iniquus to trace the call to a private home just outside of Dodoma.
I’ve sent you a file, T-Rex. I found that house on a vacation rental platform.
That file has pictures of the interior and garden to help you plan. ”
“Received,” T-Rex said, flipping through the images on his laptop.
“Nadir’s plane left two hours after he hung up with Christen. The plane lists Nadir and two security officers in the manifest.”
“So Fatima is still on African soil?” T-Rex asked.
White’s face was rigid with concern. “We’re going to act as if that’s true.”
“Copy,” T-Rex said.
“Since Nadir’s group wasn’t in one of the hotels, and we all heard Fatima’s screams on the recording, we have to assume that the distance this house is from ears is purposeful.
I’ve been briefed on the information that Fatima captured in the sound recordings that she sent to Kira.
We need Fatima in Washington.” White dropped her voice to a whisper. “I’m really hoping she’s still alive.”
“If she’s not?” T-Rex asked.
“Walk away. Get on the plane. Head back to Spain and pick us up.”
“Wilco.” T-Rex locked eyes with Ty before he turned back to the conversation. “Any idea about the force we’ll encounter at the house?”
“Looking at the manifests of both William’s jet and Nadir’s, it looks like they left two behind.”
“Oh, that’s not good,” Nitro said.
“Why do you think that, Nitro?” White asked. “I would think five—well, six because we count Rory—against two?”
Nitro leaned forward so White could see his face. “One on duty, one asleep? That means they have her locked up tight somehow.”
“As smart as Fatima is, she’d get out if she weren’t under heavy lock and key,” Ty said.
White scratched her head. “Yeah, here I thought easy day.”
“Might still be an easy day as far as getting in, we don’t know how we’ll find her,” T-Rex said. “We’ll get the job done. I’m looking at the map. This is out where screams might not be heard, but bullets would be.”
“We’ve got our syringes from the Phossy Jaw mission,” Jeopardy said.
“It’ll be dark here soon,” T-Rex said. “I think we’ll spend some time getting a read of the location and wait for things to settle, then we’ll go in.”
“T-Rex, I can’t wait that long. Nadir took off two hours ago.
He’ll land four hours from now in Qatar.
I want to talk to Fatima as soon as possible so I can get the information to the State Department.
It’s my preference that the Qatari police meet Nadir at the airport.
If he gets word that Kira was saved, and he can’t reach the secure location holding Fatima, he could disappear into the blue mist, or worse, he could pull the trigger on his project. ”