Chapter 41
“Why do I get the feeling that I’m not done with her?” Derek had tried to find the center of the rain shadow cast by the monstrous airplane without much luck. Technically ten degrees above freezing, the English air didn’t feel that warm for a second.
Except he wasn’t alone. Dilya and her dog had retreated from the rain by heading for the hangar at a dead run. He confirmed twice that he could see her hot-pink parka there. The way she could slip up to his elbow was still unnerving more often than not.
But at that elbow instead stood Colonel Gibson as if it was a sunny day in August.
“Uh, sir?”
Gibson gave no sign that he heard Derek’s question or whether he’d been there long enough to hear Derek’s first question to himself about being in a relationship with Abby.
His attention was most of the way back to watching Abby—which he realized he could do just as well from the far drier refuge of the open hangar—before Gibson spoke.
“There is another option.”
Derek pictured Emily saying that this Miss Watson woman must be recovered at any cost. That phrase meant that standard safety protocols were of little concern in this extraction. And he pictured Dilya’s beseeching look when she declared, we need to get her back.
He closed his eyes but answered, “Yes, there is another option.” He and Misty were top snipers even among Delta. They were both expert with weapons that could kill out past two kilometers. Gibson would be as well.
If needed, he’d just been given clearance to exercise the ultimate solution to protect the woman’s secrets.
A sniper was often said to be the most personal of hunters.
Not only did they hunt a specific person and see the target clearly as they shot, but they often studied their habits in detail to ensure proper identification at extreme distances.
He’d never been part of an assassination squad, though he’d fought in war zones where he’d hunted other snipers.
But Miss Watson was someone that the people around him knew and deeply respected—even loved. Would they ever forgive him if he had to shoot her to keep her knowledge out of others’ hands? Would Abby?
Colonel Gibson no longer stood beside him to answer these questions.