Prologue #2
Aside from what appeared to be the basic necessities, the first three rooms they cleared were barren. The fourth door led to a toilet and sink, and the next entryway they crossed through took them into the kitchen.
Natalia spotted a set of double-doors at the very end of a narrow hall.
“There,” she whispered to Julian and Keith. “The hostages could be in there.” The gun in her hand remained steady as she began moving that way.
“On your six, boss,” Julian whispered back.
Keith said nothing, but she knew he was there.
They reached the doors, but rather than open them, Natalia stopped and turned back to the five agents standing together behind her two teammates. Pointing to the staircase on the left, she ordered them to begin clearing the home’s second floor.
Her gaze met Julian’s before sliding to Keith’s. Both men nodded once, letting her know without words that they were ready to make entry into the other room.
Natalia turned back around. She reached for the doorknob. Her eyes fell shut for only a second, but long enough to send up a final, silent prayer.
Please let them be in here. Please let the hostages be okay.
With the barrel of her gun pointing straight ahead she used her free hand to open the door. She stood back so Julian could cover up top while Keith bent low to sweep the bottom portion of the space ahead.
It was dark. Windowless. Black as freaking night. Natalia reached up and flipped on the small, mounted flashlight attached to her gun. Her fellow agents did the same.
They began looking around, ready to take out any threat that came their way. But there wasn’t a threat. Not one they could see. Instead, all they found was—
She gasped, the sound echoing through the otherwise silent space.
“Son of a bitch.” Julian spat out the curse as he brushed past on his way to the pile of bodies.
“They killed them,” Natalia muttered low, the disbelief in her voice obvious even to her.
The clothes. Hair. The faces she could see.
It was them. The hostages they’d come here to rescue. But she and the other agent were already too late. Because those hostages—
They’re already dead.
“Bastard knew we were coming,” Keith growled from beside her.
The sound of incoming choppers was barely audible inside the room.
Julian pushed himself up from the crouched position he’d been holding near the macabre pile of the deceased. The beam of his flashlight remained lower, near her feet, when her friend faced her once again.
“I think someone might be missing.”
Natalia frowned at his words. “Missing?” She took a step toward him. “What do you mean, missing?”
“I counted the bodies, and if our intel’s correct, we’re short by one.”
With a scowl, Keith groused, “They’re probably on the bottom of the damn pile.”
“Nope.” Julian shook his head. “I thought so, too, until I squatted down to be sure.”
Just then, a voice sounded from the earpiece in her right ear.
“Second floor is clear,” one of the agents on the task force relayed.
“Copy that,” Natalia responded immediately. “Check the roof, then reconvene at the entrance to await transport.”
She, Julian, and Keith would be flown out during the initial exfil. Others would stay back, keeping the building—and more importantly, the bodies of those who’d been senselessly lost—secured until arrangements could be made to fly them all back home. To their families.
I’m so, so sorry.
Guilt threatened to crush her where she stood. But the alarm in Julian’s voice when he spoke up a moment later overrode everything else.
“Did you hear that?” Her closest friend and colleague slid a frown her way.
“Hear what?” Natalia took several more steps toward him…and the bodies behind him.
Julian swung his weapon to his left. The narrow beam from his flashlight landed on an opened doorway none of them had seen before now.
They hadn’t seen it because they hadn’t been expecting it to be there.
Natalia had previously memorized the entire structure’s layout, both inside and out. And one thing she was one hundred percent certain of, was that extra space…
It shouldn’t be there.
“I think someone’s in there!” Julian spoke excitedly as he crossed the distance between the bodies and the doorway. “It could be the missing hostage!”
“Julian, wait!” she warned as Keith cursed beneath his breath.
But her friend with the biggest heart she’d ever known either didn’t hear her or, the more likely scenario, chose not to listen.
Julian opened the door. He disappeared into the room.
“I see him!” he hollered back from the shadowed space. To the person she and Keith had yet to lay eyes on, they heard Julian say, “It’s okay! I’m American. I’m here to help.”
Hope bloomed at the possibility that at least one of the hostages had managed to survive.
“I’ll call it in.” Keith held back.
Natalia continued hurrying across the large space to offer whatever assistance she could. But then—
“Oh, fuck!” Julian shouted.
She and Keith shared a wide-eyed look as their teammate’s terrified face reappeared in the doorway.
“There’s a bomb!” Julian’s arms flailed in the air as he motioned for them to haul ass out of the room. “The hostage is dead with a motherfuckin’ bomb strapped to his chest!”
Oh, God!
Natalia’s stomach dropped and her pulse spiked as she spun around and started back the way they’d come. The abrupt change in direction sent the ends of her long, dark ponytail smacking against her face, but she ignored it and kept on running.
“Everyone evacuate, STAT!” She used the comms to relay the danger to the rest of the highly trained group. “There’s a bomb inside the building. I repeat, this is Alpha One, and there is a bomb inside the building!”
“Copy that, Alpha One,” a man she recognized as that group’s leader responded. “We’ll repel down to avoid a collision.”
Everything around her began to happen in slow motion. Natalia, Julian, and Keith ran like hell while the men on the roof were hopefully escaping to safety by roping down the building’s exterior wall.
The sound of the choppers’ blades whirling through the air grew louder. Their rides out of this hellhole were almost there. Praying they made it out of the compound in time to be saved, Natalia passed by the previously cleared rooms on her way back down the hallway.
Keith was still behind her, but when she glanced back to make sure Julian was on their six, Natalia spotted him still too far away.
“Move it, Miller!” she shouted in her best I’m-in-charge voice.
It was a miracle the command hadn’t come out all high and squeaky for the fear threatening to consume every cell in her body. But she refused to let it show.
You are not dying today, Foster! Not here, and sure as hell not like this. Just a few more yards and we’ll be back outside. You just have to—
“Keep runnin’!” Julian hollered out to them. “I’m almost there!”
She risked a glance back, relieved to see Julian had almost made it to the middle of the hall.
“Go!” Keith yelled unnecessarily as they approached the damaged door.
Beams from the evening sunlight were like bright beacons of life guiding them to safety. The muscles in her legs burned as Natalia pushed her body to its very limits.
You’re almost there. Only a few feet to go. You’re almost…there!
She crossed the mangled threshold of the structure’s main entrance but didn’t dare stop running. Keith appeared in her peripheral, and together they sprinted as far away from the compound as they could get.
Natalia made it three more broad, frantic steps, and then…
The world around her exploded.