Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
OFF-THE-GRID LOCATION, AFGHANISTAN - MONDAY
“So, the rumors are true.”
Roman side-eyed Wyatt standing next to him, not sure how they’d answer Master Chief Bradford. Based on his curious expression pinned toward Wyatt, they knew each other from the Navy. Was the cat already half out of the bag about their identities, though?
Bravo and Echo had arrived an hour ago at the clandestine site in the Middle East, where just outside the tent, the rest of Alpha Team, the current DEVGRU, aka SEAL Team Six, platoon stood ready to assist.
They’d had questions from the moment Roman and the others had arrived, barely making it in time for what they suspected was the “deadline” for Will’s final move. They were T-minus one hour from Will’s gift card timeline based on the hour in Monaco.
But instead of heading to Monaco and to the location where Luke shot Will in 2018 as the gift card alluded to for some showdown, the teams had managed to convince the President to send them to Afghanistan.
The CIA had picked up intel a man and woman matching Luke and Jessica’s description were being held captive by another American in a village there.
Harper and the rest of the teams were one tent over working on getting approval for the infil plan they’d come up with while en route. They needed to convince POTUS and Admiral Chandler to let their people go into a village where a local drug lord lived, along with his Taliban fighters.
Yeah, real great place Will picked to hide two American hostages. Roman shook his head in disgust.
But the fact the President had allowed them to come to Gan in the first place meant he was close to saying yes. Of course, Knox wasn’t allowed to join, which ate at him, but his arm was in a sling, and no way would Secret Service let him engage with the Taliban.
Thankfully, Asher, Wyatt, and the others had already been en route to France when they’d received the new CIA intelligence to switch paths to Afghanistan, or they wouldn’t have made it in time for the op.
Roman looked across the tent at Asher raking his hands through his hair, eyes bloodshot. The man was frustrated and barely hanging on, and Roman had no idea how he’d been restraining himself from punching anyone who may have been a roadblock to Jessica.
If it weren’t for the fact Asher knew better than to do something reckless that’d result in getting Jessica and Luke killed, he’d already be at the village.
And not-so-coincidentally, when they checked, Will’s wife had been killed in combat less than twenty kilometers away from their current location.
Last night, aerial footage in Lithuania had shown Jessica and Luke being pulled from the wreckage by American soldiers, alive and well. There were no casualties, but four CIA protective details were wounded during the gunfight when Luke and Jessica were taken.
When American armed forces located the accountant’s hideout and captured him, Will was already gone. The accountant had hooked Will up with a private jet and six of his men as a thank-you for the escape. It’d been a short-lived one, though.
Based on Talon Fox’s questioning, he really had been unaware Will had a secondary plan in motion.
Will had most likely used Talon Fox as just another distraction.
While Roman had been dealing with Talon and Luciano in South Africa on Saturday, Will performed a jailbreak with the Lithuanian accountant.
The accountant had offered contacts he trusted for Will to reach out to since Will had access to the outside world, and they’d arranged their escape.
The guard who’d been helping Will make contact with Talon and the accountant’s men had provided Will the coordinates for the prison site.
With the location of the prison and the identity of the warden, the accountant’s men took the warden’s wife and daughter hostage, and the warden was forced to let Will and the accountant escape.
What would you do if it were your loved ones? the warden had asked in apology last night, his family now safe, but eerily, that was the theme of Roman’s life lately.
The warden had snuck out the message about the guard not showing up to work as well as tossing out his code for SOS in hopes the CIA would understand there was a problem, though.
Roman peered back at Bradford, the man’s steel gray eyes going back and forth between him and Wyatt as he waited for an answer.
“Come on, just tell me.” Bradford lifted his chin as if trying to gently nudge Wyatt into answering.
“What rumors?” Wyatt stroked his beard, buying himself time from answering Bradford.
Out of the corner of Roman’s eye, he caught Asher getting a bit too close to the only other man in the tent, Lieutenant Phillips. “Ah, hold that thought.” Or don’t.
Wyatt slapped Bradford on the shoulder, and he and Roman walked past him to get to Asher before he threw a punch. It wouldn’t be the first time Asher decked a higher-up.
“For all we know, the intelligence coming from the village is meant to be the trap,” Roman overheard Lieutenant Phillips say to Asher. “I’m not sold on any plan yet, but I won’t put my people in danger.”
“And I don’t care what aerial footage suggests.
If you go with option two, and you send a team to that house in Monaco, not only will your people get blown the fuck up, Luke and Jessica will be executed immediately afterward.
” Asher’s voice was two levels below a roar, but the man’s temper was inching higher by the second.
“You best get your man to back off before I put him on a plane home ASAP.” Phillips looked to Wyatt for an assist. “Yes, your wife and brother-in-law may be in that village, but you need to calm down. You shouldn’t be here in the first place.
” He drew his hands to his hips, standing firm a good half a foot shorter than Asher’s towering frame.
“This is a secure, off-the-grid location. No one knows our people are even here.”
Asher ignored him and tossed a hand into the air. “I’m telling you that those two men outside the home in Monaco are there because Will knows we’d put eyes in the sky before advancing on the location.”
Wyatt placed his hands on Asher’s shoulders in an attempt to pull the man back.
“Those two men with rifles posted outside that house are two of the same men the Lithuanian accountant provided Will as escorts after they escaped,” Phillips countered, and Roman stepped forward this time.
“Exactly,” Roman said, his eyes connecting with Asher for a brief second, finding a torn, anguished look from the man.
Asher had nearly lost Jessica years ago, and he’d go to the ends of the world and back again to bring her home this time, too.
“Will was counting on us to make the connection. To fall for the trap. But he also knew there’d be a chance we figured that out, so he’s most likely prepared for a suicide mission in that village in case we show up there. ”
“The CIA has confirmed intel from an informant that three Americans are in the village,” Asher hissed. “My wife is going to die if we don’t move before twenty-two hundred hours. Do you hear me? We can’t wait.” He turned, clawing at his hair again.
“Whether you send people into that house in Monaco or not at Will’s requested time, Will is waiting for that time to execute Luke and Jessica.
We’re sure of it,” Wyatt said in a calm, even-tempered tone.
Admiral Chandler hadn’t let Natasha accompany them on the mission, but hopefully, she was making headway with her father and the President about the infil plan while Stateside.
“I am not sending Alpha Team into that village with Taliban forces in control until the village is mostly asleep. If we get orders to spin up, we drop in around zero two hundred hours, and you’re to stay here,” Phillips issued the command.
“There’s no way you’ll convince the President to go along with whatever plan you’ve cooked up that involves your guys. ”
“Sir, with all due respect,” Master Chief Bradford said, joining them, “if it was your wife and best friend in that village being held by a traitor, what would you do?”
Asher turned to put eyes on Bradford, his chest appearing to collapse in the process.
“I don’t know the others here, but I can vouch for Wyatt. If he says we can’t wait to infil, then we can’t wait.” Bradford was putting his neck on the line for them, and Roman sure as hell hoped it worked. They had to get their people back. No way could it end like this.
At this point, it all felt like a bad dream. Ever since Natasha had dropped the news last night about the ambush, Roman had been in some type of denial as he managed to remain calm for the most part.
They’d decided not to tell Luke’s wife, Eva, until after they rescued him. And they would rescue him, damn it. Zero alternatives.
“What, do you expect us to knock on the gate door and just waltz in? We can’t breach from the sides or rear. We have to drop in, and they’ll shoot a helo down if they see it coming.” That was better than a flat-out no from the CO, Roman supposed.
“Yes, I expect us to walk through the front door.”
Roman whirled around at the sound of Harper’s voice. She stood just inside the entrance wearing khakis and a white button-down shirt—clothes provided for her by their teammates that’d flown in from the States.
“Excuse me?” Phillips folded his arms as the rest of Bravo and Echo filtered into the tent, forming a defensive line behind her.
“Admiral Chandler is about to call you,” Harper said, her chin lifting with beautiful confidence as she stared at the CO.
“We leave in fifteen minutes,” A.J. announced, and Roman glimpsed Asher’s hand grab on to the table off to his side as if the news had his legs giving out and he needed the support.
“These guys like to tell me I’ve kicked down so many doors I’ve forgotten how to use a knob, so I guess it’s time we try a different way.
We’ll be pulling a modified A.J. maneuver. ”
Roman would’ve smiled at his brother’s words if he weren’t so nervous.
“What the hell is an A.J. maneuver?” Bradford asked.
“Roman and Finn will go to the front gate, and Finn, who speaks Arabic, will announce he captured an American,” Harper explained. “With Finn’s beard and a change in clothes, he can pull it off.”
“And when the gate doors open, they take out the guards at the entrance, and the rest of our men climb the fence from the sides.” A.J. looked to Bradford. “Alpha takes the back.”
“There aren’t any high points around that village. No overwatch,” Bradford answered, clearly okay with the idea. “But our eyes in the sky won’t be detected, and they can guide us inside the village.”
Harper made her way toward Phillips with self-assured strides, and damn did he love that woman. She showed Phillips her tablet. “That’s our mark. This is the house where the CIA informant inside the village said two Americans are being held hostage.”
“Since it’s at the center of the village, I suggest we flood in from all sides, and we should be able to maintain the element of surprise,” Wyatt tagged on his thoughts.
Before Phillips could respond, his phone began ringing, most likely the admiral, and Phillips quickly answered.
“I understand we can’t let two American heroes die on our watch, but can we really re-engage when we’re .
. .” He dropped his words as if the admiral had silenced his concerns.
“Yes, sir,” he said a moment later, then ended the call and faced the room.
“The President says your people are coming with us.”
Two helos could insert their people a safe distance away from the village and wait for extract orders.
“This needs to be a quick in and out so we don’t turn this into a new problem out here,” Phillips continued. “I assume Jessica and Luke don’t want more American boots on the ground because of them.”
Jessica and Luke would agree with that part, but like hell would Roman or his people let them die.
“They’re one of us,” Bradford said, then strode toward Asher on his way out of the tent to round up his people. “Let’s go get your wife back.”
Harper came up alongside Roman and reached for his hand. “Hey, can I have a second before you go?”
He quietly followed her out of the tent, the Hindu Kush Mountains in the background from where they stood.
“I think it’s just now hitting me,” she began while taking his hands.
“We’re going to get them back.” He forced a smile. “Don’t worry.”
“I know we will. I’m just not used to being, you know, on an op in Afghanistan with you. It reminds me of—”
“The war,” he finished for her.
“And I know we have additional help from Alpha Team, and we’ll rescue our people, but I’m terrified of losing you in the process.”
He released her hands to cup her cheeks, catching a falling tear in the process.
“You won’t lose me. You’re not getting rid of me.
” His lips crooked at the edges. “I’m gonna grow old with you, probably drive you nuts here and there, but I promise I’m yours.
” His stomach tightened as he hung on to the hope he wasn’t lying.
He was mission-focused and ready to get Luke and Jessica back, but the concern in her eyes gave him pause.
Would she be on edge every time he went out on an op?
He didn’t want her to worry like this. He supposed it’d take some adjusting, but he wouldn’t let this be a reason not to be together. Hell no.
“Get our people back okay.” She reached into her pocket and stepped back, motioning for him to hold out his hand. “Keep this with you for luck.”
He lowered his eyes to the white and rose gold trident pendant he’d given her, now resting in his palm. “Harper.” His throat grew tight with emotion, trapping his words.
“I know you don’t really believe in luck, but it’ll make me feel better to know you have a piece of me with you when you go into that village.” Her tender voice gave out as she spoke.
He tightened his hand around the necklace and circled an arm around her waist, pulling her against his chest. “I already have you with me. In my heart. But I’ll carry it.”
“Thank you,” she said around a sniffle before he set his mouth to hers in an intense kiss and promised her that wasn’t a goodbye.
When they made their way back into the tent, Roman spotted A.J. handing over Marcus’s lucky black band to Asher, and the sight choked him up all over again.
Marcus was with them on this op.
He could feel him looking over them. And he’d make sure they made it through this alive.