Chapter 18 #2
Noble held his stare for another couple of seconds before giving a short nod. Whatever point he had wanted to make, Zenko figured Shaun had gotten the fucking message loud and clear.
Noble held out his hand. “Show us what you found.”
Shaun pulled out his phone and clicked through the screens before standing and handing it to Max. “You might be able to enlarge it when you put it on your laptop screen.” Max took the phone, and within seconds, he had the image transferred to the laptop.
Zenko stood and moved a couple of steps forward until he was crowded against Shaun’s back as they both peered at the screen.
The contact was probably unnecessary, considering there was enough room to see over his shoulder without practically plastering himself against him, but nobody had asked for his opinion on personal space.
The photograph showed the two men Drax had taken out during the rescue sitting in a tea house, and from the signs covering the walls, he figured it had been taken somewhere in Iraq. Wade Sheridan sat at the same table with them.
Well, fuck. If they’d needed proof the bastard had been connected to the men who held Shaun in that cave, they were looking right at it.
“There is your confirmation,” Shaun said. “That’s the tea house I was taken from.”
Noble frowned as he studied the photograph again. “Where did your guy get this?”
“He found it on a server that was connected to Sheridan’s desktop computer.” Shaun shrugged. “I don’t know how it works, but something about bouncing IPs and following breadcrumbs.”
Max leaned closer to the screen, studying the photograph. “I want to know exactly how he found that server. I ran Sheridan through everything I have access to and came up empty.”
“I can ask Kalon for the details,” Shaun offered.
“Do that.” Noble nodded toward the files spread around them. “Okay, we have our link to connect Sheridan to known ISIS members. Go through every scrap of information in those files and find me the rat hole he is hiding in.”
“I can give you that, too,” Shaun supplied helpfully.
Noble slowly turned his head in Shaun’s direction, and Zenko bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing at the expression on his face. Yeah, his guy really wasn’t helping himself here.
“Of course you fucking can,” Noble muttered. “Well, don’t keep us in suspense, tell us.”
“This man here.” Shaun pointed to the image on the left-hand side of the screen.
“The only known name we have for him is Efktar Shein Al Haffasal. He is connected to this woman.” He shifted his finger toward a figure in the background of the photograph.
“She’s sitting at the table next to the window.
The burka she is wearing covers most of her face, but there is something about her eyes that tells me I have seen her somewhere before.
” He ran a hand over his head in frustration.
“I just can’t put my finger on it. Maybe she is on a watch list from years ago or something, but it will come to me. ”
Zenko leaned closer to the screen and studied the woman Shaun had indicated. Now that his attention had been drawn to her, there was something familiar about the set of her eyes, although he couldn’t place her either.
Noble leaned closer to study the photograph. “Shit, he’s right. There is something familiar about her.” He pointed toward the woman before looking at Max. “See if you can track her on CCTV after she leaves the tea house. Maybe we can get a better image of her face or figure out where she went.”
Max was already reaching for the laptop. “I’ll see what I can pull.”
Noble scrubbed a hand over his face. “Why the fuck does this shit always have to be as complicated as fuck? Give us the damn details and let us fucking run the op.” He looked back at Shaun and pointed toward the woman on the screen.
“Okay, how does a woman we can’t identify tell us where Sheridan might be hiding? ”
“Because of the cell phone she has on the table in front of her. The IP for that phone is currently stationary at a compound in Iran,” Shaun answered. He pointed toward the partially obscured phone in the photograph. “Along with the IP of a burner phone that was in the tea house at the same time.”
“Damn it,” Noble swore as he leaned closer to examine the photograph again.
Zenko followed his gaze back to the woman, then across the rest of the image.
The phone was half covered by the napkin on her table, easy enough to miss if nobody knew to look for it, but Noble wasn’t looking at the phone anymore.
His attention kept moving over the photograph before returning to the woman.
“There is something else bugging me about this picture.” Noble tapped one finger against the edge of the screen. “I can’t put my finger on it yet, but it’ll come to me. I just hope whatever the fuck I’m missing doesn’t cause something I’m going to have to unfuck with a shit ton of paperwork.”
He gave his guy a slight smile when Noble turned back to Max and started talking about cleaning up the image to see if they could get a clearer view of the woman. Shaun may not have followed protocol, but the information he’d brought back had given them a starting point.
He reached into one of the overhead lockers and pulled out a pack.
“This one should contain maps. Hope to fuck I have an updated one of Iran in here.” He rifled through it until he found the detailed map he was looking for.
“Do we have coordinates for the compound?” He took the phone Shaun handed him and looked around for somewhere to lay out the map before giving up with a sigh.
Fuck it. The floor would have to do. He lowered himself down and spread the map out in front of him.
“Can you ask Max if he can use satellite or drone images for that area around the compound?”
“Sure.” Shaun headed toward the table while Zenko went back to tracing the coordinates across the map.
A movement at the edge of his vision had him glancing up.
Noble was leaning over Max’s shoulder as they studied the photograph, and before he straightened, he pressed his lips to the top of Max’s head.
Holy shit.
His finger froze against the map.
Did Noble just kiss the top of Max’s head?
What the actual fuck?
He didn’t give a shit one way or the other, but how the hell had he missed that going on? A grin threatened as he dropped his attention back to the map.
Think of the shit you can have fucking with him.
“What are you planning?” Drax quietly asked, his knees cracking as he crouched behind him.
“Don’t fucking creep up on me, asshole.” He almost asked Drax if he knew what was going on between Noble and Max, but caught himself before the words escaped.
Fucking with Noble once he knew what he’d seen was one thing.
Starting shit among the team when one kiss on the top of Max’s head could mean absolutely fucking anything was another.
Nope, mouth shut, and say nothing until you know more.
He tapped the coordinates on the map. “I am searching out the coordinates Shaun gave me for the compound in Iran. So unless you know the area really well, can you send Castiel over? I think he might have spent some time on a hospital ship there.”
Drax studied him for long enough that he expected him to start asking questions.
When a team spent as much time together as Red Squadron did, they got to know each other pretty damn well, and there was no way in hell Drax hadn’t noticed something was up.
Instead of pushing, he lowered himself from his crouch and planted his ass on the floor beside him.
“I was stationed aboard the carrier USS Independence for a rotation when it was in the Gulf.” Drax shifted closer to the map. “What is it you are looking for?”
“An insertion point into the compound.” He tapped the location on the map. “I would prefer not to have to use brute force if we don’t have to.”
He scooted his ass over to make room when Shaun came back carrying several images from Max, giving him a smile as he dropped down beside them.
“Satellite photos from the last time there was one overhead after a hot tip almost a week ago.” Shaun shrugged as he handed the images over. “He’ll send out a drone when we land in Kuwait.”
“Thanks.” He took the images and gave them a quick once-over before laying them beside the map and showing Drax the area they were looking at. Then what Shaun had said registered. He looked up at him. “Kuwait? I thought we were going to one of the ‘Stans.”
“Nope, wrong side of the Persian Gulf,” Shaun told him. “Jeez, Zen, after all the time you have been deployed to the Middle East, someone would think you would know that.”
He frowned at the smart-ass sitting beside him. “Shut up, you idiot.”
Drax leaned over the map and pointed to an area near the compound.
“This area here. It has a lot of gas lines, and most of those compounds were built on former gas refineries. If our target one is there, it might have a pipeline that flows directly into the gulf, if we are lucky. If it does, then we follow the pipeline back to where the pump house is. You should be able to access the compound through the pipeline from there.”
“Noted.” He nodded to Drax and went back to the map while Shaun settled beside him and pulled his weapons, oil, and cloths out of a bag.
His attention drifted from the coordinates to the hands breaking down the Sig with practiced ease before starting to clean it.
Shit, he could get used to having his guy working beside him like this.
Knowing Shaun would eventually have to go back to Ghosts was going to be a fucking kick in the balls.