Chapter 24 #3
Sergeant Taylor shrugged. “I didn’t say I believed him. He’s an asshole.”
“What about the list?” Leo prompted her.
“I don’t have it on me. I’d have to explain having all this information if someone caught me with it,” she said.
“All right,” Leo sighed. “Tell me why you came here. You haven’t produced any documents, no cell phones, or maps. It boils down to hearsay at this point.”
“When the General arrives, I suspect I won’t have the same job anymore. I wanted to check you out first and make sure you’re on the up-and-up. They may transfer me, and I need to know I can count on you to have someone watch my six until I leave or as long as you’re here.”
Shaking his head, Leo said, “My men come with me. We don’t split up.”
“I figured you might say that. When the General comes, he’ll want to know what you’re doing. Almost every private contractor has someone who knows the area,” she explained.
“Sparky came along to help us with the locals,” he replied, dashing her hopes.
“I don’t want this to come off rude, but she’s blind. She can speak the languages and knows the territories, but this place changes every day.”
“What do you propose?” Leo said, leaning forward.
“You’ll need someone from the base who knows the routes. The general won’t know about Sparky’s language skills or eidetic memory. You’ll insist he send someone along. He’ll want me out of his hair and will volunteer me.”
“What makes you think he’ll send you? He has not even met you yet,” Liam asked.
“I’ll make an impression,” she replied. “Do we have a deal?”
“We have a deal,” Leo said, “Providing you give me everything you have. We’ll go over it as a team, and you’re welcome to share your insights.”
Sargeant Taylor lit up, making the plain girl appear prettier than she let on.
“I’ll be working in Colonel Rutherford’s office, relaying messages and packing his personal items,” she informed them. “I’ll see you after my shift.”
Leo nodded and signaled for Shadow to follow her as she left.
“What do you think, Leo?” Saint asked, rolling a toothpick in his mouth.
“We need to keep our eyes open. No more stunts like today. We can’t have unknowns in our barracks or anywhere else,” he said firmly. “We’re on an op.” He turned to Cole and Liam. “Why didn’t the dogs alert to her presence?”
Cole shrugged. “I don’t know how she got past us. We checked all the rooms and cleared them before leaving.”
“You and Liam alternate night duty with the K-9s. Taco and Shadow will take the first shift with one of you. Saint and I will follow, then Knight and Hollywood. Sparky, what do you think about what she said?”
“We knew we might encounter unknowns before I came along. She’s right. Things change daily depending on the threat,” Sparky responded.
“Relay what we learned to Bear once Patch and I get the communications set up and secured,” he ordered as he walked back to his room.
Something red stuck out from his cot, catching his eye. Kneeling, he discovered a box under the bed. Whistling for some help, he waited to catch one of his men.
Saint entered first.
“Bring one of the dogs. I have a suspicious package under my cot.”
Liam walked in with Apollo and let him sniff out the area. Shaking his head, he informed Leo, “It’s not a bomb. Apollo isn’t alerting to anything.
He pulled the box out, lifted the lid, and grinned.
“Rest up, the only easy day was yesterday,” Liam read the note aloud. “It’s from Taylor. She left a bottle of whiskey, a phone, the map, and records.”
A minute later, Shadow appeared, seeming confused.
“I don’t know how she did it, but Taylor disappeared in thin air,” he told Leo.
“She left us a little gift. It seems she knows a lot about us. She never met Sparky and already knew about her blindness, and we brought her. Have Sparky ask Bear to do a deep dive on our Sergeant while we review the material.”
“Will do, boss,” Shadow said before leaving.
Leo sat on his cot, scratching his scruff. The damn heat made everything sticky. He glanced at his phone. In two hours, Kit Kat and the kids would wake, and he already missed them.
“Do you need anything else. Leo?” Hollywood asked.
“Yeah. I take it you and Addyson made up?”
Hollywood grinned. “It sure felt like it. Don’t worry, I have my head in the game.”
“You’d better,” Leo said. “They’ll have everything set up. It’d be a shame to miss the chance to call her before her shift. Why don’t you go first and let her know we arrived safely?”
Hollywood didn’t need any encouragement as he led Apollo from the room.
Saint lay on his cot and glanced at Leo. “I’ve known you long enough to know you have something on your mind.”
“I’m anxious to see what Bear can tell us about this Sergeant,” he said, staring down at the clues Rutherford left him.
Desperately hoping this meant they’d find the traitor faster and head home.
His thoughts drifted back home to the problems he left on his wife’s shoulders.
Vowing to fix them when he returned, he picked up the box and took it to the common area.
His team needed their leader, and he couldn’t afford to let them or his wife down.