Rescuing Katherine (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Bravo Series Book 2)

by Anna Blakely

  “You got an even better offer than the one the military had proposed. One from Walker’s mystery buyer.”

  “Yes,” he admitted begrudgingly.

  “What happened, next? Todd get greedy? Cold feet? Why did he go after Kat?”

  Anderson explained how if Todd took over, he’d gain access to all the information needed to make the serum. He also admitted to telling Walker about Kat’s crazy-good memory.

  “Okay, that explains why Kat was taken,” Matt commented. “There’s only one more thing we need to know.”

  “What?”

  “Who’s the buyer?”

  Anderson shook his head. “I-I don’t know.”

  The man really is a horrible liar. “Now, why don’t I believe that?” Matt grabbed Anderson’s shoulder in a strong grip and squeezed.

  “I don’t know.” The older man’s voice became strained as his knees buckled and he attempted to pull away. “Walker never told me his name.”

  “But you know it, anyway.” Matt could see it in the man’s eyes. “Come on, Sloane. We’ve come this far. Walker had to have said it at least once.”

  When Anderson remained tight-lipped, Matt went back to his earlier tactic. Pointing his pistol at the man’s bare foot, he began counting down from five.

  “Five. Four. Three…”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Two…”

  “I swear, I don’t—”

  “One.” Matt’s finger slid to the trigger right as Anderson hollered out.

  “Okay! Okay!”

  Matt moved his finger back to its safe position. “You were saying?”

  “He’ll kill me if he finds out I told you.” Anderson’s entire body began to shake so badly, if he’d had any shit in his bowels, he probably would’ve let go of that, too.

  Thank God for small favors.

  “What do you think I’m going to do to you, if you don’t?”

  Anderson looked back at him with a fear Matt welcomed. “I-I may have overheard Walker talking to him once while we were on the phone. I thought I heard him say ‘Rajif’.”

  Matt’s eyes flew to Gabe’s. “Bukhari?”

  Gabe shifted his gaze to Anderson. “Did you ever hear Walker say the name ‘Bukhari’?”

  “No.” Anderson shook his head vehemently. “I swear. I heard Rajif that one time. That was it.”

  Gabe stepped closer to Matt, putting his mouth right next to his ear he whispered, “If Bukhari’s involved, this shit’s a hell of a lot bigger than we thought.”

  Matt nodded his head to show his team leader he agreed. “We need to call Ryker.”

  “I’m on it.” Gabe pulled his phone from his thigh pocket and called the Homeland Security agent’s personal cell.

  When Ryker picked up, Matt heard Gabe tell him, “You need to get to the office.” There was a slight pause before Bravo’s team leader said, “Because we’re bringing you a present. Homeland’s Christmas came early this year.”

  Chapter 15

  After grabbing some clean pants for Anderson to change into—because no one on the team wanted to smell old man piss while driving to Dallas’s Homeland facility—they’d used their plastic cuffs to secure their prisoner for transport.

  Having transferred him into their custody, Agent Ryker had instructed them to go back to Gabe’s place and wait for him. Hours later, as dawn was beginning to break, the four men were in Gabe’s living room, drinking some much-needed coffee when there was a knock on the door.

  Jason Ryker had shown up, as promised, his hands full of thick manila folders. One for each man present.

  Passing them out, as he spoke, Ryker began filling them in on what he knew. “As of an hour ago, Sloane Anderson has officially been charged with treason. Now, we move on to the big fish.”

  “Bukhari?” Matt assumed.

  Ryker went to the table and grabbed the back of one of the wooden chairs before dragging it into the living room. Sitting down, he shared what he knew.

  “As you know, Rajif Bukhari has been considered a high value target to the U.S. government for several years. Until now, he’s been untouchable. Too many politics in play. As head of Iran’s most lethal military faction, Bukhari knows how to work the system and has a fuck-ton of people on his payroll. Government officials, local law enforcement…you name it.”

  “What are you saying?” Matt asked angrily. “We’re giving up? Letting the son of a bitch get away with it all?”

  No fucking way he’d let that happen. If he had to, Matt would go after Bukhari himself.

  “No, Turner,” Ryker shot his thoughts down quickly. “That’s not at all what I’m saying.”

  Without giving the man a chance to explain, Matt asked, “How do you suppose we get to him, if he’s so goddamn untouchable?”

  The cunning agent gave him a sideways smirk. “We call in reinforcements.”

  Each of the R.I.S.C. operatives shared a look before Gabe said what everyone else was thinking. “You’re talking about calling in another team.”

  Ryker nodded. “One your men are already familiar with.”

  Matt finally understood. “You mean Ghost and Fletch and those guys?”

  Ghost and Fletch were two of the Delta team members that had aided them in Gracelynn’s rescue. At first, the team was hesitant to go into an op with a team they knew nothing about. Especially when the op was as important as rescuing one of their women.

  Turns out, Ghost and that whole crew were actually pretty cool guys. More importantly, they were kick ass operatives who knew what they were doing.

  “Along with a couple other agencies, Homeland has been working closely with this Delta team for the past two months.” Ryker leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he explained Delta’s play in this particular game. “They’ve been working various angles, gathering as much intel as possible on Bukhari and his alleged side operations while infiltrating multiple networks believed to be tied to him. A couple weeks ago, Ghost reported hearing chatter about Bukhari’s interest in some sort of injection to make soldiers stronger. Less vulnerable.”

  “Kat’s formula,” Matt mumbled, more to himself than anyone else.

  “We believe so,” Ryker acknowledged him. “Sloane Anderson copped to having Kennedy send pictures of the lab from every angle to the same number that accidentally texted your girl. Rumor has it he’s ordered the construction of a lab identical to the one at Anderson Biomeds in in a warehouse near the Mehrabad.”

  “They took her to fucking Tehran,” Matt growled. Tossing his folder onto the coffee table, he stood and ran a hand through his hair before pacing the room nervously.

  Tehran was the capital of Iran. With a population of over nine million, it was polluted, traffic was horrendous, and it was suffocating as hell.

  The idea that Bukhari had taken Kat there, was holding her in a fucking warehouse, filled him with an unprecedented level of hatred and rage. The only thing keeping him from punching a hole in the goddamn wall was the fact that this was Gabe’s house. Not his.

  “The warehouse was built on a large stretch of undeveloped land west of the airport, between it and the hospital,” Ryker continued with what he knew. “It’s on the outskirts of District Ten.”

  Swallowing a swig of coffee, Gabe sat his mug down and looked at the agent. “No offense, Jason, but if Ghost and the others have been in place for two months and they still haven’t found a way in, what makes you think they’ll be able go after him now?”

  Matt watched Ryker closely, wondering the same damn thing, himself.

  “Katherine Marsh is a United States Citizen.”

  “No shit,” Matt popped off impatiently. With his hands on his hips, he barely controlled his rising temper. “You gotta give us more than that, man. We’re talking about saving her life.”

  Sighing, Ryker explained. “Until now, the only thing we’ve been able to solidly tie to Bukhari are crimes against his own people. Even then, he has so many Iranian government officia
ls in his pocket, any allegations we’ve tried to make have bounced off his ass like he’s made of fucking rubber.”

  “And this time?” Gabe raised a brow.

  “This time, Delta can use their contacts to confirm Bukhari is holding a U.S. citizen against her will. They get photo evidence of that, especially since this particular civilian has the capabilities to help save American lives? That shit opens him up to whatever hell we can bring down on him.”

  “Then we go in, right?” Matt asked anxiously. “I’m cool working with Delta on this, but I want to be there when they breach.”

  “I figured you would. Which is why I contacted Ghost before I left the office to come here. He and his men are already on it. The second we get confirmation Katherine’s there, we’ll fly your team in to join them for the takedown.”

  “You mean rescue,” Matt corrected Ryker.

  “Takedown, rescue. Whatever you want to call it.”

  Needing to make sure the man knew exactly where he stood on this, Matt locked his narrowed gaze with the agent. “Let’s get something straight, Jason. Kat’s not some goddamn pawn in whatever game Homeland’s trying to play. We go in that warehouse, with or without Delta, our primary objective is to locate Kat and get her to safety. Period. Everything else is secondary.”

  Ryker sat back in his chair and crossed his arms loosely at his chest. “Agreed. Bravo’s objective is to get to Kat. Delta, however, is a different story.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning, your teams will work together to locate your girl. Once Bravo has her secure, the two teams will split up. You guys get Kat to safety. Delta takes out Bukhari.” The man shrugged. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”

  The room went silent for a beat while Matt and the others contemplated what Ryker was proposing. With perfect execution, a joint op like that could work. Hell, that’s pretty much how it had gone the last time they’d joined Ghost’s Delta team.

  They’d gone with Nate to Turkey when the country’s crooked—and now dead—president had taken Gracie there. The two teams had come together nicely, working together as if they were one unit.

  This could work.

  “Turner?” Gabe’s voice snapped him back to the present. “You good with this?”

  “You’re the team leader.” Matt swallowed. “Decision should be yours.”

  Gabe shook his head. “Your woman. Your call.”

  He nodded, grateful his team leader was letting him weigh in. “Ghost and his men did right by Nate and Gracie. I trust them to do the same for Kat.”

  To Ryker, Gabe said, “Call their commander.”

  The agent nodded. “I’ll make it happen.” Standing, the well-connected man walked to the door. “I’ll be in touch with the details. In the meantime, I suggest Bravo gets their shit in order.” With a parting glance, he added, “I have a feeling it won’t take long for Delta to jump on this. You need to be ready.”

  Matt shared a serious look with the other man. “Don’t worry. We will be.”

  He prayed Kat could hold on long enough for that to happen.

  Hang on, sweetheart. We’re coming for you.

  Kat watched the plunger carefully as she pulled the clear serum into the syringe. With as undetectable a move as possible, she secured the plastic tip over the blunt end before hiding it in the elastic waistband of her pants.

  Too bad I don’t have a needle to go along with this. I’d jab it in Walker’s eye. Which was probably the reason they’d only provided the syringe, and not the needle.

  Doing her best to avoid the camera, Kat pulled the edge of the black scrub top Walker had brought her down to conceal the contraband. She knew if she were caught, she’d most likely be killed. Since death was an inevitability for her here already, she figured it would be better to die trying than not.

  After Bukhari and Walker had left her alone that first day, Kat had sat down in her ‘lab’ and cried. Not for herself, but for her father.

  Those detectives had claimed he was murdered, but she hadn’t had the chance to learn anything more before Walker and his men had ambushed them.

  To learn he’d been killed for the sole purpose of getting to her…Kat still didn’t know what to do with that. Accepting that wasn’t something she’d be able to truly understand or get over anytime soon, she’d pushed it away and did what she had to do to survive.

  So far, it was working.

  Later, when Bukhari had returned to the lab and demanded a timeline, Kat had called upon her best acting skills in order to fool him. First, she’d downplayed her incredible memory, convincing him it wasn’t as fool proof as he’d been led to believe.

  The man had gotten angry, but she’d been able to talk him down before he struck her again, assuring him she would remember the necessary research, but it was going to take some time.

  When he asked how much time, she’d reminded him she’d had a team of scientists before, and now she was working alone. She’d also used a lot of big, scientific jargon as she began to explain the complicated process needed to create the serum he was after.

  The more she talked, the more his eyes had begun to glaze over until finally, he’d waved his hand in the air impatiently and told her to do what needed to be done.

  She promised she’d have it created within the next fourteen days. The dose she’d just hidden in her waistband had taken three days to create.

  Three days. That’s how long she’d been stuck in here. Pretending.

  Each day, after a meager breakfast of black coffee and two slices of bread, Kat was escorted in here. She’d then go about her day, spending most of those first two days taking scrupulous notes.

  Some things she’d written down were real, actual data she remembered from the painstaking research she and her team had completed for this project. Knowing she couldn’t simply write her way out of this, Kat had spent the last half of yesterday to actually begin creating that first dose.

  Her thought was, if she were somehow able to get free, she’d have it as proof of who she was. It was a shot that was beyond long, but she was in a foreign country known for its hostile treatment toward Americans.

  If—and that was a big damn if—she was somehow able to escape, Kat knew she’d need to find someone to take her someplace safe. Preferably, the nearest U.S. military base.

  Iran destroyed the U.S. Embassy back in the late seventies, but she remembered hearing about how the country was pretty much surrounded by United States military bases. If she could get out and somehow convince someone to drive her to the border, she may have a chance.

  Her stomach threatened to revolt from the fear. As a woman of science Kat was used to dealing with facts. Relying on maybes and ifs to stay alive was real damn hard for her to swallow. But she had no choice.

  Cleaning up the evidence and continuing on with her ‘work’, Kat prayed her stall tactics would buy her enough time to escape. Or be rescued.

  They can’t rescue you if they don’t know where you are.

  She ignored the negative thought. Matt and the rest of R.I.S.C. were the best at what they did. If anyone could find her, they could. In the meantime, she’d bide her time and keep up the pretense of following Bukhari’s orders.

  Walker had been bringing her something small to eat halfway through the day. At night, he’d escort her back to her dark, empty room.

  Any time she had to use the restroom while working, Kat had to knock on the door to be let out. Walker would open the door, pat her down, and take her down the hallway to the bathroom.

  The bathroom had a small, single window. It was up high, next to the ceiling, and much too small for her to fit through. Escaping through the room may not be an option, but it was the best place she could think of to hide the syringe.

  It had to be somewhere outside the lab. Since the door to the lab was always locked—whether she was in it or not—Kat needed to hide it in a spot outside this room. If she were to have a chance to escape, it wouldn’t be while she was in here.
/>
  It was too dangerous to keep it on her person, and there was nowhere for her to conceal it in the room where she slept. That left only one other place she had access to.

  Doing her best to control her racing heart, Kat pounded on the door. When Walker opened it, he looked down at her with that same, guarded expression he always seemed to wear.

  “Yes?”

  “I need to use the bathroom.”

  With a small nod, he said, “You know the drill. Hold your hands out.”

  Terrified of getting caught, she did her best to act normal. With her hands held straight out, she stood perfectly still while Walker began to check her for anything, she may have on her.

  Starting with her shoulders, he slowly ran his hands over her short sleeves before moving them beneath her arms and down her ribs. Normally, he kept going, but for some reason Walker stopped.

  With his hands rested against her ribs and under her breasts, he frowned. “Your heart is racing.” He slid a glance to her forehead. “And you’re sweating. Do you feel ill?”

  “Yes,” she answered honestly. “Wouldn’t you if you were constantly being felt up by the man who murdered your father?”

  His face went flat, and he slowly dropped his hands. “I’m supposed to search you every time you leave. You know that.”

  “What do you think I’m going to do, try to kill you with a petri dish?” When the man gave her a look, she sighed loudly and asked, “Are you going to take me to the bathroom or not?”

  Walker studied her a second longer before stepping to the side. “After you.”

  Kat walked past him, holding her breath and praying he didn’t change his mind and continue the search.

  When they reached the tiny room at the end of the hall, he said, “Make it quick.”

  “Always do,” she quipped before shutting the door in his face.

  Taking a minute to calm her dizzying nerves, Kat immediately went to work. Turning the faucet on to cover the sound, she quickly removed the lid from the back of the toilet.

  Dipping her hand into the clear, cool water, she placed the syringe behind the toilet’s small pump, hiding it as best she could before setting the ceramic lid back in its place.