“You’re about to have company,” Shields said.
Black scrambled behind the desk as he heard footfalls approaching his location.
“I thought we turned that damn thing off,” one of the guards groused.
“Me too,” the other man said. “Maybe you just moved the switch to motion control activation instead of—”
The conversation ended abruptly before the doors creaked opened.
“Be careful,” Shield said over the coms. “You’ve got two hostiles.”
Black smiled at his good fortune. Both guards in the same room as him and unaware of his presence.
Like shooting fish in a barrel.
Black rose and fired at the two men. He hit the first one in the head and the second guy in the neck. They both collapsed. Black put another round in each of them to ensure the job was completed before heading toward the back.
“We’ve got a problem,” Shields said.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Black said.
“The third heat signature just left the building.”
“What are you trying to say?” he asked.
“It’s not the package,” Shields said.
“How many times do I have to tell you that her name is Morgan?” Blunt said with a growl.
Black raced toward the back and hit the door only to find it locked.
“Uh, Shields, I need a way out of here,” he said.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Black stared at the contraption in the middle of the room with enough explosives to annihilate a small town.
“There’s a bomb in here, set to blow in one minute,” he explained.
“What’s the situation with the doors?” she asked.
“They all have a key pad along with a retinal scanner.”
“The retinal part is easy now,” she said.
“I need the other part thirty seconds ago,” Black said as he sprinted to the lobby.
He dragged one guard’s body over to the front door near the security panel.
“Still accessing,” she said.
“Please hurry. I’ve got thirty-five seconds remaining by my count.”
“Almost there,” she said. “Got it.”
She rattled off a long series of digits that she found on the TenTrack Industries mainframe, numbers designed to act as a master code. Once he finished that, a yellow light started blinking on the pad just below the scanner. Black hoisted up the guard’s body so his head was even with the device and then peeled back his eyelids. The machine on the wall whirred and beeped.
“Come on,” Black said.
A click released the lock and Black wasted no time, dropping the body and sprinting outside. He was only about twenty feet clear of the building before an explosion rocked the ground. The blast sent Black diving to avoid the heat and shrapnel that flew out of the front doors.
Black rolled to a stop and took cover behind a nearby truck. He glanced around the side of the building and saw a car racing out of the parking lot. Black took a few shots at the driver but didn’t hit him.
“Want the good news first or the bad news?” Black asked.
“If you don’t have Morgan, nothing you’re going to say is good news,” Blunt said over the coms.
“In that case, I’ll just spell it out for you,” Black said. “One of the guards got away, but Morgan is obviously still alive.”
“Like I said,” Black growled, “if you don’t have Morgan, there’s no good news. But at least you used her name this time.”
Black exhaled before hustling to his feet. Sirens wailed in the distance. He didn’t want to be around in five minutes when the place was crawling with local law enforcement officials.
* * *
BLUNT LOOKED AT SHIELDS before slamming his fist down on the table. “I thought you said that’s where she was,” he said as he glared at Shields, his lips quivering. “You assured me that—”
“I know you’re upset,” she said, “but I only promised you that the call you received which gave you proof of life was made from that location. They’ve obviously moved her.”
“Have they? Or have they already killed her? Are we going to hear in a few hours that Miami officials recovered Morgan’s body from the carnage of that explosion?”
“I hope not,” Shields said. “And I doubt that’s the play Sinclair would make. If your niece is dead, he has no leverage with you.”
“Then where is she?” Blunt asked. “We don’t have much time. If the president meets with that mastermind, we have no idea of knowing whether any decision Young makes in the future will be one that is made in the best interest of our country’s national security. If Young is compromised—”
“He’ll probably handle it like you have,” Shields said. “Look, you can’t beat yourself up about this or worry about what’s going to happen next. This mission has become intensely personal for you, but we can’t let that distract us from what we need to do next.”
“Which is what?”
“Find Morgan,” she said as she patted Blunt on the arm.
Moments later, Blunt’s phone buzzed with a call. He repeated the numbers on the screen to himself before answering.
“Yeah,” Blunt answered.
“Emotionless, I like it,” Sinclair said. “Your niece was just obliterated, and that’s all you have to say about it? I mean, who can blame you really since you’re the one who’s responsible for her death? I warned you not to make a rescue attempt, but you wouldn’t listen to me. And here we are.”
“Where is she?” Blunt asked.
“What do you mean? Weren’t you watching that botched mission?” Sinclair asked.
“You’re not that dumb.”
“I appreciate your affirmation regarding my intelligence, but I’m also not stupid enough to tell you where we have her. You’ll have to learn that on your own—but you never will if you try to pull another stunt like that again. I’ll send her back to you in pieces, and I’ll enjoy every minute of it.”
Blunt hung up the phone and jammed it into his pocket. He needed to find Morgan before it was too late.
CHAPTER 13
Somewhere over Russia
HAWK AWOKE AS COLD AIR whooshed into his face and the cabin’s air pressure vanished. He looked over at Alex, who was strapped in and unfazed by the chaos swirling around her.
“Alex,” he shouted. “Alex, wake up!”
She didn’t stir.
Hawk had so many questions flying through this mind, but no time to ponder any of them.
He fished his backpack from beneath his seat and fastened it around him. Next, he looked up at the overhead hatch where the parachutes were stored. Unbuckling from his seatbelt, he wrapped it around his left wrist to keep him from flying out of the door. With his right hand, he reached up and unlatched the door. Once he grabbed one of the chute straps, he pulled the pack down and carefully secured it on his back.
His next challenge was to get across the aisle and get Alex, who was still asleep. At least, he hoped she was sleeping and wasn’t dead. Her unresponsiveness concerned him, but not nearly as much as the plane with an open door that was careening toward the ground.
He remained tethered to the belt and worked his way over to her.
“Alex, wake up!” he shouted.
When she didn’t move, he shook her vigorously to see if she could possibly be roused.
Still nothing.
He thrust his right leg in front of her chest, pinning her against the seat while he unbuckled her. Next, he grabbed a fistful of her shirt and pulled her close to him. He held on to her with his right arm and then swung back to his side of the cabin near the door.
I hope I never wake up like she’s about to.
Hawk rocked back and forth to gain enough momentum to swing out of the door. Counting to three beneath his breath, he gritted his teeth and leaped.
The air chilled Hawk to the bone. With his arms locked around Alex, he could only imagine how she mi
ght react when she awoke. He just hoped she wouldn’t thrash about, though he was certain if she regained consciousness during the free fall descent, she would panic.
If Hawk had been jumping for a mission, things would be vastly different. He would know what kind of terrain he was about to land on and what he was about to face. But everything about this jump was unplanned, all the way down to Alex not having a chute and him having to cling to his wife to spare her life.
The only saving grace for Hawk was the altimeter function on his watch. Under normal circumstances, he would check it every few seconds in an attempt to time his pull perfectly. But he couldn’t withstand the strain of craning his neck around Alex constantly to see his altitude. So, he had to determine the rate he was falling and estimate the right moment to yank on his rip cord. Once he felt confident, everything was thrown off when Alex opened her eyes.
“Am I dreaming?” she asked groggily as she looked around.
“Which part? The part about a dashingly handsome man saving you from the clutches of death? Or the part about you waking up in a free fall out of an airplane?”
“Both,” she said.
“You are most definitely not dreaming,” Hawk said.
Closing her eyes, Alex threw her head back and screamed. When she did, her positioning made it even more difficult for Hawk to see the altimeter readout on his watch. He’d lost count but was certain the moment was nearing to deploy his parachute.
“Hold on,” Hawk said before tugging on the cord.
The time it took for the parachute to unfurl seemed to last for minutes if not hours. But eventually it opened up and caught the wind, beginning their soft descent to the ground. Hawk and Alex jerked upward, halting their rapid fall.
“Are you insane?” Alex asked. “You need to give me a warning.”
“I did,” Hawk said. “Maybe you didn’t hear me over your screaming.”
“Hawk, I woke up falling out of an airplane,” she said. “What other response did you expect?”
Hawk smiled, confident he could get away with a cheeky moment since the chaos was suspended for the next few minutes as they floated down to the earth.
“Don’t look down,” he said.
“You know how much I hate heights,” she said. “I wouldn’t dare dream of it.”
“Good. It’s going to take a while before we touch the ground again.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“I have no idea,” Hawk said. “When I woke up, the plane was in a free fall and the cockpit door was shut. Thank God we were both buckled in.”
“So, you don’t know what happened to Kip?”
Below, an explosion lit up the sky.
Hawk sighed. “I have no idea. But if he was in that cockpit, he’s gone now. The plane just struck the ground.”
“Hawk, where are we?”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure of that either. I can tell you one thing though: this isn’t Afghanistan.”
She exhaled. “That’s refreshing. Waking up like that was bad enough, but then only to find out we’re about to land in the middle of a village controlled by the Taliban? That would’ve been too much for me.”
“Oh, Alex, the fun is just beginning.”
“Hawk, you know where we are, don’t you?”
He scanned the area, refusing to look at her. She set her jaw and glared at him.
“Hawk, where are we?”
“Based on the GPS coordinates on my watch, we’re in Russia.”
“Russia? How did we—”
“I have no idea what happened. After we finished working on our plan, I fell asleep—and so did you.”
“I wasn’t that tired,” she said. “I think someone drugged me.”
“Who?” Hawk said with a scowl. “And when? What did you take that could’ve possibly knocked you out like that?”
“I don’t know, but I do know that I have a massive headache right now. And the last time my head felt like this was when someone drugged me in North Korea.”
“But what did you—” Hawk stopped talking the moment he realized the source of her drug. “The water bottles.”
“From Kip?” she asked. “He wouldn’t do a thing like that.”
“Got any other explanations? Because I was supposed to drink one of those too, but remember I didn’t. And then you drank mine for me.”
“That explains why I was sleeping like a dead person.”
Hawk chuckled. “That’s not all that different than usual. But in most cases, I will concede that you would wake up while in an airplane in a free fall with the door open.”
The sound of men shouting reached Hawk’s ears. He peered down over Alex’s shoulders.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing. I was just trying to see how much longer before we hit the ground,” he said.
“Stop lying to me, Hawk. I hear those guys talking. Who are they?”
“It’s kind of dark, so it’s difficult to tell anything for certain.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Your best guess.”
He winced. “I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one anymore. They’re clearly Russian soldiers.”
Alex shook her head slowly. “Hawk, I hope you’ve got a plan.”
“You’re assuming that they see us and are going to capture us,” Hawk said.
A few seconds later, Hawk drew back and locked eyes with Alex.
“We’re about to hit the ground,” he said. “Just try to roll a little bit once your feet touch down so you don’t break any bones.”
“Roger that,” she said.
“In three, two, and one . . .”
They touched down and tumbled across the ground, the parachute coming to rest on top of them. Hawk landed on his back with Alex on top of him. She smiled as she pushed herself up.
“Thanks for breaking my fall,” she said.
“Any time,” he said before flinging the canvas over their heads.
A bright beam shone in both their faces as the silhouette of soldiers lumbered forward.
“Keep your hands where I can see them,” he bellowed.
Hawk and Alex raised their hands in a gesture of surrender.
“You’re both under arrest for espionage,” the commander said before nodding knowingly at some of his subordinates. They rushed over to Hawk and Alex, yanking them to their feet before dragging them toward an idling military transport vehicle.
CHAPTER 14
Washington, D.C.
BLUNT STIRRED HIS COFFEE and positioned his face over the steam. Following the unsuccessful op to rescue Morgan, he had a restless night, spent worrying about her future as well as the fate of the country. Given the lengths Falcon Sinclair had already gone through to ensure Young’s attendance at this secret meeting, Blunt could only figure the fallout would be disastrous.
Blunt wrapped both hands around his “World’s Best Boss” mug and took a sip. On the side of the grounds, the flavor was listed as Kenyan Bold, one of Blunt’s favorites. He took the name as a sign of how he needed to lead with a master manipulator threatening his own family. This wasn’t the time to hedge his bets. Sinclair was intent on gaining control on so many sectors of the world that if something wasn’t done to stop him, the world would be at his mercy.
Blunt read through several reports on his desk before his administrative assistant buzzed in with a call from Randy Wood at the CIA.
“Randy, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?” Blunt said, doing his best to sound cheery.
“I’m afraid there’s going to be nothing pleasurable about this conversation.”
“What is it?” Blunt asked, his voice transitioning quickly to concern.
“It’s about your plane.”
“My plane?”
“Yeah, the one with Hawk and Alex on it that left here last night.”
“What about it?”
“It crashed in Russia last night.”
“Wait. What? Russia? What was it d
oing in—”
“That’s what I was hoping you could tell us.”
Blunt set his jaw, afraid of the answer to his next question. “And Hawk and Alex?”
“Both alive,” Wood said, “captured by the Russian military.”
“I don’t understand. How did they—”
“Actually, we were hoping you could answer some questions for us,” Wood began, “starting with what the hell were they doing over Russian airspace in the first place?”
“I’m as stunned about that revelation as you are.”
“What were they doing over there?”
Blunt sighed. “We used Orlovsky to set up a meeting with Evana Bahar, but apparently something went wrong.”
“What about your pilot? Is he trustworthy?”
“Best in the business. He’d never get that far off course.”
“So, I guess that leaves us with your operatives,” Wood said. “Which one don’t you trust?”
“I have—and would again—trust both of them with my life. Neither one of them would do anything like that. Maybe there was something wrong with the navigational controls. I mean, that might be able to explain a lot of things, including the crash.”
“You could be right, but that still feels like quite a stretch to me. But you have a bigger problem.”
“Are the Russians detaining Hawk and Alex?” Blunt asked.
“I wish your two assets were merely being detained because that’d be much easier to negotiate than what’s happening now.”
“Charges?”
“Yep,” Wood said.
“Of what?”
“Espionage. They could face life in a work camp in Siberia or a firing squad for that offense. That’s really up to the judge to decide.”
“That’s not even why they were there,” Blunt said before growling. “Are they offering any deals?”
“Nothing that’s negotiable.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“One of the Russian generals involved in this mess also happens to be the cousin of Andrei Orlovsky,” Wood said.
“So, they want to make an exchange. Why not do it? Orlovsky isn’t getting us anything.”
“That’s not why we’re holding on to him,” Wood said. “The president wants to use him as Exhibit A that his administration is doing a stellar job at keeping terrorists out of this country and putting them where they belong. It’s his backup plan if you can’t capture Evana Bahar.”
Brady Hawk 19 - Divide and Conquer Page 7