Code Name: Ghost

by Natasza Waters

  Chapter Seventeen

  The solid ground fell away from under him, toppling his thoughts into a heap.

  Did he really know Kayla? The answer was no. Deployment had been his last option, and he took it because he had nothing left in his arsenal to fight her invisible draw. Throwing up walls was second nature to him, but his was riddled with holes. She held weapons of mass destruction against his heart, her smile, her warmth, and her courage.

  He’d accused her of wanting something from him he could never give her, but the truth was she’d never, ever come on to him. He’d thought about that night in Arizona a thousand times, all of them with regret. The memory of kissing her and holding her in his arms had engraved itself into him like words on a tombstone. Kayla was a landmine to everything he believed in, her essence left shrapnel inside him that he’d never get rid of.

  Would he end up like Lapierre—haunted by her? Slowly, he turned to see Kayla walking toward the weapons range with Mace. What would he do if she died tonight? Fear gripped him. An unfathomable depth of grief he’d never survive, ready to eviscerate him if that happened. He had to try and convince her not to go. He could hide her withdrawal, but bureaucracy had him pinned in a corner and he couldn’t order her not to go.

  Sitting back down at the table, he ignored Lapierre and tuned into Lieutenant Gibson from Dev, who shrugged and shot a look at Cobbs. “A woman like her should be raising a family and being pampered by her husband. What the hell is she doing here?”

  “Good question. None of us has the answer,” Cobbs replied.

  Gibson pulled out a package of cigarettes and stuffed one in his mouth. “Did anyone ask? You guys know her better than we do. It doesn’t compute, does it?”

  “She’s solid, that’s all you have to be concerned about,” Cobbs said defending Kayla, pushing away his MRE, Meal Ready to Eat.

  “Yeah, and what’s she going to do when bullets start flying around her head?”

  Cobbs adjusted his cap and squared his jaw. “She gets pissed off, actually. How she ended up that way we don’t know.”

  Fox’s beard stopped thrusting up and down from chewing on a mouthful of food. “That’s because none of ’em bothered to ask her. So they don’t know squat.” He took a big swig of water and belched. “Not bad for desert food.”

  Nathan’s shoulders rose with a quick laugh.

  “Ah, for fuck’s sake, Master Chief. Are you eating snake again? the Commander asked.

  “Better than the crap you’re eatin’, sir.”

  He cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. “If you know something about Kayla we don’t—”

  “With respect, sir. If you want to know, ask her yourself.” He pinned a hard look on him. “But I don’t think you should. That dead look in her eyes she tries to hide, and gives yours a run for the money, isn’t there because she had an easy life. It’s because part of her is dead.”

  He darted a look at Lapierre, whose brows flexed with interest. “Fox.” His patience was dwindling fast. Was he the only guy who’d been kept out of Kayla’s shadows. That’s how he saw them now. Things he should know, but didn’t.

  Fox peered at Lieutenant Gibson. “I wouldn’t worry if she’s taken prisoner. She’s the last person on the planet who’ll talk.” He craned his head to look at him. “She’s used to torture.”

  He vaulted to his feet and Segal stopped him. “Thane, if she’s got ghosts haunting her, don’t bring them up now. She has to have her wits about her out there, and so do you.” He pulled him away from the table. “You should have told me you had feelings for the woman.”

  “You didn’t ask me,” he fired back, and then blinked realizing what he’d just admitted. “You just brought her in here.”

  Slipping his cap off and running his fingers across his bald head, Segal sighed. “I’ll bring Fielding out, but it won’t be for a couple days. If she doesn’t go tonight, it puts us behind.”

  “She goes. She’ll do her job, we’ll do ours.”

  * * * *

  Kayla held the Sig at arm’s length. Mace stood behind her, his arms wrapped around hers as she fired on the target. The bullets tore through the center ring. When she stopped to reload, he stepped up to them.

  “Looks like you know what you’re doing,” he said. Kayla checked the magazine, and then secured it in the belt on her hip. “We’re leaving in forty-five minutes. Are you ready?”

  She nodded. “Thanks for the instruction, Mace.”

  “Don’t pull the weapon unless you have to, Kayla,” Mace said. “If you have to, it means there’s no one left standing but you. Until then you concentrate on plotting the grid through the caverns and nothing else.”

  “I will.”

  “Kayla. Commander Segal and Fox are going to lead the convoys tonight. I’m going to be your shadow. There’s no room for argument out there, and there will be active combat.” He gazed at her, searching for something, and then he saw it, Goddamnit he saw it. In the boathouse, her feet cut to pieces, she should have been screaming with pain, but she didn’t. Fox had said she could withstand torture. What the hell could that mean? “One last chance. If you back out, no one can stop you. I’d have to give you disciplinary action, but the paperwork would get lost before it ever hit your file.”

  “I’m going, Commander.”

  Mace stood watching them, and he looked like he wanted to pitch his two-cents-worth in to try and stop her, himself. “Kayla, do what the Commander says. Back out. I don’t want you to go either.”

  He could see her resistance. Not even Mace was going to talk her out of this, and he knew she had a soft spot for him. “Mace—”

  “I’ll leave in a second,” he said, and rested a hand on Kayla’s shoulder. “You have the heart and bravery of a SEAL, but you’re not a SEAL, and the truth is,” He paused, and leaned his forehead to hers. “I love you and I want more cinnamon buns.”

  A smile finally graced her lips. The first she’d offered them since she’d arrived. She stood on her toes and hugged Mace. “I love you, too, Mace, and I’ll make you more when we both go home, but I’m doing this.”

  She’d said it so easily, and she meant it. She did love Mace, in the way a sister loves a brother. “There’s no point in this,” he said, taking over from Mace.

  “My job is my point. I was asked to do this.” Her smile disintegrated as she turned her attention to him.

  “No,” he interrupted, before Mace could make an argument. “You were offered. No one said you had to.” He reached out and swept her hair from her face, the wind driving it into a chaotic sea of waves. “Would it make a difference if I told you I don’t want you to do this?”

  “No.”

  “No, what? You don’t care what I think or you don’t care if you mean something to…us?”

  “Something like that.” She pulled his hand into hers, squeezing it, and softly grazed her cheek against his fingers before releasing it. “I have to get my equipment.”

  He scanned the camp, seeing the men preparing for the night’s mission. Heads turned in their direction, including Lapierre’s. “Mace, give us a second.” Kayla began walking away with him, obviously she didn’t want to talk. Without letting much distance separate them, he said, “Who is he?”

  She stopped, but didn’t turn around. “If you’re talking about Greg, he works with JTF.”

  “I know who he works for, Kayla. That’s not what I asked.” Her stance stiffened, and it fanned a jealous fire in the pit of his stomach.

  “We’ve known each other for a long time.”

  The words shot right out of his jealous mouth before he could put the brakes on. “Do you love him?”

  Jerking around, she said, “Commander, that’s none of your business,” She paused, looking out into the barren desert. “He’s someone I trust. He’s a good friend.”

  Another jab of jealousy shot through him. Was it because her words made it sound like she didn’t trust him? “With benefits,” he shot back.


  Kayla’s hands flew to her hips, a sure sign he’d ticked her off.

  He swallowed deeply. “I promised him nothing would happen to you tonight.” His gaze settled on her lips, and her cheeks flushed.

  She took a small step then stopped herself, her expression strained. “No…he…”

  He waited holding his breath. Please, God, finish your sentence, and tell me you don’t love Lapierre, he thought. Her lips parted, but the words didn’t come. Taking the steps separating them, he drew her tight. “Tell me you don’t love him.” She stared up at him, searching his eyes, silent for too long. “Is he the reason you came to us?” She didn’t answer, gazing at him with that haunted look he’d seen before. He released his grip on her, and the chill in his heart made him back away. “You belong with us now, Kayla.”

  “I don’t belong to anyone,” she whispered.

  * * * *

  The sharp explosions from the rockets blasting into the hillside behind them covered their backs with sand and jagged stones. Dust clogged her lungs and the fast thump of her heart kept her adrenaline pumping hard. Squirming through the sand on her belly, she kept up. When the men ran, she ran. When they hit the ground, she did the same.

  Her headset activated with the teams combat chatter, enabling her to ready herself for the next move. Without her years of experience, she would never have been able to follow, but it was simply like adding the third dimension—reality.

  For hours, they worked their way to their target, a set of caves on the north side of a headland. She protected her handheld equipment, courtesy of the U.S. government. Bigger than an iPod but smaller than a notebook, its capabilities stopped just short of making her breakfast. The technological top of the line in plotting, data and transmittal capabilities with light touch accuracy, it was years ahead of anything she’d used before.

  They only had a few hundred yards to go before they reached the caves.

  Smothered again, the Commander shoved her under him when a rocket launched grenade landed on the ground not more than a hundred feet from them, throwing up rocks and leaving a pit in the earth. She had more bruises from him than she did from anything else.

  “Lieutenant Gibson?”

  “Go ahead, Snow White.”

  “Last quadrant. Two hundred meters to reach the cave entrance,” she said.

  “Is there an exit?” he asked.

  “Yes, I think I can get us through.”

  “You think?” Gibson blasted back at her as he would at any other team member who didn’t give him an answer he liked.

  “The last satellite image was taken a week ago. The tunnel could be blocked by now, there’s no way to know for sure.”

  “Commander?” Cobbs questioned.

  “They don’t want us in there, that means we’re going in. Squads one and four lead off,” the Commander ordered.

  “Good copy,” Cobbs replied, and began calling out orders to the men.

  The teams had been split into four groups. They were in tac force three. The mountain they approached held a maze of tunnels and small caverns. Once they reached the target she’d have to get them in and out, but they weren’t going to exit the same way.

  She had no idea who the enemy was, what they looked like or how many there were, but there was enough to keep them occupied, lobbing firepower at them every few seconds.

  “Mace, Mctavish, clear a path,” Thane ordered.

  “I have to be in front,” she choked out. The grit in her teeth was bad enough, but it lodged in her throat making it hard to speak.

  “Here.” He shoved a canister in her hand. “Spit out the first mouthful and then drink.”

  The mouthful of water mixed with the grit, turning it to mud sloshing around her mouth. She spit, then let the clean water slide down her throat, sweeping grains of sand with it. Lying on her back, she quickly touched the screen of the glorified GPS, bringing up the maps of the caverns memorizing the secondary route if the first one was blocked. What concerned her was if they were all blocked. She heard an aircraft approach.

  “Eyes open, Kayla. It’s gonna be close, bright and loud,” he whispered in her ear, his arms covering her head.

  The compression blast radiated through both of them as Thane shielded her. Hot and sweaty, their cheeks rubbed together. The ground vibrated under her back as bombs struck the ground, clearing out the enemy.

  The Commander grabbed her and wrenched her to her feet. “Stay behind me.”

  The aircraft let go a second wave over the area where the enemy fire came from. In staggered lines they slipped through the night. It had become eerily quiet by the time the first squad made it to the face of the mountain.

  “Snow White, it’s your show now,” Gibson said.

  “The entrance bears zero-four-zero. Twenty meters in, there’s a fork, go right,” she said, keeping up with the Commander as they ran to meet up with the first group.

  “In front of me,” Thane ordered.

  She darted in front of him, falling in line behind one of the other men.

  The SEAL turned toward her. “Whatever you do, don’t shoot me in the ass.”

  “You’d deserve it, Mctavish,” she snapped back, recognizing his voice.

  Silently they made their way through the cavern, the walls tight on either side. The larger men had to lean over to avoid the ragged, hewn ceiling.

  Mctavish’s hand flew up, and the Commander gripped her to stop her from moving forward.

  They’d reached the right fork, pitched in complete darkness, her other senses heightened. The cold wall scratched her fingertips as she ran them along it to keep her bearings. The silence increased the thumping of her pulse and the sound of her own breath.

  “Clear,” someone uttered in the headset.

  She followed the plot on her GPS. “Twenty meters and then take the tunnel to the left,” she said quietly.

  Approaching, every man’s foot fell with purpose and wariness.

  “There’s two lefts, Snow White,” Gibson said. “Which one?”

  She dropped her gaze to the slim unit in her hands. There had to be a mistake. There was only one showing on her map.

  “Well?”

  “Standby.”

  “What’s wrong?” Thane said beside her, looking down at the device she held.

  “I think one’s a decoy,” she whispered back. “I need to go up there. This device is pinpoint accurate. I should be able to tell when I get there.”

  “I’ll take it up. You stay here,” the Commander said, reaching for it.

  “No.” She slipped past Mctavish before he could stop her. Reaching the front of the line and Lieutenant Gibson, she stopped in front of the first access. It wasn’t exact, and cold air brushed against her cheeks. She moved ahead four paces. This was it. She pointed at the second opening. Gibson nodded.

  Two more turns and they were there, whatever they were there for. No one had told her why or what, they were looking for. A heavy canvas dropped from the ceiling, blocking their view. The Lieutenant pushed her against the wall and motioned for her to stay. She nodded. The next few seconds were like slipping into a hellish dream of sound without sight.

  The canvas was yanked, and the men poured in shouting. Weapon fire cut through the dank air, and she gulped back the fear. The second squad behind them raced past her, including the Commander. One quick glance was all she had, but she’d never seen him look like that before, cold, fierce, calculating—frightening. The sounds of men dying met her ears.

  Feet on rocky ground from the tunnel they’d traversed, approached. She almost sensed them before she heard them. They weren’t speaking English and they were coming quickly. Her hand went to the pistol, and she pulled it from its holster. The cool smooth angle of metal caressed her fingers as she caressed the trigger guard. Sweat pooled in her palm, and down her back.

  They passed her, not seeing her in the niche in the rock wall. The first three men carried something, weapons, large ones. She didn’t think, she just aimed
, and at point blank range shot them one after the other. Five men fell to the ground.

  “What’s this?” she yelled out. Thane and Mctavish appeared at the entryway.

  “Kayla? What the…oh, fuck. Out!” the Commander stormed, looking at the cylindrical tube on the ground. “Grab and go.” He yanked her from the wall. “Get us out of here, Kayla.”

  Only catching a glimpse of the display window, a red timer counted down: less than two minutes.

  “Which way?” Mctavish voiced in her ear.

  “Left,” she said, breaking into a run. “Fifty meters and then right.” She darted in front of Mctavish, they had no time for a mistake. The rest of the men followed. She’d clocked the detonation on her handheld device. “Fifty seconds, run faster.” The GPS beeped as they reached the next turn, and she veered down it, almost blind, only the small light on her device to see by. The next turn was in ten meters.

  One more turn.

  She veered left and ran as if their lives depended on it, and they did.

  She lunged from the exit. Five Taliban soldiers pointing rifles at her brought her feet to a sharp halt. She’d put a few seconds’ distance between her and the Commander. “We have unfriendly company at the exit,” she choked out, waiting for the first bullet to tear into her body. Something hard hit her helmet, and in the next second, something heavy fell over top of her and buried her into the sand, knocking the air from her lungs.

  * * * *

  Thane rounded the last corner when he heard Kayla in his headset and saw her crumple to her knees. Like a quarterback, he threw himself over her, pulling his weapons at the same time and firing behind them where more of the Taliban soldiers stood above the cave entrance. Rounds ricocheted from every angle as the rest of the team exited firing on the Taliban in front of them.

  The last bullet cut above their heads, and then a mighty explosion shook the ground. A blast of heat erupted from the tunnel, washing over them as debris pelted down on top of them.

  Kayla’s body lay still. Terror gripped him as he rolled her over.