“He must die,” the man responded in Arabic with a shaky voice.
Brandt broke in. “But he is gone. Far away from here by now.”
“Do you have any family?” Rebecca asked in Arabic.
There was no clear answer.
“He just nodded,” Brandt reported.
“What shall I tell them?” Rebecca asked.
It was a risky strategy. To walk this scenario forward. To make the bomber think about the repercussions of the bombing. It could steel his resolve or break it.
Wow, she really had been around Brandt too long.
“Well?” Rebecca asked. “I know why you are doing this. Jifh ruined any chance for the Sunnis to live in peace in Morocco. This won’t help.”
* * *
Brandt watched as the young man’s determined expression dissolved into tears. His thumb fell away from the detonator.
Whatever Rebecca had said in Arabic had worked.
Taking a cautious step forward, Brand prepared to peacefully take the man into custody.
Right then a shot rang out. Glass shattered and the bomber fell backwards, a red hole in his forehead.
Livid, Brandt turned to find Bull on the other side of the door. A shit-eating grin on his lips.
“What happened?” his wife asked over the line.
Too furious to answer, Brandt simply cut the connection. Then Brandt stalked over to the man, shoving the door open, grabbing Bull by the collar and slamming him against the wall.
“Why the hell did you do that?”
“He was a suicide bomber,” Bull choked out.
Brandt tightened his grip on the man’s neck. “It was under control,” Brandt growled.
“Not by my eyes,” Bull stated.
“Every chance we had at finding out where the rest of the bombs are is dead,” Brandt stated, bouncing Bull’s head off the concrete wall.
“No, you just can’t make the hard decisions.”
Hard decisions? This punk wouldn’t know a hard decision if it came up to him and bitch-slapped him across the face.
Releasing his grip, Brand cocked his arm back to punch the smug son-of-a-bitch right in the face. Lellum caught his wrist before Brandt could deliver the blow.
“Let go,” Brandt commanded.
“Not in this lifetime,” Lellum stated. “He isn’t worth the write up.”
By now Bull has slipped his grip, standing off to the side, rubbing his neck.
Oh yah, there is a lot more from where that came from. But it wouldn’t be delivered today.
Brandt broke out of Lellum’s grip.
To say that Brandt was sick of this bullshit would be a grave, grave understatement.
He needed to go home.
Because the single most important intel of the day?
His knee was combat-ready.
Now to have that awkward discussion with Rebecca.
* * *
StormFront – the first novel of the 3rd cycle of the Betrayed series
Prologue
Lau Chen hurried through the Beijing airport, looking behind him nervously every few steps.
He held his brief case tightly against his chest, but not so tightly that he looked like he needed to be holding it tightly.
He was in a desperate situation but desperately needed to not look desperate. The airport police would pull anyone in for questioning who looked the least bit suspicious. How could one not look suspicious though? Lau mopped sweat off his face with a handkerchief.
It had been like this ever since the drilling expedition. What should have been a simple sample collection trip had turned into a nightmare scenario. Even though they had taken every precaution, once the test drilling began, the plateau collapsed into a cavern. What they had seen there could not be unseen.
Out of the dozen or so men who had gone out, Lau was the last left. There seemed to have been a sudden rash of heart attacks and car accidents. He himself had not drank or eaten anything that he had not prepared himself. He had also avoided traveling in any cars, taxis, or buses. Which meant a lot of walking and subway riding.
He hadn't even been home to see his wife since he got back from the site. Lau couldn't risk getting her involved. As a matter of fact he hadn’t called, texted, or emailed for fear the governments would think that poor Sosa somehow knew his dangerous secret.
Lau knew that his life expectancy was extremely short. He did not wish to curse his wife as well. He just needed to get out of the country.
Finally he made it to his gate for his flight to DC. From there he would use another passport to get to San Francisco. He just needed another 20 minutes before his flight boarded. Lau was lucky. His flight had not been delayed by the heavy rain that had started right after they had found the cavern. Several of the runways were flooded out already.
He sat down at a row of empty seats. If anyone tried to sit down next to him, Lau shook his head. He couldn’t allow anyone to get close enough to him to do him harm.
Lau said no to dozens of passengers despite the seats around him becoming filled. He even waived off an elderly woman with a cane. He felt bad but what could he do?
It wasn't until a young mother with her five-year-old daughter that Lau finally relented. The little girl’s pigtails were just too cute and the little Mickey Mouse headband reminded him of his own little girl long ago. The child smiled and chattered away, begging her mother to play on her phone.
Lau relaxed his arms enough that the briefcase was not digging the buttons on his shirt into his skin. Only five more minutes until the plane boarded. He probably should have faked a broken leg to board earlier.
The little girl dropped her stuffed unicorn on the ground. Lau bent over, picking up and handed it to the girl. She smiled radiantly, then patted his hand.
It was nice to be appreciated, until his hand went numb. He looked over at the little girl in horror as his entire body went numb. A five-year-old assassin? That must have been exactly how desperate the government was.
As the world went dim, Lau could only take comfort in the fact he had forwarded the information to a trusted colleague in America.
Although now he feared he had only passed the curse on to his friend.
CHAPTER 1
Davidson sat on the table in their CO’s office. They didn’t exactly have a new CO, but they were supposed to get one today.
Getting hauled out of Europe on a 911 call, at a most inconvenient time Davidson might add, now the team had sat around twiddling their fingers for the last three days. But what about all Special Forces? Hurry up and wait.
He guessed he was lucky though, they might have been out on a mission when Bunny’s leg blew up. The fracture was not healing properly, and she had to go in for another emergency surgery. Now she was laid up in a tension splint. She wasn’t going anywhere for a while.
Davidson watched as Lopez tossed a rubber ball off the ceiling. Prenner, of course, was sitting properly at the table. Their new IT girl turned out liking the dark side a little more than she should. Apparently, they had cookies. Tika was off somewhere with Stark. She secured an honorable discharge before disappearing, claiming their last mission had given her severe PTSD. Davidson didn’t doubt it, but that was not the reason she left the military.
They hadn’t even been briefed on their latest mission because, supposedly, the new CO wanted to do it himself. That sort of told you what kind of guy he was. The kind that didn't last long on their team.
But they had to go through the motions once more. Why did Malvern have to die? The guy was really inconsiderate in that way. Davidson really shouldn't think poorly of their field commander. He had been the best of the bunch, with the exception of Brandt of course.
Who knew whom they would get next?
Probably some stuffy old man getting ready to retire who plays by the rules and would report back to the Pentagon what was actually happening in the field. Boy, were they going to get an eyeful.
Davidson heard a sound from be
hind him and turned to find Brandt in the doorway. Lopez took a step back, then blurted out, “Sarge? Sarge!” The corporal jumped out of his seat and ran over to Brandt and enveloped him in a serious bro hug.
“What brings you to our part of town?” Prenner asked.
Brandt smiled all the way up to his eyes. The Sarge never smiled like that.
“Would you believe, I’m back?” Brandt asked.
Davidson nearly fell off his desk, as Lopez jumped into the sergeant’s arms.
* * *
Brandt had to admit, it was good to be back. Normally he would be slightly distressed to have another man wrapping his legs around his waist, but Brandt knew what the corporal had been through the last few months.
First Levont’s death. According to the report, that loss had nearly cracked Lopez’s worldview. Then hot on the heels, Malvern’s death. It was enough to destroy anyone.
Lopez cupped Brandt face, again normally disturbing, however, Brandt understood.
“So you're really, really, really back?” Lopez asked.
Brandt nodded “Yes, yes, and more yes.”
Davidson shouted, “Wahoo!”
And even Prenner pumped a fist in the air. The Prenner equivalent of the man going up onto the roof and shouting his joy.
Lopez gave Brandt one last squeeze, then backed away, doing a little happy dance. “This is going to be so much fun!”
Prenner frowned though. “I thought your knee kept you from active service?”
Brandt bounced on the aforementioned leg, “The surgery went great, and I’ve been cleared for active duty.”
He turned so that he could look each man in the eye. “Look guys, I’m sorry I left you in limbo for three days, but I thought I had a few weeks to get all the paperwork organized. After Malvern, I told them this mission could wait until I was in charge. I didn’t think you guys wanted an interim CO.”
Davidson shook Brandt’s hand, “You are so forgiven. Don’t even think about it.”
“Good. Because this one is going to be a doozy.”
“And your wifey-poo?” Lopez asked. “What about her?”
“She’s home with the kids,” Brandt stated. “Trust me, that’s as of much of a battle zone as we’re going to walk into.”
Lopez’s expression became confused, “Rebecca?”
“That’s my wife’s name,” Brandt replied, equally as confused.
Davidson pointed behind Brandt, “No, it’s Rebecca.”
Brandt turned on his heel to find his wife standing in the doorway. “Honey?”
* * *
“Don't you, ‘honey,’ me,” Rebecca stated. “You try and leave me with the kids and your mother and your three younger sisters? I don't think so.”
“But--” Brandt tried to interrupt but she was just getting going.
She wagged her finger at her husband. “Don't even start. Did you know as soon as you left that your mother insisted that Kasa wear a dress?”
Her husband, the consummate warrior who had fought in hundreds of battles without flinching sucked in a breath and took a step back, his eyes dilating in horror.
Rebecca nodded. “Oh yeah, there was screaming, crying and stomping of the feet.” She looked her husband straight in the eye. “And that was just the adults.”
Brandt gave her that look like “Don't do this in front of my men.” Well if he hadn’t wanted the scene to play out here, he shouldn’t have ditched her with his mother in the first place.
She did change tactics though.
“Besides, this mission has religious overtones, doesn't it?”
Brandt’s frown deepened.
“You know about our mission?” Davidson asked
“Of course. There's a woman in Jordan who claim she has stigmata.”
Prenner cocked his head to the side. “That sounds like something for the Vatican to investigate.”
“True, however, the woman was someone we looked at back when we were rousting the Knot.” Rebecca looks to the men. “I mean that just seems too coincidental to me.”
“News to us,” Davidson stated.
Rebecca playfully put her fingers up to her lips. “Uh oh. Did I let the cat out of the bag?”
Brandt's lips were in a thin firm line. “Just a little bit.”
* * *
Davidson chuckled. For as much as Brandt and Rebecca tried to act annoyed within one another, their love shown through. To prove this point, Brandt opened his arms and Rebecca walked into them.
“Glad you're here,” Brandt said, kissing his wife on the head.
“Me too.” Rebecca replied smiling.” I couldn't let you have all the fun.”
Davidson hoped that one day he and Bunny grew up to be like Brandt and Rebecca.
Lopez leaned back and shouted out, “The band is back together!”
It was nice to see the corporal back to himself.
“So what's the plan?” Prenner asked.
Brandt draped his arm over Rebecca's shoulder. “We are wheels-up in an hour.” The Sarge turned to Davidson. “Do you need to say goodbye to Bunny?”
Davidson shook his head, “No, we’re good. We knew I be shipping out, so we’ve said everything we needed to say.”
The sergeant’s eyebrow went up. “So you two are doing…”
Davidson nodded. “Like I said, we’re good.”
“Glad to hear it,” Rebecca said with a smile.
Lopez clapped his hands together and rubbed his palms together. “So how are we getting over there? Stealth plane? Submarine? Hang glider?”
Brandt shook his head, “Sorry, we’re hitching a ride on one of the Jordanian royal family jets.”
“The King is cool with that after everything that happened at the Dead Sea?” Davidson asked.
“I think he wants the situation resolved before there are riots.”
Davidson could understand. There were enough problems between the Muslims and the Jews in the Middle East. No one wanted Christians added to the mix.
Brandt looked to Davidson, “Check your tablet, the woman’s location and its surrounding areas should be there already be in your inbox.”
* * *
It was weird, sitting here at his old desk. Brandt flexed his knee. It had gotten a little stiff from the plane ride from the West Coast. And they were about to get on another plane. He was going to have to do extra PT to keep it flexible. Brandt couldn't allow his joint to be a problem on his first mission back.
The severe rainy weather wasn’t helping anything. His knee always got swollen and achy during humid weather. According to the weather reports, the rain wasn’t scheduled to let up any time soon. Anywhere. It was supposedly like this all over the world. A true meteorological phenomenon.
Rebecca sat in the corner of the room, apparently working on her tablet. Who knew on what? She could be grading papers, applying for new grant or just reading articles. That was his little bookworm. Kasa was so taking after her mother in this. His young daughter wanted to be read to 24/7. He smiled just thinking about when he would sit on her bed reading Green Eggs and Ham for the hundredth time.
As much as Brandt hated to admit it, he was already a little homesick. He’d missed the field. God knows he’d missed the field, however this would be the first time he would be kept away from dinner at home in over two years. Having kids really did change you.
Rebecca looked up, her eyes softening as she met his gaze. “I know. I already miss them too.”
Brandt didn't respond. He didn’t need to. Rebecca and he were on the same page.
“Hey, did you get anything from Dr. Chen?” Rebecca asked.
“Who?” Brandt responded.
“You know, Lau Chen? My old professor? We met him at a reception in London.”
Brandt frowned. He really had tried to forget every archaeological reception he'd ever been to. “Sorry, no.”
Rebecca grunted, pointing to her laptop. “It's so weird. He sent me an email with the subject line ‘Important’ but
there was nothing in the body of the email.”
Brandt shrugged. “Maybe he forgot to send the attachment. Lord knows you've done that enough times.”
His wife frowned. “True, true. But Chen isn't like that.”
Before they could continue the conversation. Brandt’s phone rang. The refrains from his mother's favorite hymn, “From on High,” filled the room.
Rebecca shook her head and mumbled, “I'll check with Stark while you deal with Saint Brandt.”
Brandt accepted the call. “Hi mom. How are things going?”
“Well dear, I'm afraid that I've lost your wife.”
He chuckled. “No, Mom. She's here with me.” He looked over to Rebecca. “She left a note.”
Rebecca just gave that shrug as she picked up her phone. More likely, his wife had just walked out the back door. However the fact that it took his mother over six hours to notice that Rebecca was gone didn’t help his mother's case at all.
“Everything okay there?”
Despite wailing in the background which sounded like, “but I want to wear my combat boots.” His mother stated, “Of course, dear.”
Brandt knew that his Southern born and raised mother was horrified by Kasa’s style of dress. Actually Kasa’s only style was camouflage. It was going to be interesting to see who won this little battle. Could his mother fashion his tomboy daughter into a little lady?
Lopez peaked his head in the door, slapping the doorframe. “Probably time to head out.”
“Mom, I've gotta go,” Brandt said giving Lopez a thumbs-up. “Talk to you when I can. Bye.”
* * *
Rebecca scrolled down her contact list and hit Stark’s name as she followed Lopez out. She was going to let Brandt deal with his mother.
Her call was answered on the first ring. “Stark here.”
“Hey, Stark, it’s Rebecca” she stated. This was awkward. Even though they had worked with Stark for a mission, they had always gone through Bunny.
The response from the other side was equally awkward. “Rebecca, hey. What can I do you for?”
Luckily Rebecca knew exactly what she needed. “I got this email from Dr. Chen--”
“The comparative religion archaeologist?” Stark asked.
The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set) Page 3