by Ronie Kendig
It should not have surprised Haur to hear this. The twists, the betrayals were enough to solidify his determination.
“He said you were the rogue son, Haur.”
Words held the power of life and death. And in that moment, a piece of Haur died. The piece of flagging courage that had fallen into the trap of a man he thought he’d made proud. Yet the wound from those words cut deep.
“Now, why would he do something like that?”
“It was time.” Three beautiful words that would allow him to keep a promise. “When I was fifteen, my father left China. Defected—with your help, I believe, General Burnett.”
The man yielded nothing.
“In the days before my father’s escape, I learned of Xin’s suspicion of his oldest friend, my father, so I chose to stay behind.” Haur tried to steady his palpitating heart, noting the stunned expressions but also the unaffected ones. Meixiang was hardest to read and yet, somehow, he felt he had an ally in her. They’d both been burned by the Zhengs.
“I played the abandoned, grieving son, allowed Zheng to take me in and adopt me so his anger and attention would be deterred. I knew the man would find greater pleasure by drawing me into his camp than by killing me. Making me his son was an act designed with only one purpose—to destroy my father.
“I have endured more than twenty years under the mental and verbal abuse of General Zheng Xin.” Haur let out a heavy breath, so relieved to unload that knowledge. “When I realized Bai was not my captain, not my friend, but an asset of General Zheng himself, I knew I had been betrayed.”
“How’d you know it was him?” Daniels asked.
“Little things along the way, but the two most revealing—when he threw the grenade that set off the avalanche. He was trying to bury you all alive.”
“And the other thing?”
“He had too much information to be a man under my authority.”
“What does Zheng gain by betraying you to us?” Daniels asked.
“Irony.” The word hurt. Stung. “He believed you would kill me …” Haur let his gaze linger on the weapons still aimed at him. “My father defected to America, and there would be no greater satisfaction for Zheng than if the Americans killed me—”
“We’d be killing the son of one of the greatest Chinese assets we’ve ever had.”
Peace swarmed Haur as he reveled in the words of the general. “Thank you.” He confirmed his secret thoughts, that Burnett was the one who’d helped his father. And the words encouraged him to hope that his father was still alive. “The bombs—I believe it is close to lunch, is it not?”
Burnett hesitated. “I’m warning you, Haur. If those bombs aren’t found, I’ll feed you to Zheng myself!”
Anticipation hung rancid and thick as they waited with Haur, while the teams searched for the explosives. But something just felt … off. Heath glanced at Trinity, but she had curled into a ball in the corner, uninterested. Poor girl had been through enough to sleep for a week. And if she was zoning now, then there was no threat.
Then what was eating at Heath’s internal radar? He glanced to the side—
Darci.
Hand to her stomach, she eased to the back of the room.
What was that about?
Burnett advanced. “You expect us to believe you spent twenty years under that man and never tried to escape?”
“There was no need to escape.” Haur shifted, as if the words made him uncomfortable. “My father—my real father—was safe. Do not mistake my outstanding service record for loyalty to evil men. I did what could be done to keep them from hunting down my father.” Serious and tense, Haur held his ground. “I have no regrets.”
“Ya know,” Heath offered, “I wondered why you never referred to General Zheng as ‘father.’” He inched closer, determined to ferret out what was needling him. “You were vague in the mountains when I asked you about your relationship.”
Haur nodded as soldiers removed Bai’s body and aided the wounded guard to sick bay. “It takes more than a name to make a father. Zheng is a cruel man, who bred a cruel son.”
“But you called Jianyu ‘brother.’ How is that?”
“We grew up together. After my father left and I went to live at the general’s home, Jianyu and I were inseparable. I looked up to him—he was fierce, a fighter. Respected. Admired.” The man’s gaze slid to someone in the back. “He was a ladies’ man, which is why I was especially intrigued with Meixiang, the legendary woman who took my brother down.”
“Jianyu’s weakness took him down,” Darci said.
“It is evident, is it not, that while Jianyu and the general accepted me in name, they never accepted me in heart.” Haur’s smile was genuine. “As I never accepted them. Not fully.”
Darci came forward. “Why? Why did you not accept them? You had that beautiful home, wealth, fame …”
Haur glanced down. “Those are poor replacements for family.”
“We found them!” Candyman’s voice boomed through the room.
Burnett glared. “Just like you said.”
Heath glanced at the general, who seemed peeved. “Then what’s wrong?”
“It’s too easy.” Burnett pressed his knuckles to the table and leaned toward the thirtysomething colonel. “What’s your game, Haur?”
50 Yards outside Bagram AFB
“Go ahead.”
“It’s done,” the voice said. “Ordnance found and disabled the bombs—and Burnett doesn’t know, but locals have reported the bodies of the Russians. It’s about to blow wide open.”
“As expected.”
“There’s been a small complication though.”
Jianyu ground his teeth, feeling the jaw muscle pop. “What?”
“Haur and Bai were arrested upon returning to the compound. Haur killed Bai.”
“Understood. Well done.”
“I do my job well and count on people like you to make sure I’m never found.”
“It will be so.” Jianyu ended the call, rubbing his thumb along the spine of the phone as he stared out over the dark night. The final betrayal had come.
“What news?”
Jianyu lifted his gaze from the darkened interior to the wash of moonlight reflected over the blanketed road. “It is done.”
“All of it?”
“Bombs have been found, disabled.” Still, it unsettled him that Haur had taken extreme measures. “Bai is dead.”
A belly-jouncing chuckle filled the interior of the camouflaged vehicle. “Just as we planned.” His father pushed open the door. “They’re distracted. Let’s move.”
Forty-Eight
Camp Loren, CJSOTF-A, Sub-Base
Bagram AFB, Afghanistan
You’re my brother.”
His expression—eyebrows tense, lips firm, a slight dimple in the chin—was so like her father’s that Darci couldn’t pry herself away if she tried.
The boulder of truth hit him. “Meixiang—” Haur’s eyes widened. “Oh—how did I not see it? All those days in the mountain … even your name …”
He pulled her into a hug. It felt right. It felt wrong. She didn’t know what to think or do. She’d last seen him as a teenager. But he knew she was alive. Knew their father was alive. And he didn’t search for them? She stood stiff in his arms, not sure what to feel.
Growling pervaded the room. Several loud barks.
“Release her,” Heath said in a firm voice.
Mind whirling, Darci eased back and looked at Trinity, who was primed on Haur, hackles raised. “It’s … okay.”
Heath eyed her, then Haur. “Trinity, out.”
The dog turned a circle, then sidled up next to Heath, panting as she watched Darci.
With a nervous laugh, Haur shook his head. “You were five the last time I saw you.”
“And you, so big …” Tears stung though she fought them. “I … was so mad at Ba for leaving you. I couldn’t understand why he’d leave you. He wouldn’t talk of you or Mom. But you�
�why didn’t you find us?”
“Didn’t he tell you?”
She frowned. “Tell me? What?”
“He told no one,” Burnett said. “He never betrayed you, which makes me wonder why you betrayed General Zheng. What’s the game?” “No game.”
Darci swung around on the general. “You knew? You knew that my brother stayed of his own free will, and you never told me?”
He shrugged those broad shoulders. “You never asked. Look, there’s a lot to sort out, but not right now. Later.” Burnett focused on Haur. “What’s going on, Haur? It was too easy to find the bombs—Ordnance isn’t even sure they were viable.”
Haur frowned. “I do not understand.”
“That makes two of us.” Burnett growled. “It’s like they knew this would happen.”
“But … that’s impossible.”
“Unless they were counting on you to finally switch sides,” Heath said, his hands tucked under his armpits, probably stealing warmth. “But to what end?”
Haur looked to Darci. “Would he do all this for you?”
She laughed. “Never.”
A thoughtful knot formed at the center of his brow as he nodded. “You’re right. The general would want to inflict a big wound—”
“Merciful God!” Burnett banged a fist on the table. “He couldn’t have known.”
“What?” Darci asked, breathless at the fury on the face of the most stoic man she knew.
He looked at Haur. “They were coming after that greatest Chinese asset.”
Haur’s eyes widened. “He’s here?“
A curse sailed through the air as Burnett barreled out of the room, MPs and ODA452 on his heels.
It took two seconds for Darci’s mind to catch up with the fact that Haur sprinted after the general. They were going to save someone. The greatest Chinese asset.
“Ba!”
Forty-Nine
With Trinity bounding ahead, just feet from Burnett and Haur, Heath ran after them. His heart spiraled into his throat. The infamous Li Yung-fa was here? On this base? Why on earth had Burnett brought the man here?
Beside him, Darci struggled—the ribs, no doubt—but she ran heedless of the pain that had to be punching the breath from her with each step.
As they bolted into the command bunker, Heath slowed at the ominous silence that hung in the building.
“What’s wrong?” Darci spun to him.
“It’s too quiet.”
Burnett hesitated. “He’s right.”
Candyman and Watterboy were right with them. “Everything okay, General?”
“Lock it down,” Burnett shouted as he rounded a corner. “Nobody gets out!”
Heath threw himself after the general as a grinding siren punctured the air. Emergency lights swirled.
Around another bend, Heath barreled over a body. He skidded and glanced back—just in time to see Watterboy and Candyman jogging toward them, armed and serious.
“Got him.” Candyman dropped to a knee beside Otte, who groaned.
“Got another one here,” Rocket called from the far left. “It’s General Early—unconscious.” He planted a hand over a wound and dug in his pocket.
At the sound of pounding boots, Heath spun. Darci vanished to the left. “Darci!” He propelled himself after her, praying harder than he’d ever prayed. His body wasn’t moving as fast as he’d like, but after being technically dead twice today …
Shouts and thuds reverberated through the hall.
Heath pushed himself. Trinity lunged ahead. A corridor stretched before him. Four doors, two on each side. All closed. No Darci. No voices.
“Trinity,” Heath said, looking over his right arm at her. “Seek!”
She zigzagged from side to side, checking doors. At door three, she sat and looked at him. A pat on his shoulder alerted him to the stacked team of ODA452. Heath nodded. He slid up to the jamb and took point.
Watterboy kicked the door in.
Heath stepped in. His split-second recon dumped ice through his veins. And that made him mad. He vowed to never be cold again. To the right, an older man he hadn’t seen before sat with a gun to his temple, compliments of the older man he’d seen at the village earlier: Zheng Xin. In that whipped-cream chaos of a moment, Heath couldn’t shake the haunting peace that filled the first man’s face. Was that Darci’s father, Li Yung-fa? Greatest Chinese asset?
A yelp hauled his attention and weapon to the left. Wu Jianyu held Darci in a stranglehold. Eyes ablaze and locked on Heath, he flared his nostrils. By the reddening of Darci’s face, Jianyu was squeezing with his arm muscles. Strangling her.
“Let her go.” Man, that sounded like a bad line from a B movie. Heath lined up the sights with Jianyu’s beady eyes. “Don’t move.”
Trinity’s snarling and snapping fueled Heath’s anger. Amazing how she’d taken to Darci, ready to defend her.
The hushed rustle of ODA452s swift filing into the room gave Heath little reassurance, especially with Jianyu strangling Darci and his father about to put lead into her father’s head.
“Get the dog to stand down,” Jianyu said, shielding himself behind Darci.
Coward.
“Nothing doing,” Heath said. Crazy. Confusing. So much happening. Burnett and Haur faced off with Zheng, who held Yung-fa captive. Heath kept his focus on Darci.
“Unlock the door,” Zheng commanded.
“Not happening,” Burnett said with a growl.
“I will end this happy reunion if you do not.”
“It’s already over, Zheng.” Burnett held fast. “No matter what happens, you’re not walking out of here alive.”
Heath knew ODA452 had lines of sight on the tangos … or at least they would if he wasn’t blocking Jianyu from them. He eased to the side, keeping his weapon on him, determined to place a bullet in the guy if he escalated.
Only as Heath weighed options did he notice Burnett’s hand. Signals. He was giving the SOCOM team signals. “You know this isn’t going to end the way you want it to, Zheng.”
“It will. Twenty years! I have waited twenty years.”
“You should have let it go nineteen years ago,” the man in the chair said, his voice strong, sure.
“Shut up, Yung-fa! This is my victory. You will not steal it from me.” The man’s face reddened. “Are you ready to die?”
The question drew Heath’s attention.
Jianyu looked around Darci to his father.
Her gaze locked with Heath’s. Meaning spiraled through those beautiful eyes. She blinked. Once. Twice. Three times.
“Trinity, go!”
Darci bent forward, hard and fast, driving her elbow into Jianyu’s gut.
Trinity lunged, between Burnett and Haur, straight at Jianyu.
Grabbed the man’s arm and yanked hard. As soon as Darci was out of the way, Heath fired. Winged Jianyu. He was not going to let this guy take anything else from Darci, especially not her life.
Another shot rang out.
Darci dropped, pulse rapid-firing.
ACUs filled her vision. Swarming. Shouting. Taking over.
She had one goal—Ba. She shifted. Backed up. Where was he? Why couldn’t she see him?
“Darci!” Heath plowed through the scene and slid to his knees. “Are you okay?”
“My father!” She scrabbled around the others toward her father. A tangle of bodies made it impossible to figure out what was happening. Shouts. Thuds of fists against bone. One colossal whoosh of action. Then quiet fell over the room.
Boots stepped aside.
Her father looked straight at her and smiled.
“Ba, what are you doing here?” As she scrambled to him, she saw the dark stain on his chest. “No!” She pressed her hand against his wound. “You’re shot!”
He held her hand, his goatee trembling. He reached past her. Darci glanced to where he reached and stilled. Haur squatted behind her. She looked back to her father, years falling off his face. “My children,” he said wit
h watery eyes and a weary voice. “Together. At last.”
“Ba.” Haur knelt and bent down, embracing his father. “It has been too long.” Tears streamed down his face. “I kept my promise, Ba. I found a way home.”
Hand clapped around Haur’s neck, their father managed a smile. “Thank you.” He sobbed. “Thank you, my son.”
Choked at the scene, at the memory of their last time together, Darci let the tears slip free. Her father pulled Haur’s forehead to his, murmuring “my son, my son” over and over. Her heart melted at all the horrible things she’d believed of her father, when in fact, she hadn’t understood a single thing. His sacrifice—for her. For them. So huge.
A father’s love is great.
In that moment, Darci felt an eternal love sprout in her heart. She realized what her mother believed held such depth, such beauty, such truth. Faith. Darci had believed to get out of the tunnel, to see her father once again …
And God made it happen.
Medics nudged into the room, taking over. Darci relinquished her first aid to the medics who pressed gauze to her father’s shoulder, then lifted him onto a stretcher. “We’ll be waiting for you, Ba.”
But something warm and sinister swept across her mind. How had Zheng and Jianyu gotten onto the base? Who helped them? A subtle move on the other side of her father’s stretcher ensnared her mind. The next few seconds ground to a slow but painfully fast pace. Someone held a gun along his leg. Her gaze traveled up his ACUs to his face—Otte!
He lifted the weapon toward her father.
Darci dropped to a knee and swung her other leg under the stretcher, catching the legs of the man on the other side.
Thud!
Shouts collided with her movement as she whirled around and dropped her elbow hard on the man’s face. A resounding crack shattered the noise.
Soldiers dove on top of them.
Flattened on top of Otte and under the special-ops soldiers, she saw the medics scurry her father to safety. Hands pawed at her, drawing her out of the fray and up onto her feet. Swung her around into the arms of Heath Daniels. She clung to him, trembling. “He was going to kill him.”