Monday. PPM Headquarters, Nouakchott, Mauritania.

The driver wound through the streets. What would have been a fifteen-minute drive days ago was creeping past an hour of wasted time. At this rate, she was going to strangle Samba with her own hands.

Zeina frowned at her phone. That was not a name she was expecting to hear from right now. It was still early on the west cost of America. For all she knew, Davis was doing something and her source in the corporate office was getting a front row seat to the next disaster she’d have to manage.

“Yes?” She pressed the device to her face and glanced at Lemine. He didn’t speak English, which in these moments was a blessing.

“Shit has hit the fan,” the man on the other end whispered.

“What do you mean?” She smiled, forcing a pleasant tone. Lemine might agree to her proposition, but he was not her man. She could not trust him to know anything.

“Why didn’t you warn me about the demand call?”

“I’m sorry?” Zeina’s vision unfocused and her mouth went dry.

“At like four in the morning Jim Davis got a call from your guy saying he has his daughter, do all this shit for me or I kill her. Then—guess what? Jackie calls. Says she’s safe, has never been captured, and is currently driving out of the country.”

“Where?”

“She’s headed south somewhere.”

“Let me get this straight, my friend called your boss, told him he had something he didn’t, and shortly thereafter it was discovered he was lying?” Zeina pressed her nails into the heel of her hand.

“Correct.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

She hung up the phone.

Lemine stared at the side of her face. No doubt her expression and tone clashing had given her away.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

“Nothing that concerns you. It’s a matter of business.” She stared out the window at the war-ravaged city that so recently had boasted a thriving market.

This, none of it, was according to the plan.

First, losing Jackie meant this urban war was dragging out, destroying much of the city Samba hoped to rule.

Now, the people were fleeing, and they were drawing too much attention to their next move. And at every turn Samba refused to heed her warning.

It was as if Samba didn’t want to be president at all. A man couldn’t take the country and his word be worthless. This wouldn’t do, but she couldn’t change the past. Her choice was, did she continue to support Samba, or did she switch allegiances to Papis?

She scrolled through her contacts to a particularly resourceful mercenary captain and hit call.

Her priorities hadn’t changed. She wanted the mining rights to the two new locations—and control of the Davis mines. This, what was happening in the city, was as the Americans would say, a dumpster fire. Whoever came out on top was still a loser in the eyes of the world. It would take years of rebuilding to make this right. And all for what?

“Yes, ma’am,” a man yelled over the rumble of engines.

“Are you still on the south wall blockade?” she asked in English.

“We are.”

“I need you to head south. As fast as you can. The American girl we’re looking for is on the road somewhere. I can’t afford for her to leave the country. Understood?”

“We just got word about a pair of Americans spotted near the hospital tents. I’ve got a few guys following up on that right now.”

“I need that woman. Alive.”

“Copy that. We’ll get our off-road vehicles fueled up and go after her.”

“Check in with me every hour.”

She hung up and made the same call to two other contacts. Yes, this was pulling men and resources from Samba’s line of defense, but he’d made it clear where his priorities were. If he wouldn’t listen to reason, she wasn’t giving him her full support.

“Something has happened,” Lemine said to her.

“Yes, it has. Your boss is an idiot that won’t listen to reason.” She sighed and tapped out a few texts, issuing orders to her people.

With any luck, she would have Jackie Davis in custody by sunset, and then she had to make the painful choice of who to back in all of this. Since no one had heard from the president, it was safe to assume he was dead and his guard fleeing for their lives. Which meant she was left with Samba or Papis. It wasn’t the best decision of her life, but she’d had worse and still come out on top.

Monday. South of Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Felix kept his eyes on the road, following the line of cars headed away from the city. The southbound lane was lined with vehicles that had broken down or run out of gas, some abandoned, some with people still in them hoping for a miracle. Some more daring motorists used the north bound lane to zip past.

He’d considered joining them, but at what risk? All it would take was for one vehicle to be aimed north, an ill-timed jerk of the wheel, and they were either dead or sitting ducks, unless he commandeered a vehicle by force.

Jackie wouldn’t like that. In fact, he wasn’t entirely positive that she wouldn’t get out of the car and walk if he slowed down enough.

Three hours of silence, broken only by the crackling radio. She’d at least explained during the first hour that with most of the city out, there were no radio or TV stations to broadcast because they were all in the capital city. Still, every so often he twisted the dial, hunting for something to fill the air.

They should be nearing the airport in St. Louis, Senegal. At normal cruising speed, it should only take four hours, but at their creeping pace they’d be lucky to get there for a red eye flight—if that. At this slow of a pace, he wasn’t sure their fuel would hold out. Which meant stopping to fuel up, and any time spent out of the car was a risk. And not just from the PPM forces. They were targets of opportunity, foreigners present during a time of tribulation.

“Are we really just not going to talk this whole drive?” Jackie turned her face, partially shrouded by her bangs and the scarf. Her eyes stabbed at him though and they struck deep.

“I didn’t think you wanted to talk to me,” he said in earnest.

“How could you think that not telling me was a good idea?” She twisted to face him, something he couldn’t do.

“It wasn’t my call to make. That was Kyle’s order.”

“Fuck Kyle. You’re the one I trusted.” She leaned forward and prodded him in the shoulder.

“I know that, Jackie, and I questioned his judgment, too. I told him I thought this was a bad idea.”

“Then why not tell me?”

“Because, now I think he was right.” He braced himself, not sure how she’d react.

“What?” Jackie gaped at him, mouth open, eyes wide, shock and hurt radiating off her.

“Look at you right now. You’re crying, emotional and panicked on top of that. In your current state, you aren’t going to react fast or be present in the moment when we need to act. Panic doesn’t lead to making good choices. Do I hate myself for not telling you? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes.”

“We could have gotten out faster.”

“Really? By the time we got you in our custody, flights out of the city had stopped. The roads out were blocked by the night time patrols. Our only course of action was to shelter in place or return to where we knew we could protect your team. After that, we’ve been in reactionary mode. They find us, we run. We make a decision to try to get closer to leaving the country, they block it.”

“There’s something we could have done differently.” She turned to stare out the window, arms crossed over her chest.

“Really? Where? What? If you see something, tell me. Because so far I can’t see anything we could have done better except maybe get more intel out of Lemine?” Felix had gone over it all enough that he felt confident saying that. Apart from bringing a bigger team in with them and knowing ahead of time how Jackie played into the bigger picture, the rest was the best they could do.

Jackie didn’t say anything. She didn’t offer her opinion or further commentary, just stared out of the window.

He was losing her, and he knew it. He’d known that first night that waiting to tell her was a bad idea, regardless of how it would affect her ability to keep up and follow orders, but he’d bowed to Kyle’s decision as team leader.

“When my cousin died, I wasn’t at home. I’d gone for some elective training because I couldn’t sit around and watch him waste away. I knew the end was coming, but...I couldn’t handle it. So I left. I was out on the course when he passed and didn’t find out until the next morning. They had to hold the funeral so I could make it. That has been one of my biggest regrets. I wasn’t there for my cousin, my parents, our family. And I should have been. I look at what’s going on with your mom, how she doesn’t have long, and I don’t want you to have to live with that same weight on your shoulders. If there was anything we could have done to get you out faster, I’d have done it.”

“There has to be something.” Her voice broke, the sharp sounds stabbing him in the heart.

“Short of time travel, I don’t think so. We even looked at getting a boat, but they’ve got so many pirates out trying to catch people escaping that way it’d be more dangerous than going on foot.”

“And all those times you told me it was going to be okay? You knew it wasn’t. You knew what I was going home to.” Jackie turned her head and stared at him, her eyes boring into the side of his head.

A bit of movement in his rearview mirror snagged his attention. He watched a high-powered dune buggy swerve around vehicles parked along the road, sending up plumes of smoke.

“Hold that thought.” He checked his other mirror.

A similar, black vehicle zipped along in the left lane.

There were no markings, no identifying symbols, but his gut said these guys were bad news.

There was a point where the road divided ahead. Most of the traffic appeared to be going right while they would continue to follow the N2 into Senegal.

“Hang on.” Felix shifted and merged into the left lane, accelerating fast enough to pass the two vehicles ahead of him.

This far away from the city, there was enough traffic to make the left lane treacherous.

“What are you doing? Look out!” Jackie clutched the arm rest.

Felix swerved onto the shoulder, allowing a north bound vehicle to pass.

“Two vehicles behind us. I don’t like them.” He’d wondered how long until they saw someone patrolling the roads.

“Hang on.” Felix merged back into the south bound lane and took the split for the N2 south.

The traffic thinned out immediately, with most headed to other locales in the south of the country near the coast.

“They’re still following us,” Jackie said.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Get down. Cover yourself.”

If he appeared to be a person driving alone, he might fare better. Being painfully white, he’d stick out no matter what if he were stopped.

Jackie slithered into the floor board and hunched down, making herself as small as possible. He tucked the ends of the head wrap thing she’d put on him into the collar of his man-dress in the hopes it would disguise his profile.

The dune buggy contraption pulled even with them. A man in the back seat leveled his rifle at Felix. These guys were looking for them. It was the way they zeroed in on this car when they’d passed the others.

“Hold on,” Felix said.

He slammed his foot on the accelerator and swerved in front of the other vehicle.

“Did they see me?” Jackie asked.

“I don’t think they had to.”

Something pinged off the back of the car and Felix flinched.

“Did they just shoot at us?” Jackie stared up at him.

“Yeah, warning shot.”

“Give me the gun.” Jackie crawled up into the seat.

“Jackie—no!”

She grabbed his sidearm before he could stop her. He couldn’t snatch it back, he needed both hands to drive.

Jackie rolled down the window, wind whipping into the vehicle.

The dune buggy swerved, but that didn’t deter her. She fired three rounds before flopping back into her seat.

“Okay—that was a bad idea,” she said over the wind.

“Have you ever fired a rifle before?”

“A few times.”

The other all-terrain vehicle was right on their bumper. It was so close he couldn’t see the vehicle’s lights.

A flash of muzzle fire was the only warning before the back window shattered, spraying them with shards of glass.

“Get down,” Felix snapped.

The road went on forever, a thin ribbon of asphalt through the desert. There was nowhere to go, no offshoot of a road to lose these guys on. If they kept going, eventually someone would crash. The mercenaries in the other vehicles were already proving that they’d shoot on sight, so they didn’t care about bringing them in unhurt. They needed Jackie alive, but Felix? He might end up a smear on the pavement. He had two choices, keep going until they couldn’t or stop and give up.

Two flashes of light followed by loud pops made his stomach plummet to the floorboard.

“What was that?” Jackie’s voice was high, thin and breakable.

“They got the back tires.” Felix gripped the wheel and swerved left again, barely missing oncoming traffic. The car wobbled, and the engine whined.

He eased off the accelerator.

“What are you doing?” Jackie demanded.

“Saving your life.” He eased the car to a stop.

“No. Keep going.” Jackie grabbed his arm.

“We keep going, they keep shooting. They force us off the road or run us into the ground. Other people could get hit by stray bullets, either of us could die. They could kill someone else driving south. Is that what you want? Is it?”

“No,” she whispered, staring at him with those big brown eyes of hers.

The way he saw it, his responsibility was protecting Jackie’s life. The PPM guys wouldn’t hurt her. They needed her. His best chance at surviving this and getting her back was to not resist. Aegis Group knew a lot of mercenaries. These guys were basically just like him, paid to do a job. He could hope they would understand and not kill him on the spot.

“Felix...”

Half a dozen men armed with guns and dressed in solid black surrounded the beat up, four seater car.

“It’s all going to be okay, Jackie.”

“I really don’t believe you right now.”

A man yanked the driver’s door open and a moment later hauled Felix out. He squinted into the sunlight, sand raining down on them, and kept his hands up.

“It’s her,” someone yelled from the other side.

“Don’t fight back, Jackie,” he yelled.

“Don’t speak,” the closest man snapped.

“We can work this out,” Felix said.

The man swung a baton, cracking Felix upside the head, followed by a hard punch to his gut.

This was going great.

“No! Don’t! Felix!” Jackie’s shrill voice was the only thing he heard besides the zip of cars.

Another hard blow to his head sent him to his knees. He opened his mouth to tell Jackie he’d had worse, but his words were caught off by yet another blow—and then everything went dark.

Monday. South of Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Jackie clutched Felix, holding him as close to her as she could. His head bobbed every time the big truck hit a bump in the road. She did her best to keep his head and neck steady, but it seemed like every other minute she almost lost her hold on him. Blood covered her clothes, her hands, and she couldn’t tell if it was all from the gash on his brow or elsewhere. No one seemed to care about him, and she was terrified of drawing the attention of her captors. Then again, the men wouldn’t speak directly to her, meet her eyes or anything. Was it easier to live with themselves if they pretended she wasn’t real? That she wasn’t a person?

“Hang in there, Felix,” she whispered. She was still angry with him, but he didn’t owe her his life. Whatever could have been done differently was in the past. All they could do now was survive the present.

The light on the horizon faded, they grew closer to the city, and still Felix didn’t wake up.

She’d been worried yesterday about a concussion, but he’d been fine. After the beating he’d taken, the blood staining both their clothes, she was simply glad he was still breathing. She smoothed his hair off his face and whispered a prayer.

They’d almost made it out, because of Felix. And now, she could see the dark shapes of Nouakchott against the stars in the distance. From this direction, the fires eating up the slums were brighter, bigger.

She slid her hands over Felix’s body, searching for another wound, the source of the slowly leaking blood, but couldn’t find it. It had to be the damn head wound.

The traffic going south was less. After weeks of bracing for nocturnal fighting, it must be an ingrained thing. Hunker down at night. Move during the day.

In the distance, on either side of the road, refugee camps had sprouted up. Those who couldn’t leave were stuck watching their future crumble. They had no say in what came next, who took power. It wasn’t fair. Nothing about this was right.

And for what?

So Zeina Razqa could have the rights to gold mines? Was that seriously worth it to her? What kind of human being thought materials were worth human suffering?

People like her dad and Zeina that was who.

“Guns at the ready,” a man at the front of the truck called out.

The others shifted into position, eyes on the windows. This wasn’t a normal truck. It looked more like a SWAT style ballistic vehicle, complete with holes to fire through.

She clutched Felix a bit tighter. He groaned in protest.

“Felix?” she whispered. “Pretend like you’re out. Don’t open your eyes.”

She was terrified of these guys giving him a round two beating and what that might do to him.

“Where are we going?” she asked louder.

No one responded.

She hadn’t really expected them to, but she had to try.

The truck slowed to a stop.

“If they get near the truck, shoot them,” the man at the front said.

“What? You can’t shoot these people.” Jackie blinked at the sudden press of people holding torches around the truck. She couldn’t blame them for being angry. They were displaced from their homes, on the run, hungry and hurt.

“There’s a group flanking the buggy,” someone called out from the back.

“Fire a warning shot,” the leader ordered.

“No—you can’t!”

Jackie barely got the words out before a loud pop reverberated through the metal vehicle. The crowd scattered, taking the light with them.

“Go!” The man barked.

The truck chugged past flaming piles of debris. After a few blocks, they rolled past the PPM barricades and what appeared to be wandering groups of people, all without having to fire a shot. More than the opposition they passed, it was the state of the city that horrified her. Buildings she vaguely recalled passing, their spires reaching toward the sky, were piles of rubble.

Ever since she was deemed old enough to travel her father had trotted her and her brother out to Nouakchott. The city and culture had their flaws, but it was getting better. There was promise for a brighter future—but not anymore. Not unless something changed. Her heart broke for those who would bear the brunt of change, those who would have opportunities closed to them now. All because of greed.

She leaned her head back against the side of the truck and stroked her fingers over Felix’s hair. He turned his head toward her, the only sign he was conscious.

Close to an hour later they pulled past the gates of an untouched, sprawling mansion in the heart of the city. Armed guards patrolled the fences and dogs snarled. It was like out of a movie.

“Get them inside,” the same man front the front of the truck called out.

All eyes locked on her.

She gulped and realized she hadn’t minded all that much that she was ignored.

Two men grabbed Felix by the arms.

“Careful!” She reached for him, but another man snatched her by the arm.

He pulled her forward off the bench. She hit her knees and hissed at the jolt of pain, but he kept going. She scrambled, partially tripping over her hem and nearly face-planting against the opposite wall before she got her feet under her to even keep up with her captors.

Felix left a bloody trail up the stairs to the grand entrance of the house. The sight of it turned her stomach.

“Where are we?” Jackie peered at the building. It was familiar, but she couldn’t place it. It’d been a long time since she frequented the fancier establishments of the city. Her usual haunts were in the poorer areas where people needed help.

“That’s both of them, ma’am.” The leader of this little mercenary group spoke to someone just inside the entry.

Jackie held her breath and peered around the door as she was hauled inside.

Zeina Razqa stood there, resplendent in a pale yellow dress with gold embroidery and a large, beautifully crafted necklace that lay over her collar bones and shoulders like something an Egyptian goddess might wear.

Of course the bitch would think she was that level of importance.

“Look what the cat dragged in.” Zeina gave her a once over, her upper lip curling in disgust.

Shane, Isaac, Adam—the others might be dead for all Jackie knew. Felix could be next. All because this woman wanted more.

The other man said something else she didn’t hear.

Jackie hurled herself forward, breaking her captor’s grasp. She wrapped her hand in the gauzy material of Zeina’s dress and yanked her forward. The other woman’s eyes went wide, and she gasped, arms flailing. Jackie hauled her arm back, hand clenched tight.

The men grabbed her arm. Her fist got all of six inches from Zeina’s face.

“You fucking bitch. What the hell is wrong with your greedy ass?” Jackie yanked, but there was no getting away.

“Take her downstairs with the other one.” Zeina took a step back and pressed her hands to her stomach, smoothing her clothing.

“I hope you—”

A hand connected with Jackie’s face, cutting off her words. She reeled backward. Someone grabbed her other arm, and they dragged her down another set of stairs, into the darkness. A small voice cried an alarm, but her head was too foggy to hear it. In the end, they dragged her into a darkened room, dropped her on the stone floor, and left.

“Jackie? Jackie, you okay?” a raspy, familiar voice asked.

She groaned and rolled to her back, blinking up at the light casting patterns on the ceiling.

A man leaned over her, his hair sticking up every which way.

“Fine,” she croaked out.

“How long has it been?”

“Hours.” She pushed up and hissed.

“Shit. Jackie...” Felix cupped her chin and turned her face toward the light. “This broke open. What’d they do to you?”

“I tried to punch Zeina...”

She lifted her hand and pushed Felix’s hair out of the way. That cut across his head was deep, but oozing slower now.

“Now we really have matching head wounds,” she said.

She choked out a laugh that promptly turned into a sob.

This was what Felix, and the others had tried too hard to prevent. What they’d sacrificed to keep from happening. And here they were.

“Come here.” Felix scooted to lean up against the wall and pulled her to him. “We’re going to get through this.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but you’re stubborn and I’m resourceful. We’ll figure it out.”

“But what if it’s not enough? What about the others?”

“Right now, we can only worry about ourselves. The boss knows who to look at, and when they don’t hear from us in a few hours, they’ll get to looking.”

“I’m scared, Felix.”

“I know, babe. Me, too. But we can’t give up. That’s not who we are. This might suck, it’s tough as hell, but it’s not the end, okay?”

Jackie buried her face against his shoulder and let the despair wash over her. He hadn’t seen the city, the destruction, like she had. All the progress, all the hope, it was gone.

She might never see her mother again. Felix’s team could be dead. Everything they’d both worked for could be over. And for nothing more than simple, cold profit.

If Jackie did survive this, she would do everything in her power to sink Zeina and make her pay for this. She might get away with it here, but the world was watching.

Felix was used to waiting, and it wasn’t his first time being in anyone’s custody, much less held against his will. These were all pitfalls of the job. He just wasn’t used to doing quite this much of it as a result of one woman.

“There are people on the street.” Jackie stood on a bucket, watching out the narrow window near the ceiling.

“Yeah?”

“They aren’t PPM or military. They look...normal.”

“Maybe they’re waking up to what’s going on and trying to take back control?” Felix rubbed his hand over his face, wincing as he got too close to the gash.

“Wouldn’t that be something?” Jackie stepped off the bucket and crossed to his side. “How you doing?”

“Fine.”

He was alive. She was with him. And everything else, as far as he was concerned, would work out. He might not get Jackie home in time to say her goodbyes, but if they played along, he was pretty confident they would get shipped back home with the directive to never come back. The new, budding government couldn’t abide blood on its hands if they wanted to be recognized by the rest of the world.

Zeina, if not Samba, had to know that much. Their people were more valuable alive than dead.

Jackie sat next to him, her nearness a comfort he soaked up while he could.

To think, a few hours ago they were screaming at each other headed south. He’d thought they were almost clear of this mess.

“I’m still angry at you, but we need to stick together if we’re going to get out of this. What do you think happens next?” she asked.

Felix bit the side of his mouth, a part of him not willing to accept her anger. It wasn’t his place to tell her she could or couldn’t be angry with him. He’d kept the truth from her, even when he’d known that would damage their trust.

“Zeina will figure out how best to leverage you. If we’re right, and she’s really after control of the mines, she’ll twist your dad’s arm into supporting whoever will benefit her best. The process of propping up a new government will take time. I suppose you, and maybe all of us, will be her unwilling guest for a while. I’m sorry about your mom.”

“Me, too.”

“You had every right to be mad at me, but know I really only have your best interest in mind.”

Jackie stared straight ahead without speaking to him.

“Mom wasn’t always like this. Even in the beginning when her addiction started, she was still a good mom. It’s been in the last ten years it’s gotten bad. I guess when I graduated and started my own life she sort of realized that she’d lost out on all those years because Dad didn’t want her around us and wasn’t ever getting them back.”

“Your dad wouldn’t let you see her at all?”

“No.” She turned her head and stared at him, her gaze so cold he nearly got frostbite. “He knew what was best.”

“That’s not what we did, Jackie. It’s different.”

“Really? Was I asleep when you asked my opinion? Or what did Val say about it? You didn’t have the right to keep my mom’s condition from me.”

Shit.

“We made the best decision we could given the circumstances.” His head throbbed from clenching his teeth to keep his unvarnished thoughts to himself.

“You lied to me because it was easier to do that than be honest. I get it.”

“No. No, that’s not what happened.”

“Really? Because that’s what it looks like to me.” Jackie pushed to her feet and paced from one side of the room to the other.

She was angry and upset, looking for someone to blame. Felix was an easy target in this. He was complicit in the deception and he’d pushed forward when his better sense told him to wait. It’d been obvious from the way she reacted to word of her father’s part in this that anything to do with her parents was complicated. Felix wasn’t going to get through to her, not while she was scared and angry.

The spark they’d shared might be gone, which was a shame. He’d wanted that date and the opportunity to get to know the woman behind the reputation. But from now on, he’d just be the guy who didn’t save her.