Saturday. Streets of Nouakchott, Mauritania.

Felix tapped his fingers, eyes glued to the Mauricenter doors. If Kyle didn’t show in a few moments, he was getting everyone else out of here. Adam had found them a hotel down the street and even booked it online. Everyone but Kyle was loaded into the back.

“Anything?” he asked.

“No, it’s just a lot of rustling.” Despite the troubling nature of what Jackie had heard, she was holding up well.

“We’re going.” He shifted the truck into drive.

“No—wait. There!” Jackie pointed at a familiar figure stepping out onto the street.

“About God damn time.”

He accelerated, cutting across several lanes of traffic. People honked, but Felix didn’t care. They were getting the hell away from this place.

Kyle vaulted into the back of the truck, and Felix turned onto the Ave du General de Gaulle, headed toward the Presidential Palace. If what they believed was happening came to pass, the whole area would be blocked off soon, effectively protecting them from the patrolling PPM forces. They had to make it there first. He’d seen several military vehicles roll by, likely on their way to the barricades going up around the core buildings.

The government was finally treating this civil war like the conflict it was.

Traffic along the street was only going one way: out of the city. They were the only ones headed deeper, closer to the heart of it all.

“Felix, that’s a roadblock.” Jackie braced her hands on the door and grasped his elbow.

“I know.”

The way he saw it, they had to gamble. They couldn’t be left outside the barricades or the PPM forces would find them. Inside the barricades, they were in danger from people willing to usurp the president. One way or another they had to be careful.

He rolled his window down and eased the truck to a stop. The gun toting man at the line eyed him with a frown.

“Do you speak English?” Felix asked.

The man frowned harder.

“We need to go to the hotel.” He pointed at the building one block up on the left. “Hotel.”

The man turned and said something to another uniformed man. They spoke in a rush of words that meant nothing to Felix, then the second one waved them through. Another duo moved the wooden barricade out of the way and the man on foot escorted them all the way down to the gated entrance of the hotel.

“Seriously?” Jackie stared at him.

“We can’t be the only foreigners looking to take cover behind the defensive line.”

Kyle jumped out of the back, glaring up at Felix.

Yeah, he’d hear about it later, but they were here and relatively safe.

“It’s not all about me.” Jackie leaned her head back and stared at the top of the truck. “What about the others? Have we heard from the other team? Kyle?”

“Nothing yet,” Kyle answered.

“Xena might not have wanted to show her hand,” Felix said.

“Zeina.” Jackie chuckled.

“That.” He reached over and grasped her hand. “One thing at a time, okay?”

“Yeah.” She squeezed his hand in return. “Oh, here’s your comm back.”

“Thanks.”

“Jackie or Felix?” Kyle’s voice whispered in Felix’s ear.

“This is Felix.”

“Pull around to the side entrance, out of sight. They’re going to let us take our gear upstairs.”

“Copy that.”

Felix turned the corner and followed the road to the loading bay. It was otherwise empty of people and those who might see them unload their more questionable luggage.

“Adam, stay on Lemine. Jackie can translate for you. I’m headed your way,” Kyle said.

Felix didn’t kill the engine. He wasn’t ready to relax into their newfound haven yet. The others crawled out from the bed of the truck to the loading dock, hauling the four crates after them.

Lemine came last, his hands free and his mouth twisted up, as though he tasted something sour.

They hadn’t gathered everything before Kyle pushed through the rear exit with a luggage cart in hand.

“Hurry, before the bell boy realizes I dropped him.” Kyle gestured to the cart. He held out a keycard to Felix. “Park the truck out of sight, swap the plates.”

“Copy that.”

Felix vaulted off the loading dock and climbed back into the truck. He drove around the parking lot a few times, making note of security cameras, the fences and other vehicles. Eventually he settled on parking between a dumpster and a small passenger bus. Swapping the plates was a matter of finding a similar sized vehicle and waiting for people to leave the lot. All in all, parking and disguising their truck took well over half an hour.

He used the keycard to enter through a side entrance, soaked with sweat and feeling a bit ragged himself. Following the numbers scrawled on the keycard he found his way upstairs and to the suite. Before he knocked, the door swept open and Shane yanked him inside.

“Anyone see you? Follow you?” Shane closed the door and peered through the peephole.

“No. Why?”

“We can’t wire into their security, so we’re blind.”

“Great,” Felix muttered.

“Hey.” Kyle strode toward him, his hair sticking up. “I need you to talk Jackie off the ledge, but first, come in here.”

Kyle snagged a bottle of water out of a bucket of ice and shoved it at him on their way to one of the bedrooms. He shut the door behind them while Felix twisted the cap off the bottle and gulped down water.

“We’re blind in here, but I think we’re as safe as we’re going to get.” Kyle began pacing from wall to wall. “I got a hold of Duke. He’s got four guys sitting on Jackie’s people, so we’re good there.”

“Okay, what’s the deal with Jackie?”

“You’re getting in pretty good with her, right?”

“Sure.”

“Okay.” Kyle scrubbed his hand across his jaw. “Things out there are getting bad out there. Duke said the slums are a war zone. People are beginning to riot. That’s going to creep this way pretty damn fast. Those barricades are only going to hold for so long before someone pushes through them.”

“Let’s first state that whatever you tell me about Duke’s team I’m going to tell Jackie.” Felix stared at Kyle who nodded. “What’s the update on that team?”

“They have a four man team with them now doing first aid and getting them ready to move.”

“Okay. Do we need to try to get out today?” It was creeping toward mid-afternoon. There was some daylight left.

“The flights are all booked up. I’m worried we’d get there, couldn’t get on a plane, then we’d be exposed. Driving isn’t a good idea unless we can get into some sort of military convoy.”

“The ocean’s that way. We could get on a boat—”

“No.” Kyle shook his head. “Duke said they had reports of pirates and PPM soldiers patrolling the water. We’d be targets there, too.”

“Okay, what are you thinking then?”

“If it comes to it... We send you and her south. Just like we talked about.” Kyle grimaced. He was a good leader, a bit of a control freak when he didn’t check himself. “You could hide her in the trunk of a car, inside something. We’d smuggle her out.”

“You think she’s that much of a bargaining chip?”

“Have you listened to the news?”

“I don’t understand Arabic. Jackie told me what she overheard at the meeting and that the president’s convoy was attacked.”

“And no one has seen him since then. I’d guess he got hit, the Presidential Guard took him somewhere, and they’re trying to keep him alive. But while that’s happening—”

“PPM or that general could be ready to stage a coup...”

“Worst case scenario, yeah. And if I understand it correctly, the Davis support of the president and elected officials is a major motivating force in their retaining power. If PPM got Jackie, they could get her dad to stop supporting the president.”

“How is one woman the key to a civil war? How do we get involved in this shit?”

“Luck?”

“Fuck that luck.”

“Right?” Kyle snorted and checked his watch. “I need to call my dad. Check in with him.”

“It’s pretty early at home.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was figuring. Couple more hours then. Just to be safe.”

“How’s he doing?” Felix hadn’t heard Kyle say anything explicitly, but from a few comments here and there, it didn’t sound like the old man was doing well.

“Cranky as ever.” Kyle shrugged. A non-answer.

“When are we telling her about her mother?” Felix asked slowly.

“We aren’t.” Kyle said those two words with such conviction.

“Was that a request? I don’t remember Mr. Davis saying that.”

“It’s my call. She doesn’t need to hear that her mom is a vegetable from us. That’s the sort of thing her family should tell her.”

“Yeah, but she needs to know.”

“Knowing won’t change it. It’ll just distract her—and us—from getting out of here safely. If you disagree, keep that to yourself. It’s my call.”

Felix bit his tongue. He couldn’t imagine not being told something like that. In Jackie’s shoes he’d do everything he could to get out of here, pirates and enemy forces be damned. He’d go through them if he had to, and that’s what it might come down to.

“What’s our plan for the rest of the day?” Felix asked.

“Rest. Everyone is exhausted. Duke’s team is doing an evac this afternoon and will hopefully join the four guys with Jackie’s people for the night. Tomorrow morning, we’ll do our best to join up, see if we can’t either get a spot on a plane or rig up a convoy south. We’d have numbers and munitions on our side in that instance.”

“Jobs?”

“Your job is to rest. You’ve been on almost this whole time. Work on Jackie. I want her thinking you’re her best friend. Talk to Isaac if you need tips on handling her.”

“I’m not—”

Kyle held up his hand. “I don’t care what you do or don’t do. I care about ensuring our asset stays rational. She goes from, I won’t leave to I have to leave now so fast I’ve got whiplash. For whatever reason she likes you, use that.”

“She trusts me because I don’t hide things or sugarcoat the truth.”

“She’s not ready to know about her mom. You will not tell her about that, got it?”

“Understood,” Felix said.

“Good. Go, see if you can’t convince Jackie to eat and sleep.” Kyle stepped out of the way and gestured at the door to the rest of the suite.

Felix jerked his head in a nod and moved past the other man and into the main room of the suite.

Admiral Crawford, the founder and owner of Aegis Group, had handpicked all the team leaders. Kyle was a good guy. He made the hard choices, considered every angle, but this time Felix didn’t agree. It still wasn’t Felix’s call though.

He blew out a breath and felt the weight of the whole op settle onto his shoulders. If things went bad, getting Jackie out was his responsibility. It was a heavy burden to bear, but he didn’t want to trust her safety to anyone else.

He’d really never met another person like her since his cousin died. They were a different type of human. The ones that cared about others to the point that their own well being mattered less. Looking at her shedding tears of joy, he couldn’t help but think about things he should have done. Time he should have taken for others.

Like Ian’s silly dancing prince thing. Felix had said no. He’d known full well he could have gotten his gig pushed back, he could have been there for Ian’s niece like their whole family had been there for every other person. Felix never took off time to spend with the family in Seattle because they were just there. He didn’t make an effort. And these were people he cared for, loved even. Jackie was more concerned with a group of strangers.

Felix finished off the bottle of water and tossed it into the waste basket. Kyle was deep in his own head, pacing like some sort of caged animal. This had to be hell on him, the weight of all their lives resting on him. Well, the least Felix could do was see how Jackie was doing, if she’d eaten or could rest.

He walked out into the main area of the suite, taking in the lay of the room.

The dining table for four had been commandeered for what little tech they’d been able to take with them. No doubt the others were working with the home office to figure out an exit strategy. Usually he’d be in on it, focused on their defensive plans, but this time it was different.

“Hey, where’s—”

“That way.” Shane didn’t glance up from his tablet, just pointed at an open door that appeared to join two suites.

Felix pulled off his man dress, desperate for a little more air, and strode through the door.

The three men sat clustered around a TV, the sound off.

“There you are.” Jackie froze in an open door, Val perched on a bed behind her.

“Hey, everything okay? You guys comfortable?” He put on a smile, conscious of the tension radiating through everyone.

Jackie crossed to him, standing so close she almost stepped on his toes.

“I need to leave,” she whispered.

“Did Kyle tell you he’s got people with the last of your team?” Felix thumbed over his shoulder.

“Yes. That’s great. But—”

“But, Jackie?” He shoved the garment under his arm, took her hands and stared into her eyes. “If we left right now, what would we be doing?”

“Going to the airport.”

“There aren’t any available seats. Going to the airport and waiting on standby means if you don’t get on a plane, we’re all coming back close to dark, and that’s when the PPM forces are most active. Right now, we’re behind a military blockade. That protects us.”

“What about the plan to go south?”

“How would we get through the military and PPM barricades?”

Her face creased and her eyes dropped to his chest.

“Look, I know you want to do what’s best for everyone, but right now that’s for us to stay where we’re at until our reinforcements arrive. Got it?”

“Are you sure?” She glanced up at him.

“Are you really going to question me?” He quirked a brow at her. “I thought we made a deal.”

“I know.” Her shoulders slumped.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a squeeze. All she wanted to do was whatever was best for others. He couldn’t fault her there.

Val hovered in the bedroom Jackie had walked out of. She stared at him with a creased brow and lips twisted into a grimace. This was a tough place to be. He’d been in worse, and so had they. If their plan worked this time, tomorrow they’d be headed out of town and away from all this mess.

“Have they fed you guys yet?” he asked.

“Food’s coming up,” Val replied.

Jackie straightened and let go of him as though her friend’s voice reminded her it wasn’t just them anymore.

“Okay, then how about showers, get everything in order so once we’ve all eaten, we sleep? You guys barely got any rest last night and now we’ve been making you run all over the city.”

“I could pass out right now.” Val chuckled.

“How’s your head?” Felix studied Jackie’s profile.

“Good,” Val said. “She’ll have a gnarly scar, but her bangs will cover most of it, I think. I’m going to take a shower, though. This dry heat is killing me.”

“There should be more clothes in there.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “The guys can get it for you.”

“Thanks.” Val pushed off the door and strolled past them.

“Nice digs we’ve got here.” He turned, getting the lay of the room.

They appeared to be mirror images. Two main areas joined by a single door. Both had a dining area, some odd looking couches up against the wall, and a very small kitchenette area with a coffee pot and electric kettle.

Jackie grasped his hand and without a word backed up, pulling him down the hall and into the bedroom farthest from everyone. She closed the door behind them.

“What is it? What’s going on?” What couldn’t she say in front of Val?

Jackie turned and walked straight into him, wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed tight. He cringed. His clothes were soaked with sweat, he had a thick layer of sand all over him, and he was pretty sure that odor was him. But she didn’t pull away. He swallowed down the lump in his throat and gently folded his arms around her.

“Hey. What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asked.

“This is all my fault. Everyone is in danger because of me.”

“Did you decide to start a civil war?”

“No.”

“Did you decide to send a group of guerrilla soldiers after us?”

“No, but—”

“No, listen to me.” He leaned back. “You did what you thought was right. Was it a risk? Yes, but I’m willing to bet it’s a risk you’ve taken before. Sometimes the risk doesn’t pay off, sometimes there are consequences, sometimes shit just goes sideways. You didn’t make any of this happen, you can’t decide you’re responsible for other people’s actions. All you can do it worry about what we can control. Right now, that’s showers, it’s food, it’s sleep. Okay?”

Jackie nodded, but still didn’t seem convinced.

“Shane’s girlfriend likes to say that if you don’t eat, you’re slow. If you don’t sleep, you’re slow. If you’re slow, you die. She’s some sort of reptile vet and travel blogger, traveled the world a lot, but the same applies to us. If we don’t take care of ourselves, then we are making the choice to be a risk. Got it?”

“Okay. Yeah. Where’s the food?”

“No idea. I’ll track it down, okay?”

She nodded, all the fight gone out of her.

“It’s going to be okay, Jackie. We’ve never lost an asset yet. We got this.”

As soon as those words were out, he wanted to mute them. No one kept a perfect record, it was a fact they were all aware of. There would be a first time, and a second time, someday. He just hoped it wasn’t now.