“Fucking hell!”

Cade watched as Hawk paced back and forth in the airport hotel room they’d piled into. Gina’s plane had experienced an issue that forced them to land in Berlin, and now they were waiting for the repair to be done and clearance to take off again.

“Baby,” Gina said, sauntering over and laying a hand against his chest. “We’ll be on our way soon. Calm down.”

Calm down? A few of the Alpha Squad members exchanged glances. Cade didn’t miss it. He’d never served with Hawk, but he’d been in HOT long enough to know that the sniper’s cool had been legendary. That he was losing it here and now was a sign of how on edge they all were.

Fucking Ian Black was on his way to Moscow to haul Mendez back to the US. Which made no damned sense since Black was the one who’d told him he was being arrested in the first place. But Black had his orders from somewhere and he was obeying them.

At least he’d given them information on Delta Squad even if it hadn’t been precise. Cade wondered if it was a tail-chasing maneuver. If Black was sending them out of his way so he could get to Mendez first. But why? None of it made sense. Why would he help Mendez, send one of his operators to help the colonel, and then turn on him?

Whatever the case, HOT wanted to get to Russia, find Delta, and help Mendez before they were missed. Though maybe they’d already been missed. There’d been no chatter, but if Comstock sent for them and they weren’t there—well, AWOL would be the least of their troubles.

Hawk wasn’t affected by military rules anymore, but he apparently still felt the pressure. He put his hands on his wife’s shoulders. Then he gave her a quick kiss.

Lucky bastard.

“Honey, why don’t you go to our room and rest? I’m going to sit here with the guys and see what Kid finds out, okay?”

Gina’s beautiful eyes lit up with love. Sickening.

Okay, no, it wasn’t sickening. It made him jealous. Which was crazy because he did not care to fuck one woman for the rest of his life. Even if she was a gorgeous pop star.

“All right, baby. Don’t pop a blood vessel, okay? The kids and I need you too much.”

“Yeah, fine. Promise.” Hawk kissed her with a little more heat this time. Then she sashayed out of the room and no one said anything. The clacking of the keyboard was the only sound in the room. That and the distant whine of jets as they took off and landed at the airport.

“You fuckers are making me nervous,” Kid said after a long minute. “Say something. Somebody tell a fart joke or something.”

“I got nothing,” Money said. “Anybody?”

Ryan “Flash” Gordon, who usually had a joke about everything, shrugged. “Not me. Though I can regale you with poop stories about my toddler if you like.”

Kid held up a hand. “No. Just no.”

The door opened and Ghost walked in. He’d probably been working some sort of contact somewhere. Cade hoped it was good for them, whatever it was.

“How’s it going, Kid?”

“Slow. I’ve been talking with Hacker, and he’s still trying to trace the entry points into our servers. If we could get that, we could follow it back to the source and enter their system. If it’s Open Sky and Turov, we might be able to trace Delta Squad too. But we’re also checking warehouses in Moscow for signs of Delta.”

Hacker had stayed back in DC to handle the cyber duties from that end. The guys who’d stayed behind hadn’t wanted to stay, but they’d done the time-honored random-number system to determine who went and who didn’t. The computer had picked the winners and losers based on skills needed. Except for Iceman, who’d never been in the running to go.

Those who lost stayed behind and handled HQ duties at Richie’s house. The rest boarded Gina’s plane and headed for Moscow. Until a malfunctioning engine landed them in Berlin.

Ghost raked a hand through his hair. He looked frustrated as shit. They all were. “Well, hell,” he said. He shot a look at the SEALs. “What’s that thing you boys say? The only easy day was yesterday?”

“That’s it,” Viking said.

“Hey, got a ping,” Kid said excitedly.

Cade’s pulse kicked a little higher. Everyone’s probably did.

“Aw hell, forget it,” Kid said. “Just another fake entry point.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Flash asked.

“It means that whoever did this wanted to mask the IP address the program came from, so they created a bunch of aliases. Thousands, probably. It’s like a funhouse mirror—you think you’re close, but then you see it’s a trick.”

“So how long will it take to find the source?” Hawk asked.

“It could take weeks. Or days. If we’re lucky, hours. It’s possible we could find a vulnerable spot in the program and then all the data points unfold like an accordion. That’s what we’re hoping for.”

“So what you’re really saying,” Money said, “is that it’s not going well and we’re pretty much fucked?”

“If we don’t get in soon… Yeah, we’re fucked. And so’s the colonel.”