Prologue
Erick Fuller hefted his bag in his good arm and walked toward customs. Cade was only a few seconds behind him. They were traveling together but separate. They’d sat in different areas on the plane so nobody could tag them as being together. As soon as Erick cleared customs and headed out toward the front entrance, he took a moment to adjust to the heat. Being in Afghanistan brought back a lot of memories. It had been one of the reasons for the fast decision to come over here. The longer he stayed home and knew this trip was happening, the worse the nightmares would get. He hated to even let anybody know he was having them.
But his shrink knew. PTSD was a real issue. And nothing seemed to be working for him.
He was hoping answers would help. While he waited for Cade to join him, he texted Badger that they had landed safely. Confirmation came immediately. Badger would be at the end of his phone at all times, to run control in case they needed anything. This could be a twenty-four-hour trip, or it could be much longer. They were renting a rig and driving out to the area where the incident occurred, would talk with the local villagers and then come home. Okay, so maybe two or three days tops.
But he didn’t expect it to be any longer than that. Longer would mean they either ran into big trouble or found a big lead. After two years he doubted there were big leads to find, and there was way too much trouble in this part of the world already. He’d like to avoid that if he could.
They were meeting up with an old connection. Somebody who would supply them with the weapons for the trip. He didn’t want to take the chance of crossing borders and getting stopped. He could have, but it was risky. He traveled under his own passport too. He hadn’t been flagged in England; that had been Badger who had popped up. But then he’d had a few issues, and MI6 always seemed to keep tabs on him. Erick chose to travel under his real name and see what came of it. If anybody asked, he’d tell him this was a nostalgia trip.
And that was the truth, in part.
The hot sun beat down on him. Then what the hell did he expect? There was just such a different smell to the air here. He preferred traveling through places like Canada and Siberia. There was a freshness to the coldness there. It brought its own chill but killed off any of the old heavy air that seemed to settle in hot places. And when the wind did come through the hotter climates to clean out the old air, it brought with it sand and dust that choked your throat and filled your lungs and made your nostrils snort futilely for weeks. He couldn’t believe he was back here. It was so not where he wanted to be.
A hard hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to see Cade. He nodded. “Ready?”
“Almost. I know you said you wanted to run this with just the two of us. But, before leaving, I got a text from Talon.”
Erick raised his eyebrows. “I guess we should have expected that after England.”
Cade nodded. “He wants in.”
“Not sure that’s a good idea. You heard the audio file yourself.”
“I know. But I can’t believe Talon, or any of us, had anything to do with the incident.”
“I’m with you there. I just wish the audio was clear enough to be sure it wasn’t one of us who made the call that gave away our location.”
“I hear you.”
Just then a shout sounded from behind them, and Erick turned to see Talon walking toward him. “Wow, he’s fast.”
“He was already here. Well, close to here anyway. He got in a few hours ago. He’s been waiting for us to land.”
The men exchanged greetings. Talon smiled at Erick. “I hope this isn’t a problem. I know Cade didn’t get a chance to talk to you before he okayed it for me.”
Erick shrugged. “We’re always glad to have you around. We do need to get answers. It just sucks the audio file appeared to come from inside our truck.”
“I was wondering about that.” Talon motioned toward the parking lot. “I picked up your rental early. I hope that’s okay.”
“If they gave it to you, that’s fine. But we still have to go meet Shadowbox.”
Talon chuckled. “Is he still around?”
“He is indeed. And his prices went up too.”
“Of course they did.” Talon’s voice turned grim. “I hear you on that audio recording. There’s a part of me that wants to think it’s a fake. Did you even consider that?”
“I don’t know how they would have done it, but Tesla’s hoping the same thing. She’s doing an analysis of the tape. Chances are, we won’t find anything for a while. She said it didn’t look good. As far as she could tell, it was authentic, at least at this point.”
“Shit.” Talon shook his head. “Well, I sure as hell didn’t do anything to get our asses kicked.”
“Neither did we.”
“And I can swear there’s no way Laszlo would have anything to do with it. He was as loyal as anyone.”
“Was?” Erick turned to look at him. “Do you know something I don’t know?” he asked in alarm.
Talon shook his head. “No, Laszlo is fine. I shouldn’t have been speaking in past tense, but I was thinking of back then. I know Laszlo is loyal. He’s gone home to his family in Norway for a while. But, if we need him, he’s there.”
“He doesn’t know anything about this though, does he?” Cade asked.
“No, but honestly he approached me over a year ago because he felt somebody had betrayed us too.”
“What?” Erick stopped and turned to look at Talon. “You never mentioned that.”
“You were just heading under the knife for another major surgery. Cade here had his back half split open and was lying with traction on both legs at the time. Badger was a huge mess. He’s had how many surgeries, lost his spleen, his leg… No way I could do that to you guys. Now that you’re all back on your feet, and every one of you has the same idea, hell yeah, we need to know. It’s all I could do to hold Laszlo back. If he knew we were here, he’d be here.”
“Damn.”
“It would be nice to see him,” Cade said. “Laszlo is a hell of a guy.”
Talon led the way to the vehicle. It was an open military jeep. They dropped their gear in the back, and Talon hopped into the driver’s side. “Hotel first?”
“Yeah. Let’s give the impression we’re here on a holiday.”
Cade snorted. “It is a holiday. At least as far as the world is concerned.”
“The fewer people who know what we’re doing here, the better,” Talon said. “Just make sure Badger is keeping track because, if we run into trouble, we will need a fast hand getting out.”
“We got that taken care of,” Erick said, his voice hard. “Let’s go. I want to get this dealt with and get home again.”
Both men jumped in and said, “Amen to that.”
A few minutes later they pulled up to the hotel. Talon parked in one of the visitor spots. The three men got out and walked into the reception area. Air-conditioning and huge fans blasted them with cool air.
In the waiting area Erick saw a woman on her phone, laptop on her knees, clicking away as she spoke. Obviously Western, she looked impatient and angry.
Cade nudged him with his elbow and motioned toward her. “Don’t you know her?”
Talon twisted to look in the same direction as Erick, who stopped and studied her and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Look again,” Cade said. “I’m pretty sure she smacked into your ’69 Mustang.”
At that Erick froze. “She better not have.”
“I think it’s her.”
Erick turned to study her.
She had her hair up, big sunglasses, almost a generic blonde, good looking, slim. Too attractive for over here—it was a dangerous part of the world for white women, particularly if she was traveling alone.
He twisted to look back at his friend. “Why the hell would you think she’s the one who did that?”
“Look at her name tag.”
His gaze slipped to her chest and caught the name tag he hadn’t noticed before. Honey Lewis. He froze. “Son of a bitch.” His voice was louder than he meant it to be.
Honey glanced at him, and her lips pinched together as she lifted her glasses and stared up at him. Out of her mouth came “What the hell?”
He walked toward her. “Isn’t that my line?”
She tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. “I was hoping to never see you again.”
“You’re the one who smacked into my car.”
“It was an accident, remember?”
He nodded. “I remember. I also remember how, at the time, you blamed me.”
She raised her hands, palms up. “Sorry, I was upset.”
He snorted. “I don’t doubt it. At least I got my ’69 Mustang fixed. What about you? Are you still driving, or did they yank your license?”
She glared at him. “I still drive, thank you very much.” She snapped her laptop closed, stuffed it in a bag, pocketed her cell phone in her khakis and stood. “I shouldn’t have been driving that day. You’re right. And I apologized. And I shouldn’t have blamed you. I wasn’t in a very good state of mind.”
He punched his hands on his hips. “A year is kinda late for an apology, but I’ll accept it.”
She gave him a supersweet smile. “Good. It’s the only one you’ll get.” And she spun on her heels and stepped forward to the reception desk, slipping in front of them, taking their place.
He snorted. “Why the hell is she staying here?”
“I don’t know, but I like this turn of events,” Cade said. “Should make the next few days interesting.”
Erick shot him a look. “Like hell.” And he stalked forward to speak to a different agent at the counter.