“He’s been detained. I am Major Mohammed Farouk. I will be coordinating your stay here on base.”
“Thank you,” Gray said with a nod. “These are my men. This is my second-in-command Senior Chief Aiden O’Malley. Then you have Dalton Sullivan, Wyatt Leeds, Griffin Porter, Hunter Diaz and my computer specialist, Dexter Evans.”
The major acknowledged them with a stiff nod, then pointed to a truck. They loaded up and were soon in front of a building that had been recently built. The base had just officially opened and was considered to be the gem of the Middle East. He grinned when they got inside, it did his heart good to know that a barracks was a barracks, even if it was supposed to be a jewel.
“You’ve arrived in time for our midday meal. It will be in a half hour,” the major informed Gray. “My man will come and escort you to the dining hall in twenty minutes.” He turned and left.
“Get situated. I’m going to see what’s keeping Adams and maybe we can have some answers by the time we’ve eaten,” Gray told them.
Dex dumped his shit on one of the bunks and immediately pulled out his laptop. “Lieutenant,” he called Gray over. “I need to show you some intel that came in right before we landed.”
Aiden followed Gray over to Dex’s bunk. “Whatchya got?” Gray asked.
“Anders has actually been playing footsy with Taruk El Mahdy, along with two big time collectors.”
“El Mahdy? Is he out of his goddamn mind?” Aiden demanded. “He’s number three on the US terrorist watch list!”
“It’s not El Mahdy directly, it’s his cousin out of Tangiers. According to the guys at Langley, there is no doubt that he’s a conduit to El Mahdy. Everything has been encrypted. They’re working on getting the e-mail content, but they don’t know when they’ll get it decrypted.”
“And the collectors?” Gray asked.
“One’s out of London, the other’s out of Hong Kong. The encryption on their e-mails have been easy to break. They found out that Anders has been selling artifacts for damn near the entire four years his father-in-law, Ambassador Letterman, has been stationed in Egypt.”
Dex wasn’t surprised to see the looks of disgust on Aiden and Gray’s faces. It was the same thing he was feeling. Asshole had a fan-fucking-tastic life with a beautiful wife and two daughters and was a greedy, grasping bastard who was risking the lives of his family. Plus, he was getting into bed with one of the evilest assholes in the world. The whole thing made Dex want to punch a wall.
“Dex, did you hear me?”
“What?” He needed to keep his shit sorted.
“I asked if they’ve found any connection to the ambassador.”
“Nada so far, but they’re continuing to look,” Dex answered.
“Gray!” Hunter called from near the entrance of the barracks. Their heads turned and saw that one of the Egyptian soldiers had arrived. He was standing at attention.
“Come on everyone. Time to eat,” Gray called out.
***
Captain Adams arrived ten minutes after they returned to the barracks. He was one of those wiry men who seemed to vibrate with energy. His gaze missed nothing during the introductions, and he zeroed in on Dex.
“Did you get the intel from DC?” he demanded immediately.
“Yep, I briefed my lieutenant and second-in-command.”
“My guy tried to tell me what was going on when I was driving here, but he kept cutting out. I think I got the gist, and if I did, it changes everything. Let’s go over it, and I’ll tell you what I found out from my inspection of the yacht. It wasn’t good.”
Dex laid out everything the suits in Washington, DC had given him. Then it was Adams’ turn to share.
“Two of the marines were shot point blank in the interior family area. They didn’t have their weapons drawn. It’s my assessment they were the first two assassinated. The third marine, Sergeant Keith was up on the bridge when things went south. Blood splatter showed that he was coming down the stairs when he was shot in the head. Last, Corporal Hernandez was below deck. His weapon was drawn as well, no shots. His body landed on top of an interrupted fucking game of fucking Candyland.” With every word, his voice rose.
Nobody said anything for long moments. Finally, Griffin Porter asked, “how old are the daughters?”
“Four and five,” Dexter answered.
Again silence.
“The crew?” Gray asked.
“According to the manifest, there should have been five men besides the captain. He’s nowhere to be found. Two of the crew were found in the engine room with bullets in their brains, the rest are gone.”
“So, this was definitely an inside job,” Adams stated.
“Weren’t there security cameras?” Dex asked.
“All of the footage has been pulled.”
“That clinches it. It was an inside job,” Gray said.
“Are you telling me that Anders allowed a man to be shot and bleed out in front of his daughters?” Gray said slowly and quietly.
“Everything points to this being an inside job. I hope to God that a father would have protected his girls, but I don’t think he did,” Adams answered.
The rage Dex had felt before that Anders would risk his wife and daughters to sell antiquities morphed into something he could barely contain. He pictured Hernandez sitting cross-legged playing the children’s game with the two little girls and then blood spraying, and the girls screaming.
“Is he doing this supposed kidnapping with or without El Mahdy’s help?” Aiden asked Adams.
“He couldn’t have pulled this off without El Mahdy. The terrorist isn’t a bidder, he’s a supplier.” The Captain’s eyes glittered with anger. “Anders is acting as a middle man for El Mahdy.”
Dex nodded. The captain was right, it made perfect sense.
“Now we just have to do the investigating to prove it,” Adams said. “To me, this looks more like an investigation than a SEAL team operation at this point.”
“Until we get called home, we’re staying,” Gray said quietly. All his men’s heads nodded in agreement.
Adams eventually nodded. It was clear he wasn’t pleased, but he was going to deal with it.
Chapter Two
“I really want a cheeseburger. Maybe pizza. How about a steak?” Dalton said to no one in particular.
“This sitting around and watching Dex play on his computer is boring as shit,” Wyatt complained. “How long is this going to take? We’ve been here eight days.”
Dex looked around at the men who had just come out of the showers. They had spent the last four hours doing physical training in the camp gym, then donned fifty-pound backpacks and ran ten miles in the desert heat. Dex had done the gym time with them but had opted out of the run so that he could coordinate with Langley, but they didn’t have anything new. He agreed with Wyatt, it was boring waiting for something to happen. The only thing that had kept him occupied, besides the physical training, had been Mary Poppins. He re-read his e-mail one last time. It had only taken five days and nine fucking drafts to get it right.
Dear SNMP,
So, you don’t consider yourself Mary Poppins? Well, I’ve got to call you something for now, so how about Poppy until you tell me your real name? Please don’t call me SailorBoy, Boy, Sailor, Popeye, or anything else but my name, which is Dex.
Yep, you looked pretty damn good in the photo, but that’s not the reason I’m responding, so you don’t need to go buy more product. Buckle-up, Buttercup, your appeal is that you made me laugh. A lot. Now that I told you that, I figure you’re probably going to be all paranoid and try to hire a joke writer. I think they’re all on strike, so don’t bother trying to find one. What’s more, your paranoia is part of your charm.
I know you told me not to respond, but Poppy, you made it impossible not to. You told me what does it for you, so let me return the favor. I liked your attitude. I liked your self-deprecation, I liked that your number one priority was your son. Your smile was just th
e cherry on top.
I have a job that gives me some flexibility in time, but then there are days when I have to be away at a moment’s notice. Not real conducive to a relationship, but some of my friends have made it work in a big way.
In an effort to reassure you, since you’re all about your kid and responsibility, I’m not looking for a hook-up. But let me guess, that’s going to have you running for the hills, right? But be honest, if I said I was looking for a one night stand you would have run, if I said I was looking for something deeper, you were going to run. No matter what, you were going to run because after all, you told me not to respond.
But I read between the lines. You’ve got guts. Hell, you’ve got balls! So, I’m throwing down.
Respond.
You were bold once, do it again.
I dare you.
- Dex
He logged onto his personal e-mail and pressed send.
“Dammit, this is boring, with a capital ‘B!’ I want to see some action,” Wyatt damn near shouted. That took Dex out of his trance, and he looked up and laughed, he was no longer in Poppyland, he was back with his team in Egypt. Well almost. He surely hoped his dare would work.
“You always want action.” Griffin Porter grinned at Wyatt.
“Griff, it’s not cool making fun of the guy who hasn’t had a date in two months. You have Miranda, something tells me you get plenty of action.”
Griffin didn’t say anything, but the smile that spread across his face said it all.
Wyatt groaned. “I guess I need to start taking the train.”
Gray walked in. “If we’re talking about the train, we must be talking about Miranda. How is she doing, Griff?”
“She’s fine. Kicking ass and taking names. Said she had lunch with Aiden’s woman.”
Aiden’s head shot up from where he was cleaning his weapon. He grinned. “Evie and Miranda had lunch? That’s good.” Dex watched as both men’s faces relaxed into satisfied smiles.
“Stop talking about your women!” Wyatt demanded. “Dex or Gray, tell me something is going to start happening here. It’s been over a week.”
Dex looked at Wyatt, who was the youngest of the group and still hadn’t learned patience.
“Adams is due to arrive any minute,” Gray announced. “He’s bringing two of his men.”
“Well hot damn.” Wyatt sat forward on his bunk. “Ever since the news people got involved, I thought this mission was going to be a bust.”
The ambassador had made his family’s disappearance into a media circus, despite the warnings he’d received from the US government and the military police. However, no mention of missing artifacts or El Mahdy had been made.
Gray’s phone rang just as Captain Adams walked into the barracks along with two MPs who towered over him. Gray gave a chin tilt to Aiden to take over talking to the military police while he took his phone call.
“Captain, we’ve set up a conference area over here.” Aiden indicated three tables they’d shoved together near the back of the large room. Everybody sat down and introduced themselves.
“It sounds like your team has been busy,” Aiden said to the captain.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Lieutenant Tyler?” the captain asked.
“He’ll catch up,” Aiden assured him. “What information do you have for us?”
“The latest artifacts didn’t come from Egypt, so it took a little longer to track down,” Adams said. “It was almost an entire room of the Syrian state museum. We’re talking Greco-Roman busts, weapons, and jewelry.”
“What kind of bids are they getting?” Hunter asked.
“In total, this will be well over two hundred million.”
Dalton whistled.
“I thought all of the Syrian artifacts were going to be captured by ISIS,” Griffin said.
“They were,” Adams explained. “We’ve finally decrypted the e-mails between Anders and El Mahdy’s cousin. It was El Mahdy’s men who stole the Syrian artifacts. Anders is the seller.”
“I don’t get it, why would they kidnap the family? Don’t they need Anders kept in place?” Hunter asked.
“Langley said that they knew there was an antiquities operation going on close to the embassy,” Dex said. “They were closing in.” Dex turned to Adams. “I’ve been crunching through the e-mails too. Have you noticed some of the overlap going from Bill Anders account and the Protocol Officer’s account?”
“So?” Adams said. “He’s just using his other named account and his titled account.”
“Noreen Anders, the Ambassador’s daughter, is the protocol officer,” Dex explained slowly.
Adams looked at him incredulously. “You can’t mean she’s involved. This is him. He’s the bad guy in all of this. El-Mahdy made a deal with Anders to get him off that boat and out of harm’s way before the CIA closed in on him.”
“Can Anders keep doing what he’s doing from someplace else?” Dalton asked.
“He’s got four years of contacts, he should,” Dex answered.
“So, he hasn’t been kidnapped, he’s basically run off with his fucking business partner,” Aiden said with loathing.
“But he’s still in the hands of El Mahdy, and his father-in-law has the international community raising hell about their disappearance,” Adams said.
“Aiden. Dex. We have a mission to plan,” Gray clipped out as he headed towards them.
Dex looked up and saw that Gray was already in mission-mode.
“What are you talking about?” Adams demanded. “We’re still investigating things. There is no mission.”
“Captain Adams, I have to ask you to leave, this is classified.”
Dex watched as Adams clenched and unclenched his fists, it was clear he was not happy about this turn of events.
“Lieutenant,” he said using Gray’s lower rank, “I am in charge of this investigation.”
“You are still in charge of the investigation. And I am in charge of my men. I appreciate your valuable input. It will be noted in my report to command. As of right now, we have different orders that require me to brief them privately. I’m sure you understand.”
Adams took a deep breath and nodded. He picked up his hat and motioned for his men to follow him as he strode out of the barracks.
“Shit, Gray, what was that all about?” Aiden asked.
“I couldn’t risk this getting back to the Marines. They are chomping at the bit to get in on any kind of retaliatory mission. But command wants us to go. Satellite photos show a terrorist camp in the middle of the Tibetsi mountain range. It was blind luck that they found them. It showed three figures with blonde hair, one adult, and two children. We have to go in mean and fast before we lose our advantage.”
“Holy hell, that’s the wife and daughters,” Wyatt breathed out.
“That’s command’s assessment,” Gray agreed.
“Was it on the Chad or Libyan side of the border?” Hunter asked.
“How in the hell have you even heard of some mountain range called the Betsey mountains, let alone know they are in Chad?” Wyatt asked Hunter.
“I read books from time to time, you should try it,” Hunter said dryly.
“It’s on the Libyan side. Barely,” Gray answered.
Dex logged into the secure server and found photos had been downloaded to him. He twirled his laptop around so his team could see them.
Dex clicked through the eighteen photos, pausing as his teammates assessed and made comments, or asked him to zoom in. After forty-five minutes, they were done.
“Okay, so we have a landing point fifteen clicks away without being seen or heard,” Gray surmised. “Based on the number of tents and activity, we have at minimum, thirteen targets. All the Anders are blonde, and so far, we’ve only had eyes on the girls and mother. Our plan will be to take out all of the targets, acquire the Anders family and call in the helicopters for a pick-up to take us back to Egypt.”
Dex looked around the table at his team. Ever
yone was grinning at the same thing. Gray had managed to distill a detailed plan to kill the world’s third most dangerous terrorist and rescue four hostages into four sentences.
“What?” Gray asked.
“Nothing. I just wonder what you’d tell us to do on D-Day?” Hunter said.
“That’s easy. I’d say, ‘take the damn beach.’” Gray grinned.
“When do we go out?” Aiden asked.
“Just have to call for our ride,” Gray answered as he picked up his phone.
***
It was three o’clock in the morning. The moon was waning, so they didn’t have a lot of light, which was perfect. They had their night vision goggles. They had memorized the layout of the camp. Seven tents. Four clustered together, one well away from the others to the west, and two clustered together on the east. They had it planned. Three men would take the west side of the camp, four would take the east. There were three trucks parked haphazardly, they would be used for cover.
They had their coms so they could communicate.
“Guard sleeping in front of the far west tent,” Aiden whispered. Dex saw the man was holding an AK47 across his lap, and his head was resting on his chest.
“Guard on eastern tent eliminated,” Hunter whispered.
“Going in,” Griffin said even softer. Dex knew that meant he was slipping into one of the two tents.
Aiden gave Dex the nod, and he ghosted behind the sleeping guard, putting his hand over the man’s mouth as he yanked the rifle out of his hand. Then Dex pulled out his knife and punched it into the man’s heart holding him tight until he went slack.
“Guard on western tent dead,” Aiden whispered.
Dex followed Dalton as they took the larger of the two tents. Aiden headed to the smaller tent. Slipping in silently, Dex was assaulted by the smell of garlic and body odor. Dex and Dalton were on the two inhabitants before they could roll over. Once assured that they were targets, they were easily dispatched.
“Two down,” Dalton whispered.
“Two more down,” Aiden panted through his mic. He sounded out of breath. Dammit! Dex prayed there wasn’t a problem.
Her Devoted HERO (Black Dawn Book 2) Page 2
