Edge of Reason (EDGE Security Series Book 2) (12 page)

Rhys stopped and looked at her, his eyes quiet. “That doesn’t look good.”

She glanced back at the soldiers behind them. They hadn’t seen them. “What?”

“Your expression. You’ve decided what we have isn’t worth going after.”

Her lips pressed together. “It’s not.” The words
I’m sorry
hovered on her lips, but she bit them back. She would not be sorry for choosing her career over a night of passion. And she knew for a fact that that was all Rhys offered.

“You’re serious, chère?” he asked, his voice gruff. “After that kiss?”

“Forget the kiss.” She held up her hands as if to ward him off, though he hadn’t moved. “And don’t call me chère.”

He scowled and opened his mouth. She cut him off. “I am your team leader. We are just teammates. Now, I’ve got to go grill an intel officer.”

“I assume you want to do it alone. Like everything else you do,” Rhys said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re smart,” he said. “Figure it out,
teammate
.”
 

He strode away. She clenched her jaw so she wouldn’t call him back.

Cat spread the map on the table in the small room she’d been given for her team briefing. She’d just come from the female barracks where she’d grabbed some rack time, but had hardly been able to sleep.

Because of Rhys and his kiss.
 

Maybe they shouldn’t be on the same team. She forced all thoughts of him away and locked them away in the back of her mind. She had a mission and a man’s life to think about now.

Zach and Marc entered first, then Rhys. They all grabbed chairs.

“What do you have for us?” Marc said.

“I didn’t get much from the intel guys here. But one of the D-boys offered up some information. They’ve been all over and know this area.”

“Do we know what they’re here for?” Zach said.

She shook her head. “No, but I don’t think it’ll affect our mission. The D-boy let me know the best route to Dr. Hutchins suspected location.” She pointed at the map. “This area near Lake Chad is where our source says he’s being held prisoner. Based on their typical pattern, we’ve got approximately forty-eight hours before they execute him. That means we fly out tonight.”
 

She pointed to a new location on the map, about five kilometers from the river. “We’ll insert here. Cross the Yobe River at this bridge. Then it’s a quick ten-mile run.” She grinned to show she knew it would be strenuous on them all. “Once at the location, we’ll do a sneak-and-peek before the extraction. We’ll get our guy out to the exfil at the same location.”

“What if he’s in bad shape?” Zach asked.

“We bring a portable stretcher, but the terrain won’t permit a medevac until after that bridge.”

“Grab and go,” Rhys said.

She went over more details for the mission before breaking. “Meet on the airstrip at 2400 hours.”

She went back to her bunk and checked her pack, her weapon, and her gear. She smeared camouflage paint on her face, neck, hands, and any skin that might show pale in the dark, before heading to the airstrip.
 

The sun sank toward the horizon and turned the sky reddish orange.

She sighed when Steve fell into step with her.

“I saw you and your boy walk off together. So did lots of others.”

“Go away, Steve.”

“I know what you’re doing,” he said. “There’s been rumors of an American hostage among the locals. You’re going after him, aren’t you?”

She didn’t bother to acknowledge him.
 

“I can help,” he said.
 

She snorted, but didn’t say anything.
 

He went to grab her arm, but she shifted away without breaking her stride. “If you touch me, I will break something. That is your only warning.”
 

“Why do you have to be like that?” he said. “I’ve got a company of men who could…”

She stopped and turned, cutting off his words. “This is a covert mission. You know what that means. You’re not even supposed to be asking about it.”

“Come on. You know I could do this. If you told your team you needed my help—”

“But I don’t.”

“What if you get captured, Cat? I’m just worried about you.”

She stepped close to him and put her face in his. “Bullshit. You’re a glory hound. You always want something for nothing.” She sucked in a breath. “This posting is a punishment, isn’t it? Who’d you piss off now, Steve? Wait—you know what? I don’t care. I am not helping you.”

“You think you’re as good as a man,” he snarled. “But you’re not. You’re just a bitch.”
 

She shook her head, refusing to listen to any more of his insults. She strode away, taking deep breaths to shake off her rising anger. The mission called for a clear head.

A few minutes later, she found her team waiting at the end of the tarmac, where two pilots checked over a Little Bird. She nodded at the pilots and checked in with her guys. All had their game faces on, even Rhys; nothing about him betrayed the fact that they’d shared a wild kiss earlier. No leers or inappropriate comments. Tension left her shoulders.
 

Time to work.

The MH-6 Little Bird only had room for the two pilots inside the helicopter. It carried its four passengers on external bench seats, two people per side. Rhys sat beside Cat, his FN SCAR rifle strapped across his front.
 

Full dark had fallen as the bird thumped its way to their infil location. Rhys mentally went over the plan as they rode the thirty minutes to the LZ.

Cat was silent beside him. A part of him was still pissed that she’d made the decision to end any relationship between them before she’d even given it a chance. She was a hell of a woman and one that suited him perfectly—they were explosive in bed, and had fun both in and out of it. He had no issues mixing work and pleasure, at least not with her.
 

He decided he had a new mission once they hit stateside again: to convince Cat to give them a shot. Tension left his neck and shoulders once he’d made the decision, and Rhys’s mind went back to the mission at hand.

The ground was dark, his NVGs giving him glimpses of the landscape they flew over. He took a quick glance at the stars overhead. The glittering landscape revealed above was truly beautiful, and he never tired of looking at it.

“Infil five minutes.” The pilot’s voice came over his headset.

“Roger,” Cat said.
 

Rhys went back to scanning the landscape below. In the distance, he saw more trees, and the river they had to cross.
 

The bird slowed and hovered over an open field near the tree line. “Let’s do it,” Cat said.

He threw out his thick rope, the line pinched between his feet to control his speed, and jumped off the bird with the rope in his gloved hands. He crouched as soon as his boots touched the ground, his rifle up, and scanned his field of fire. The others would be covering their own locations, so the full perimeter around the LZ would be protected.

Once the helicopter flew off and they no longer felt its beating wind, the oppressive heat and humidity hit Rhys. Sweat instantly dotted his face and made his skin slick under the weight of his armor and gear.

“Everyone down?” Cat’s voice.

“Roger,” they all replied.

“Let’s move.”

They went quiet after that. Moving fast, yet silent. Hand signals only. Running when the trees allowed.

It wasn’t long before the bridge came in sight, maybe thirty minutes. Zach covered their rear while Cat, Marc, and Rhys surveyed the bridge. Made of wooden crossbeams and cement pillars, it was built wide enough for three men to walk abreast.
 

Two sentries smoked at the other end of the bridge, their cigarettes flaring in the NVGs with every inhalation. Rhys only prayed that every sentry they encountered would be as stupid.

“How do you want to play this?” Marc asked.
 

The sound of the dark rushing waters under the bridge covered their conversation. Cat stared at those waters a brief moment before looking at him and Marc. “We go under the bridge.”

Rhys raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. If Cat didn’t think her fear of water would be an issue, he had to trust his teammate on her choice.
Only teammates
, he reminded himself.

They slithered one by one down the bank. Cat signaled for him to follow her while Marc and Zach covered them. They slung their rifles and Cat grabbed a wooden crossbeam, tested her weight on it, and then swung out over the river. Her toes were only inches above the water. She swung hand over hand from crossbeam to crossbeam.
 

Rhys let her get about ten feet in front of him before he swung out after her. His shoulder and back muscles flexed to hold himself plus the extra fifty pounds of gear and ammo in his ruck and webbing, not including the twenty pounds of high-tech body armor, or his eight-pound FN SCAR MK 17. It made him proud at how effortless Cat made this crossing appear.
 

Halfway across, one of the sentries shouted. Rhys and Cat both froze. Sweat slithered down his back as a slender beam of light appeared and bobbed over the bridge.
 

Rhys shifted his grip and hung one-handed, making sure his rifle was easily accessible, before placing his hand back on the wooden plank he hung from. Otherwise he didn’t move, taking his cue from Cat, who was closer to the situation.
 

The hiss and snowy crackle of a radio sounded loud even over the water. A man’s voice shouted into the radio, while the other laughed. Rhys had no idea what was going on since they spoke Hausa and he had only the bare minimum of the language. The light from the flashlight still waved around.
 

Cat shifted her hands on the crossbeam she held. His shoulders burned, so he knew hers must, too. They needed to get across this river before they dropped into it. The waters were deep, the current fast, and if they weren’t dragged down by their equipment, then they’d be pounded by the rocks.

It was time to do something. He shifted a hand to his rifle. Almost as if she sensed what he was doing, Cat turned her head to him and shook it.

Fine. He’d wait, but he wasn’t going to let either of them drop into the river.
 

A full minute later, the light and the radio shut off. Cat waited another thirty seconds before moving. They quickly made it across from there, leaping to the ground and landing on the river’s muddy edge silently. He unslung his rifle and aimed it upward, through the cracks between the boards to the two soldiers above. The acrid smoke from the guards’ cigarettes had a sweetness to it, probably from some kind of drug mixed into the tobacco.
 

They murmured in Hausa to each other, the one’s hands waving with whatever story he told. Rhys had never learned the multitude of African languages—most of his were either European or Middle Eastern. A quick glance showed Marc and Zach almost across.
 

Cat nodded at him when the rest of the team landed beside them. In a crouch, he crept along the riverbank away from the bridge. At twenty yards, he crawled up the bank and slid into the stunted trees. He aimed his rifle back toward the sentries, while keeping an eye on the others.

Cat came next. Her movements held the grace of a stalking predator. From there, the rest of the trek to the militant’s base was a cakewalk. They ran the ten miles through the sparse woods, sipping water from their CamelBaks to stay hydrated, and detouring around sentries easily seen with their NVGs.
 

Once they arrived, Cat signaled Zach and Marc to do a quick outer perimeter recon of one side of the encampment while he and Cat did the other.

The encampment looked more like an occupied village, with its thatched roof huts scattered around five main concrete buildings. One dirt road ran through it. The acrid scent of urine and feces announced the location of the latrines on the west side of the encampment. Not far from that were three flatbed trucks, four pickups, and three jeeps. They crept around the vehicles, using them for cover.
 

Shouts and laughter came from one lit-up building not far from the vehicles. Sounded like a party of some sort. A gunshot cracked the night, but only laughter followed it so they kept moving.
 

They’d circled the entire camp and met up with Marc and Zach on the far side before they pulled back into the dark shadows of the trees.

“Any sign of the doctor?” Cat asked.

“Negative,” Marc said.
 

Rhys pursed his lips. “Let’s hope he’s not at the party in that west building.”

It was 0300 local time. Cat scanned the encampment before her, considering the options. She nodded to herself. “Okay. Lucky and I will take the south end. Doc and Spooky, you’ve got the other end. You see the doctor, then you hit the comm link twice. Let’s find him fast and get the hell out of this shithole.”

Tension thrummed through her. Something about this place made her back itch, like something bad was waiting to happen. She lifted her chin. She didn’t have time to figure out what bothered her. They had to find that doctor or they had to find hidey holes to watch the encampment for the day. And she had no desire to watch these ignorant idiots play soldier all day.
 

She motioned to Rhys and they went back the way they’d come, moving closer to the buildings now. There were three in her area of operation. She and Rhys moved up to the first one. It was dark and quiet. She led the way to the doorway.
 

No door, just darkness beyond. Rhys tapped her shoulder, signaling he was ready for entry. She swooped inside, covering the right side. He came in a second behind her, his rifle up and pointed toward the left.
 

“Clear,” Cat whispered. Rhys replied the same back.
 

Two doors led from the large room, empty except for a desk and a table with papers spread over it. Cat glanced at them as she went to the first door. Maps. She twisted the doorknob.