Tangled Pursuit (2 page)

“Hey, sis!”

Startled, Tal turned. “Matt!” She threw her arms open to embrace her younger brother, a Delta Force sergeant. He was so drop-dead handsome that he had women clinging to him whenever he returned to Bagram after completing an operation.

“Hey, good to see you, Tal!” He swept her into his arms, giving her a bear hug of welcome.

Laughing, Tal squeezed him in return. Matt was six foot two inches to her six feet tall. Tal released her younger brother, pinching his bearded cheek. His brown hair was streaked with gold, and he wore it nearly to his shoulders. At least he kept his beard trimmed. But nothing could hide those golden-brown eyes of his.

Those eyes were a gift, their Turkish uncle Ihsan had told Matt once, from him, genetically speaking. Their Turkish side of the family was a mix of different hair and eye colors, but Matt had taken after Ihsan. Therefore, Matt became the favored child of his loving uncle, who lived in Kuşadası, Turkey.

Tal saw Matt’s eyes gleam with happiness as he released her. She was an officer, he an enlisted Army sergeant, and they didn’t often see one another at their home base. Bagram was huge, and all the black ops now worked out of it because of the drawdown. But at least she got to see her little brother from time to time.

Matt slipped into line behind her, resting his hand on her shoulder. “This is lucky! My team just got in from a mission in the Hindu Kush. How about you?”

Tal smiled up at him. She could see he had come directly off the op. His uniform was dusty and stained, his olive complexion marked with dried sweat and dirt. “Same. I’m surprised we didn’t see each other over at Ops.”

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Me, too.” He looked around. “Seen Alexa lately? I just saw four A-10s landing over at the fixed-wing terminal. She might be in that group.”

Shaking her head, Tal said, “No . . . not yet. I saw them land and wondered if Alexa was among them.”

He settled his hands on his narrow hips. “You look pretty rugged. You’ve lost weight, Tal. You’re staying out in those mountains too long, waiting for HVTs to cross the border,” he teased, gently pulling her long black hair, which was caught in a tempting ponytail between her shoulders.

“Part of the price you pay,” she said. Matt still wore his Kevlar vest, a knife on his lower left calf and a drop holster with a pistol in it riding low on his right thigh. He’d probably put his M4 into the weapons locker at Ops. Rifles weren’t allowed in the chow hall.

“Are you here for a while?” he asked, lifting the black baseball cap off his head and running his fingers through his thick, uncombed hair.

“Yes, a couple of days.” She grimaced. “As the CO of this band of snipers, I need to work with tactics and strategy to figure out which HVTs we haven’t nailed yet, look through recent intel, and then set up new missions for my people.”

He patted her shoulder. “Sure glad I’m just a lowly sergeant. I like being out where the action is, not stuck in an office.”

“I get out in the field often enough,” Tal reassured him. “There’s no way I’m sitting behind a desk very long.”

“Well, I imagine Mom and Dad would be happy to hear we were doing just that.” He rubbed his hands on his dusty thighs.

“They’re going to get their wish soon enough,” Tal said. They inched forward a few feet more. From her vantage point, she saw Lockwood and his SEAL group of eight men disappear within the hall. Good! Now all she had to do, once they got through the doors, was find out where they were sitting and grab a seat in the exact opposite direction. That should be easy enough to do.

“Hey, has Dad or Uncle Ihsan sent you any more updates on the Artemis Security building that’s under construction right now?”

Tal pulled out her iPad and clicked it on. “Yes, Dad just sent photos and some more information about our new digs. He’s out at the construction site when he can make it, working on turning that Virginia farmhouse into a state-of-the-art security building for us.”

Matt’s mouth lifted into a grin as he intently studied the photos on her iPad. “It’s going to be Fort Knox compared to Langley,” he agreed, pleased. “From the outside, it looks like a typical three-story white farmhouse from the mid-1800s.” He tapped one photo on the screen, enlarging it. “You know, Uncle Ihsan’s a wily old fox, fighting to keep the shell of the farmhouse around our security firm to hide it. Smart move!”

Snorting, Tal said, “No big surprise, Matt. Our mother’s three brothers run the largest shipping company in the world. They didn’t get there by accident.” All three of her uncles were passionate about keeping the new security company normal-looking on the outside for anyone driving by. “And I agree with their strategy.”

“Yeah, I remember that meeting.” Matt chuckled, studying each of the photos carefully. “I’m glad we were there for that one.” He grinned. “When you put three of our Turkish uncles in the same room with Cousin Angelo, it feels like a firefight in Dad’s office at the Pentagon.” Angelo Mykanos, their mother’s Greek cousin, owned the second-largest shipping line in the world.

Laughing, Tal agreed. “That was one helluva meeting! Add to that Dad, Uncle John, and Uncle Pete, and you have so much power in that room, it’s unbelievable.” Their father’s two younger brothers, John and Pete, were a Navy admiral and a Marine Corps general, respectively.

Matt slid her a look. “And we didn’t get a word in edgewise, either.”

“No,” Tal agreed, chuckling, “but it was an incredible meeting with every part of our global family together, focused on getting Artemis Security off the ground.”

Matt clicked off the iPad and handed it back to her. “I gotta give all our relatives credit, though. It
was
a pretty quiet meeting, and Cousin Angelo, being Greek, is never low-key.”

“Neither was Uncle Ihsan, Berk, or Serkan, either,” Tal wryly reminded him. “But Dad and his brothers aren’t generals or admirals for nothing. Our Greek and Turkish families have the utmost respect for the military, and it showed.”

Rubbing his beard, Matt nodded. “Yeah, that was the most civilized meeting I’ve ever been in, with all of them thrown into the same room. Usually, it’s the passionate Greek and Turkish uncles holding forth while Dad and his restrained brothers try to hold down the volume. Too bad we couldn’t have videotaped that meeting for posterity.”

Tal chuckled. “That would have been a pretty valuable tape! These men are worth a hundred billion dollars when you combine their two international shipping fleets. And they both have a family dynasty of shipping that goes back to the twelfth century. They’re not passionate without reason, Matt. They care about all our charities. The fact that Maria and Sophia, teachers at our Home Foundation school, were murdered, and our Costa Rican school was burned to the ground, has triggered this response. It’s worth getting worked up emotionally about, in my opinion.”

“I agree. This is a good idea,” Matt said. “It’s time we created an internal security company within the Delos charities. And you have to give them all credit: they flew in from Greece and Turkey to be there to hammer out their vision for this new company. I think it’s the best of all worlds. Our families are rich beyond most people’s imaginations. They can pour money into this security idea, hire us to run it, and have Dad and his brothers give us the global military connections we need.”

She waved a finger in his face. “Don’t discount Cousin Angelo or our Turkish uncles. They know the lay of the land, geopolitically speaking, like few others ever will. Every time one of their ships pulls into a port around the world, they know the power brokers, the behind-the-scenes players. If one of Mom’s charities gets into trouble with local bad guys and we need to protect them, our uncles or Cousin Angelo can contact someone in that region to support a mission team.”

Rolling his shoulders, Matt said, “No question. Between Dad and our shipping consortium, we’re probably going to have more intel at our fingertips than most countries could dream about.”

Tal saw they were nearing the doors. Pretty soon, she could eat a hot, decent meal. Her stomach growled loudly. Matt gave her a look.

“A little hungry, are we, sis?”

“A little,” Tal deadpanned. She gave him a playful punch in the gut.

Matt’s middle name was Aslan, which meant
lion
in Turkish. And with his clean, handsome face framed by that brown and gold beard, he looked like a hungry lion on the hunt. Their first names were American, but their mother, Dilara, had given them Turkish middle names to honor her side of the family—with their father’s blessing. They didn’t get Greek names, which was good, because Tal couldn’t imagine having four names, although she knew people did in some countries.

“How long are you at Bagram, Matt?”

Shrugging, he double-checked that the safety strap was over the .45 pistol on his thigh as they inched closer to the double doors. “Dunno. I’m meeting with our CO when I get done with chow. We’ll sit down to see where we’ll be going next. There’s a lot of activity on the Af-Pak border because of the Taliban’s spring military buildup. The American and UN troops might be gone, but the Taliban and al-Qaeda are still mounting their normal campaigns into Afghanistan.”

Frowning, Tal nodded. “Yeah, and I’ve got one more HVT I want to nail before I turn in my commission.”

Matt gave her a frown. “We got a lot of ’em. Which one are you after? We’ve put Zakir Sharan’s younger son, Sidiq, at the top of our Most Wanted list.”

“I know,” Tal said grimly. “That’s the one I’m going to go after to hunt down, hopefully, in the coming few weeks.”

“He’s elusive. Good shooting.”

“Oh,” Tal muttered. “You already killed Sharan’s oldest son, Raastagar months earlier. I’m glad you took him out on that Afghan village raid. Now, I’m going after Sidiq.”

“That’s a real coup if you can nail him,” Matt agreed. “Sidiq is moving poppy and opium from Afghanistan into Pakistan for major redistribution. Hey, if you can find him first, go for it, but we’re gonna go after him, too.”

Tal growled. “I’m going to get that bastard this time out. I’ve set up four ops for him already and didn’t succeed.”

“If you do, Zakir Sharan will want your head. I’m already on his blood revenge list, remember? Killing one son is bad enough, but two . . .?”

“He can stand in line with thirty other HVTs my unit has taken down over the last six years in this country.”

Grinning, he tugged again on her ponytail. “You’re going to make a great CEO for Artemis. All the uncles agreed you should be the person to head it up, and I agree with them. It’s your ‘take no prisoners’ attitude that won their hearts.”

Her eyes narrowed. “When it comes to harming helpless, innocent children and women who can’t defend themselves against abusive men, you’re right.”

“Well,” Matt said, touching her shoulder with affection, “the uncles were very smart having you come in as CEO. You have the training. You’re a Naval Academy graduate. You have six years out here in Afghanistan learning tactics, creating missions, and taking down serious al-Qaeda and Taliban players. I’m glad to be heading up the Kidnap and Ransom Division.”

“Yes, and Alexa is tickled pink to be running the Safe House Division. You think
I’m
passionate about protecting women and children? Hell, she puts both of us to shame.”

Matt nodded and took a deep breath, watching two Apache gunships fly low overhead, loaded down with Hellfire missiles. After they flew past and he was able to talk once more, he said, “Alexa was the right choice. She’s like a bra-burning feminist from the 1960s.” He smiled faintly. “Mom and Dad created three children who really took after her side of the family. Mom’s mother created the Delos charities when she was eighteen. Grandma ran the global concern to help the poor, the hungry, and the undereducated until she asked our mom to take the helm. I think all three of us kids got their genes big-time on that one.”

“I know we did,” Tal said. She took one of the double doors, keeping it open with the toe of her combat boot. Matt took the other one. In a minute, they’d be inside and could stand in line for hot food. “Your enlistment runs out next March first, right?” she asked.

“Yeah. The captain knows I’m not re-upping.”

“Will you be sorry to leave your Delta Force team?” Tal saw his expression become serious. Matt was playful, easygoing, and always able to lift her spirits. She was the serious one of the three siblings.

Now she saw sadness in his eyes over leaving Delta Force. She completely understood: she’d miss her Marine sniper unit, too.

“Yes and no,” he admitted. “My body is getting pretty beat up.” He pointed to his knees. “It’s time to go, to move on, Tal. How about you? Are you ready to leave the Corps?”

“I’m torn,” she admitted. “Like you, my body has taken a beating. My knees are pretty close to shot, too. I’ve got bruises that have never healed. I look like a spotted horse all over my lower body.”

He snorted. “That makes two of us.”

“Tal! Matt!” Alexa Culver’s squeal pierced the noisy chatter in the chow line, and Tal looked up to see her younger sister jogging toward them. She was in her desert-colored flight suit, a huge smile on her face as she ran up to them.

“Wow!” Alexa said in a rush, throwing her arms around Tal and then Matt. “What’s the chance all three of us would meet like this?” She stood back, a radiant smile on her face.

Tal gestured her siblings inside, and they followed her. “Hey, did you just fly in? Matt and I saw a couple of A-10s land over at the fixed-wing terminal.”

Alexa pushed her burnished red hair off her shoulders. “Yeah, me and my wingwoman, Olivia, flew in. We just dropped our ordnance on a hill north of here. The Taliban were trying to overrun a group of Recon Marines, but for some reason, it didn’t happen,” she said, her blue eyes dancing with deviltry.

“Hey,” Matt said, “Tal? Show Alexa the iPad photos the uncles sent you.”

Alexa stuffed her flight gloves into one of her thigh pockets. “Oh, cool! I love that Uncle Ihsan is getting Dad to take all these photos of our new security business,” she said, grinning.

Tal handed the iPad over to her. They were twenty people away from the actual chow line. Her younger sister was the beauty as far as she was concerned. Tal could see hundreds of men sitting at row upon row of tables looking up to ogle her. Like their mother, Alexa was Venus standing on that seashell emerging from the ocean. She was curvy in all the right places, tall, with the same striking hair as their mother.