“Where is it?” His voice was as cold as his light blue eyes.
“It isn’t here,” Hawk said. “It might be with the same people who took Amber Hutchens.”
Diamond shook his head. “Then why the exchange note? Something’s wrong.” He turned to Steve and Marlena. “Congratulations. I heard you got married.”
Steve slipped a hand behind Marlena’s waist. Hawk suspected it was to stop his wife from making one of her usual rude comments. “Thanks. Anything to stop you from assigning her to work with you as a married couple,” he said with a slight smile. “Did you get hold of T.?”
Diamond’s eyes narrowed a little. “Have you seen her lately?”
“I did a few months ago,” Hawk said.
The other man pinned his gaze on him immediately. “We’ll speak more about your last meeting with her on the chopper. Leave the crates here. I’ll take care of it. The target weapon is more important.”
“But we don’t have it,” Hawk pointed out.
Diamond turned toward where he had come from. “You have twenty-four hours to find it,” he said. “We’ll get hold of Jed on satellite inside the chopper.”
The older man moved as if he had been trained in jungle warfare. Hawk admired his fluid speed and eerie silence. Even hiking with his SEAL team, Hawk would hear certain sounds from weapons and clothing. He looked at Diamond’s back ahead of him and wondered at the COS commandos’ training program. He had to find out more, not just for Admiral Madison, but to satisfy his own curiosity.
Not turning around, Diamond said, “You’re injured. I can hear you breathing. There’s fluid in your lungs. You’ll need medic care very soon or you’ll get an infection.”
“I’ll take care of myself after the mission,” Hawk said quietly.
“Good.”
The chopper was military-issued. An armed man waited nearby, saluting Diamond as they approached.
“Better you than me,” Marlena whispered to Hawk.
“What?”
“He’ll want to know every little detail about T. She’s determined to avoid him.”
Hawk frowned. “Why’s that?”
“You really don’t know?” She looked at Diamond talking to his man outside the waiting chopper. “He and T. had some kind of falling out and now she won’t see him. She’s my operations chief, so of course I won’t tell him anything I might know when he asks me.”
Hawk shrugged. “I’ll tell him anything he wants to know about T. Somehow, I think she can take care of herself.” He studied Diamond for a moment. There was a certain polished danger around the man that reminded Hawk of T.’s elusive quality. “A woman like that is hard to catch, anyhow. More power to him.”
Diamond turned at that moment. If he had overheard their conversation, he didn’t show it. “We have Jed on satellite. He’s at an international summit where we suspect this bomb was going to be used. It’s small and flat and can be hidden very easily in a tiny suitcase. It’s also totally undetectable because of its covering.”
Amber had been right. That was why Jed McNeil was all dressed up on the video link. “But why this particular bomb?” Hawk asked. This had been bothering him. “Anyone can rig up a one.”
“It’s the mother of all little bombs,” Diamond explained. “Virtually undetectable by all the modern sniffers. Because so many heads of state are attending this summit, it’s going to be very difficult to smuggle any arms or devices into the area. The surrounding streets have been cordoned off to stop vehicular suicide bombers. Air traffic has been reduced.”
“Only a person who is authorized or invited can get in there, then,” Hawk said.
“Yes.” Diamond turned. “Jed will fill you in on the details.”
Hawk’s cell phone buzzed. “Hang on,” he said. Very few people knew his number. He frowned. It was Bradford Sun’s ID. “This is Hawk.”
“Lily’s gone.”
Hawk waved Steve and Marlena over. “What happened? Were you ambushed?”
“No,” Brad said grimly. “She drugged me.”
Hawk’s frown deepened. “What do you mean, she drugged you?” He looked up. All the others’ eyes were on him. “Tell me exactly what happened, Brad.”
