Page 2 of Dangerous Liaisons

Outdated? Her mind whirled. “What the hell is this?”

“Current verification, Delta Four.”

“Get Blue Leader on the line right now, and put me through voice recognition,” Jesse ordered.

“Negative,” he replied. “Not without current verification.”

“Get the director on the line—now! Don’t send in Green Team until you’ve verified with him. The Colombians were waiting for us—they murdered M-2. They knew about our meeting. That confirms what he told me. The Colombians have intel on Operation Hangman. Our men will be slaughtered.”

The line went dead.

“Wha—”

Jesse yanked the phone from her ear and looked at the screen. Five bars of signal strength held strong. She punched the direct emergency number to Blue Leader. A fast busy signal resonated through the connection. She pressed the phone’s display button. The display blinked unavailable. The network—satellites, ground stations, handsets—had never, ever been unavailable. It was designed and built by the best to be always available. HQ had scrambled the access code.

Her heart went stone cold. Green Team was headed straight into the arms of the Colombian mercenaries.

Only two hours ago, she gave the go ahead to move in and rescue Maria Hamilton, Senator Hamilton’s daughter. Jesse hadn’t spotted any guerrillas hidden among the villagers, but she now knew they were there, just as they’d been there when she met with Martinez.

A slight breeze wafted past, cooling the sweat soaked shirt that clung to her back and sending a chill down her spine. She was Blue Team—recon—working solo. She should have smelled the trap. Yet she’d sent her team in to be murdered—unless…

Jesse drew a deep breath to slow her heart rate while visualizing the map of coastal Colombia. The village sat three kilometers to the south over a small but treacherous pass jungle pass. Forty people lived in the village, farmers—or so she’d thought. How many were mercenaries employed by Amadeo Perez, the most powerful drug lord in Colombia, and the man responsible for kidnapping Senator Hamilton's daughter?

Probably every last one of them.