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“Got you,” Landon nodded.

Kostya tugged at Ryker’s sleeve as he passed him to get to the SUV that Linc was driving. Ryker followed him, dodging more bodies, blood, and gore to get to the backseat. He didn’t question it when Ryker was also in the backseat, leaving Linc up front to chauffeur them. Ryker noticed that he was shoving extra shit into his pack.

“What’s that?” he asked Kostya.

“I took all the C-4 and anything else we might need from Nolan’s pack. I left him with what he needs to disarm the bomb and perform his medic duties.”

Ryker nodded.

“Y’all inside?” Gideon asked.

“Yeah,” Linc answered. “We’re leaving now.”

Ryker looked down at his watch. They were now down to sixteen and a half hours on the clock for the Princeton boys.

We’re going to make it!

Linc backed out and started making his way through the sparsely populated streets of Bismil so that he could get them back onto the Diyarbakir Batman Hwy headed back to Batman.

“Linc, they haven’t seen you, so they shouldn’t make anything of it if you’re driving this SUV and pass them,” Kostya explained.

“Understood,” Linc said as he pulled onto the highway.

“This highway is a crapshoot,” Gideon told them. “According to what I’m reading, they don’t ticket on this highway for speeding violations, unless you’re going too slow and impeding traffic, so go ahead and break some land speed records,” Gideon advised.

“How about when I get closer to Batman?” Linc asked.

“There will be patrol cars, so watch your speed. But as soon as you’re out on the north side of the city on the Batman Bitlis Highway, same highway rules apply.”

“Sounds good.”

Ryker could hear the smile in Linc’s voice.

“Gideon, what’s our ETA?”

“Fifty-three minutes if traffic is good in Batman,” Gideon answered. “Now that’s based on you going the seventy-five-mile-an-hour speed limit on the highways. So I’m assuming you’ll beat that ETA, right?”

“Affirmative,” Linc answered.

Ryker handed his phone over to Kostya. “This is what a tool and die plant looks like in India. I figured that might be a good comparison of what this one would look like.”

They both looked over the pictures. Ryker’s stomach turned. He didn’t want to imagine how Frank would get his jollies with the punch press.

“Gideon, I’m assuming you’re working on getting us a satellite image of this plant, right?” Kostya asked.

“Yes. So far, like with Jase, nothing.”

Ryker felt his frustration level rising. He needed to tamp it down. They had the kid. If anyone would be able to get the bomb off the kid, it would be Nolan. They also had one hell of a hot lead as to where the Princeton kids were, and it was well within the allotted time. So what if they didn’t have the satellite images?

Linc turned the air conditioning on full blast, and Ryker sank back into the seat. Ryker thought back to the ransom video. There had been four guys plus a cameraman. If there really were only five guys plus the three kids to rescue, these were wonderful odds. But then there was the problem of tracking them down within the plant and getting them rescued before Frank and Freaks showed up. And if Nolan didn’t have the bomb disarmed before Frank came to harm…

“Okay,” Nolan said. Ryker opened his eyes and saw that Ryker and Linc were both sitting up straight in the SUV. “I’ve got the first level of the bomb disarmed.”

“What do you mean, the first level?” Kostya asked.

“The first level was just to blow up whoever fooled with the damn thing. These Kraken fucks need to die. They don’t care about the life of this kid.”

“Nolan, you knew that as soon as they killed his parents and his brother,” Kostya reminded him softly.