Page 65 of Her Wild Warrior

“Sir,” Ryker added on.

“Thank you, Ryker. Duly noted. I will let our counterparts at the CIA know just how dissatisfied with his performance we were. Lieutenant, your evaluation, when you said adequate, meant that he wouldn’t be working with us again, but the candid feedback I just received will mean that without strong mentorship, he is never going to see field work again.

“Okay, now let’s move on to the next part of the debrief. Jase, why weren’t you able to provide more information on the second day?”

“Damla Akbas did not show up the second day. I went to the bathroom to inform Gideon, but my message did not go through. Gideon and I realized that when I got back to the hotel that night.” Jase cleared his throat. “I beg your pardon, sir. But is Damla Akbas okay?”

“I don’t have the answer to that question at this time.”

“Sir, if you ever do have the answer, and it is appropriate to share, could you let me know?” Jase asked.

Captain Hale nodded.

That’s one of the reasons Jase is such a good friend. He cars. He really cares about people.

“Thank you, that clears up part of the mission for me. Our Ambassador to Turkey was able to provide our people here in the US with some information. It seems that Kaan Polat is still the head of the Turkish mafia and he has told everyone that three of his four brothers have been killed by the Armenian mafia.”

“Did we hear anything about his nephew?” Landon asked.

Captain Hale shook his head.

“Now I have a couple of other questions. They revolve around when you first confronted the Kraken Elite, how you determined what kind of organization they are and why you decided they might have been hired by either the Sinclair family or the Short family.”

“I beg your pardon, Captain Hale.” Kostya’s voice was extremely deferential. In fact, it was so deferential that Ryker knew he was pissed. “Can you please explain to me how that was not covered in my debrief?”

“I understand why you might wonder that, Lieutenant. Your debrief was very thorough. I should be more specific. I did understand how you first encountered the Kraken, but you made a quick jump to the type of mercenary organization that they are. Had you come into contact with them before, or had perhaps Commander Clark provided you with input?”

Well, that sounds bad. Is that why the commander isn’t around?

Kostya rubbed the back of his neck. “It was actually one of my men. He has a brother whose friend was hijacked into the organization. My man explained to our team the type of mission that Frank Sykes led and how he murdered a child in cold blood. This was not on American soil, and because the girl was the daughter of a cartel member, it wasn’t something our country was going to prosecute them on if they could even prove it.”

Captain Hale nodded. “Go on.”

“When the man who had just joined the Frank Sykes team tried to quit, his parents were murdered by Kraken, and his wife and children were threatened. Frank Sykes is evil. Clear and simple.”

“Did you relay this information to Commander Clark?” Captain Hale asked.

“I didn’t have to,” Kostya answered. “He was aware of their reputation. He surmised that they had been hired by the boys’ fathers. He was going to work to get them called back so that we would not be at cross-purposes.”

“In other words, not tripping over one another’s dicks.” The Captain sighed.

There were chuckles in the room.

“Yes,” Kostya said.

“Lieutenant, I want you to listen to my question. I am going to ask it very precisely and I want you to answer it very precisely. Did, at any time, Commander Clark indicate that you should take measures to use unnecessary force against the Kraken Elite company?”

Kostya looked Captain Hale in the eye. “Commander Clark said what he always says. He told me to do what is necessary to get the job done.”

Captain Hale nodded. “Thank you very much.”

“Gentlemen, you did a superb job on this mission. I didn’t expect anything else. I’ll leave you to your lieutenant.”

Captain Hale left the briefing room.

Kostya stared at the closed door.

Ryker couldn’t stand it another minute. “Where’s the commander?”