Page 13 of Her Fearless Warrior

He’d met her briefly on a mission they’d been on a year ago. She was a cool customer, and he’d liked what he’d seen. It wasn’t just her physical attributes, it was her professionalism. The woman knew her stuff when it came to languages. Supposedly, she was a full-time student in Turkey getting another master’s degree, this one in geology. Linc wasn’t buying it. She didn’t give off the vibe of a perpetual student. Especially geology. Now that he saw her on the screen with a high-ranking CIA official, he knew his suspicions were correct. Yeah, there were deeper depths to Ms. Cloud.

“Why are they in Syria?” his lieutenant, Kostya Barona, asked the man on the screen who was running the briefing. The team had had little info when they were deployed to the aircraft carrier, just that they were a contingency if things went wrong. They hadn’t even been told which country they might be going into, Lebanon or Syria.

The man was Skyping from Langley, CIA headquarters. As usual, all of their team took what the CIA had to tell them with a grain of salt. Now not all CIA members, just the ones they didn’t know.

“This was an off-the-books negotiation to help the Syrian people by getting some business going so that they wouldn’t freeze to death this coming winter and they could grow decent crops this coming spring,” Jerry Earnst explained. He was wearing the thickest pair of glasses Linc had ever seen on a human being before.

“How?” Gideon Smith, their second in command, asked.

“High-ranking representatives from Landry Oil and Nutrients Now were meeting with high-level officials from both al-Assad’s government and from the Syrian Interim Government. These are opposing forces, but both are very interested in what could be done if they could be helped by these American businesses.”

“What happens when they find out that our people are talking to their opposition?” Gideon asked. Lincoln sat forward in his chair.

Yeah, how is Mr. Magoo going to answer that question?

“We have one of our most seasoned diplomats working on this project. Elijah knows how to navigate through treacherous waters. He has set up two different meetings, one in Damascus and one in Aleppo. There is no way for either side to know about the other meeting.”

“If this was so foolproof, why do you need us?” Ryker McQueen asked.

Lincoln winced. Trust Ryker to mouth off. But for fuck’s sake, not in front of Captain Evers. Linc looked over to where the captain was standing. He had a bird's-eye view of the Omega Sky team and could still see the big flat screen where Jerry was talking. The captain was made of stone. No expression whatsoever. Kind of like their leader, Kostya.

“That explains what we had planned. Now, you taped your two conversations that came in on Leila Cloud’s phone. Is that correct, Captain?” Jerry asked.

“Yes.”

“There were only two?”

“That’s what I said, wasn’t it?”

Okay, sometimes Captain Evers could have an expression, and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be the target of his displeasure.

“I just wanted to confirm that I had all of them here,” Jerry said. “One was from Leila, and another was from Katherine Cole. She’s actually the founder of Nutrients Now.”

Jerry leaned into his computer and everybody got a good shot of his nose hair as he fiddled with something on his screen. Then they heard Captain Evers’ voice acknowledging Leila Cloud. She immediately explained that they were being held by either ISIS or Al Qaeda, and that their team leader, Elijah Hopkins, had been taken for questioning. They had some weapons, probably from their two dead bodyguards. She said at first that she had six civilians with her, but then she said she had five and one operative. Must have meant that she hadn’t realized the fifth man’s identity until just that moment. She provided their address, and Evers promised to call back.

Jerry sat back in his chair. “I’m aware of everybody on the team. I know who they are and their backgrounds. Felix Ratcliff was a last-minute replacement for Katherine Cole’s head of security. If Leila is talking about an operative, it has to be him. We didn’t have time to vet him before the team was put on the plane to Germany.”

“You mean to tell me that with all the intelligence you have at your fingertips at Langley, you weren’t able to figure out one man’s background from the time it took for him to fly from D.C. to Germany? Let alone from Germany to Syria.” Kostya’s voice could have frozen fire.

Jerry Boy swallowed. “We didn’t realize that he was a replacement until he was on the plane to Syria. At that point, we did a deep dive on him.”

“And then?” Gideon asked.

“It wasn’t until the team was at the Four Seasons in Damascus that we found out that the real Felix Ratcliff had turned into one of those off-grid people five years ago. It was easy enough for someone to steal his identity. But it doesn’t matter, he’s dead.”

Lincoln sat up straight in his seat.

“The next call came in almost four hours later. This one was from Katherine Cole.”

Again, Jerry leaned forward and pressed some keys on his laptop, and then the sound of gunfire filled their ready room.

“Captain Evers?” A woman asked.

“Leila?”

“My name is Katherine Cole. I’m part of Leila’s team.” There was steel in her voice.

The gunfire ceased.