Page 16 of Her Fearless Warrior

Everyone around in the room nodded.

“But in case we’re wrong and they don’t head to northeastern Syria, where ISIS and Al Qaeda have a stronghold, we need to be able to pivot to the M5 heading toward Aleppo.”

“And if they stay in Damascus?” Matteo Arranda asked.

“Even better. Shorter amount of time we have to be searching for them.” Kostya said.

Ryker McQueen raised his hand.

Kostya gave him a chin tilt.

“Excuse me, lieutenant. When did you get taken over by aliens? I’m pretty sure I heard you say something positive. You can’t be the Kostya Barona I’ve worked for these past four years.”

Kostya rubbed the back of his neck and the left side of his mouth kicked up so that he was almost smiling. “Things change.”

“So, you were taken over by aliens. Did you get probed?” Jase Drakos asked. “I’ve always wanted to know. Were they little green men, or tall skinny gray men?”

Kostya rolled his eyes heavenward. “Fine. In an effort to get this meeting back on track, I’ll tell you. Lark’s pregnant. She just hit week thirteen. She said we could tell people now. She’s had me on pins and needles with this ‘first twelve weeks things could go wrong’ bullshit. Now life is good, gentleman. It’s really, really good.”

“That’s damn good news. Congratulations, Kostya,” Linc got up from his seat and held out his hand. He felt the rest of the team lining up behind him. Linc put his hand on Kostya’s shoulder. “Seriously, Kostya. I can’t think of many men who could make a better father. Your kid has hit the jackpot already.”

Kostya’s eyes flared for just a moment, then his grin got bigger. “Thanks, Linc, means a lot.”

“Hey, get out of the way,” Ryker said as he jostled past him. “Lots of others who want to congratulate the baby daddy.”

Linc stepped back to watch the others give their good wishes. Kostya moved things along at a quick clip and got everybody’s ass back in their seats in less than three minutes. “Captain Evers has a Black Hawk waiting for us. We just have to determine where we want it to take us. I’ve been in touch with Lieutenant Rankin, who runs a platoon of Marines out of Al Tanf Garrison. He’s going to support us.”

Kostya zoomed in to where the garrison was located. “The garrison is almost at the end of Hwy 2 in Syria, but it wouldn’t make sense for the kidnappers to take them to the west of Syria, unless they want to take them into Iraq. Jerry, our current CIA liaison,” Kostya put an emphasis on the word current, “doesn’t think the hostages will be taken to Iraq. I agree with him. We’re on better terms with Iraq than we are Syria. Al-Assad only allows our troops in his country so that we can help him minimize the ISIS and Al Qaeda threats from the northeast.”

“Is Rankin providing us with transport?” Jase asked. He was Omega Sky’s tracker. If you were in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of downtown Manhattan, Jase could find you. Of course, Gideon’s magical intel never hurt.

“Yes. He told me to call in after I had the map up and had a chance to look at it. Hold on.”

He pulled out his cell phone and placed the call.

“Rankin here. This Barona?”

“Yep, you’ve got me and my team.”

“Sergeant Wilcox is with me. Do you know where your targets are right now?”

“If they’re still together, they’re on the M5, but it’s slow going. So’s Highway 2. At the rate they’re going, it’ll take forty-five minutes before they get to Baghdad Bridge. At that point, they could switch over to Highway 2.”

“Wilcox, tell him your plan,” Rankin said.

“We can have vehicles waiting for you on the M5, Highway 7, as well as at Highway 2. They’ll be far enough away from Damascus that you’ll be able to wait and pick them up. Your choice whether you want to do the rescue or follow.”

“My men can’t be part of the mission,” Rankin put in.

“Understood,” Kostya said. He looked up as Gideon stepped back into the conference room. “We’ll be taking off in twenty minutes. While we’re en route, we should know whether they’re taking the M5 to Aleppo or they’re taking Highway 7 or Highway 2 to ISIS and Al Qaeda territory.”

Linc watched as Gideon took a quick look at the map and nodded at Kostya. He understood what Kostya was saying.

“I’m also going to talk to the Syrian commander here and explain we’re using Black Hawk here to do some training, and that one will be sent in from the aircraft carrier,” Rankin said.

“And when we don’t take a direct route to the garrison?” Kostya asked.

“I’ll come up with something.”