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“Are you sure they’ll finally pay?” the old man asked.

Shit. He shouldn’t have asked the leader that. That was a sure way to get yourself killed. She’d seen it happen.

“After their men disappeared? I’m sure,” Rakib, the leader, finally answered. “Now that she’s had all this nice time in the trailer, put her back in the shack.”

Jenny’s heart plummeted. She might have told herself she could handle anything, but the idea of being in that six-inch-deep mud, with the bucket for a toilet and wet naan for a meal almost did have her in tears.

She looked down when she felt more drips, afraid she was crying in front of the leader. But they weren’t tear drops, they were more drops of blood from her nose. This couldn’t be good.

Gideon had gotten them more intel by the time they dropped in. They no longer were just aiming for the same area where the K&R bodies were found. Finally, New Era Cyber Tech was talking to the Department of Homeland Security. They confessed that Jenny Rivers had indeed been kidnapped, and that there was a ransom request. Bangladesh was a shitshow right now. Too many competing factions trying to take over the country, and that made it damn near impossible to determine who to talk to about Jenny’s kidnapping.

The US Embassy had already sent home all non-essential employees, so Omega Sky was depending on the locals and remaining embassy personnel who had been in place for years for intel. These were the people who would have knowledge of who had kidnapped Jenny Rivers, and where they might be headquartered.

As soon as all of the team had landed, and each one of them had been sure to stash or hide their parachute in a spot where it wouldn’t be found, they met up.

“Where to?” Jase asked casually. He sounded like he was about to take a day’s hike in the woods and then go roast hotdogs and have s’mores later.

Gideon took his precious tablet out from his pack. “Mark this, in case we get separated.” He provided the coordinates. “We received some intelligence that there is a band of Bangladeshi mercenaries operating five clicks east of Silchari. That gives them some road access, but then they have enough forest coverage to be invisible.”

Gideon blew up a satellite image of the small village of Silchari. They could see the areas that must be crops, a few homes, and a narrow road. Having some kind of mercenary headquarters nearby made sense.

Brax looked up and saw ominous rain clouds to the east. Right now the rain was mild. Soon it would be torrential.

Jase took point and Kostya took up the rear, with Gideon right in front of him. They would stop every three hours to see if Gideon got any updates, using his equipment connected to satellites. His tablet was bulletproof. Well, maybe not bulletproof, but it could take a licking and keep on ticking. The monsoon didn’t stop it.

“Anything new?” Kostya asked on their fifth stop when Gideon was avidly studying his tablet.

“I’ve got a photo, two days old, that the kidnappers sent to her company for proof of life. The company has transferred a third of the ransom in cryptocurrency to their account. That was today. My guess is that is just going to piss off the mercenaries, and they’re going to do something to show they mean business to get the rest of the money.”

Brax looked around and saw how everybody was taking the information. All of them were looking over Gideon’s shoulder to see the picture of Jenny holding up the newspaper with the date on it. It was two days ago. She looked awful. It was clear she was extremely sick. Even if they got there by 0400, would she still be alive? And what was with her company? Why were they dicking around with the ransom? They knew that five men had died trying to rescue her.

“Boss, she’s not going to make it,” Nolan said what the rest of them were thinking. “By the looks of it she’s either been beaten badly and we just can’t see it, or she’s suffering from an infection. By the flush on her face, and the glassy eyes and the nosebleed, my bet is infection.”

Brax looked closer at the picture and he saw exactly what Nolan was talking about.

“Do you have antibiotics that can help her?” Brax asked.

He nodded. “But we’ll need to get her to a hospital, fast.”

Everybody nodded. Brax took one last look at her picture and sent up a prayer. She reminded him of CiCi and how desperately ill she had been so many times. Fuck picking up the pace, he wanted to start running.

Mateo nudged him. “You okay?”

It was funny how much he’d bonded with the guy after the near miss at Gideon’s place eight months ago. Before, he’d have said Nolan was his go-to guy, but now it was a toss-up.

“Just worried about Jenny.”

“You were looking at her pretty intensely. Bringing up thoughts of your sister?”

Okay, maybe he was closer to Mateo than he realized.

“Yeah. I can’t stand that she’s sick, and that she’s been abandoned like she has.”

“Abandoned?”

“By her fucking company. What are they thinking, only paying a third of the ransom? Are they stupid?”

“Homeland Security will straighten them out,” Mateo assured him.