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“I have been informed that the missing aircraft was located by DEA agents near the Venezuelan border.”
Ava gasped and covered her face with her hands. Merrigan put her hand on her shoulder.
“All we know now is that the plane went down. There were three survivors, who were taken by medevac to a hospital in Magdalena, the closest city in Colombia.”
“You said there were three survivors, which means the fourth didn’t make it,” said Quinn, whose face had gone white.
“As I said, we don’t know all the details,” Merrigan answered, reaching out for Quinn with her free hand.
“Who was on the plane?” asked Razor’s sister.
“Montano ‘Onyx’ Yáñez, Sofia ‘Corazón’ Descanso, Landry ‘Tackle’ Sorenson, and Knox ‘Halo’ Clarkson.”
Merrigan said each name slowly, as if to honor all four of them since they didn’t know who had survived and who had not.
Aine stopped fighting her tears and wept openly. Ava came and sat by her side, crying as hard as she was.
“Striker, Razor, and Monk are being transported to Magdalena now. We’ll know more once they’ve arrived.”
Saylor came and sat on the other side of Ava, and Quinn moved closer to Merrigan.
“Where are my father and Mercer?” asked Quinn.
“They, along with Gunner, will soon be on their way to the hospital as well.”
Ava sat up. “Where is Zary?”
“She was napping with the baby,” answered Saylor. “We thought it best to let her sleep.”
“We’ll tell her,” offered Ava, looking at Aine, who nodded.
Merrigan stood. “If there are no further questions, I need to get back down to the office.”
Ava scooted over so they were all as close as they could get on the sofa, and held her hand out to Quinn. “Come sit with us,” she said.
“Are we hurting you?” Quinn asked Aine after she sat down.
“I’m okay,” Aine answered. The truth was, she couldn’t feel much of anything outside of the boulder-sized dread that sat in her stomach.
Someone whom the K19 team had worked with, admired, loved even, had died. In an excruciating way, it drove home how fragile the life they led could be because of the work they did.
“I need to tell my mom,” said Saylor, standing. “Do any of you need anything before I go next door?”
Aine shook her head. “Thank you,” she murmured.
“What do we do now?” Ava asked.
“We wait,” answered Quinn.
/> 27
Aine sat on the sofa with Griffin and watched as the evening news reported on the assassination of Colombia’s President Petro Santos, who in recent weeks, had been linked to the Cali drug cartel.
Carlos “Mao” Deodar, leader of that cartel, had also been assassinated on the same day. While he was killed in a different part of Colombia, it was believed the two deaths were related.
The country where Griffin had been only two weeks before, was in utter chaos. Santos’ second in command was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder when his role in the president’s death was discovered.
An emergency election was called, in which former President Juan Marquez was predicted to be re-elected. If so, it was expected that he’d take office immediately and restore normalcy to the embattled nation.
