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After he ended the call, he said to Dev and Cody in the front seat, “You hear what Mel said?”
“Yeah,” Dev replied. “Why the hell did Burke choose a cave near an arms depot?”
“Maybe she didn’t have a choice,” Jase said. “You can ask her after we extract her.” He heard the bite in his voice and didn’t give a shit. Dawn was breaking over the mountains, and none of them had slept that night. If they were tired, Laila must be beyond exhausted.
“Not going to make our job easy if she’s parked near a Taliban ammo dump,” Dev said.
“Did you sign up for easy, Smith?” Jase shot back. “’Cause I sure as hell didn’t.”
“Hey, man, chill,” Cody Parker said. “Dev’s right. This is a complication we don’t need. But we don’t know the story. Don’t know why she chose that spot. Dev, you need to zip it. Put on your big boy pants and cut the shit. We’ll deal with whatever’s going on.”
Dev continued driving in silence for a long moment. Finally he sighed. “Sorry, Jase. You’re right. I’m crapping on this woman, but she’s trying to do her job, just like the rest of us. She’s a school teacher, for Christ’s sake.”
“No. She’s a CIA agent,” Jase said, gritting his teeth together to keep from jumping all over Dev. “She learned how to handle herself. If she stopped in a cave close to a Taliban ammo dump, she must’ve had a damn good reason.”
“Yeah, I know that,” Dev said quietly. “I was an ass. What can I say? It’s who I am. Just ask Mel.”
“Concentrate on driving. We’ll have plenty of time to discuss your assery when this op is over,” Jase said, punching Dev’s shoulder.
A few minutes later, Dev asked, “Parker, you watching that tracking app? How close are we to our target?”
“Looks like we’re about forty-five minutes away,” Cody said.
Jase heard the stress in Cody’s voice. The sky was getting steadily brighter. It would be a while before the sun was up, but they didn’t have a lot of time to find a place to hide the Humvee.
“Pull up that map, Parker,” Jase said. “Look around for a cave we can use to hide the Humvee. I’ll do the same.”
He scrolled through the high-def map, looking for places near Laila Burke’s hiding spot. His heartrate jacked up when he glanced out the car window. It was definitely lighter now. Time to hide. But he’d seen nothing so far.
As he made the map bigger, he spotted what looked like a fold in the mountains. It was a half-mile away from where Laila Burke was hiding, but he’d already scoured the map for something closer.
Leaning over the seat, he said, “Parker, did you see this area right here? This fold?” He showed his phone to Cody.
“I’m not that close yet,” Cody replied.
“Take a look at it. There might be a cave hidden in there.”
Jase manipulated the settings on the SAT phone, trying to change the angle of the view. Finally he said, “Could be a cave. The angle isn’t quite right, but there might be room to slip the Humvee in there and out of sight. Whatcha think, Parker?”
Cody peered at his phone for a long moment. Shrugged. “Hard to tell, but I say go for it. It’s the best we’ve found.”
Dev nodded toward the navigation system on the dashboard. “Enter the coordinates, Parker. We’ll see what it looks like.”
Fifty minutes later, the sun was rising above the mountains to the east when Jase spotted the fold he’d found on the map. “There,” he said. “On our left. Five to ten miles away.”
“Yeah, I see it,” Dev said, turning the wheel sharply to the left.
Jase kept watch on their right. If any Taliban troops were around, they’d come from the north. As the Humvee bumped over the uneven, hard-packed sand, he scanned the horizon in that direction, watching for movement. Color. Anything that didn’t blend in.
Nothing so far.
He switched his gaze to the mountains, now looming over them. “How does that fold look to you now, Dev?” he asked.
“Could be a great place to hide this monster.” He glanced to his right. “Nothing there?”
“So far, so good,” Cody said. Then he froze. Leaned toward the window, as if that would help him see more clearly. “On the horizon,” he said, staring intently. “Something. Check it out. Could be men on horses. A car or two.”
“How close are we to that possible cave?” Jase asked, keeping his eye on the figures in the distance.
