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Stunned silence was his only answer, then Dev said, “You know we can’t do that, right?”
Jase hesitated. “It would be risky as hell,” he finally said. “But do you want a CIA agent in the Taliban’s hands? Because that’s the alternative. And right now, there’s no evidence the Taliban are in Al Kamen. They’re all out here, searching for Laila.”
After a moment of silence, Cody said, “No way can we let her walk back to that village. The Taliban troops camping around the corner would snatch her up immediately, and you know what will happen to her then.”
“You think I don’t know?” Jase snarled.
After a moment of silence, Cody said, “Why couldn’t we take her back? Just a quick trip? Get families that want to go loaded into that box truck and caravan to Kabul.”
“You know how risky that would be?” Dev retorted.
“Everything we do is risky,” Jase pointed out. “Especially now. The Taliban are taking more and more territory. We can’t save everyone from them. But maybe we can save these girls and their families.”
“You’re seriously considering this.” Dev sounded shocked.
“I’ve spent all day with Laila,” he said. “I believe her when she says she’d walk back to Al Kamen.”
“What the hell,” Cody mused. “I think we could do it. They’ll think we’re going back to Kabul. By the time we change course and head for the village, we’ll be out of sight and they’d have no idea. It would be a short detour, then we get the hell back to Kabul.”
The phone was silent for a long time. Then Jase said, “Dev? You on board?”
“I don’t have a choice, do I?” he shot back. “It’s two votes to one.”
“That’s the way we’ve always done things,” Jase said.
“Fine,” Dev said after a long moment. “It’s a suicide mission, but we’ve done plenty of those in the past. Let’s do it.”
Jase exhaled. “Okay. We’ll get down to the truck as soon as it’s quiet in the Taliban camp. Then we’ll head out.”
“After we say a prayer to the patron saint of lost causes,” Dev retorted.
“Yeah, we all know that prayer,” Jase sighed. “See you soon. I’ll text you before we head down the scree to the Humvee.”
With any luck, they’d get to Al Kamen before daybreak. Get everyone loaded into the box truck Laila had mentioned and be gone before the sun was up.
When he and Laila reached the Humvee, they’d haul ass. He’d be in the back seat with Laila, so he’d man the Iron Fist system. It used infra-red and radar systems to track incoming missiles and could fire an interceptor to destroy or deflect the projectile.
He waited until he got thumbs ups from both Cody and Dev. Satisfied, he set his internal clock for ten p.m., then lay back down beside Laila. They both needed to be close to that escape tunnel.
He gathered her close again to share his warmth. It would get cold once the sun went down. It felt... right to sleep curled around Laila. Like he was exactly where he wanted to be.
Of course he was. He needed to keep her warm so she could sleep.
The devil on his shoulder laughed at him, but he ignored the idiot and allowed himself to fall asleep.
* * *
Shortly after ten p.m., Jase stirred. Opened his eyes to find himself in almost complete darkness. He took a minute to orient himself, then sat up. They were in the cave where he’d found Laila.
Only a faint hint of light bled into the chamber from the other cave. Moonlight? Starlight? He wasn’t sure. Whatever it was, if the night sky was that bright, it would make their escape even trickier.
Why the hell couldn’t it have been a cloudy night?
He closed his eyes. Sighed. Very few of those in the desert.
He studied Laila, still sleeping beside him. Her whole body was stretched along his, so they were touching from shoulders to toes. He hated to move away, from her, but he had no choice. He had to set those charges, then they had to descend that scree slope.
Edging away from her, he grabbed his pack and drank more water, then tapped the bottle into one of the outer pockets. Opened the pack and took out the bricks of C4 that he’d packed, then set the detonators beside them. He was ready to crawl out of this cave and into the one with the guns, but he watched the rise and fall of Laila’s chest for a moment.
