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I snorted. “Didn’t take any bullets this time, so good.”
Tyler grinned. “Now that’s looking on the bright side of things.” He leaned back, shaking his head. “That went pretty damn well, all things considered, right?”
“If you call getting a fifty-caliber machine gun turned on us at the damn airport, then yeah. We’re lucky this bird didn’t have so many holes in her that she couldn’t take off.”
He shook his head. “I swear, that Balaban prick wasn’t evenkind ofexpecting us.”
He was right. We’d planned the mission down to the second, spending a good week surveying the compound, getting troop movements down. The original plan had been to move in on day thirteen. When half the stationed troops departed on an emergency mission on day ten, however, we’d decided to push the timetable up to take advantage of our good fortune.
We’d been expecting a hell of a fight, and that’s exactly what wedidn’tget slipping into the compound. A skeleton crew had been left behind, which made getting in and finding the missionaries a far easier task than expected. We’d found the trio beaten and bloody, but alive, and gotten them out of there.
Once clear of the compound, we beelined to our base of operations to pack up and make sure the missionaries were good to travel. They were shaken, but otherwise fine. After that, we hit the road to meet our flight at the local airport.
The mood in the van had been strange. It’d all been too damn easy, but none of us had wanted to say so – that’s how you jinx a mission. When we reached the airport, however, things went FUBAR. Balaban and his group intercepted us on the runway, our crew having to lay down some insane cover fire to get the missionaries onboard safely, followed by ourselves.
It’d been a damn miracle that we hadn’t been wasted in the process. Not to mention, the missionaries made it in one piece, too. Aside from the small matter of nearly getting shot to pieces on the runway, the mission had been a total success.
As I opened my mouth to say something to Tyler, I spotted Adam coming down the aisle with a shit eating grin on his face.
“What’re you so pleased with yourself about?” I asked.
The grin still on his face, he dropped into the seat in the aisle across from Tyler and me.
“Found out how that prick Balaban was able to track us down.” With that, he held out his overturned fist. Once our eyes were on it, he opened his hand slowly, revealing a small electronic device that I immediately recognized as a tracker.
“You’re kidding me,” Tyler said. “Where the hell did you find that?”
“I’d spent the last two hours wondering how the hell Balaban could’ve found us. He didn’t know we were coming, yet he somehow knew just how to track us down at the damn airport. I figured the missionaries had something to do with it. So, I gave them a pat down, found one of these each sewn into their clothes.”
“Fuckin’ hell,” I said. “That Balaban’s a bloodthirsty asshole, but he’s no dumbass.”
“Tell me you turned those off,” Tyler said.
“Of course, I snipped the back as soon as I realized what they were.”
“Smart,” I said. “Balaban could’ve used those to track down where we’re landing. Speaking of which, what’s the plan for the drop-off?”
“We’re landing in Rome in a couple more hours,” Adam said. He tossed the tracker onto the ground and crushed it into electronic dust with the tip of his boot. “Missionaries are going to deplane for medical clearance. From there, we fly into London, then back to the States.”
“How long’s the trip time total?” Tyler asked.
“Should be touching down in Baltimore in sixteen hours.”
Just the mention of home was enough to make me damn near giddy. I kept myself in check, however. A mission wasn’t over until you were back on home soil. I was desperate to see the twins and Aubrey again. It was an odd experience for me to feel so damn emotional, but it practically hurtto be apart from them.
“Yo, dudes!” Mac called out to us from his row in the front. “Come up here!”
We climbed out of our seats and headed to Mac. Adam wasted no time sharing the news about the trackers.
“Good work, Adam,” Mac said. “But…”
He trailed off, something else on his mind.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Wereallystuck it to Balaban this time,” he said.
“Hell yeah, we did!” Tyler exclaimed, his expression eager.
