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Within seconds, the men on the beach, as well as their canines, were surrounded.
“Drop your weapons!” Ares shouted through the mic amplifier. A moment later, Poseidon, who stood nearby, repeated the command in Maltese.
Shots immediately rang out, followed by several rounds of gunfire from both sides.
“We need them alive!”I heard Ares shout through the comms, but I no longer cared. With a gun in each hand, I began firing, not minding where the shots hit, only that, one by one, the bastards fell to the ground.
“Man down! Man down!”I heard Puck shout. I looked over to where he knelt on the sand. Zeppelin and Magnet covered them while Poseidon and three others from our team moved in on the two men who’d dropped their weapons.
“Call them off!”Poseidon shouted in Maltese when the two canines charged. He shouted something else when the dogs didn’t halt. I heard a gunshot, but it didn’t appear to hit either animal. However, it looked as though it was close. Only then did one of the two men whose hands were raised in the air issue a command that stopped the dogs in their tracks.
While they were secured, others moved in on the four guards on the ground while I raced over to Puck.
“It’s Vulcan,” he said, looking up at me. “She’s gone.”
Tracy “Vulcan” North was one of the MI5 agents Puck had called in as backup. I hadn’t worked a mission with her previously, but I’d heard she was a damned good agent.
“Beak?” Puck yelled, looking beyond me.
I turned in time to see the man fall to the ground. In the moments it took for us to run over, blood oozed into the sand around him.
“Fuck!”Puck roared, pushing past me. He knelt down, and I waited while he felt for a pulse I doubted he’d find. There was too much blood. Tactical gear served as protection. It wasn’t fail-safe, and we all knew it.
“Nothing!” he cried, falling back on his haunches and removing his helmet. This would eat at Puck as much as it would me. Two agents he’d called in at the last minute had been fatally wounded on a mission I was ultimately responsible for. There was no question we’d both carry the weight of their deaths.
Like Vulcan, I hadn’t worked any prior missions with Jamie “Beak” Thomas, but I did know he was a highly respected MI5 agent.
I saw Poseidon move farther down the beach.
“Anything?” I shouted, looking for tracks as I walked in his direction. I wasn’t certain, but it appeared Bexli was barefoot when she came out of the villa. Even if she weren’t, she would’ve kicked her shoes off in the water.
“Not yet, but she swam in this direction. There are enough of us available to spread the search.”
I looked behind me. Four SUVs had driven directly onto the sand. Vulcan’s and Beak’s bodies were being loaded into one. The four dead guards, into another. Ares and Nem were overseeing the two remaining captives as well as loading the canines into the third and fourth vehicles.
“Cayman?”
I rushed over to Poseidon and saw two things—footprints small enough to belong to Bex along with a trail of blood. I followed them over to a rubbish bin; from there, the prints were larger and no longer looked like feet. I followed the remaining tracks. They ended as soon as I reached the pavement.
Four other roads came to an end at the one I walked to the middle of. She could’ve taken any of them.
Rage built from somewhere deep inside me, far worse than the anger I’d felt before. I waspowerless. I’d vowed to find Bexli, to save her, but I didn’t know where to begin looking. I couldn’t wait for more overheads from the NRO. I had to find hernow, before anyone else did and somehow managed to return her to those who’d held her captive.
I bent at the waist, wishing there was a wall in front of me I could put my fist through. Better yet, Mithras, whose body I’d riddle with bullets.
“We’ll find her, Cayman,” said Poseidon, resting his hand on my shoulder.
I stood straight and looked up at the sky. “Where, Kai? Where the fuck is she?”
“She’s on the island. We know that much.”
“What if they find her first? What if I’m already too late?”
Before he could respond, I saw Ares rushing over to us. “I got more video from the NRO. I think I know where Bexli went.”
10
BEXLI
