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They had someone interested in funding the entire operation. She asked for a name, and he was reluctant to release that information. She said there was no deal without the info and thanked him for coming.
*****
Oakley heard nothing for a week, then she got a call from Charlie. Thinking about it still made her angry with Mason, but also very confused.
She had just come in from the morning training session when her phone rang. Equipped with her ever present Air Pods in her ears, she answered as she went about the midday feeding ritual.
There was no way Oakley would feed her wolves dry dog food. She’d argued for two years over the food fed to the K9s in the program. Canines need meat. Sure, they benefit from the nutrients in some vegetables and fruit, but they were genetically designed to be carnivores.
Her phone rang and announced the caller. She answered, hoping it wasn’t a call to deliver bad news. If something had happened to Grady, Charli would be the first to be contacted. Praying it wasn’t that, she answered. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I had a discussion with Mason the other day and got a chance to speak with Grady last night, so wanted to touch base with you if you have time.”
“Always.” She pointed to a spot on the kitchen floor where the wolves liked to lay and look out of the screendoor. They plopped down and watched as she hacked up big chunks of beef, chicken, and organ meat.
“Mason said he has an investor, someone who wants to foot the entire bill.”
“That’s what he told me.”
“And did he tell you who it is?”
“No. Did he tell you?”
“That’s why I’m calling,” Charli’s voice suddenly carried a note of something that made the hair on the back of Oakley’s neck stand on end.
“Tell me.”
“Remember the operation in Baghdad when–”
“Samir Abdul Amir.” Oakley didn’t bother to tamp down the scorn in her voice. “Yeah, I remember.”
“Hey, I get your bitterness, and like I’ve said a dozen times, had it been me, I’d have been pissed to the gills to have to give up special forces. But you know it was the right thing to do.”
Oakley knew that. Samir, if that was his real name, was not simply a terrorist, but a man who knew how to move weapons and money around the globe. Oakley and Charli had been part of an operation to stop the flow of weapons to Al-Qaida.
They were the second team sent in. The first disappeared. Oakley and Charli found one of the women, Claudia, still alive. Alive, but changed. She now belonged to Samir and was his to do with as he saw fit.
She blew the whistle on Oakley. If she’d ever met Charli, it would have also put a bullseye on Charli’s forehead as well. The first attempt to assassinate Samir failed. On the second try, he used Claudia, whom he’d taken as a wife, as a human shield.
As long as she lived, Oakley would never forget that moment. Samir had one arm wrapped around Claudia, his hand tight on her throat. In his free hand was a handgun, pointed at Claudia’s head.
He demanded Oakley surrender. She refused. He swore to kill Claudia. The way Oakley saw it, Claudia was dead either way. Oakley couldn’t let Samir escape and had no doubt he’d kill Claudia if it helped him get away.
She wouldn’t let that happen. So, she took the shot. She did manage to wound Samir, but with the arrival of some of his followers, she had just enough time for another shot before she was forced to abandon the fight and escape.
Samir vowed he’d find and kill her. Oakley did what she thought was the honorable thing. She transferred out of the Ranger Division and took an appointment with the K9 division. No more special ops for her. She was now a liability.
But she never forgot the promise Samir made to her when he tried to kill her. “Is it Samir?”
“We don’t know. I’d err on the side of caution and do whatever I could to find out before I offered the man a seat at the table.”
“Same here. But if it is Samir…” she didn’t need to finish the sentence. Charli knew as well as she that if Samir knew she was involved, his interest would be anything but magnanimous. It was a cover. A way to get close and fulfill his promise.
“Look, the truth is, I was thinking about going home for a while,” she said to Charli.
“Home as in back to the reservation?”
“Yep.”
