Page 11 of The Devil's Ransom

She came running back to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, saying, “You’d better come back.”

I hugged her and laughed, saying, “Of course I’m coming back. If I don’t, you can have the airplane.” After all this time, she was still worried about being abandoned.

She looked up to me and said, “I mean it. Don’t let the bad man get you.”

And with her words I realized she wasn’t afraid of being abandoned. She was afraid of Jennifer and me getting killed. She’d lived through a remarkable amount of death in her young life, and I knew she wasn’t speaking out of some imaginative fear. She had lost her family first in Syria and then in France as an illegal refugee, and had seen more death as I tracked the men who’d done it. Remarkably, she seemed to think she could prevent any harm coming to me or Jennifer if she came along.

I broke the hug and held her shoulders, saying, “We’ll be back in a day. All we’re doing is picking up a guy who needs a ride.”

She sniffled, looked at the men loading up the Land Rovers, and said, “Yeah, that’s why you need all those guns.”

I smiled and said, “Just being cautious. Go let Jennifer introduce you to the pilots. They’ll take care of you. You can eat whatever you want, stay up late watching TV, whatever you want to do. We’ll be back tomorrow.”

She hugged me again and said, “I’ll bet the TV has three channels in Tajik.”

She started walking away, then said over her shoulder, “If the hotel room has a minibar, I’m cleaning it out. The pilots can have the booze. I’m eating all the candy and drinking the Cokes.”

I shouted, “They don’t get any booze! They’re on alert for us!”

I watched her take Jennifer’s hand and go to the cockpit. I went to the trucks to finish loadout and Knuckles said, “How’d that go?”

“Not as good as I would have liked.”

He laughed and said, “The joys of parenting. Only instead of telling your kid she’s too short for the roller coaster, you’re telling her she can’t go on a top-secret mission with us.”

I grimaced, helping Brett with a Pelican case full of surveillance gear, and he said, “You have one tangled mess on your hands with her.”

I closed the hatch to the Rover and said, “Tell me about it.”

Jennifer arrived and I said, “Okay, she going to live?”

Jennifer said, “She’s fine. Just a little miffed. The pilots actually took a shine to her. I think they’re bored and like the idea of some responsibility.”

I said, “Or her minibar.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Nothing.” I turned to the team, saying, “Okay, it’s about a two-hour drive, which puts us close to the contact time with Carly. Knuckles and Brett, rear Rover. Jennifer and Veep, here with me. We’ll do the initial contact, then bring her to the hotel. You guys will get that hotel so we have some place to show up to.”

People started moving, doors slamming, and I turned to get behind the wheel, finding Knuckles blocking my way. He said, “Hey, man, come on. I’m doing the meet.”

Jennifer was already in the passenger seat, Veep in the back. I glanced at them and said, “Come on, Knuckles. I can’t afford some bullshit here. Just get the hotel.”

He leaned into me and said, “I’m doing the meet, Pike. This ismymission.”

The case officer we were meeting was Carly Ramirez, a covert operative for the Taskforce and an old flame of Knuckles’. They’d met on an operation when she was working for the CIA and he was with the Taskforce. He’d recruited her for our organization with an idea that she would be the second female operator in the Taskforce—after Jennifer—and he’d started training her while he dated her.

It had ended up in the usual Knuckles fashion, which is to say, they were no longer dating. She’d quit Assessment and Selection, he’d been embarrassed about it, and they’d broken up. There was no shame in it, because she’d never wanted it and Knuckles had forced the issue, but I was worried about him conducting this meet. I knew he still cared for her, and I didn’t need another problem.

I said, “You sure about this? The mission comes first, and I don’t want her getting skittish because you show up.”

He laughed and said, “We’re good, Pike. Really good. I’m happy for her, and we made up on that last mission in Brazil. She’s happy doing what she’s doing, and I’m happy she’s doing it.”

I thought about it for a second, then leaned into the vehicle, saying, “Veep, you’re with Brett. Get the hotel.”

He nodded and left without a word. Knuckles smiled and squeezed into the back of the vehicle. Two hours later, we were sitting in an alley right outside the Dushanbe Mall, waiting on Carly to show.

Chapter7

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