Page 1 of Jacqueline's Quest

Prologue

Somewhere outside of Juarez, Mexico, three weeks ago...

Murray Jacobs drove down the rutted dirt road. He’d left the main road over an hour ago to take the most direct way to his destination. Getting through the border crossing had been a breeze, with Tex's help, of course. Being stopped with all of his equipment in the back of his vehicle would have been hard to explain, even with his credentials.

Going into another country to run an op no one was aware of, except for Tex and Asher had consequences if he got caught. He could end up in a Federales prison for the rest of his life. Not something he intended, especially if he found his sister Hannah, like Tex, told him he would.

Ten years ago, she’d disappeared from their home in Newport, Virginia. She’d just started her junior year of high school after being stuck in the hospital with Acute flaccid myelitis, most commonly known as AMF. For Hannah, it affected her legs, rendering her paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors assured Murray she’d recover eventually, but as the days and weeks became months without any change, he and Hannah realized this would be their new normal.

Their relationship wasn’t the typical brother/sister pairing. He was already ten years old when his parents announced they were having another baby. From the conversations he overheard as a child, Hannah had been considered an “oops” baby. At the time, he didn’t understand it, now he did. His parents were older, in their mid-thirties when they had Murray. With Hannah, his mother had different types of age-related complications. It'd been touch and go there for a while, and in the beginning, he’d hated Hannah.

Then, their parents died in a tragic vacation accident. The sightseeing boat they’d been on, capsized off the coast of Belize, killing everyone on board. Murray had just turned eighteen. Hannah was the only thing left in his life. After their funeral, he promised to take care of her, no matter how annoying or demanding she was. Blood meant everything to him, too bad it took a tragedy for him to see it.

Somehow, when he joined the military after finishing high school, he’d finagled a way for both of them to stick together. At the time, he thought it was the best way for him to continue to be Hannah’s guardian while also making money. Yes, their parents set up life insurance policies in their names and had a will, but money would eventually run out. He wouldn’t allow either of them to flounder if he could help it.

Together, after basic, they traveled to Germany then Japan, before returning home to Virginia. Those few years had been invaluable for his sister. She learned about different cultures and countries while also picking up two different languages, German and Japanese.

Like him, she excelled at school. She'd been placed in all honors courses and was on track to graduate at the top of her class. He’d been so proud of her after everything she’d been through.

So, when she disappeared, his whole world came crumbling down around him.

He hadn’t even known about R.O.O.T or what they did until the leader—Asher found him while he’d been at the police department speaking with a detective. Murray had irreplaceable skills himself. He had an eidetic memory. He could remember things with just a cursory glance. It made becoming a hacker pretty easy, and the military put it to use more times than he could count.

The offer of joining Asher, using his connections to try to find Hannah, had been the bait he needed at the time. When he stepped into the police department that day, it’d already been over the ninety hours the FBI determined a lost child/person could be found alive. He’d been desperate. So, he took Asher’s deal and hit the ground running.

For the next ten years, he'd been with Asher, all of his free time had been used to search for his sister. He’d all but given up, until now. When Tex called him, it surprised him. He hadn’t talked to the guy since one of R.O.O.T’s missions went awry, and Asher brought Tex in for help. Hearing his voice and getting the coordinates for where to meet Jaq, because there was a blip about his sister... Fuck, he didn’t hesitate jumping into his vehicle and taking off.

The shantytown of Juarez grew closer as he crested the hill. He glanced at the clock on his dash; 0700 hours. The early morning sun tracked higher into the sky, chasing away the pinks and purples of dawn. A heat burst baked the desert sands, causing a haze to glimmer across the road in front of him.Shit, today is going to be another hot one.Murray grabbed the bottle of water beside him and took a drink. The Mexican desert wasn’t somewhere he wanted to be without being hydrated.

As the rutted road changed back to asphalt, he glanced at his GPS. He had about forty miles to go. Since he’d left Virginia, he thought about all the things he’d say to Hannah once he found her. She’d be twenty-six now—if Tex’s intel was correct. He’d missed so much of her life and her likewise. He wondered if she missed him. If she thought he gave up on her. If she knew he searched every day for her. He’d thought about bringing every birthday card he bought her, for every year she’d been gone. Then chided himself for being stupid.

Already, he'd begun the process of having a safe home set up for her, so she could recover and take the steps she'd need to reintroduce herself to society. With Asher's help and Tex's, he hoped to make everything as smooth as possible for her. Until then, he had to focus on the road in front of him.

As his turn off approached, he slowed and made the left-hand turn. Each mile ticking by sent another pulse of nervous energy through him. For everything he’d try to prepare for, he also held the thread of fear in the back of his mind. Hannah might be dead. The information could be wrong. The pessimistic outlook kept him grounded. It allowed him to not feel excited. He wouldn’t set himself up for failure.

Murray bounced off the paved road back onto the dirt as the distance between himself and his new partner narrowed. Cactus and yucca plants surrounded him. The scent of dry sage and rain filtered through his truck, settling him marginally. But, it was the glare off of a windshield in the distance, which had him slowing as he drew near. There, sitting across the road, was a pickup and a person standing outside of it.

He came to a stop a few feet from the vehicle and shut off his truck. The directions on his GPS led him to this point, but the niggle of being on alert kept him from automatically jumping out. When the person standing across from him didn't move, Murray popped the door hesitantly and stepped out.

The woman stared at him but didn't move. Her mirrored aviators reflected his image at him. He placed his hand behind his back, palming the 9mm he'd holstered there, just in case. No way he'd allow her to get the slip on him.

In the last fifteen years, the cartels and the drug trade had taken over the country. Murders were on the rise, and corruption ran rampant through the police and federal officials. Anyone who fought back ended up dead. Murray didn’t have a death wish. He wouldn’t fuck with the hierarchy as long as he got his sister back or found some clue as to what happened to her.

“You Murray Jacobs?” The woman’s accented voice surprised him.

“Yeah. Who are you?” he asked, still holding onto his weapon.

“I’m Jaq. Your partner.” She approached him. Her hand extended in greeting. “Tex said you’d be a bit...suspicious.”

He snorted. “Tex is perceptive.” He shook her hand in greeting. “Jaq short for something?”

She grinned. “Jaqueline Herrera, but most people call me ‘Rainbow.’”

Murray tilted his head. “‘Rainbow?’”

She laughed. “On account of my sparkling personality.” She removed her hat and a tumble of dark, rainbow-colored locks tumbled down her back. “And the hair.”

He laughed. “I like it.”

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