Page 26 of Undefeated Love
As soon as the doors were shut, Katlin turned the key and pulled out into heavy traffic, heading back to the embassy where they were staying. “Please tell me that wasn’t a delusion. That was Nikkole, right?”
“Do you think there’s any chance that General Standish sent her here? Or maybe another team?” Nita stared at Katlin as she negotiated the modern city streets.
“The hairs on the back of my neck have been tingling for the past twenty-four hours,” Katlin admitted. “I thought I was just being paranoid.”
Nita’s eyes went wide. “Me, too. I wrote it off to being tired but now that you mention it, I’ve looked over my shoulder more since we arrived here than in the last month.”
“Do you think Jack knows we’re here and he’s following us?” Katlin proposed. Inwardly, she worried that perhaps he was going to try to kidnap her. Pushing that possibility out of her mind, they needed to deal with Nikkole. “Do you think Nikkole is here because of Jack? Or because of us?”
“One way to find out.” Nita pulled out the secure satellite phone and started dialing numbers. After being transferred through the operations center, General Standish’s secretary, and put on forever hold, their boss finally came on the line.
They’d agreed that Katlin would do the talking as team leader. “General, did you send a secondary team as backup for us?”
“No. You seldom need backup. To my knowledge, I haven’t seen a request for additional help. Did I miss one?”
“No, ma’am. No one on my team has asked for an additional team.” Katlin raised her eyebrow to Nita who shook her head side to side.
“Ma’am, did you send Nikkole Chernakov to our location in South Africa?”
There was a long pause before the woman in her late fifties answered. “Not only no, but fuck, no. Is she there?”
“Both Nita and I spotted her about fifteen minutes ago. She may have been following us.” Although their mission was top-secret, Nikkole would easily have been able to follow their progress. She had clearance to the operations center where a world map kept track of all Section 7 operatives.
“Ten days ago, Agent Chernakov asked for an undetermined amount of leave. She’d seen the psychiatrist who indicated that Nikkole needed medical time off. She’s supposedly having difficulty recovering from the emotional abuse inflicted by former director Jack Ashworth.” There was a long pause before she asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. “Is it possible that Nikkole has followed you in order to kill Jack?”
“I’d be more inclined to believe that she was going to try to save Jack and her relationship with him,” Nita offered. “Although I’ve never been made privy to her psychological evaluations, a woman would have to want to undergo all those surgeries to allow herself to be transformed into somebody else. The driving force behind that has to be either love or money. In Nikkole’s case, I’m betting love. Their affair went on for years. That brings me to our current situation. If she knows that her lover has been sanctioned, it stands to reason that she would want to warn him.”
“I agree.” Clicking on a keyboard could be heard in the background. “I’m going to have her tracker pinged and its location for the past twenty-four hours sent to you. Maybe it will help you track down Jack, if she’s already found him. If not, watch your six. If as Nita suggested, Nikkole is acting out of love, there’s no telling what she’s capable of doing.”
“What are our rules of engagement?” Katlin asked.
“Nikkole Chernakov is an active agent in Section 7. She is not sanctioned.” The general felt it necessary to repeat her last sentence. “She isnotsanctioned.”
“Understood,” both Nita and Katlin said at the same time.
CHAPTER12
At The SameTime
The Other Side of the City
“Done. We should have eyes and ears in almost every corner inside Jack Ashworth’s compound,” Jake Jameson reported to Alex, Griffin at his side.
The Guardian Security Elite team of eight former special operators headed by Alex and Griffin had landed in Johannesburg, South Africa six hours before the Black Swan jet touched down under the guise of darkness.
“Good job.” Alex slapped each of the three men dressed in all black on the shoulder. In the early morning hours, Jake, Zeb Fletcher, and Flynn O’Rourke had scaled the twelve-foot wall surrounding the compound and planted several dozen devices throughout the grounds, house, and clinic.
Clay Centura had video running on several large screens within minutes.
“Sir, there are two women sleeping in the clinic.” Flynn pointed to two sleeping figures on a screen.
“Inside the house, there were two men in separate ensuite bedrooms and a woman in a small room off the kitchen that looks to be a housekeeper’s space.” Zeb pointed as those cameras came live.
Alex stood looking over his Elite technician’s shoulder. “Zoom in on that man. I want to be sure it’s Jack Ashworth.”
Watching the man sleep reminded Alex of the night he’d crept into Jack’s Georgetown bedroom and threatened to dismember him if he didn’t stay away from Katlin. He had few regrets in his life but leaving Jack alive that night was one of them.
“Any idea where they have the eggs stored?”
