Page 77 of Lucky Charm
“All that proves is somebody had a US weapon. Doesn’t tell us who, what, or how.”
“I still like your supposition, but proof is lacking. We’ll turn his body over to the Afghan Police. Let them figure out the parameters of his death. Not our job. His autopsy only told us there are weapons here, doubtful it was US troops that killed him. Nothing there we didn’t already know.”
“I’ll get Dr. Michaels now.” Hunt waited for approval.
“Go.” Scott waved him off.
Hunt left the office and returned to Doogie. The rest of the team sat with him at the Operation Center’s table, a heavy cloud of tension over the space. Zeke Pratt, the CIA liaison, joined them.
“Update?” Hunt dropped into an empty chair, went into an easy slouch, and read the room toanalyze the tension. Tight nerves compromised cohesion.
“We’re doing an exhaustive search of all the satellite footage between here and the mountains to ascertain if IQS came out of the mountains. Nothing so far, but there’s a lot to go through.” Pratt scooted a coffee cup closer and took a sip.
Hunt looked over at the pot and saw it was empty. “Dr. Michaels said something that’s been nagging me. She feels after reading body language and the interactions in the house that the kid wasn’t Haquiri’s. That it was more likely IQS. Can you search for any indication that he has a son?”
Pratt pulled his iPad closer. “I’ve been through his records, and they’re extensive, but I’ll look again. As you know, there are holes, so it’s not outside the possibilities, but figuring out where the kid fit in his timeframe might be tough.”
“Doc said he was about twelve. Start twelve years back.” He turned to the team. “I’m going to get Doc and bring her for the talk with Stocker. Anything else I need to know?”
“Nope,” Doogie answered. “We’ve all talked to him and couldn’t add anything. Nobody saw what Doc did.”
Carter leaned forward and clasped his hands between his legs. He didn’t look at anyone. A blank face on the normally easy-going man was an anomaly.
“Carter, don’t,” Hunt ordered. “We all did this job to the best of the information we had and the responsibilities we were given. Our job was to getDoc in and get her out after the care of the boy. That’s what we did.”
“Hard to do that with Stocker accusing,” Carter admitted.
“We did not plan that mission. We executed it. We rolled with the flaws, and we will again if necessary. Anything else I need to know?”
“No,” Doogie answered. “We’ll be here when you get back.”
“As a note,” he added, leaning forward. “Doc doesn’t know how close we skated to total beatdown disaster up there, and I’d like to keep it that way.” He wouldn’t tell them the why; that he suspected she had some PTS going on and didn’t need the added stress. Their attachment to Doc was as complicated as his, and to a man none of them cared for Stocker and his attitude. Covering Doc’s back would be second nature.
“Get maps going. Identify every place we ran into opposition from when we first turned on the road to the village to getting airlifted off in the mountains. Find the cave to identify the weapons cache for them. You ranged those mountains fighting them off. Identify our hotspots, and let’s review the information when I get back. Major Reynolds is taking out a large team for searches. That info might give them a leg up.”
Hernandez rose. “I’ll get that organized.”
“Doogie, you and Tommy work with Pratt on the vehicles. They came and went from somewhere, possibly over days.”
“We don’t have coverage of much of that area because of the mountain storms,” Pratt argued.
“Check and eliminate. Let’s not assume.”
“They did this above and passed the information down the chain.”
“Yes, but I don’t know how thorough they were, what their assumptions were, and how they were based. Let’s review. We are not overlooking anything because we think they checked already. I know we are the guys who come in and pull off the job after all this work has been done, but dammit I want this guy. Let’s find him.” Hunt rose from his chair and left them reviewing the maps.
That some of those orders were based on protectiveness toward Cait he would never admit. But they’d been the ones on that line. They’d fought them off, and their mission objectives aside, they were alive and expert at what happened. Let higher up think what they would.
Chapter Fourteen
Cait pulled her sweater around her and listened to her computer’s attempt to connect to video chat. Drawing pencil idle in her fingers, she studied her latest attempt at drawing the man that had been sitting with the kid’s mother. Time wasn’t ideal in Texas, but fingers crossed Jackie was not with a patient.
She and Jackie Shay met in med school. While Jackie had doubled in family medicine and general surgery, Cait had gone to trauma surgery. They’d become sisters, family by choice.
“Are you insane? Why aren’t you in bed?” Jackie’s sarcastic presence washed over her.
“Can’t sleep. Long day. Wanted to hear your voice for some normalcy.”
