Page 13 of Delta Mission
I tugged my NODs away, strode to beneath the hole, and looked up.
It took me a moment to realize what was above the hole.
It was the underneath of the old bus that had been parked in the street.
They’d parked it there on purpose to hide the blast hole in the secret room below.
Devious fuckers.
But the discovery of the bus had my mind shunting all over the place.
I tried to stop my heart from pounding in my ears so I could listen. The silence was incredible.
Son of a bitch!
I really am all alone.
CHAPTER 5
Makenna
The thundering noisesounded deeper below ground, like the place I’d climbed into had a bellyache.
The room had shuddered as the noise grew louder and as I pictured hundreds of horses with Taliban soldiers charging through the middle of the village, I’d squeezed my arms around my legs and stared into the blackness.
Once the sound was gone, stillness engulfed me. As did the darkness.
I was tempted to believe I was alone.
But that would be a mistake.
Channing and his men thought this village was deserted. It wasn’t. And now there was a war going on above me that sounded like Channing, and his troops were outnumbered a thousand to one.
If anything happened to him, I couldn’t bear it.
He was the first man I’d ever let into my heart. The only man.
But I’d ruined it all with my stupid mistake.
I had never forgiven myself for what I did. Nor would I ever.
My only hope had been that Channing had found love again. He deserved that.
He was a good man.
It seemed like forever before I convinced myself it was safe to move. I crawled out from under the table and stood, peering into the darkness. The silence continued. If anyone was down here, they had fine-tuned their stealth mode.
I pulled my flashlight from my vest, and with a breath trapped in my throat, and my gun ready, I convinced myself to turn it on.
Squinting against the glare, I panned the flashlight around in a quick three-sixty turn.
A breath rushed out of me. I was in a massive underground drug lab.
It was so big I couldn’t see to the far end.
Crouching over and aiming my light at the dirt floor, I raced between a field of sacks containing Ammonium Chloride and charcoal.
I ducked down behind a massive pile of plastic irrigation pipes, turned off my light, and listened.
