“Come in, Tanya.”
She entered his office with a file in her hand and Seth Harper at her heels. Harper wore navy slacks and a white dress shirt, but under his shirt he wore something else. The clear image of a Jerry Springer T-shirt was visible. When Garrett saw it, a smile tugged at his lips.
“What do you have, Tanya?” he asked, and gestured a hand toward chairs in front of his desk. “Please. Have a seat.”
“Harper found something. I’ll let him explain.” She winked at Seth and handed him the file.
“Sayed uploaded another video, and he used his SAT phone again,” Seth began. “Since I narrowed my search pattern to southeast Cuba and had his voiceprint, my program alerted me when he made a call. I traced the origin right away.”
“And? Do you know where he is?” Garrett asked.
“Yeah, I think so.” Harper opened the file and spread a satellite overview of Cuba on his desk.
“You think so? How sure are you, Seth?”
“That depends on how much you trust the intel on the British Virgin Islands abductions, sir. If Sayed was behind those kidnappings, then yes, the voiceprint matches.”
When Garrett looked at Tanya, she nodded, and said, “That investigation was solid. I think we’ve got Sayed, thanks to Harper.”
Garrett looked down at the map on his desk again. “Where is he? Do we know what this facility is?” He pointed to a spot on the map that had been marked.
“Yeah, and you’re not going to like it.” Tanya reached across his desk and pointed to a road. “There’s only one way going in and out of Baracoa. And that facility north of town belongs to an arms dealer, Jamal Ghazi. He’s been linked to al-Qaeda. He’s one nasty son of a bitch.”
“Dig up all you can on Ghazi and get it to Alexa and Hank Lewis as soon as possible. What’s the ETA for Hank’s team?”
“They’ll be in Baracoa in ten minutes,” Tanya told him. “But there’s more. Seth, tell him.”
“It was easy to lock on Sayed’s call at the origination point, but I adapted my program to expedite the trace to its destination. Sayed was calling someone in Afghanistan. Tanya thinks it’s his handler. If that’s correct, we may have someone deeper into his network.”
“Good work, Seth. Both of you.” He smiled. “Tanya, I want to contact Alexa and Hank ASAP. We need our hands on Sayed and to get our people out of Cuba…tonight.”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “I’ll have dispatch make contact immediately. They’ll route the calls to you.”
Garrett watched Tanya and her new charge leave his office. With Tanya’s sharp thinking, they had worked as a team to identify the target and expedite the online hunt. And Seth Harper had adapted and improvised to isolate a significant thread tied to a terrorist network. As pleased as he was with the good news, Garrett knew the most dangerous part of the mission still remained. Cornering a terrorist cell led by a treacherous leader like Abdul Kabir Sayed could be deadly, especially if their objective was to take the bastard alive.
His thoughts turned to Alexa, a woman who had a place in his heart—and had
Offshore Baracoa, Cuba
As Joe LaClaire’s boat sped toward the shore, its hull hit the tops of waves and kicked up a fine salty mist that covered Jessie’s face. With LaClaire at the helm, she stood in the bow of the boat and held on, staring dead ahead at the only lights on the horizon. This would be her first mission with the Sentinels. And even though it had only been a short time since she’d last seen Alexa, it felt like ages. Worrying about a friend wreaked havoc on her sense of time.
In the wake of LaClaire’s boat followed another craft, carrying the rest of her team. Being a rookie, she had been assigned to stick with Hank Lewis until the teams were split between him and Alexa, their team leaders. Hank was a man of few words, but she’d liked him immediately, which was unusual for her. She normally didn’t take to strangers that soon. Maybe her respect for Hank had something to do with his treatment of the rescued hostages— the men, women, and children who had been abducted from Haiti. Hank had filled the team in on what had happened.
With Alexa still in Cuba, they couldn’t afford to have the world media’s attention on what remained of her mission, but the rescued hostages needed tending. Hank had arranged for medical attention and also had the Haitian families join their rescued loved ones in a private location, away from the media. It had been a humane outcome that served the objectives of the Sentinels as well as the needs of those rescued and the people who loved them. She admired Garrett for arranging it.
Soon they would land in a harbor near Baracoa, Cuba, and join Alexa and Jackson Kinkaid, a man she’d never met. That would happen shortly. Her team leader had already made contact with Alexa.
Their rendezvous and transportation had been arranged. As their boat neared shore, Hank’s SAT phone rang, and he answered it.
“Moonshine Two. Talk to me, home base.”
Although Jessie only overheard Hank’s side of the conversation, she understood enough to know they now had a specific location to find their target. And she knew Harper had worked his magic to find the terrorist in Baracoa. Despite her adrenaline rush for the mission ahead, she couldn’t help but smile when she thought about Seth.
“Way to go, genius,” she whispered.
Father Ignatius had waited for his guests to leave before he slipped into his private residence. Behind his home theater—a personal eccentricity—he had a safe room that stored his high-tech equipment and link to Echelon. While Mrs. Torres had puttered around the room with a feather duster, he observed Jackson Kinkaid and Alexa Marlowe by surveillance cameras as they walked from the cathedral.
When he knew for certain that they had gone, he got to work.
He searched for more details on the backgrounds of Kinkaid and Marlowe to do a proper search. His efforts took time, but the results were worth it. What he found only gave him more cause for alarm. They were too experienced to attempt an assault on the Ghazi stronghold without help and resources. And although neither of them had mentioned they’d be working with an assault team, he had to assume they wouldn’t be alone. If they attacked Ghazi, they had a strong chance at succeeding with their mission to save Kinkaid’s friend—and killing anyone in their path, including Abdul Kabir Sayed.
He considered his next step carefully before he acted. But act, he must. After weighing the consequences of his decision, he picked up the encrypted phone he had in the safe room and made a call. A man answered on the second ring.
“You’ll soon have company.” The priest told him what he knew. “As a precaution, we must get Sayed out tonight. He’s vital to our cause. We have no choice now.”
He ended the call as his loyal housekeeper and confidante came into the room. She had a service of tea and a snack.
“Mrs. Torres, you’d better shed the apron,” he told her. “I’ll be needing your services.”
CHAPTER 20
North of Baracoa, Cuba
Alexa and Kinkaid had arrived at the harbor in two SUVs they’d misappropriated from a rental-car agency for their rendezvous with Hank and his team. This time of night, the vehicles wouldn’t be missed. In the wake of the hurricane, Baracoa was dead, with the harbor deserted. When they met the backup team at the dock, Jessie had gifts from Garrett. Uniforms, full assault gear, and body armor. Everything a woman would need.
After the bounty hunter grinned and tossed a bag of gear onto the pier in front of her, she stuffed black BDU pants into her arms.
“Guess this makes us a twisted version of the
