Her phone buzzed, and she answered the call from Kade Parker.
“Did you have any luck with Hawk?” he asked.
Emily sighed. “He said he’d do it.”
“Excellent. I knew he’d come around. What’d you do? Turn on your Thornton charm?”
She ignored his question. “For the record, I’m not happy about this. You better succeed or else we might become Hawk’s next target.”
“Oh, once we get what we need out of him, he will become target zero on our hit list,” he said. “Perhaps I’ll even give you the honors.”
“That’s one I’ll take a pass on.”
“Suit yourself. Good work, Agent Thornton. Once you get confirmation that Hawk and Alex are on the plane headed to see you, I’ll send you the rest of the details about how to proceed.”
Emily hung up. Hawk had promised her no such thing, but she was confident that he’d cave and come to her rescue.
CHAPTER 42
Camp Lemonnier
Djibouti City, Djibouti
HAWK LOOKED AT ALEX still engaged in conversation with General Fortner while calling Blunt to find out where he was. It’d been hours since they’d spoken, and there was no sign of Blunt. When he finally answered Hawk’s call, a conversation occurred that rattled Hawk to his core.
“Are you going to be joining us soon?” Hawk asked. “We’ve made it to Camp Lemonnier.”
“So I hear,” Blunt said. “General Fortner gave me a call to vet you.”
“Good to know he’s being careful.”
“You can never be too cautious in this day and age. You know that as well as anybody.”
“Are you in route?”
“Not yet,” Blunt said. “I’m afraid something else has come up that I need to take care of.”
“Do you have another assignment for us? And preferably one that doesn’t involve working with a backstabbing traitor.”
Blunt waited a few seconds before answering. “I wouldn’t recommend overstaying your welcome. It seems you’ve made some enemies at the CIA or at least some division of it, and who knows how long before they convince one of the military personnel there to take you out. What better place to do it than one where you feel safe all the time?”
“I never feel safe any more.”
“Good. That’s what’ll keep you alive.”
Hawk took a deep breath, unsure of how to broach the next subject.
“I spoke with Emily Thornton,” he said.
“And you’re still alive?” Blunt fired back.
“Why would you—?”
“Look, Hawk, it’s dangerous times out there, and you need to be careful. She’s working with Searchlight and could pose a serious threat to you and Alex.”
“Why Alex? I mean, Emily wants me to bring her with me and—”
“Where? Why? What is this all about?”
“She needs my help, Senator. Searchlight is after her now.”
“That’s bullshit. She’s one of their top operatives. Go if you don’t believe me, but please don’t take Alex with you.”
“Why not? Alex and I work great together as a team. I feel much better about my chances of saving Emily with Alex on the team.”
“Listen to me, Hawk. Emily’s life isn’t in danger. She wants you down there because they want to use Alex.”
“Use Alex? Like as a hacker?”
“No. It’s for something far worse, I’m afraid.”
Hawk turned his back to Alex and General Fortner, gazing at the choppy waters in the distance. “You think they’re going to hurt her?”
“It doesn’t matter because they don’t care if she gets hurt or not.”
“Then why on earth would they need her?” Hawk asked.
“To use her as bait.”
“Bait?”
“You heard me: bait.” Blunt paused to let the gravity of his statement sink in.
“Who could she possibly be used as bait for? She’s a loner. She has hardly any friends and—”
“Her mother. They want to use her as bait for her mother.”
“Her mother? But her mother’s—”
“Dead?” Blunt said. “No, not hardly. The woman Alex knows as Kathryn Duncan, the woman that gave birth to Alex and reportedly died in an accident on the Beltway—she’s actually Katarina Petrov. And the CIA has been trying to capture her for years. They even had the same plan to use Alex as bait at one point before she went all white knight and blew the whistle on some of their covert operations that weren’t exactly operating within the confines of the law.”
“Would Alex be in danger?”
“From what I know of Katarina Petrov, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill her own daughter. I always thought it was a foolish plan, but the CIA was adamant that it would work.”
“And you hired Alex to keep her safe?”
“Exactly. That’s why I never wanted her going into the field. It had the potential to jeopardize her and compromise a mission, especially toy with your better judgment.”
“So why does everyone want to kill Katarina Petrov so badly?”
“She’s the head of The Chamber.”
“The Chamber? The one you used to work for?”
“That’s the one,” Blunt said.
“And you’re just now getting around to telling me this? Don’t you think that’s kind of important? All my missions could be at risk because of Alex.”
“Hard to stuff that genie back into the bottle, especially when you can’t talk to her about it.”
“You’re sure she doesn’t know?” Hawk asked, incredulous.
“Not a clue, and let’s keep it that way. You just keep her safe, understand?”
Blunt kept talking without waiting for an answer, but Hawk was lost in his own world. He watched a plane touch down on the runway in front of him, the blast from the roaring jet engines making it impossible for Hawk to hear anything Blunt was saying.
“What was that?” Hawk said loudly.
“Oh, never mind.”
“Just to be clear—you don’t want us to go to Cape Town then?” Hawk asked.
“Under no circumstances,” Blunt said. “You stay put until I call you.”
“Roger that,” Hawk said. “Be safe.”
Hawk hung up the phone and resisted the urge to turn back around and look at Alex. He wanted to catch that secret glimpse of her, a beautiful
