Why doesn’t he ever listen to me?
Watching Hawk break protocol and venture into enemy territory wasn’t a new experience. But that didn’t make it any less painful to endure. The wondering and speculating for even just a few minutes always drove her crazy. She concluded that she might not be the same way if he were just another operative she was handling. But she and Hawk had history—and something else, though giving it a label seemed juvenile. In moments like these, she realized just how much she cared for him. Alex always handled her job like a professional, but everything seemed heightened when he was in danger and she was unable to help.
But there is something I can do this time.
She took a deep breath and settled back into her chair. Calling up the drone’s virtual cockpit, she resumed control of the machine.
Come on, Hawk. Show me something.
She turned the plane back around and then glanced at the monitor connected to the satellite. The screen was blank.
“Not right now,” she said with a growl.
Switching to a different keyboard, she typed furiously to get the image back. She attempted to re-task the satellite so she could maintain visual contact of Hawk’s location with something other than the drone’s grainy camera. But her attempts were rebuffed when a box appeared with the dreaded words no hacker ever wanted to see: Access Denied.
Alex cursed as she went back to the controls of the drone. A few seconds later, she was frozen out of the drone as well.
“Damn it,” she said. “Somebody’s onto me.”
On the street below, she heard a honk and a man yelling. Alex leaned over her desk and saw a dark van with several FBI agents in tactical gear rushing toward her apartment building.
She sprang into action, shutting down her laptop and initiating memory wipe protocol for her desktop computer. She checked the deadbolts on the front door and rushed back to check on the status of the hard drive erasure. Once it hit eighty percent, she heard footsteps in the hallway. At ninety percent, she heard a knock on the door and a man announcing himself with the FBI and requesting entry. She grabbed a blanket and threw it over the machine, hoping the extra time it took to locate her computer might be enough to help the system finish removing any incriminating evidence.
With her laptop tucked securely in a bag slung across her shoulder, Alex raced toward her hiding spot before clambering up into a large vent shaft. She’d practiced her escape several times in the event of a raid—and she was thankful for the foresight she had to develop such a procedure.
She heard the first loud thump of the FBI’s battering ram crashing against her door.
In a matter of seconds, she was safely inside. She contorted her body, turning around so she could face the room below.
Another thump on the front door.
After she secured the screws on the vent, she slid back into the shadows. She was close enough to see anyone in the room but deep enough in the shaft that no one would be able to see her with a cursory glance.
The next thump was accompanied by the sound of wood splintering.
They’re in.
Alex scooted farther back down the vent and held her breath. She decided she didn’t care to know how many agents there were. The imminent danger was sufficient enough to scare her away from seeing the room. The only thing that mattered was avoiding capture so she could get back to helping Hawk.
As she eased her way down the duct, she heard an electric screwdriver whirring loudly. She squinted as she tried to see what was happening—an agent was removing the vent cover. It clanked as it hit the floor.
The agent shoved a flashlight into the vent and peered into it.
“I think I found something,” he said.
Alex swallowed hard but didn’t dare move—or breathe.
CHAPTER 12
Iraq, undisclosed location
HAWK RESISTED OPENING HIS EYES as long as he could. The burlap bindings wrapped around his wrists and ankles gave him a picture of his situation before he even saw a thing. Seated in a wooden chair, Hawk’s arms were pinned behind him. A damp musty smell overwhelmed his senses.
“You can’t keep your eyes closed forever,” Karif Fazil said before he kicked at Hawk’s leg.
Hawk relented and his gaze met Fazil’s. The room was lit with a single lightbulb that dangled from the ceiling directly behind Fazil. With Jafar perched on his shoulder, the Al Hasib leader stooped over and looked eye-level at his prisoner.
“I knew you were brash and daring, but I never figured to add stupid to the adjectives I’d use to describe the great Brady Hawk,” Fazil said as he stood and paced in front of Hawk. “On second thought, perhaps we should rethink inclusion of the word great when describing you. Such a blunder—a serious underestimation of your enemy—is not exactly what a great operative does.”
“I guess you haven’t met any great ones, have you?”
Fazil smiled. “Why? Because they all end up dead at your hands?”
Hawk narrowed his eyes but remained silent.
“Well, your bravado is also noted, particularly given your situation. Arrogant to the bitter end, though the end won’t come quite as quickly as you’d like.”
“There’s a drone outside that will obliterate this facility any minute now,” Hawk said. “If there’s a fool in this room, it’s you.”
“My, the bold statements don’t stop, do they? You’re willing to spout off anything to
