“Hawk, you know where we are, don’t you?”
He scanned the area, refusing to look at her. She set her jaw and glared at him.
“Hawk, where are we?”
“Based on the GPS coordinates on my watch, we’re in Russia.”
“Russia? How did we—”
“I have no idea what happened. After we finished working on our plan, I fell asleep—and so did you.”
“I wasn’t that tired,” she said. “I think someone drugged me.”
“Who?” Hawk said with a scowl. “And when? What did you take that could’ve possibly knocked you out like that?”
“I don’t know, but I do know that I have a massive headache right now. And the last time my head felt like this was when someone drugged me in North Korea.”
“But what did you—” Hawk stopped talking the moment he realized the source of her drug. “The water bottles.”
“From Kip?” she asked. “He wouldn’t do a thing like that.”
“Got any other explanations? Because I was supposed to drink one of those too, but remember I didn’t. And then you drank mine for me.”
“That explains why I was sleeping like a dead person.”
Hawk chuckled. “That’s not all that different than usual. But in most cases, I will concede that you would wake up while in an airplane in a free fall with the door open.”
The sound of men shouting reached Hawk’s ears. He peered down over Alex’s shoulders.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing. I was just trying to see how much longer before we hit the ground,” he said.
“Stop lying to me, Hawk. I hear those guys talking. Who are they?”
“It’s kind of dark, so it’s difficult to tell anything for certain.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Your best guess.”
He winced. “I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one anymore. They’re clearly Russian soldiers.”
Alex shook her head slowly. “Hawk, I hope you’ve got a plan.”
“You’re assuming that they see us and are going to capture us,” Hawk said.
A few seconds later, Hawk drew back and locked eyes with Alex.
“We’re about to hit the ground,” he said. “Just try to roll a little bit once your feet touch down so you don’t break any bones.”
“Roger that,” she said.
“In three, two, and one . . .”
They touched down and tumbled across the ground, the parachute coming to rest on top of them. Hawk landed on his back with Alex on top of him. She smiled as she pushed herself up.
“Thanks for breaking my fall,” she said.
“Any time,” he said before flinging the canvas over their heads.
A bright beam shone in both their faces as the silhouette of soldiers lumbered forward.
“Keep your hands where I can see them,” he bellowed.
Hawk and Alex raised their hands in a gesture of surrender.
“You’re both under arrest for espionage,” the commander said before nodding knowingly at some of his subordinates. They rushed over to Hawk and Alex, yanking them to their feet before dragging them toward an idling military transport vehicle.
CHAPTER 14
Washington, D.C.
BLUNT STIRRED HIS COFFEE and positioned his face over the steam. Following the unsuccessful op to rescue Morgan, he had a restless night, spent worrying about her future as well as the fate of the country. Given the lengths Falcon Sinclair had already gone through to ensure Young’s attendance at this secret meeting, Blunt could only figure the fallout would be disastrous.
Blunt wrapped both hands around his “World’s Best Boss” mug and took a sip. On the side of the grounds, the flavor was listed as Kenyan Bold, one of Blunt’s favorites. He took the name as a sign of how he needed to lead with a master manipulator threatening his own family. This wasn’t the time to hedge his bets. Sinclair was intent on gaining control on so many sectors of the world that if something wasn’t done to stop him, the world would be at his mercy.
Blunt read through several reports on his desk before his administrative assistant buzzed in with a call from Randy Wood at the CIA.
“Randy, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?” Blunt said, doing his best to sound cheery.
“I’m afraid there’s going to be nothing pleasurable about this conversation.”
“What is it?” Blunt asked, his voice transitioning quickly to concern.
“It’s about your plane.”
“My plane?”
“Yeah, the one with Hawk and Alex on it that left here last night.”
“What about it?”
“It crashed in Russia last night.”
“Wait. What? Russia? What was it doing in—”
“That’s what I was hoping you could tell us.”
Blunt set his jaw, afraid of the answer to his next question. “And Hawk and Alex?”
“Both alive,” Wood said, “captured by the Russian military.”
“I don’t understand. How did they—”
“Actually, we were hoping you could answer some questions for us,” Wood began, “starting with what the hell were they doing over Russian airspace in the first place?”
“I’m as stunned about that revelation as you are.”
“What were they doing over there?”
Blunt sighed. “We used Orlovsky to set up a meeting with Evana Bahar, but apparently something went wrong.”
“What about your pilot? Is he trustworthy?”
“Best in the business. He’d never get that far off course.”
“So, I guess that leaves us with your operatives,” Wood said. “Which one don’t you trust?”
“I have—and would again—trust both of them with my life. Neither one of them would do anything like that. Maybe there was something wrong with the navigational controls. I mean, that might be able to explain a lot of things, including the crash.”
“You could be right, but that still feels like quite a stretch to me. But you have a bigger problem.”
“Are the Russians detaining Hawk and Alex?” Blunt asked.
“I wish your two assets were merely being detained because that’d be much easier to negotiate than what’s happening now.”
“Charges?”
“Yep,” Wood said.
“Of what?”
“Espionage. They could face life in a work camp in Siberia or a firing squad for that offense. That’s really up to the judge to decide.”
“That’s not even why they were there,” Blunt said before growling. “Are they offering any deals?”
“Nothing that’s negotiable.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“One of the Russian generals involved in this mess also happens
