Cover of Darkness (33 page)

On the way out, Rhys stopped in front of a picture of Sam and Neveah hanging on the fridge. They were in the desert with a pair of camels, the pyramids rising behind them in the distance, other tourists captured in the frame with them. A frown creased his forehead as he squinted at the thing.

Ben frowned at his back. "Problem?"

"Cairo," she said to Rhys, coming up behind him. "We met there in May, after the op you and I worked in Paris. Why?"

Ben squinted at the photo, too. What the hell was his brother looking at? Rhys knew Neveah, and yeah, she was a knockout, but it wasn't like his twin to gawk at a woman like that. Did he see something Ben didn't?

Rhys continued to study the photo as if he was memorizing it. "How is she, anyway?"

"Good," Sam said.

Enough, already. "Let's go," Ben prompted.

They took her back to the TOC in the Suburban, Ben's shoulder bumping against hers until he draped his arm around her to cushion her. He escorted her inside, sat her 310

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down and offered to stay with her. Reassuring him she was fine, she buried herself in work for the next hour until Rhys returned with Luke and Fahdi.

Luke came straight over to her, and with Ben following for extra security, took her to an empty room so they could talk alone. Watching from the other side of the plate glass window separating them, she spoke while Luke stood there with his arms folded. Ben detected nothing in his boss' expression or body language that betrayed surprise, but he was a legend for a reason.

The one-sided conversation continued for another minute while Luke's eyes remained steady on Sam's. His expression remained unreadable. Finally, Luke cocked his head, and Ben lip-read his boss' response. "Only one way to find out, isn't there?"

What the hell did that mean? Find out what? Ben tried to puzzle everything together. Whatever it was, Luke had just given her the go ahead for something.

The door opened and Sam forced a smile as she and Luke came out.

"Everything all right?" Ben asked. She looked even more nervous than she had back at her place.

"Yes, fine."

Tell me another one, sweets.
Ben followed them to another door and waited outside. Sam emerged a few minutes later, and passing him to round the corner, ran smack into Fahdi.

"Sorry, Miss Sam," he blurted, reaching out to steady her.

"It's okay. I'm fine."

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Fahdi brushed a hand over his shirt as though smoothing wrinkles and reached for the gold chain caught on his collar.

Sam beat him to it, closing her fingers around the pendant to settle it into the v of his open collar.

Fahdi grinned down at his good luck charm. "Thank you."

His espresso eyes regarded her with warmth.

"No problem." Her voice was a mere thread of a sound. As she stepped aside to let him pass, she met Ben's hard stare and forced another smile.

Shooting Luke a questioning glance as she walked away, Ben had a really bad feeling something big was going down.

Two hours later, Dec sauntered into their barracks in Baghdad and nodded to Ali, seated on his bunk reading a Sports Illustrated. "Got time to drive us to a meeting?"

Ali swung his legs over the side of his bunk. "Sure. Where to?"

"Gotta head over to the TOC and meet with Luke."

"Okay." He snagged the keys to the Humvee and headed for the door.

Dec withheld a weary sigh. After the night they'd had in the desert, he'd been hoping for another few hours'

downtime, mostly for Bryn's sake. But they'd come closer than ever to getting Tehrazzi last night, so they had to follow up while the trail was hot. He glanced down the row of bunks to hers, where she lay on her side watching him. "Tired?"

"A little."

Damn, he shouldn't leave her alone, even just to go to the TOC. If he were Bryn, he wouldn't want to be left alone 312

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either. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw her stricken expression as she'd tried in vain to rescue those children.

Mind made up, he pivoted and headed for the door, throwing it open. As he exited, his first breath of air hit his lungs like a blast furnace. Beads of sweat popped out on his skin, the midday sun beating down on his head through his wide-brimmed hat. As he came around the side of the building, he scanned for the Suburban and saw it parked along the perimeter fence next to the heavily guarded gate.

The Humvee was in front of it, boxing it in. Fahdi must have left it there after his meeting with a contact last night.

"Ali, wait. Bryn's coming with us, so we'll need the Suburban."

Ali turned around and caught the keys Dec tossed at him.

"Sure, no problem. I'll just move the Hummer. Be right back."

He hustled across the baking asphalt to the vehicles.

Christ it was hot, Dec thought, heading back into the blessed coolness of the barracks and paused at a window.

Helluva nice kid, Dec thought as he watched Ali. Out on the street, a boy passed by with his mother, his curious gaze fastened on Ali's uniform. The boy smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. Ali grinned and returned the gesture. Dec could only hope the boy would grow up to defend his country as Ali had, rather than destroy it.

Ali was one of the lucky ones. Dec had read his file. A couple of years ago Ali had nearly participated in a suicide mission. An imam had recruited him through a local madrassa for a radical militia. The leaders filled him so full of hate for Americans and all things western he'd actually prayed for God 313

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to let him blow himself up so he could kill as many of them as possible.

A policeman, his father had somehow found out what Ali was involved with and begged him not to go through with it.

Whether or not the plea had registered with his son was not mentioned in the file, but next morning, the father went to work and never came back. He was gunned down outside the police station by the leader of the same militia Ali had trained with. After that, Ali decided blowing himself up would only perpetuate the cycle of violence. At that moment, he'd chosen to be part of the solution for his people instead of part of the problem. Which was why he was now working for Luke. Dec admired the hell out of the kid for trying to make a difference.

Turning away from the window when Ali climbed into the Humvee, Dec grabbed his duffel and packed an extra pistol and some ammo. If anything happened on their trip to the TOC, he wanted to be prepared. Adding some bottles of water, he glanced up at Bryn, who was covering her hair with a headscarf.

"It's five hundred degrees out there," she complained,

"and I have to boil inside a robe while you guys can run around in t-shirts."

"But you look so hot in it," he teased.

She glared at him. "That's because I
am
hot." Then she laughed. "Idiot."

"Ready?" he asked.

The roar of an explosion shattered the air.

The blast rocked the building, lifted them off their feet, the concussion blowing out the windows. Glass sprayed. Dec 314

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threw his body over Bryn, tumbling her to the floor and holding her there underneath him. When the earth settled, he scrambled up, shoving Bryn back down, barking at her to stay put.

"Everyone okay?" he panted.

Rhys and Ben came running around the corner from the back office. "Yeah." Their faces were tight as they grabbed their rifles and followed him to the door. People were shouting and screaming, and as Dec burst outside, the carnage brought him up short so fast the twins plowed into him.

"Jesus Christ," he breathed at the ball of flame and smoke billowing from a crater beside the perimeter fence.

Fortunately, because the explosion had occurred closer to the road than the barracks, the damage within the compound seemed minimal. Beyond, windows all along the street had been blown out, shards of glass littering the ground. Several buildings were pockmarked with shrapnel holes. Blackened vehicles lay in twisted disarray.

Rhys pushed past him like a battering ram through the demolished gatehouse into the gawking crowd. Grabbing an Iraqi soldier, he demanded in Arabic, "What happened? Did you see anything?"

The man pointed with a shaking hand. "The Humvee. It just...exploded."

"Christ...Ali," Dec muttered, skin crawling at the devastation in front of him. If they hadn't needed the bigger Suburban so Bryn could accompany them, they'd have climbed into the Hummer. If not for her...shit, they'd be charred corpses right now.

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Ben and Rhys wore the same gray shade in their faces he knew must be displayed on his own. They'd escaped death by an eyelash, but Ali...poor bastard. Dec prayed he hadn't known what hit him, comforted himself that he wouldn't have felt anything.

Sirens wailed nearer, shaking him out of his stupor. The three of them waded into the fray, helping to secure the area while the ambulance and fire crews dealt with the wounded and the fire. When he could do no more, he returned to Bryn, found her huddled against the wall.

"Car bomb," he confirmed in response to her questioning gaze. "Someone rigged the Hummer."

She gasped, one hand flying to her mouth. "Oh, God, was Ali—"

"Yeah."

Her eyes closed.

His cell vibrated. "McCabe."

Luke's voice was sharp. "What the hell's happening over there? I can see the smoke from here."

Dec told him.

"EOD team there yet?"

"Negative. First responders are still cleaning up."

"Okay. Lie low and I'll make my way to you. Meanwhile, find out what they uncover. I'll contact Ali's family."

"Roger that." At least he wouldn't have to deliver that news. But where was he going to stash Bryn while they puzzled this thing out? They should get her out of the country as soon as possible. No way could he stomach her being in jeopardy again, and until this mission was finished, she was a 316

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major Achilles heel. With their team's security compromised, it wasn't safe for her to remain with them. "What do you want me to do with Bryn?"

"Take her to Fahdi's place. Hala will keep her company."

He hesitated. "With no one to guard her?"

"It'll only be a couple hours. She'll be fine, but move her now. And see if you can get hold of Sam."

He didn't like it. Didn't like it at all. Maybe she could go to Sam's instead. "Roger that." He dialed Sam's number and waited, disconnected and dialed again. "Shit. Sam's not picking up." He clipped the phone shut and held out a hand to Bryn, pulled her up. Staying here wasn't an option until they made it secure, and maybe not even then. Whoever had planted that bomb had already gotten into the perimeter once. Unless they found out who was responsible, it could happen again. "Come on, let's go."

"Where?" she asked in an unsteady voice.

"Fahdi's. You can stay with his wife until I find out what the hell's going on."

As Dec hustled Bryn past the wreckage on the street, the horror of it seeped into her, slipping past the barrier of her shock. People lay scattered on the ground, bleeding and crying and twitching. She recoiled from their torn and burned flesh, the stench sickening her over the scorched metal and acrid smoke. Her head spun as they passed the carcass of the blown-up vehicle. That could have been her. Could have been all of them. Dear God, they would be dead right now if not for Ali. Her throat tightened.
Poor, sweet Ali.

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"Don't fall apart on me now," Dec muttered, gripping her arm.

His words hit her like a slap. "I won't."

Trailing after his long strides, her legs hampered by her robe, she wished for the thousandth time she'd chosen not to come on this mission. What had she been thinking? Dec had been right about her. She wasn't cut out for this, couldn't take this bombardment of danger and death.

While he weaved in and out of the crowd milling around, the smoke curling into the air, she grabbed hold of his hand.

He tightened his fingers around hers, his acknowledgement of her need for reassurance staving off the panic as they meandered through the neighborhoods to Fahdi's house. He didn't say another word to her until Fahdi's wife answered the door, welcoming them with wide eyes.

He ushered her inside, eyes scanning the place. "You should be safe here," he said, pressing his cell into her hand, but his expression was grim.

He probably didn't want to let her out of his sight after the bombing, but she understood he had to secure the area and find out who was responsible. He'd already explained that the phone was preprogrammed with various numbers where she could reach him at the base, and that they would be using it to keep tabs on her via the GPS chip. Not that they'd need to with her here, but it made her feel better to have it. Then his hand came up to cup her cheek, and she leaned into it, wanting to hug him so badly it was all she could do to hold back.

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"I'll come for you as soon as I can, okay? But if you need me before then, call." He wrapped her up in his arms for a moment and kissed her once.

Her heart weighed heavy as he walked away, disappearing from view. She wanted to call him back, beg him not to leave her. What if another bomb went off at the compound? Fahdi's wife spoke softly to her in Arabic, of which she only caught some, then put a tentative hand on her shoulder and led her inside.

Bryn's heart kept racing, her mind caught in the fiery wreckage of the Humvee. She took a couple deep breaths as she followed Hala into the room at the rear of the house and stood staring over the courtyard with its fountain and palm trees. Roses bloomed in a rainbow of color, their cupped heads nodding in the breeze carrying their musky scent. A wind chime tinkled from the branches of a palm tree. For a moment Bryn felt disoriented. The peaceful oasis came as a shock. Beyond the concrete wall, the plume of black smoke roiled up into the sky.