Trinity: Military War Dog (60 page)

“You asked if I got
him
. And I did—Colonel Zheng is in custody.”

“His son?” Her question shrieked as she stabbed her fingers through her black hair.

“Wait,” Daniels asked. “That guy you sent with me on the mission?”

Lance nodded.

Darci’s voice pitched. “Why is his son in custody?”

“General Zheng came here, told me Haur had gone rogue.”

“The minister of defense came here?” Darci’s brow knotted. “And that didn’t ring fishy to you?”

“Watch yourself, Lieutenant.” Lance felt the steel grip of guilt. “Everything was fishy at that point. When a man like that comes into a hostile situation and claims one of his sons is rogue, I listen.”

“Wait.”

Darci spun toward Heath.

“I think I saw him—the general,” Heath said, his voice weak. “At the village. When I was leaving with you, I saw Jianyu with an older man, talking.”

“Zheng went back to China.” Lance’s blood chugged to an achingly slow pace, clogged around his brain, around the brutal information Daniels had just delivered. “He couldn’t have been there.”

Daniels’s gaze lit with challenge. “You verified that?”

What was going on? Nothing made sense. Except that he needed to do as Daniels had suggested. Lance spun and jogged out of the room. Otte pulled to attention. “Get General Early. Call an AHOD of all officers in ten.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Put SOCOM on high alert. We have a direct threat against military personnel in the region.”

Bagram AFB, Afghanistan

“Go!” Heath said to Darci. “Stay with him. I’ll get dressed and meet you there.” He stumbled out into the hall with Trinity at his side.

Jibril came off the wall. “What—?”

“Help me get to the bunk. I need to dress. Gotta help …”

They rushed to the building where his bunk offered him clean clothes, boots, and a jacket. He stuffed himself into the warm garments, savoring the delicious heat coiling around his body. Thank God he lived in Texas, because one thing he never wanted to be again was cold.

“You really gave us a bad scare, Ghost.”

On the edge of his cot, Heath stuffed his foot in a boot and shot a grim expression to Aspen. “I’d love a reunion, but there’s a very real, very tangible threat right now.”

“I’m hearing rumors,” Aspen said.

“No rumors.” Heath shook his head. “It’s real. Chinese have placed bombs on bases.”

A voice careened through a loudspeaker, rousing everyone and warning them to grab their gear and get into formation.

Darci appeared with a vest, lead, and harness. “Here.”

Man, just the sight of her… “Thanks.” Heath threaded his arms through the vest—the thing felt like a hundred pounds with the exhaustion from two heart attacks and hypothermia—and secured it before he put on a heavy jacket.

On a knee, he rested his gloves there and donned the harness vest and lead on Trinity. “What’re you hearing?”

“Burnett has put the word out.” She looked good in clean clothes, even with the bruise and busted lip. She moved stiffly as she handed him an HK USP. “The other dogs are being pulled from their kennels. Ordnance is clearing buildings as we speak.”

“EDD. Smart.” Heath nodded.

Explosive Detection Dogs were the best at tracking down chemicals and powders. While Trinity could hunt down bad guys like nobody’s business, she didn’t have the intense training EDDs had. On a base three square miles in size, they had a lot of territory to cover. “This is crazy. No way we’ll locate the bombs in time.”

“Let’s find Burnett.” Darci started walking, her movements slow in the thick coat and with broken ribs.

“He’s not going to tell us anything.”

She eyed him. “I want to talk to Colonel Zhen—”

Crack!

Heath stopped. “That was weapon’s fire.” He darted toward the building it’d come from. The same building where Zheng Haur was being held. Heath jerked open the door, and Trinity lunged in ahead of him. Weapon at the ready, he moved down the too-quiet halls.

“Don’t like it,” he whispered to Darci, who bounded and covered with him, her Glock held like a pro.

She shook her head. Sweat beaded on her forehead. The pain from her ribs must be excruciating, but he knew better than to suggest she rest. Or not engage in the hunt.

Bang!

The sound pounded Heath’s breath into the back of his throat.

“Door,” Heath said, as much to himself as to her. The squeaking and swishing of tactical pants warned them of the incoming flood of soldiers.

Sure enough. Around the corner, a sea of uniforms.

Muzzles swung toward them.

“Whoa!” Heath raised his hands. “Friendly.”

The men banked left, so Heath and Darci went right. Down the hall. Clearing one room after another, his heart pumping harder and faster, sensing they were closing in on their quarry. The last room. Heath shoved a foot against the handle. It burst inward. As it flapped back, his heart thudded.

“Hands in the air,” he shouted. “Hands in the air!”

Zheng Haur stood over the body of his captain, gun in hand. A guard lay to the side, unconscious … but coming to. And still armed.

“Haur, what happened?” Heath shouted, praying the others heard. “Who killed him? Where’d you get the gun?”

Absolute calm shrouded the man. “I want to speak with General Burnett.”

“Fat chance.” Heath eyed the weapon. “You just killed a man and took out another. Do you really think they’ll call Burnett here?”

“Bring Burnett.” Haur did not relinquish the gun.

“Not happening,” Watterboy’s firm voice cut into the room.

“If you want to live, if you want to stop the bombs, bring Burnett here.” Way too calm. “I suggest you do it now. Time is short.”

            Forty-Seven              

Camp Loren, CJSOTF-A, Sub-Base
Bagram AFB, Afghanistan

Y
ou are Meixiang?”

Daniels stepped in front of the woman, cutting off Haur’s line of sight.

Haur gave a halfhearted smile. “I am no threat to you or to her.”

Unfazed and undeterred, Daniels held his aim. “I’ll be the judge of that.”

But Meixiang edged back into view, living up to her reputation as the skilled, bold operative Jianyu had said she was. “I am Meixiang,” she said in perfect Mandarin.

With a respectful nod, Haur smiled. “It is a pleasure to meet you at last.” She was much paler than he’d expected for his brother’s tastes, but her beauty could not be denied. “You created quite a stir in the Zheng dynasty.”

Though she said nothing, Meixiang studied him. Intently. She flicked a finger to the body at his feet. “Why have you done this?” Haur smiled again. “In time, Meixiang.”

Shouts and thudding boots reverberated through the building. More military police poured into the room, weapons at the ready, in full tactical gear.

General Burnett stood there, shielded by two MPs. “What is this, Zheng?”

Haur raised both hands, the gun dangling from his thumb. “Thank you, General.” Eyes on those before him, Haur dropped the magazine. Expelled the chambered round. Slid the barrel off. A few more quick flicks, and the weapon lay on the table. “There are times we implicitly trust those who work close with us. We come to believe so fully in their identities, we do not question them.” He glanced at Meixiang. “Sometimes that is a mistake.”

She eased to the side. Eyes locked with him, she retrieved the barrel from the floor.

“What’s your point? Why is Bai dead?”

“Captain Bai is dead because I killed him.” He straightened and held his head high. Not that he was proud of his actions, but there was no point in denying the obvious. “I discovered not too long ago that he was not my ally, but my enemy.”

Burnett stepped past the guards. “Is that supposed to enlighten me?”

“I was sent to the mine to check on Jianyu. General Zheng ordered me into this country to find Jianyu and bring him home.” He tilted his head. “But as the mission progressed, things became less certain.” His gaze shifted to Heath. “At the village with your team, I saw something that told me I had been betrayed.”

“What was that?”

“I saw my brother
and
General Zheng there. Together.” The image burned into his memory. “They hugged. Father and son, happy. Not as the bitter rivals they had pretended to be.”

General Burnett planted his hands on his belt. “Why would they do that?”

Haur snorted and shook his head. “I think you, of all people, know why, General.”

The older man took another step into the room. “Zheng Xin came to me after you were knee-deep in this mission.”

It should not have surprised Haur to hear this. The twists, the betrayals were enough to solidify his determination.

“He said you were the rogue son, Haur.”

Words held the power of life and death. And in that moment, a piece of Haur died. The piece of flagging courage that had fallen into the trap of a man he thought he’d made proud. Yet the wound from those words cut deep.

“Now, why would he do something like that?”

“It was time.”
Three beautiful words that would allow him to keep a promise. “When I was fifteen, my father left China. Defected—with your help, I believe, General Burnett.”

The man yielded nothing.

“In the days before my father’s escape, I learned of Xin’s suspicion of his oldest friend, my father, so I chose to stay behind.” Haur tried to steady his palpitating heart, noting the stunned expressions but also the unaffected ones. Meixiang was hardest to read and yet, somehow, he felt he had an ally in her. They’d both been burned by the Zhengs.