Suddenly, a bass came up behind the lure and exploded on it. Kozak’s line pulled taut, and he screamed, ‘I got one!’
But now he wasn’t pulling on a line; he was clutching Amy Weismann’s arm after she’d just shoved the engagement ring back into his hand.
They stood in her parents’ Manhattan duplex on the Upper West Side, near the window, and Kozak was trying to convince her that this was for the best, that he’d be gone for too long, that they were from two different worlds and had somehow fallen in love but it probably wasn’t meant to be.
‘How could you do this to me?’ she said through tears and clenched teeth. ‘You just led me on.’
‘No, I didn’t. But I know what’ll happen.’
‘How do you know?’
‘It’s not fair to you.’
Kozak sensed pressure on his shoulders, and for a second, he was floating, but then there it was, the feeling of the ground on his legs and rump, and when he opened his eyes, he realized he’d been propped up against a tree, and this wasn’t the duplex or even Central Park …
‘I didn’t mean to leave you, buddy! I know, I know. I shouldn’t have done it. But you’re okay! You’re going to be okay!’
He knew the guy talking to him. 30K. ‘Where’s Amy?’ he asked.
30K frowned. ‘Who’s Amy?’
‘My fiancée.’
‘Her? You dumped her a while ago.’
‘Oh, yeah. That’s right.’
‘Look, you’re good, dude, you’re good.’ 30K’s gaze swept over Kozak’s fatigues. ‘Don’t see any wounds. Probably just got the wind knocked out of you.’
‘What the hell happened?’
30K shrugged. ‘Grenade maybe. Looks like that tree hit you from behind.’
Kozak craned his head, the motion making the world turn sideways for a second before his vision cleared and he spotted the tree, cracked in half like a piece of balsa wood from a toy glider. ‘No, look —’
Near the broken tree lay a jagged piece of tin roof that had blown off one of the dry docks. It had struck the tree like some oversize ninja dart and knocked it down, into Kozak.
30K’s eyes widened. ‘Damn, that thing could’ve taken your head off.’
Kozak nodded as a chill rushed up his spine.
A sudden cracking of more fire sent 30K groaning to his feet. ‘We gotta go.’ He seized Kozak by the wrists and hauled him up.
‘I got this,’ said Kozak, but then a realization sent him into panic mode. ‘The remote? Where’s the remote?’ His eyes probed the mud, past the rotting brown fronds, until he spotted the slight trace of something rectangular barely peaking out from the sludge.
He wrenched the device from the ooze, wiped it off, and breathed a sigh. The drone was still wheeling overhead on autopilot, the signal full strength. ‘Okay. Ready.’
‘I’m sorry, Captain, but he’s not coming back,’ said Pepper, removing his palms from Delgado’s chest and letting his gaze sweep the jungle as Jiménez’s men charged up, forming a perimeter around them.
Ross stared at Delgado, cursed, then began shaking his head in disgust.
Captain Jiménez himself hustled up to them and dropped down beside Ross. ‘The area’s secure. I’ll have my men search the bodies.’
Ross glanced at him. ‘Good.’
‘Will he make it?’ Jiménez asked, his gaze riveted on Delgado.
Ross practically leapt on the CIA agent and began doing more compressions. ‘Come on, you, you son of a bitch!’ he screamed. ‘I didn’t come all this way for you to die on me!’
Pepper shifted around and put his hand on Delgado’s neck, checking for a carotid pulse. He waited, then held up his palm.
After a few more compressions, Ross finally surrendered and glanced up at Jiménez, who shared an equal look of helplessness and frustration.
No, this wasn’t the first time Pepper had been on a search and rescue mission only to have the package expire on them. And it wouldn’t be the last. The anger was always palpable. You’d spend months going over every decision you made, second-guessing yourself, considering all the what-ifs, then finally trying to justify why you had failed so you’d do better next time.
Ross was a good man, and he didn’t need this shit. Not now. Not when he was just starting out … It was just bad luck, Pepper thought. That was all. Bad luck.
SEVENTEEN
After retrieving his Stoner, 30K ran a sweep of the perimeter with Kozak at his side. The HUD was clear of enemy contacts. The dry docks continued to burn and sizzle, and the stench of gunpowder and gasoline was heavy in the air. The rain had tapered off to a drizzle as they headed back to link up with Pepper and Ross, who’d moved Delgado to some cover beneath the trees.
‘Look at him,’ grunted 30K as they approached. ‘He’s dead as a doornail. Mission fail. Shit.’
‘Hey, we got him,’ said Kozak. ‘The fact that he’s dead could be considered just a detail.’
‘Yeah, a real inconvenient detail.’
Kozak called in the drone, catching it like a trained bird, then tucking it back into its holster. ‘I’ve got the location of the first drone,’ he said, studying his remote. ‘We need to go get it.’
‘Yeah, yeah …’ 30K had been hoping for a feel-good, kick-ass mission, one for the record books. What he got was a minor gunshot wound and a failed rescue attempt. Not exactly a world-class memory.
They reached the captain and Pepper, and Kozak’s tone grew a bit more somber as he made his request.
Ross glanced back at him. ‘Take 30K. You got ten minutes. Marine patrol boats are on their way to mop up, and we need to be out of here by then.’
‘Lead the way,’ 30K told Kozak, and once they were out of earshot, he added, ‘Ross sounds bummed. What did I tell you?’
Kozak scowled. ‘I’ll give you a dollar to shut up — because you couldn’t have done any better.’
‘Oh, yeah?’
‘Yeah. ’Cause they’ll never put you in charge.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Because in five minutes you’d cause an international crisis.’
30K chuckled over that. ‘Yeah, I guess I would.’
Ross was watching Pepper search the bodies around the SUVs as he put in the dreaded call to Mitchell. ‘Guardian, this is Delta Dragon, over.’
‘Delta Dragon, Guardian. SITREP?’
‘We’ve scuttled a narcosub and destroyed the dry docks.’ Ross took a deep breath. ‘Unfortunately, our package has expired, over.’
Mitchell’s hesitation was enough to make Ross vomit all the stress and anger. Some first impression, huh?
‘Delta Dragon, you’re to recover the body and have it transported back to Bogotá. The Agency will take over from there.’
‘Roger that, sir.’
‘Now listen to me carefully. On board one of the Colombian patrol boats is an operator call sign Adamo. He’s a US State Department advisor and an old friend. Stay put till he arrives. He’s got some updated intel for you. Guardian, out.’
Updated intel? Ross thought. What did this guy know that Mitchell didn’t? Why wasn’t Mitchell conveying this information himself? The major had said that there was no love lost between him and Langley … so what was this about?
Pepper’s body searches had come up empty. When he passed this on to Ross, the man reached into his pocket and handed him a metal plate. ‘I ripped it off one of those air compressors. That’s why I went back in the sub.’
‘Nice …’ Pepper used his Cross-Com’s camera to snap a photo of the air compressor nomenclature plate, then he used voice commands to upload that photo to GST headquarters, where intelligence analysts would better identify it.