Page 34

After two rings, Stone answered, “I was starting to get worried about you.”
“We’ve got a problem. I don’t think whoever was responsible for Mateo Schild’s death is done yet.”
Behind him, he heard the facility door open and close. He kept turned away, knowing it was Maddie approaching.
“What’s happened?”
Quickly, he described the situation. “The weather’s been shit. We blamed the loss of comms with the outside world on the cloud cover. The clouds aren’t as thick this morning, so I thought I’d give it a try. Still no signal, so I headed outside to check the dish. The dish is working perfectly. It’s receiving signal. So, I pulled up the cable to follow it back to the facility. It’s been cut.”
“As in sliced? On purpose?”
“Yeah, as in someone took a knife to it.”
Behind him, he heard a gasp and turned slowly to face Maddie whose eyes were wide.
CHAPTER11
“I’ll contact Commander Navarro,”Stone said. “What are you going to do?”
Gunn waved Maddie closer and angled the phone so she could hear Stone as well. “I’m not going to let the team know what I found. Not yet. Instead, I’ll have Maddie send out whomever she deems capable of checking the dish and repairing it to find the issue, then see what happens.”
“If the person doesn’t mention the cut, he might be your saboteur,” Stone said.
“I’ll then keep a closer eye on the individual until we hear how Navarro and Polardyne want to proceed. I would think they wouldn’t want to risk another death.”
“We’ll see. Navarro might be just as eager to definitively ID our guy to see who’s paying him before they pull the plug,” Stone said.
“Roger that.”
“I’ll let you know what I hear, and only over this phone. And, Gunn? You watch your back.”
“Will do. Out.”
Maddie’s mouth moved, but she didn’t speak. Her face was pale.
He pulled her close and kissed her hard. “Pull it together, Russo. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“My team…” she whispered.
“I’ll do what I can to watch over all of them. In the meantime, we have to be aware of everyone’s location and how long they’re gone when they leave the building. I’ll keep my tablet close and check the cameras throughout the day. I don’t have a camera looking toward the dish, but I’ll fix that. If the coax cable gets repaired and someone tries to cut it again, I’ll see it this time.”
“During the daytime, I can keep track of where they are and how long they’ve been out. So long as everyone stays with a partner, they likely won’t risk being observed doing something…like this.”
“Unless it’s not just one person,” Gunn said. “We can’t assume anything.”
She frowned. “I don’t like not telling my people. Shouldn’t they know? Shouldn’t I warn them now?”
“Let’s see first what happens with the coax.”
She nodded, but reluctantly so. “Okay, but I don’t like this. I’m beginning to wonder if we should be out here at all. We’re on a fucking ice floe in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. If something bad happens, we’re hours, maybe days, away from rescue.”
“So, we do our best not to spook our guy.”
“Or gal.” She locked her gaze with his. “If I were you, I wouldn’t rule me out.”
His mouth eased into a smile. “Now, why do you think I’m sticking to you like glue? Woman, you are dangerous.”
She rolled her eyes. “So, I’m the one who’s scary, says the big bad SEAL.”