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“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Brax murmured his question to Mateo.

“Positive. Hell, Faith will probably come out of this a better-trained pup.”

Well, when he puts it that way…

He and Matteo were both drinking sodas as they watched Lainey playing with Hercules, Faith, and Lainey’s rescue pup, Xena. Xena had only three legs, but she kept up. As a matter of fact, she would yip at Faith and Hercules when they were too slow to follow a command.

“Did you see that?” Mateo pointed at Xena. “That dog was afraid of her own shadow when I first met her. Ever since she attacked Ivan when he was beating Lainey, she’s been fearless.”

Brax could still hear the anger and anguish in his friend’s voice when he thought about Lainey’s captivity. He wondered if Mateo would ever be over it.

Looking out the sliding glass door, Brax would bet his bottom dollar that Lainey was over it. Seeing how she looked at Mateo, like he was her hero and protector? Well, there was something damn special about it. Too bad that wasn’t going to happen for him. Lainey and the other women of the Omega Sky men were freaking unicorns.

An image of his mother popped into his mind. Yep, Mateo and the rest had definitely hit the winning lotteries.

“Whatcha thinking?” Mateo asked as he took another sip of his soda.

“About the upcoming mission. Bangladesh. Never been there, have you?”

Mateo shook his head. “But remember the mission in Nepal? That should kind of count, right?”

Brax shrugged, then grinned.

“What?”

“We should take some R there wasn’t a single man who wouldn’t have checked the weather on where they were going. Of course, Kostya, being Kostya, would have rain gear next to the weapons, just in case.

Brax looked around for Nolan O’Roarke and spotted him just as he was entering the room. His pack was bigger than the rest of theirs. He and Gideon always had to pack more. Gideon, as the communications guy, had more equipment, and Nolan, as the medic, had bulked up with medical supplies and anything he could think of for any injury that might come his way.

Brax would bet the last dollar in his savings account Nolan had one or two changes of clothes for Jenny Rivers in his pack that he’d gotten from his wife, Maggie. Maggie wouldn’t have asked a single question; she would’ve just offered things up. Plus, Nolan would have a set of rain gear and boots for the woman. That was just his friends’ way.

Walking over to him, he caught Nolan’s eye and held out his hand. “Give me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ve already got enough shit in your pack with all the medical gear. Give me all the clothes and shit you’ve got for Jenny Rivers. I’ll carry that.”

Nolan frowned at him. “This is my purview.”

“I agree, you carrying the extra fifteen pounds of medical shit is part of your job. Carrying an extra eleven to sixteen pounds for Ms. Rivers? Don’t think so. It’s just stupid. Now give me.”

Nolan rolled his eyes and put his pack on one of the desks, and Braxton put his beside it. Nolan took out all the gear he had for Jenny and Brax transferred it into his pack. As he shifted he realized that with the boots it was probably closer to fifteen pounds.

He grinned. “At least this way you won’t have Kostya telling you to do this in front of everybody in twenty minutes.”

“There is that,” Nolan agreed.

Brax sat down next to Lincoln Hart and continued to eye both the door and Kostya. Gideon had now shown up so his lieutenant kept looking at whatever Gideon was showing him on his tablet. Kostya was not happy,

“Brax, shut off the lights, will you?” Kostya asked.

“But everybody’s not here.”

“Yes, they are.” Kostya said.

So, we’re going in lean. Good to know.

“Five bodies were discovered three days ago. Caucasian and African American. They were identified as the five men who work for Lowry Kidnap and Rescue, an outfit out of Texas. They’re good.”

Brax saw a couple of his teammates nod, as they all looked around to see who was missing, and who would actually be going on the mission.

“This is who Ms. Rivers’ company, New Era Cyber Tech, hired to find her and bring her back. Their bodies got tangled in a fishing net. They’d been weighted down, but their bodies bloating brought them close to the surface. That’s why they were found so quickly.”

Gideon stayed on the shot of the bodies for just a moment before switching to a picture of two Bangladeshi women. “These are the two women who were with Ms. Rivers before she disappeared. Their story so far has been that they dropped off their brother and Ms. Rivers at her house then drove to their parents’ home in Dhaka. That has never held water, and now with the five Lowry men showing up murdered, the US Embassy in Bangladesh brought the women in for further questioning.”

Kostya looked around the room and when he was satisfied that everyone was tracking, he continued.

“Once the sisters were separated, we got the information we needed. We found out why they had never come forward. One of the women told the embassy personnel that Ms. Rivers had been taken by two men in police uniforms.”

Gideon turned his chair away from his computer so he was looking at the team. “That would be the reason they weren’t saying anything. If they saw their brother being murdered by the police, who can sometimes be the goon squads of the Awami League, they knew they would be in trouble. When the other sister was confronted with her sister’s confession, they both started talking.”

“Do you have their statements?” Jase asked.

“Yeah,” Gideon said. “I’ve been going over them since eight last night. They said Ms. Rivers was taken away in a small delivery truck. She said it had writing and a logo on it, but it was too far away from them to make out the words. One of the sisters thinks the logo had a bull on it, but she wasn’t positive.”

“And?” Linc asked.

Everyone on the team knew Gideon hadn’t left it at that. It wasn’t in his nature.

“In the national firms, it was mostly banking and securities that use a bull in their logo, but they don’t use delivery trucks like the women described. Currently, I’m scrolling through the online Bangladesh Yellow Pages to see if there are any businesses with a bull in their logo.”

“They have yellow pages? Like those big books they used to deliver to our house and Mom used for the littler kids to sit on at the dinner table?” Jase asked.

“We don’t have time for the snark, Jase,” Kostya said. “Gideon, continue.”

“The online Yellow Pages are where most local businesses in and around Dhaka advertise their business. They use text and artwork. I set up a program to identify logos with bulls in them. Hopefully, we’ll have a match soon.”

“In the meantime,” Kostya said, “We go in. We would have liked to go with the backing of the Bangladeshi government, but that’s not possible.”

“Why?” Brax asked.

“Confessing that we basically had sanctioned mercenaries in their country would cause a shitload of trouble for our diplomats. They want this buried.”

“Then why say they’re ours? Couldn’t they be victims of the civil unrest?” Brax pushed.

“One of the dumbasses got caught with their passports. Not only did it pin him as an American, it also showed that he’d just come into the country.”

All of the men in the room grumbled.

“I thought they were better than that,” Jase finally piped up.

“Apparently not.” Kostya grimaced.

“How are we going in?” Brax asked.

Gideon switched to a new slide. It was an aerial shot of a lake and surrounding forest.

“HALO jump into the forested area surrounding Kaptai Lake, since that’s where the mercenaries' bodies were found. We’re going in here. It’s the furthest point away from the resort and the temple.” Kostya pointed to both things. “It’s monsoon season, but according to the weather forecast, there is supposed to be a letup on the rain for twelve hours.”

Each member of the small team was taking notes.

“Based on the murder of the Americans, and that Ms. Rivers’ company sent in a Kidnap and Rescue company, we no longer think that this has anything to do with the unrest in the region. We think this is a simple kidnapping,” Kostya said.

“Has anybody been able to confirm that?” Ryker McQueen wanted to know.

Kostya shook his head. “This morning, authorities will visit with the CEO of New Era Cyber Tech in DC to confirm this is a kidnapping. Then we’ll know a lot more. We’ll be briefed in the air.”

“Are we just guessing this is where Ms. Rivers is being kept, based on where the Kidnap and Rescue team was found?” There was Brax’s friend, Mateo Arundo, the consummate optimist.

“That about sums it up,” their lieutenant confirmed.

“This should be fun,” Jase grinned. “Are we leaving now?”

“As soon as the plane is ready.”

Brax’s lips twitched as his gaze roamed the room. Jase pulled out his iPhone and two big brick power back-ups to make sure his iPhone had plenty of back-up power. It used to be he’d play video games and movies during the entire long flights, but Brax would bet his bottom dollar some of those movies were now of Bonnie and Jase’s kids. His teammate was now a total family man. Brax thought back to Jase and Bonnie’s wedding, where Jase’s sixteen brothers and sisters had shown up. It had been a blast.

Brax didn’t even need to look at Linc and Nolan. He knew if both the men had their Kindles, they’d be set. Men after his own heart. Gideon would be poring over his tablet, taking in as much new information as possible, and then discussing probabilities and new avenues of attack with Kostya.

Ryker would either be asleep or talking. That was him. He was always either on or off. As for Mateo, he took out his iPhone and looked at his screensaver. Of course, it was of Lainey. It was a damn good picture. Brax had known Mateo pre-Lainey; the difference was night and day. It’d be interesting to see how he spent his time during this flight.

Brax had his pen and notebook. It would mean nothing if it got into enemy hands. Just some of the same old scribblings he’d done for years. When he got home, he’d toss the full notebook in the pile with the rest. Then read a real science fiction book and realize he really couldn’t write worth shit, but at least it kept his mind occupied.