Page 104 of Lucky Charm

I’m not leaving Hunt.

She fell.

Her fingers gripped the dirt, and she tried to rise only to be attacked by hundreds of chards causing brutal pain to her head, her arm, her side.

Falling debris.

She tried to scream, to get to safety, to find Hunt.

Pain seared.

Blackness rolled over her.

Chapter Seventeen

Hunt glanced at his watch.

With the hour close to up, they’d ascertained three things. First, there was a large team of men present. The number appeared to be about seventeen. The area was not a training ground, but a headquarters for a cohesive, trained group. Second, they were armed and focused on securing the area. There was only one way in and one way out unless these men hiked over the ridge behind Hunt’s team. Third, there were no women and children in the groupings that they could see. If the chimney smoke was indicative, an unknown number of people were indoors. Several vehicles were parked to the side of the main village area. They hadn’t been moved.

“Alpha One, I have an old woman and a boy exiting the front of the house. The boy is on a crutch and limping.” Hernandez snagged his attention with those words.

“Main target?”

“Not present.”

“Is it the boy?”

“Possible.”

Carter interrupted from next to him. “LT, two vehicles are coming our way.”

“Incoming. Heads up,” Hunt spoke quietly into his mic. He turned to Carter. “Can you get a line of sight to the vehicle? How many in the cars?”

“Not yet.”

Hunt turned back to his mic. “Alpha Three, where did the woman and boy go?”

“They stopped in front of the house. They’re standing with another man.”

Hunt reached in his vest for his M22 binoculars and focused on the front of the house. He studied the kid’s face first. Carter watched the other way for the cars.

It all came down to the kid.

That sense had been in his gut since the mountains, and now the intuition came roaring back. With Cait’s suspicions, his instincts, and proof in front of him, the pieces slid into place.

The kid belonged to IQS. No other explanation could be plausible for the boy to be in the target area, for him disappearing from Jalalabad, or for him leaving behind his dead mother and a CIA agent.

“It’s him.” Hernandez’s voice came over the mic.

“Copy. Noted.” Hunt shifted to get a better look at the man with the boy.

“I have no line on the vehicles.” Carter’s disgust coated his tone.

“There’s only one place they can go. We wait to see who gets out.” Hunt broke silence. “Homeplate. We have vehicles incoming.”

“Copy. We’ve seen them.”

Hunt studied the terrain, the layout, and the placement of his men. Unknown in that information was the skill of the seventeen men. Some of these insurgents could fight fiercely. Without a good lookat their weapons, his team would be in much the same position as they’d been in the mountains. They weren’t close enough for a thorough assessment and couldn’t do so without exposure. The chances of taking out more than two dozen men without team injuries were questionable. That number was only the ones they could see. There could be more inside. With position, numbers, and the unknown factor of types of weapons, none of this was in their favor. It would be a risky and ugly fight.