Page 71 of Lucky Charm

“Doc’s done a lot for us this tour.” The statement was so bland that Hunt questioned whether his relationship with her was outed. He instantly made the choice to act ignorant.

“Yes, she has and will. We have one more problem.”

Scott rose, rounding the desk to sit on the edge. “Which is?”

“Doc had to do a review of the hospital terrorism security protocol and some of the players. Command ordered for all personnel.”

“Overreactive, but understandable.”

“Yeah, well one of the men in that book was IQS. She saw him in the compound.”

Scott rose slowly to his feet, ice eyes drilling into him. “She what?”

“Saw him. Stood right in front of him, in fact, and looked him in the face. In the house. In the kitchen. During the surgery. She’s one hundred percent sure it’s him.” He continued before Scott could speak. “He was with Haquiri in the courtyard. They were in an ugly, violent argument. They came into the house. He confronted Cait, said nothing, and left. She intuited something was wrong and made her way back to Carter. Haquiri went after the mother. This part you know. He was pissed we were there and took it out on her.”

Scott sighed and dropped back to his desk. “I hate it when the CIA is right. He was in the area.”

“Yeah. Might still be. For information,” he paused. “I saw Stocker when I came in. Told him nothing. Cait hasn’t told her commander yet either, and I’d prefer Stocker not come at her with his suspicions and his attitude without one of us present. She doesn’t deserve that, and I don’t trust him. I told her to wait to say anything until I talked to you.” Dammit, he shouldn’t have used her first name.

The slip seemed to get past Scott. “Who knows?”

“Carter, Doogie, Hernandez, Tommy and myself, Doc Michaels, and you. Baxter knows about Haquiri but not IQS.”

“Quagmire,” Scott uttered. “We can’t keep it from the CIA. The man may be in those mountains. They’re going to want to intensify the search. Hell, Command will want it.”

“Understood.” For the first time in his career, Hunt wasn’t chomping to be on the front line of the search. He wanted to stay back and protect Cait. But he didn’t say so. “The man looked right at her. If he has the network we think, he already knows who she is.”

“Does that matter now?”

Hunt shrugged. “Don’t know. Laying out the parameters.”

Scott went back to his desk and sat, saying nothing, but lining up the four pencils on his desk and then realigning. “What does the area look like?”

“Empty. Houses all empty, no fires, no food, no people. Main house is burned. Somebody firebombed it. Doc’s equipment is a melted mass of plastic and metal. The area is hard to tell. It snowed again, the wind blew it every which way. We were lucky Tommy found Haquiri. We didn’t venture into the mountains. No defined parameters to take that risk. No other bodies that we saw.”

“What’s your guess?”

“My hunch is that argument between IQS and Haquiri was a prelude to him ending up dead. Who killed him? Unknown. But I’d bet money on IQS giving the order.”

“That’s my guess, too. Now that we know he was there. Why would he be in a confrontation with Haquiri?”

“Hard to tell. Both are questionable in ideology, company, and practice.”

Scott sat back in his chair. “Let me fill in Commander Collins. Talk to Baxter’s mother and report back. I’ll need a written report, too.”

“What about Stocker?”

“Wait until I talk to Collins.”

“I told Dr. Michaels to hold. That I’d talk to her this evening with direction.”

“Tell her to continue to hold. We’re working on it.”

“Copy that. Anything else?”

“No. Give me a couple hours. Dismissed.”

Hunt didn’t waste any time sliding out of operations. Stopping to talk to Sutter took two minutes, and he bolted for his quarters.