Page 93 of Lucky Charm

She went without resistance, found calm somewhere, and gave him a bright smile. “Be smart. Get some rest. No blood.”

“I’ll do my best.” Again, he bent his head and gave her a short, yet thorough kiss. He dropped his hand and went to the door. “Lock it.”

She saluted and was rewarded with another smile. “Later…”

“Stay out of trouble, Doc.”

Then he was gone. Again.

She was getting tired of that fast disappearance.

∞∞∞∞∞

Hunt tasted chocolate all the way to Operations.

Back inside the compound, he shoved his chaotic feelings in a compartment in his brain that was becoming two sizes too small. Not sorry he’d stolen a few moments to see her, he would welcome the day when this wasn’t their daily routine. Hell, he wasn’t any fonder of Afghanistan at this moment than Cait was.

The main door slammed shut behind him. Two paces into the building, Doogie met him.

“Was about to come looking for you. Timing is perfect. Stocker’s here. Got some info.”

He looked at his watch. “By my count, I was only overdue by two minutes.”

“Well, Scott has that look on his face, so I was hoping to not have to cover your ass.”

Hunt snorted. “Thanks. I’m touched.”

The two made their way to the Operations Center. The rest of the team had already found their lazy positions around the table.

“Quiet down everyone,” Doogie ordered. He was right. Scott’s face didn’t inspire confidence. Dammit, if they tried to use Cait again to get to the kid, he’d go batshit. Swearing silently, he sat next to Tommy and kept his mouth shut. SEAL not man.

Scott was flanked by two familiar faces – Stocker on his left and Reynolds on his right. Guessing a mission was in the offing, he straightened and righted his attitude.

Scott’s announcement was succinct. “We may have a location for the boy.” He pointed at Stocker and stepped aside.

“Vendors in the marketplace in Jalalabad verify they saw him. One talked to him. He said he was trying to get to his father. Another man showed up. The shopkeeper assumed it was his father and walked away. If we use the fact Haquiri is dead, we have only the man in the photo to work with. That man is not IQS but could be Reid. With a bit of digging, we think we’ve found where the man and boy are staying. Up for a look see, gentlemen?” Stocker’s question wasn’t really a question.

Doogie answered before Hunt could. “That’s what we’re here for.”

Other than Cait’s theory which hadn’t been backed up as far as he knew, Hunt questioned the action. “Why exactly are we following the boy? Have your people traced a connection to IQS?”

Stocker rubbed his face. “No, but we’re following the possible idea that Reid rescued the boy and his mother, or he kidnapped them, and they may still be with him. We want him.”

“We still have no confirmation on connections. Mission parameters?” Hunt stayed still with his arms crossed. There would be no conflicts this time. They would execute the mission exactly as dictated.

“Check the address. If you find Reid, the mother, the boy, bring them in. If they aren’t there, exfiltrate. We’ll use other assets to ascertain where they went. We’re reviewing available ISR tracking data to find IQS, but I don’t want to wait. I don’t want Reid to disappear again. It’s imperative we talk to him.” Stocker looked from man to man. “Any questions?”

The men all turned to him. Hunt quickly reviewed what Stocker had presented. “Fairly simple. We’ll get it planned.” It was too simple, but they needed the intel.

Scott stepped to the table. “Execution in two hours. Work it out.”

“And Reynolds?” Hunt glanced at the man. “What is he doing here?”

“I’ll let him speak for himself.” Stocker stomped away and exited the room.

“We’re organizing units to search the area you recommended, Lieutenant, for weapons and IQS. Took some wrangling to get the government to agree, but Afghan forces will be joining us. Let’s the higher ups put a coalition stamp on it. We’ll commence in approximately nine hours. Our job is the contraband weapons, but we’ll keep our eyes open. We’ve seen an uptick in Taliban and other insurgent activity, so we’ll be going in quiet and loaded to protect ourselves. We may need recovery or destroy assistance if we find anything. Intelligence has confirmed this area is normally quiet during the winter, but this year the activity has tripled from previous years.”

Hunt much preferred the straight-forward, direct briefing of the Army major to Stocker’s more testy approach. “We should have answers to this situation with the boy before you commence your objectives. We’ll pass that along.”