Page 98 of Lucky Charm

November 21, 2019

Day 17

Awake after only four hours sleep, Hunt swung to sitting and dressed. Finished, he took his laptop and dashed off a message to Cait, hoping to catch her before her day in surgery. Glad he’d taken the time to set up a secure way to talk to her, he quickly typed out a message. Short and sweet.

Back. Okay.

Hunt hit send, not wanting to elaborate. She didn’t answer and his hopes dropped. When had he gotten so tied to needing an answer?

The computer beeped.

No blood?

He snorted.No blood, he typed back.

Eat breakfast.

He grinned.You eat, too. I can’t bring you a cookie today.

On my bucket list will now be to make your favorite cookies. Tell me what they are.

No bake. Those chocolate things with oatmeal and coconut.

Perfect. Betty Crocker and I are best friends. I can do. Just you wait.

What did he say now? Keep your head up, make your day great. This was Afghanistan. Did any day go great? He finally opted for concerned even if it was cliché.

Take care of yourself today.

Going out again?

Don’t know yet.

Watch yourself. Keep your warrior on.

Will do. Go be brilliant.

Always. Out.

He shut the lid wishing he could kiss her and knowing he couldn’t. He shoved the idea back in a box to yank out later when they had more than twenty minutes of time and a computer not between them.

A short knock on his door had him shoving his laptop back into the carrying case. “Come.”

Doogie stayed in the doorway. “I’m headed to Ops. Was going to see if you were awake.”

“Yep, headed that way, too.”

“I don’t like that they were both dead in the same way Haquiri was.”

Hunt exited his quarters. “I know we have no proof, and I’ll only say this to you. But it’s IQS orone of his lieutenants, and it’s about the boy. Always was.”

Doogie let him go ahead. “We have no proof to convince them to continue to divert intelligence/surveillance assets to search for the kid.”

Hunt kept a slow pace. “True. But somebody killed them and in the interest of connecting that to Haquiri, there are commonalities there. Mathematically, headshots are common, but for three people within the same grouping to be done by two unrelated situations? Not buying it.”

Doogie pulled open the door to the Operations Center, but they both stood in the doorway without moving. “Do you think this person knew Reid was American?”

Hunt checked the hallway. They were alone. “Not sure it matters. Reid removed the woman and the boy from the mountain abode. I can’t see IQS or Haquiri authorizing that interaction. He did it on his own.”