Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) (38 page)

“Better you don’t
know, sir.
Plausible deniability.”

“Tadpole,
Ditz and Stitch are standing beside me, and instead of
leaving us looking obvious as hell in front of this strip casino tell me where
the fuck you are, SEAL.”

“Son of a bitch,” he
swore quietly. Nathan squawked.

“Position,” Cobbs
growled, losing patience.

“Sir, you can’t be
involved.”

“Your squad does not
leave a man behind, Sniper. I thought you learned that lesson in BUD/s.
Civilian or SPECOP missions are not a qualifying factor. We left Fox and Ed
behind. Ghost has put in a mock exercise and trumped Capt
ain Harrington. Now where the
fuck are
you?”

“Fifteen
mi
l
es away, sir.
We’re heading to an address someone
gave us to find the guy who took Gabbs.”

“Took Gabbs, Nina’s
daughter? What the fuck? Do you have a room in town?”

“Yes,
sir.”

“We meet there first.
You’re going to fill us in, and then we’ll lay out a plan.”

“Grand
Palms, sir, twenty-five ten.”

“ETA fifteen mikes.”

“The rest of the squad
is here?” Nina’s eyes widened.

“Looks like. The odds
just improved greatly, babe.”

Nina covered her eyes,
and
leaned her head back. Tony reached over the seat
and squeezed Nina’s shoulder. “Hey, red, you’re not letting doubt play pool
with your brain cells, are ya? Squirt is going to be back in our arms by
tonight.”

Nina’s eyes twinkled
and a small grin cocked one
side of her lips. “Our
arms?” she said.

“Yeah, I mean you’re
part of the team, so is little red. We’re family.
One big, crazy-ass family.”

The lights of the
Strip weren’t more than a couple miles ahead of them. Mace winked at Tony in
the mirror and got a
thumbs-up in return.

* * * *

Within ten minutes the
elevator door opened to the twenty-fifth floor and the guys were waiting in the
corridor. Lieutenant Cobbs looked like he did before going into any
mission—menacing. How he wooed a woman like Marg Cobbs
to be his wife was beyond him, Mace thought. The aggressive warrior rarely
cracked a smile, but when Nina exited the elevator his lieutenant grabbed her
by both shoulders and looked into her eyes, his expression morphing into
empathy.

“Nina, I know your m
otherly instincts are kicking in, and there isn’t anything
more dangerous than a mother who’s lost her daughter, but you’re going to leave
this last part of the mission to us. Regardless of what’s going on here.”—he
turned his silver-grey eyes on Mace— “We
will fix
this.”

Nina began to argue,
but the warrior turned on a look that read
you don’t have a hope in hell of arguing
about this.

Mace opened the door
to their room, and they rallied in a circle on the queen beds.

“All of it. In brief,”
Lieutenant
Cobbs demanded. “I’ve got my own
explaining to do when I get home. I left Marg drowning in moving boxes. She’s
not happy with me.”

Mace nodded and gave
Cobbs
a debrief
of Cayson, his role, and that he was
neck deep in debt to some bad dudes.

“You said you
know where he is,” Cobbs stated.

“Yes,
sir.
And it sounds like we have backup if things go bad. Steven Porter is the owner
of the Grand Palms, and he’s well-connected. We have his number. If we call,
he’ll bring civilian reinforcements.”

Tadpole found a ho
tel room guide, and laid the fold-out map between them.
“Here.” Mace pointed to a point two blocks off Tropicana.

Caleb put the address
into a satellite map on his iPad and they viewed the area. “Looks like a small
pocket of residential homes surrounded by
condos.
These look like four businesses situated behind the homes,” he said.

A mighty bang on the
door made Nina jump. Cobbs’ brow lifted, and he wandered to the door. “Master
Chief,” he greeted before Fox was even visible.

“Having a search party
without
me?” Fox said, striding in with a churlish
curl on his lip. Nina stretched her arms out, and Fox gladly received the hug.
“So whose ass are we crackin’ tonight?” Fox plunked down in the only spare
chair.

“Wade took Gabbs and
he’s asking for one million dol
lars.”

Fox shook his head as
if something was stuck in his ear. “I’ll catch up, keep going,” he said.

“Steven Porter gave us
this address, but it doesn’t mean he has Gabbs and Cayson there. This is
probably only one of his hiding holes in the city,” Tinman
added. Guys like this have plenty of floor space to move
to in case someone is trying to find them. We have to be certain she’s there,
grab her and go. If we screw this up, we won’t get a second chance.”

“Agreed.”
Cobbs turned the map to study it. “We
sta
rt with what we know. Cayson and Gabbs will be
together, and I’m betting Cayson is as much of a hostage as Gabriella right
now.” Cobbs looked to Mace and then to Nina. “We’ll recon first. If we confirm
their location are we bringing them both out?”

Nina
inhaled deeply, and her gaze shot to him biting her lip at
the same time. “Sir, I—” Mace didn’t know how to answer that or even if he had
a right to.

“No.” All heads turned
toward Tinman. “Cayson created his dugout; he can deal with his own sandbags.”
Once
again, all heads turned, and they looked to
Nina.

“I—don’t care about
Wade, I just want my daughter.”

A nodding of heads
confirmed her decision.

“Let’s go get a lay of
the land, shall we?” Cobbs suggested.

Mace had to admit with
the squad mostly present a
nd accounted for, and their
lieutenant putting it on the line with them, they were going to get Gabbs back.

Cobbs led the way out
the door, before opening it he turned his sharp gaze on Mace. “We will retrieve
Gabbs tonight, but like any mission we go in w
ith
eyes wide open, and all good training within your abilities at hand. More so
than any task you’ve deployed to achieve none of us, I repeat none of us, can
get injured or killed. If that happens, we’ll all be working at McDonald’s.”

“Good copy, Lieutena
nt,” Mace said.

Cobbs turned his harsh
attention on Nina. “You can come as far as the car park downstairs, the rest is
team business. Understood?”

“Yes,
sir.”
Nina nodded.

Lieutenant Cobbs
popped the trunk of his car.

“What’s this?” Nina
asked.

“Compliment
s of the U.S. Navy.”
Cobbs started handing out comm sets and
vests.
“Just a few things that
might come in handy.”
The guys pulled the weapons from a duffel bag Cobbs
unzipped.

“We’re gonna be in big
shit if the locker hound finds these missing,” Ditz state
d.

“Friends
in high places.”
Cobbs checked the chamber and racked a magazine, then shoved it in a holster on
his chest. “We clean ’em and have them back by tomorrow afternoon, no one’s the
wiser.”

Mace couldn’t believe
how the squad had put everything on t
he line for him
and Nina. “Guys, I don’t know what to say.”

Fox loaded his weapon,
and snagged two more magazines, tucking them in his pocket. “Sniper, you’ve
saved all our asses at least once over the years. Brothers stand beside
brothers.” Fox adjusted t
he comm set and clipped the
box to his belt. “And when we get back home, you’re getting a tattoo for
keeping this from me.”

“Uh—” He was going to
argue when his eyes set on Tadpole
,
who had a grin stretched clear across his young mug. “Green and white ink
would be preferred.”

“I could stay in the
car.” Nina grasped his hand. “You could use another set of eyes.”

Mace shook his head.
“We’ll bring her out, Nina. Trust me.”

“Mace.
There hasn’t been a second since I’ve
known you that I didn’t believe in you.”

“Good, then you won’t
mind marrying me when this is all over.”

Nina’s eyes doubled in
size. All movement stopped, including the guys. They exchanged glances.

“Did you just…is that
a…here in the…?”

With every part
sentence Mace tilted his head a little more
, offering
her no help and an innocent expression.

She ran out of air and
stared at him, then blinked once. “Yes.”

The guys chuckled and gave him a congratulatory swat on the
back. He counted down from five because he knew Nina, and stood ready for the
att
ack when she flew into his arms and kissed him.
Dying tonight wouldn’t be so bad. His redheaded siren was his forever girl.

Chapter Twenty-two

Cobbs pushed a
shopping cart along the sidewalk. One wheel squeaked in protest as he
maneuvered it across the cracks in the cement. He stopped at a garbage can,
scrimmaged through
the contents and threw a couple plastic
soda bottles in his cart.

Tinman squ
atted beside Mace, taking cover behind a green city service
box as they watched their lieutenant. A tattered ball cap concealed all but his
mouth and chin. With a ripped trench coat and a quick roll around in someone’s
front garden there was no distinguish
ing Cobbs from
the hundred other bums wandering the outskirts of the Strip and back alleys.

“Next house,
Lieutenant,” Ditz communicated in the comm set while searching the night with
infrared glasses. “There’s a guy sitting on the front porch.
Looks like h
e’s just out for a
smoke.
Could be a
guard.”

Cobbs continued his
slow ramble down the sidewalk. The address Steven Porter had given them was a
small house with a lawn burned to a crisp by the Nevada sun, and a
sickly-looking palm tree sitting on the right
corner.
A rickety six-foot high fence flanked both sides of the house. On the front
porch, a small light poorly illuminated the peeling paint and badly scarred
door. Cobbs stopped to dig through the garbage can. The guy sitting on the
steps flicked his cig
arette. The hot end glowed in
the night until it rolled into a crack on the broken walkway.

“Hey, get the hell
outta there,” the guy yelled at Cobbs.

Cobbs shuffled around
and jerked his head. “You got a few coins to spare?” he said, then coughed.

“No,
man
.
Get out of here.”

“How
about a smoke?
 
Haven’t
had one for days.”

The guy on the front
porch heaved himself up, his cowboy boots clicking on the pavement. “Jesus,
man, take it and go,” he said, flipping the smoke toward Cobbs.

Cobbs let it drop to
the gr
ound instead of snatching it out of the air.
“Thanks,” he mumbled and scurried after the smoke. He lit the thing, and then
hummed as he pushed the cart down the sidewalk. After passing two houses he
spit the smoke out. “Fuck, those things are awful.” He co
ughed and said, “Listen up, the guy’s packing a weapon.
House has blinds, but
there’s
definitely others inside. I saw the
movement of two men. House can’t be more than seven hundred square feet. I’m
going to wheel around to the alley and check it out from
there. Everyone stand by.”

“Copy,” Ditz said.

“Doubt it has an alarm
system,” Tony said.

“This is only a
holding house,” Cobbs mumbled. “I have my doubts Gabbs is here, but there might
be someone inside who knows where she is.”

“Be my pleasure to get
the i
nformation,” Fox chimed in from his hiding spot
down the road.

They waited until
Cobbs cut between two post war homes, and began his trek up the alley. “All’s
clear in the rear. Three men inside that I can see. Is the guy still out
front?”

“Roger that,”
Ditz answered.

“House is in pretty
poor shape. Getting in won’t be a problem. Sniper, you, Tinman and Tadpole
enter from the rear.”

They could hear Cobbs
running. “I’m going to have a conversation with the guard out front.”

Mace and the guys made
their way
to the alley. No movement, not even the
bark of a dog broke the still, cold night. They slipped through the back gate
and ran low to the back of the house, he and Tadpole on one side of the door,
Tinman on the other.

“Caleb, I want you in
the car and read
y to go,” Mace ordered. “These guys
aren’t going to appreciate our company. We’re going to be dodging bullets. I’m
going to keep one alive to get our answers. Civilian police will be called and
on their way within minutes. Ditz, keep those glasses scanning
. No runners from the house.”

“Rogers,” came from
the squad. He, Tinman and Tadpole pulled their weapons. He nodded at Tinman to
take the door down.

Tinman, the squad’s
Lead Breacher kicked the door and dropped to his knees. That’s all the time
Mace had
before the bullets started chipping into
wood and drywall. Two guys went down as he and Tadpole fired around the corner.
The third guy leaped into a side room to take cover.

“Listen to me,” Mace
yelled at him. “I’m not going to kill ya. I just want informa
tion. If I don’t get it in the next thirty seconds
,
we’re coming in there. There’s one of you and many of us.
You want to live another day, gun down, hands up, out here.”

They all heard the
clunk of a weapon, and saw it slide into the room. Hands appeared
from the doorway.

“On your belly,” Mace
shouted. When the guy appeared, Mace drove him to the floor and restrained his
arms. “I want my daughter back.”

All weapons pointed
toward the door when it flew open. Cobbs dragged the guy inside and dropped his
body
with a
thunk
.

“Where is Pedro? He
has my daughter.”

“If I tell you, he’ll
kill me. I’m dead either way.”

“I’m not going to kill
you, and the highway isn’t far. Get your ass outta town, I don’t care. At least
with me you got a chance of living. Where is sh
e?”

“Griffin
Industrial Park, east end.
He’s holding her there.”

“Is Wade Cayson with
her?”

The guy nodded.

Mace glanced at the
squad, and then hammered the guy on the head with his weapon. “Tie him up. Gag
‘em. We don’t want him singing to Pedro when he w
akes
up.” Tadpole retrieved a strip of bed sheet from one of the rooms.
“Ditz?”

“Got
it, Mace.
It’s about twenty minutes away, and
hurry
the hell up. I hear sirens.”

“Let’s go,” Cobbs
ordered.

They darted into the
waiting car, and cut through a few side st
reets then
headed for the industrial park. Mace dialed and waited for an answer on the
other end of the line. “Mrs. Porter, Mace Callahan.”

“I’m putting you on
speaker phone. Go ahead, Mace,” she said.

Mace heard the echo of
being switched to speaker. “Mr.
Porter, Griffin
Industrial Park
sound
familiar?”

“Moira, think it’s the
kid’s bed time.”

“Come on, babies,
Mom’s going to read you a story, okay.”

“Night, Daddy,” a
little girl sang out in the background, echoed by her brother.

“Night, babies.”

Mace waite
d. A quick look in the side mirror kept his hopes up. No
red and blues on their tail.

“Griffin Park is owned
by Pedro. It’s not a large complex, but it’s out in the middle of nowhere.”

“We can see that on
the satellite image, sir.”

“He takes people who
nee
d a heavy hand out there.”

Mace heard Cobbs
talking on the phone to someone, relaying what they knew. Who the hell was he
talking to? “Do you know how many men he travels with for protection?”

“Not for certain, I’ve
seen him once or twice and he’s usually
got five or
six guys flanking him. He’s made himself plenty of enemies.”

“We’ve left a few guys
at the address you gave us.”

“Any
of them alive?”

“One, but he’s either
in police custody or
hightailing
it out of Vegas.”

“Can he identify any
of you?”

“Nope,
and don’t think he was awake yet to see what we drove. All
he can report is a bunch of guys with masks in dark clothing.”

“Mace, Pedro runs his
operation like an army. If he’s out at Griffin Park he’ll have lookouts a mile
away. There’s only one road in, a
nd it’s surrounded
by desert. It’d be a miracle if they didn’t see you long before you get there.”

Mace grunted. “We’re
pretty good at being unseen. Afghanistan is a big desert.”

Mr. Porter chuckled on
the other end of the phone. “That it is, but what if y
ou
had air support?”

“Sir?
I think they’d hear a helicopter.”

“Sure they would, but
what if it was only a diversion?”

“That would help, but
we’re kinda flying under the wire here, sir. We don’t plan on stealing any
aircraft tonight.”

“Don’t have to steal ’
em, son.”

A mile and a half away
from their destination they parked the car in a shallow gully on the side of
the road. The desert opened up in front of them. The closest business was a
mile behind them. A clear night with a half-moon hung in the Nevada sk
y. They checked each other’s gear, just as they did on
every mission before setting out on foot.

“If there is someone
watching as outpost he’ll stay to the main road. We should head east for a
quarter mile, and then turn north to the target,” Fox said, sca
nning the landscape with the infrared. “There’s no one
sitting behind
a tumbleweed
. Let’s hope it stays that way.”

“Tadpole, you’re
maintaining position here,” Cobbs ordered.

“Sir, we don’t know
how many tangos are in there.”

Cobbs adjusted his
earpiece. “
We’re going to need a backup extraction.
You’re it.”

Tadpole nodded.
“Yes, sir.”

Mace hung the sniping
rifle Cobbs brought for him over his shoulder. “Let’s do this and get the hell
outta Dodge,” he said.

As they walked on
uneven ground, Fox kept sweeping
the landscape for
unfriendlies. Ten minutes at a half trot they all hit the sand with the Griffin
Industrial Park less than three hundred yards ahead of them.

Mace scoped the small
line of warehouses with his weapon. “One target walking, east end of the la
st building,” he said. He could easily take the shot, but
they needed a closer look before they started dropping the exterior patrol.

“Two o’clock. See that
grouping of cacti? Good cover for two guys,” Caleb said.

“Take Ditz,”
Lieutenant Cobbs said. “Fox y
ou’re with me. Tinman,
you cover Mace.”

“Roger that.” Fox
shimmied to his knees.

“Mace, you tell us
when that guy has his back turned, we’ll get to the southeast corner of the
building where those vehicles are parked and scope it out.” Cobbs turned to
him.
“Let’s hope this plan works. The more men we can
draw outside and drop, the less will be covering Gabbs.”

Mace nodded as he
dialed a number on his phone. “We’re in position. See ya shortly,” he said and
hung up.

Within minutes
everyone had made their posi
tion. In the distance
Mace heard the approach of chopper blades. He and Tinman hit the sand running
hard and low. The one guy walking outside turned his head up toward the noise.
Mace stopped, dropped to one knee, took aim, and watched the guy fall forward
near the vehicles. A shadow ran out, grabbed the body, and
pulled him back out of sight.
“One
down.
Standby,” Mace said.