“Looks like your standard issue Haji. Why, something catch your eye?”
So he’s cloaked to humans. He’d expected as much. “No, just keeping myself in check.” The d’jinn turned and blended seamlessly with the crowd.
They rolled forward and continued down the road. Rourk wondered what kind of trouble the d’jinn was causing in the area, if anything at all. All he knew about d’jinns were what he’d read. A spirit that was capable of taking on a human or animal form and has the ability to alter one’s thoughts. They were said to be extremely violent demons. Rourk didn’t believe everything he read, but there was usually at least a sliver of truth. The creature screamed evil.
It was not unusual to cross paths with other creatures, but it was the first time he had seen a d’jinn in all the time he’d spent overseas. He’d actually wondered if they were purely a myth. Now he had seen with his own eyes they are as real as he was.
He wasn’t sure what to make of the sighting. It wasn’t like the d’jinn had sought him out. So it probably meant nothing. Just a chance encounter. It was definitely something he would have to report back to Richard, Keegan’s father, and the leader of the light elfin army.
Rourk scanned the roads as they continued on. His focus back on the task at hand.
“We’re getting close to the villa.” Stitch said, staring out the window.
“Yeah it’s just up ahead.”
“Can’t wait to hit this place,” Stitch said with a smile.
They turned onto a dirt road surrounded by small prefab buildings walled in with concrete. Wild dogs lay in the middle of the road, and some were on the side of the road close to death from starvation.
Children ran and played as they rolled through the small village. Farm animals roamed about, and women cried out to their children.
“There’s the villa,” Stitch said.
Rourk nodded. He glanced over. It didn’t look much different than most of the villas in the area, but that didn’t mean anything. It was crazy how often terrorists hid in plain sight.
Intel gathering, like everything in this area, was dangerous work, but without it, they wouldn’t have made as much headway as they had. You never knew if the residents had been tipped off, who would be home, and if they were armed. Well, it was usually a given that they would be armed.
Sometimes there were women and children, and they were not above using them as shields. That made Rourk sick just thinking about it.
Hopefully, this time their intel was correct and the villa would be empty. Soon they would know.
The kept driving around the area, getting a feel for the environment, gearing up for the mission to come.
CHAPTER 9
While wiping down the counter, Keegan stopped to watch the rain hit the windowpane. It was really coming down today, and it didn’t look like it was about to ease up. She was startled out of her thoughts by her brother.
“Gavin’s on his way to the door.” Thaddeus called out from the couch.
Keegan tossed the hand towel on the counter and crossed the kitchen towards the front door. “Gavin? What’s he doing here?”
Thaddeus was glued to a video game, and didn’t bother to answer. Keegan rolled her eyes; some things never changed.
Before she made it to the door, the bell chimed.
Keegan swung the door open and stepped aside. “Hey, Gavin, Rourk’s not here.”
“I know. I just wanted to come by and see how you’re doing.”
Keegan looked at him skeptically. Gavin had never just stopped by to visit. Rourk had worked with him on occasion, doing who knows what. Gavin was a dark elf. It was still strange that they had worked together. Keegan grew up with dark elves and light elves despising each other. The Great Battle changed all of that. There was still a lot of hatred, but many had decided to leave the past in the past and move forward.
“Well, come in. You’re getting soaked out there.”
Gavin ran a hand through his wet, coal black hair, and pulled off his rain jacket. Keegan grabbed the coat and hung it on the rack. He was dressed all in black. He kicked off his shoes and crossed through the room. “Is that Dishonored I hear?”
Thaddeus paused the game and glanced up. “Yeah, I love this game.”
“Me too. It’s one of my favorites.” Gavin paused. “So, I finally get to meet the all knowing one. It’s an honor. You’re sort of a legend.” He laughed. “I feel like I should bow or something.”
Thaddeus grinned, stood up, and they shook hands. “I’ve heard a thing or two about you as well.”
It was nice to see her brother smile again.
“All good, I hope?”
“Mostly good.”
“Ah, well, it’s hard to live up to Rourk’s expectations.” Gavin sat down on the couch next to him. “So I can live with mostly.”
“Actually, it was Anna. I believe she called you a hot dark elf with eyes of steel. But don’t quote me on that.”
Gavin laughed. “Anna is quite the character.”
“That she is.”
“Gavin, do you want anything to eat or drink?” Keegan asked. She was curious as to why he had stopped by, but would go through the motions of being a good hostess. Besides, she was hungry herself.
“Sure. Whatever you’ve got is fine.”
Keegan turned on her heels and went into the kitchen. Cooking wasn’t really her thing. Rourk, on the other hand, loved cooking. He said it relaxed him. Keegan peered into the fridge, and pulled out a roll of cinnamon rolls, and threw them on a pan while she heated up the oven. You could never go wrong with them. Taste like heaven in only ten minutes.
“Pepsi, okay?”
“Yeah, that’s great. Thanks.”
She set the rolls in the oven, grabbed a bag of tortilla chips from under the counter, popped the top off a jar of salsa, and dumped it in a bowl.
“Thaddeus, come help me.”
She looked up when her brother walked in the room. Her gaze met his with a raised eyebrow, and Thaddeus shrugged. She loved that they could have a whole conversation with their eyes.
Thaddeus grabbed the sodas off the counter and headed back into the living room.
Well, that wasn’t much help. Keegan followed behind with the chips, setting them on the coffee table. She turned towards Gavin. “Did Rourk send you to check up on me?”
A flush rose to Gavin’s pale face. Anna was right about one thing. Gavin was certainly attractive. If you were into that type: sexy and mysterious. She’d take Rourk any day, but she doubted Gavin had trouble with women. A quick glance down at his hand, and she knew he had yet to meet his chosen.
“You caught me. He just asked me to check in on you once in a while. You know how protective he is of his life mate.”
Keegan sunk into the chair and tucked her feet under her. Rourk was definitely overprotective of her, but he’d never had anyone check up on her before. Not that she knew of anyway.
“Thad, did Rourk ask you to come?” Keegan tilted her head to watch her brother’s reaction.
“Nope. I haven’t talked to Rourk in a while.” He dunked his chip in the salsa. She would never be able to read him if he didn’t want her to, but for some reason she believed he was telling the truth.
“Well, consider your task fulfilled. As you can see, my brother is here and I’m in more than capable hands.”
Gavin took a gulp of his soda and didn’t bother to reply. They all knew he would continue to do what Rourk had asked.
They chatted about nothing until the smell of cinnamon filled the room, and shortly after, the timer went off. Keegan rose from the chair and came back with the sticky sweet goodness, and a roll of paper towels tucked under her arm.
Thaddeus reached for a roll and dropped it back on the plate.
Keegan rolled her eyes. “You just saw me take them out of the oven. Let them cool down.”
“They smell so good.” This time he used the spatula and scooped one onto his plate.
Gavin eyed
them, but sat back. “Nothing unusual going on?”
Keegan narrowed her eyes. “You’re not very understated, Gavin.”
He took a swig and shrugged. “Figured there is no need, with your brother here. Rourk said he just had a bad feeling, and wanted to make sure you were okay. Should I be expecting trouble?”
Her head snapped in the direction of her brother. They were starting to freak her out.
“Never hurts to take extra precautions,” Thaddeus said casually.
“Thaddeus! If something bad is going to happen, you better tell me right this instant. I knew you had a reason for visiting.”
“Calm down. I’m not here to try to stop anything. I’m just here for my sister. That’s it.” He rolled his eyes and grabbed the controller.
Gavin reached over and grabbed a cinnamon roll and shoved practically the whole thing in his mouth. “Delicious.”
Keegan plopped back on the couch and stared between the two. She wasn’t going to get anything out of either of them. That much she was sure of, and it made her want to scream.
After eating two cinnamon rolls, Keegan stood up and told them she was going to take a shower.
“On that note, I’m going to head out. Thanks for the food.” He paused. “I’ll be close by. If you need me, you have my number.” Gavin stood up and headed towards the door. Thaddeus stood up and followed him outside. Keegan pressed her forehead to the window and watched them. They seemed relaxed. Maybe she was over reacting. She would definitely ask Rourk about this bad feeling.
CHAPTER 10
The team sergeant went over the Operations Order, and then they all got kitted up. Tonight was going to be different. There would be no mountains with shadows to hunt their prey. Tonight, their mission was to raid a house and collect any electronics and papers for intelligence gathering. A villa that had been under surveillance was their target. It was supposed to be empty, but they had to be prepared to meet resistance. Their survival depended on it. One thing Rourk knew for sure, things seldom went as planned. Through firsthand experience, he’d learned Murphy’s Law often came true: anything that could go wrong would go wrong.
“O’Grady, don’t forget to bring the luck of the Irish with you.” Mirko smirked.
O’Grady laughed, and Rourk grinned. O’Grady was far from Irish. He had dark mocha skin, and had been born and raised in New York City. He says the closest he’d come to being Irish was his love for mashed potatoes and Guinness. His real name was Sampson, but because of his luck, he’d been nicknamed O’Grady. That man had escaped death so many times, they’d lost count, and always came up smiling, kissing the cross he wore around his neck. “You know it.”
Mirko reached over, and they tapped fists.
Most guys had some sort of good luck charm or habit. Rourk always looked at an image of Keegan. Mirko rubbed his Thor’s hammer, while Jamison always wore the same socks. Stitch’s was the strangest: he walked around a chair. He said his grandmother did it at bingo and won all the time. If there wasn’t a chair, he would pretend there was. Rourk smiled to himself. He worked with a great group of guys.
“You ready?” Rourk asked Stitch.
Stitch nodded, but looked preoccupied.
After final checks of all equipment, the team loaded their gear into the vehicles. Because they were trying to keep as low a profile as possible, they were using their highly modified Toyota HiAce vans for tonight‘s mission. At first glance, they looked like a normal vehicles an Afghan would drive, but on closer inspection, you’d find they’d had lots of extras installed. Limited armor plating inside for protection, a hinged sun roof to allow top access for observation and firing, swing-arm mounts for machine guns that would pop out of the open side and back doors, and a decent communications package to allow them to talk to whomever they might need to.
Rolling up on the villa at zero three hundred, they found the streets were empty and almost all the lights in nearby villas were out. The team quickly exited the vehicles and headed towards the primary breach point while the drivers repositioned the vans for departure and took up security positions.
Keeping it as quiet as possible, Mirko used a portable thermal torch and cut away the locking mechanism on the outer gate, then flowed into the inner walled compound to the side door of the villa. Lance was their resident lock picker; he got to work and they were quickly inside. The team crept into the dark villa and started to systematically clear each room. Half of the team focused on the first floor and the other half made a beeline for the second floor.
Rourk moved up the stairs, everyone in synch where they needed to be and what they needed to do as the situation developed. As they moved into position to enter a closed room, Rourk saw a shadow pass under the door. His eyes flicked up to Jamison, but he didn’t acknowledge. Had Rourk imagined it? No, he knew what he’d seen. He wasn’t going to second guess himself.
He made a hand signaled to Jamison. His fingers pointing to his eyes and back under the door. Jamison shook his head no. A sinking feeling washed over Rourk. If Jamison hadn’t seen anything, that meant only one thing. Whatever Rourk had seen pass under the door was supernatural.
They entered and cleared the room. Empty. They repeated the process until the whole second floor had been searched. They went onto the roof and cleared that as well. Maybe he had imagined it, or if it was the d’jinn, he could take on any form including a spider crawling on the floor.
“First floor clear,” Mirko’s voice came across on the radio.
“Second floor clear,” O’Grady said.
“Roof clear,” Rourk added.
“Objective secure,” Said Jamison.
Everything was going as planned, which was never a good sign.
“Let’s get this shit and get the hell out. This place is giving me the creeps. It’s too quiet, you know what I mean?” Jamison muttered under his breath. Rourk had to agree with him.
Discretion was not part of the plan. They pulled out papers and threw them into the duffle bags they had brought specifically for that purpose. Stitch grabbed hard drives from the computers, thumb drives, and cell phones. Anything that looked like it could have potential intel was to leave with them.
Even though several team members had GoPro video cameras recording while they worked, two guys pulled out compact digital cameras and started to take pictures to document location and status of collected material, as well as the villa itself. You could never tell what might become important later on.
“Well, look at this.” O’Grady let out a low whistled into his head piece.
“Whatcha got?” Jamison asked.
“Opium bricks, and lots of them.”
“My, my. Grab what you can.”
“Roger.”
It wasn’t unusual to find stockpiles of guns or drugs, but it always made the higher-ups happy.
“Five more minutes! Let’s wrap it up!” came over the radio from O’Grady, the team sergeant. Everyone moved with a practiced efficiency, doing last minute sweeps of their area, securing what they’d collected as well as quick checks of personal gear to make sure nothing was missing.
As they exited through the gate towards the vehicles, O’Grady counted them out. He keyed his mic: “All pax out. Sound off by vehicle.”
“Victor One up.”
As O’Grady shut the passenger door, Rourk said over the radio, “Victor Two up.”
Jamison called out, “All Victors up, move out.”
The vans pulled away from the villa fifteen minutes after they had arrived, the surrounding homes in the neighborhood still dark. Everyone was alert and ready, knowing full well that the mission wasn‘t over and they weren’t safe until they were back in their base camp.
As if to punctuate that very thought, as they rounded a corner, they first saw what appeared to be a single vehicle accident fifty meters in front of them. A small pickup truck was on its side, with large canvas bags and other random items spilled out of the bed and strewn across the road. The tension in th
e truck ratcheted up several notches.
“Possible ambush, moving left” came over the radio from Jamison, who was sitting in Victor One‘s front passenger seat. What appeared to be the driver stood in front of the overturned pickup, waving his arms for the approaching vehicles to stop.
Yeah, right.
Victor One veered around the left side of the vehicle, driving over the shoulder when the enemy machine gun opened up from a covered position off the right hand side of the road.
“Contact right! Contact right!” Could be heard over the radio. Rourk watched as Victor One fishtailed as several rounds impacted the right side of the vehicle. Jamison thrust his M4 through the passenger window, firing a burst into the accident‘s “driver,” who was swinging an AK-47 towards their speeding van.
In Victor Two, Stitch gunned the engine, speeding up to bust through the ambush site right behind Victor One. Rourk slid open the side cargo door and opened fire with the machine gun, trying to suppress the enemy position firing at Victor One.
O’Grady keyed the radio. “Victor Two almost on the X. Supporting fire.”
On cue, the rear window of Victor One exploded outwards as one of its machine guns began to engage the enemy position. An Afghan fighter was seen bringing up an RGP rocket to fire, only to be cut down by Rourk. The man spun, before dropping to the ground from the impact to his head and shoulder.
Rourk’s nose flared from the stench of gunpowder and smoke. He continued firing, and the machine’s fire tore at the earth. Next thing he knew, the over turned truck exploded in a fireball.
Stitch skidded around the pickup, sliding back and forth on the shoulder until the tires gained traction on the road and the van shot ahead. They sped forward, leaving the ambush site behind. They all exhaled in relief.
O’Grady came over the radio. “Victor One, this is Victor Two, we are clear. Status report, over.”
“Victor Two, this is Victor One, all pax up. A few dings but nothing major. We‘re riding rough but should be able to make it back to base.”
“Roger, Victor One. Victor Two, pax all up. Out.”
Jamison called up to the next higher headquarters and informed them of the ambush site while the two vans continued to speed through the night, heading back to their base camp. Everyone was keyed up and on edge, but no further incidents occurred.