INTEL HAD LOST their vantage point on Janus. The call came thirty minutes before the drop-off. They’d seen Janus and a man periodically come up on deck, but for hours now, nothing. But the team was launching anyway. Her boat. Last confirmed location. Everything was a go.
A knot built in Nick’s gut, and no amount of prayer eased the uncertainty. But he shoved it aside. No room to think about possibilities. They had a job to do.
Nick’s head breached the water, his eyes barely above the surface. The Jupiter bobbed two hundred feet away. Micah touched his shoulder then submerged again, approaching the sleeping vessel. With his teammates by his side, Nick sliced through the water, taking slow breaths through his face mask, feeling the cool currents of the Black Sea moving around his body. Somewhere nearby Titus and Jay lurked in black Zodiacs, monitoring the area around them.
Micah hit the boat first, pulling himself up on deck and immediately scanning the decks, corners, and recesses with his rifle. He waved them on, and within seconds Nick knelt next to him with Colt and Logan by his side, their wet suits leaving growing puddles on the deck.
Logan signaled that Nick and Micah should check the cabin while he and Colt took the deck. They moved in perfect sync, the only sound the gentle lap of waves on the hull of the boat. A cruise ship sat anchored farther in the harbor, and Nick hoped no one lingered topside.
Nick followed Micah below, his senses alert for any sound or movement. The ship lay in stillness. Too quiet.
“Cabin is clear.” Micah said, radioing the rest of the team. The two of them lowered their guns and looked around.
Lush blue carpet blanketed the floor. A bed flanked one wall, adorned with cream and gold coverings and pillows. Gold-filigreed trinkets sat throughout the room, and leather armchairs made up a small sitting area. Plush and lavish. Nick had to agree with their intel. Janus enjoyed comfort and had expensive taste.
“Maybe we missed her.” Micah broke the silence, still studying the room. He approached a small desk sitting below a circular window and glanced through a few papers, careful to leave them undisturbed. “Maybe she stayed in a cushy hotel tonight or is enjoying a late night in Yalta drinking Ukrainian booze.”
Nick approached the desk and immediately stilled. Lying on top of the letters and papers was a note written on thick, cream-colored stationery. The precise Russian lettering told Nick more about their target than the room ever could. His face drained of color as he read.
“Hawk, what is it?” Micah looked harder at the papers.
Nick picked up the stationery and turned it toward Micah.
Micah stilled, his brown eyes scouring Nick’s face.
“It says, ‘Catch me if you can.’ Someone ratted us out.”
Glass broke as a bullet whizzed through the window, embedding in the cabin wall opposite them. Nick and Micah immediately hit the floor as their radio erupted with Colt’s shouts. “Shooter! Man down, man down.”
Logan. Nick’s stomach sank. Kill the shooter, then get Logan home to his family. He issued instructions to the men on the Zodiacs. “Jay, T-Brown, see if you can get eyes on our shooter. One shot through the portside cabin window.”
“Three shots on the bow,” Colt shouted. “I think it’s a sniper, but he’s an awful shot.”
Sniper. Nick’s own trade. He pushed his body up enough to catch a small glimpse of the cruise ship anchored just inside shooting distance. He should have known. He pounded a fist on the carpet.
“T-Brown, get eyes on the top deck of that cruise ship. Take this jerk out so we can get off this boat. Jay, radio HQ. Tell them we need surgeons available as soon as we get back.”
“Hawk.” Logan’s voice shook over the radio, but Nick’s heart leapt knowing he was conscious.
“Hang in there, man. Let’s get off this boat.”
“Grab anything we can hand over. We need more intel on Janus . . . ” Logan sucked in a breath. “We need more to catch her.”
“On it.” Micah began pulling the mail and paperwork from the desk, then opened the drawer.
“Hurry, Bulldog,” Nick hissed as he crouched and moved toward the door. Another bullet whizzed through the window. This guy was clearly shooting blind. It made Nick’s blood boil. He hated getting shot at. He wished he had his sniper rifle in his hands. Payback would be brutal.
“There might be fingerprints.” Micah grabbed a few pens and papers, shoving them in a waterproof bag and then stuffing them next to his chest before refastening his wet suit. He beat a path to the door on Nick’s heels.
“We’ve got company,” Colt shouted over the radio. “Speedboat coming from the west. I got eyes on three, all fully armed.” Shots echoed from above, and Nick and Micah clambered up the stairs, stopping to appraise the situation.
“On deck,” Micah called over the radio.
“Jay, T, we need y’all. Forget the sniper. We gotta get out of here.” Nick swallowed his anxiety as he scanned the darkness.
Another round of bullets sprayed the boat, right above where Nick and Micah crouched. Sitting ducks with one wounded and a trigger-happy, inexperienced sniper. Not ideal.
“All right. That’s enough of this.” Micah looked to Nick. With a nod, they rounded the deck, firing back at the speedboat now beginning to circle The Jupiter.
Nick shouted over the roar of the speedboat. “Colt, you and Logan get to the stern and let’s get off this boat. We’ll cover you.”
“Hawk, take port, I’ll get starboard.” Micah and Nick split and began firing. As the speedboat circled closer, Nick identified one driver and two shooters. The driver’s blond hair glinted in the moonlight, probably Eastern European. Nick couldn’t make out his face. The shooters both had caps pulled low over their faces, and their dark clothes blended into the night. Nick took careful aim and sent one flying over the deck and into the sea spray.
“One down.”
Colt appeared, Logan slung over his shoulders, his steps quick and measured on the thin trail between the cabin and the boat’s edge. “Hawk, help.”
“Cover us, Bulldog.” Immediately Micah appeared at his side, firing shots. The second gunner went down.
Nick grabbed Colt, steadying him, and then helped him lower Logan to the floor. A nasty hole gaped in Logan’s calf muscle, blood still oozing from the wound. Logan’s face was pasty, his eyes unfocused. Nick noticed Colt had already tied a tourniquet above the wound.
Jay’s voice sounded over the radio, almost shattering Nick’s ear drum. “Get off the boat! Incoming.”
Colt swore as the speedboat barreled toward The Jupiter. Micah fired as Colt and Nick dove off the side, pulling Logan with them. From underwater, Nick heard another splash as Micah joined them, then they dove as deep as they could. The water lit up around them, and debris began to fall past them. Even with the currents, the heat seared the back of Nick’s neck as he and Colt pulled Logan farther away, Micah swimming next to them.
Within seconds of surfacing, the Zodiacs pulled up next to them. Micah climbed over the side and then reached for Logan. As Nick helped Logan from the water, he noticed another gash in Logan’s leg where a piece of metal from the boat had embedded during the explosion. He slid over the side and immediately turned to examine Logan’s wound.
Jay swore as he watched from the other Zodiac. Colt quickly pulled himself into Jay’s raft and began scanning the area
“Stay with us, man.” Logan coughed up water and Nick knew a moment of panic for the kids, Kim, and the baby on the way.
“T, get us back, now!”
They sped away, leaving the remains of a yacht and speedboat crackling in the Black Sea, a crew of law enforcers, Nick assumed, approaching from shore. Bile built in his mouth. She’d outwitted them. Again. It was time to get to the bottom of this. They would get home. And they would get answers.