Counter-Strike (A Mitch Kearns Combat Tracker Novel Book 2) by JT Sawyer Page A

before.
    Dev retreated back to their SUV and turned
on her tablet, typing furiously while Mitch got inside and started the engine.
    “The only thing of significance in that
direction is the Munich Airport about an hour away from here.”
    “She gets on a flight there then we lose
her for good,” said Mitch, backing up the vehicle and following the road out in
the other direction past a small garage. “Only question is: who are the ones
who want her head on a platter—other than me that is?” Then he grew silent,
focusing on the rutted road and wondering if his friend was still alive and what
his connection was to this confusing trail of international breadcrumbs.

 
     
    Chapter 9
    The unmarked helicopter landed in a
cleared field, swirling a micro-tornado of snow and spruce needles amidst the
waiting vehicle that stood at the forest’s edge. Crenna stepped out and
crouch-walked to the brown delivery truck where his field agent Olivia Tandy
was waiting.
    Climbing inside, he looked in wonderment
at the shabby interior then into the nervous eyes of his subordinate. Tandy was
a capable agent but she was not a Von Harut and that was always Crenna’s gold
standard for comparing an agent’s relative usefulness.
    “There are only eight vehicles on the
entire island and this was the best one,” she said with a forced grin.
    “It’ll do. Just take me to the survivor
you said had escaped.”
    She looked at the unmarked helicopter and
at the lone pilot inside, giving a surprised look at Crenna, who only ignored
her. Tandy manipulated the manual stick and descended the road that led to the
cabin which had formerly served as Kyle’s operations center.
    “The hazmat containment team indicated
that the region is free of the airborne contaminants and the woman that
survived has already been cleared by our medical staff.”
    “Good. How many people do you still have
on site?”
    “One of our agents is with the woman at
the cabin and the others have already departed.”
    “After we’re through here, the proper
European authorities will be notified and this place will be a fuckin’ zoo with
all the bioweapons researchers.”
    “How did we get intel on this biological
attack ahead of the virology teams with the Swedish military?” Tandy said as
she brought the truck to a halt at the rear of the cabin.
    “A source notified me directly. That’s
what boots on the ground in the war on terror is all about, Tandy.”
    They got out of the vehicle and trudged
through the ankle-deep snow, Crenna shaking his lace-up Oxford shoes in irritation
as they reached the porch. He glanced around the area and noticed the silence
draped over the forest and the lack of recent tracks in the snow.
    “Have you debriefed the woman yet?” he
said, reaching for the bronze handle of the door.
    “Yes, she described the nature of the
biological attack and indicated that there were five men who rented this cabin
during the past two days. She’s in shock at the loss of her friends so I
wouldn’t expect coherent sentences.”
    Once they were inside, Crenna pulled up a
chair and sat beside the gray-haired woman with arthritic fingers that were
trembling. His demeanor softened and he spoke with her like she was a beloved
aunt, caressing her furrowed hand and looking into her tear-riddled eyes as she
recounted the horrific events in broken English. Tandy and the other agent, a lean
man named Rawlins, stood in the other room within earshot.
    Fifteen minutes later, Crenna stood up and
moved towards his two field agents, nodding for them to join him in the back
room. “Poor woman has been through hell. Not much she could provide about the
men in this cabin who must have initiated the attack though she said one had a
large scar by his right eye.”
    “C4 was clearly used on the community
building below from the residue and the blast pattern,” said Rawlins, who had a
bookish demeanor. “The hazmat teams indicated there were probably portable
aerosol