Operation Zulu Redemption: Act of Treason - Part 4 by Ronie Kendig Page B

it, disappointed when there’d been no shots. That meant finding the shooter would be more difficult.
    Téya worked through the angles. Through the trajectory of the shots. Determined they had to be either in the bakery building or the lighthouse. Any farther would be too far for accuracy. Any closer. . .well, that’d be too easy because then Zulu would’ve seen him.
    A man emerged from the bakery with a pastry in hand.
    “I think I see him,” Téya said.
    “Berg! That’s Berg Ballenger,” Annie yelled, pointing in the opposite direction.
    Téya whipped around, scanning the others. “Where?”
    “Brown jacket. Running up the street.”
    Téya caught sight of him. “Got him. I’m going.” But then she remembered Nuala and looked back. “Are you okay?”
    Annie was leaning over the embankment, reaching for Nuala. “Yes. Go!”
    “In pursuit,” Téya called through the coms. “He’s heading east through the town.”
    “Alpha Two is en route,” Boone said, indicating Rusty was leaving the nest to assist. “I have eyes on the target.”
    Good. Because once he’d rounded that corner, she lost him for the few seconds it took her to break into the open. She kept moving, but having lost him, she slowed.
    “Ahead, twenty yards. Blue shirt now.”
    Blue shirt. Great. Not like that would blend in or anything. But then Téya had him. “Got him!” Téya sprinted, darting around a jewelry vendor in the middle of the street. A cart of delicious-looking candies. She narrowly avoided a collision with a small girl who darted away from her mother. Téya spun around her but never took her eyes off Ballenger. Spry for a guy with a paunch.
    He’d reached the fountain. Skirted it.
    Téya leaped onto the three-foot wall around the fountain. Sailed over a little boy bending forward, splashing the water. Landed.
    Berg dodged a family with ice cream. Pushing him closer to the fountain.
    Téya threw herself at him. A man ducked with a shout as she sailed over him, too. Straight into Ballenger. They collided. He let out what sounded like a gargled scream. Before he could react, Téya flipped him onto his stomach. Pressed her shoulder into his. Grabbed his arm and swung it behind his back and up.
    He cried out.
    All too aware of the crowd of onlookers, Téya knew she had to get out of the open. “We’re getting up,” she hissed into his ear. “If you try anything, I will end you.”
    He groaned in pain.
    “Clear?”
    He nodded and grimaced again.
    She hauled him to his feet just as Rusty arrived and used some zip cuffs to secure him. They turned him around, and Téya froze. “It’s not him,” she breathed, disbelief choking off clear thought. The man had the same hair color and build as Ballenger, but this definitely wasn’t him.
    “What’d you mean?” Rusty still held the look-alike.
    “Where is he?” Téya demanded.
    The man sneered. Gave a breathy laugh, still winded from the escape attempt. Which—was it even an attempt to escape? Or an attempt to draw them away from something else?
    “Boone—you still have eyes on One and Six?” she asked into her coms piece.
    “Roger. They’re en route. Bring him back here,” Boone said. “We’ll sort it here.”
    They herded him out of the square and up into the hotel, chewing on the fact Ballenger had not just tricked them, but put energy and resources into luring them away. Making them look and feel stupid.
    The door opened, and Téya saw Nuala sitting on the dinette table with her shirt removed and her tank affording Boone a good angle to mend the wound. Boone shoved to his feet and stalked toward them. “Who are you?”
    “Nobody,” the man said with a cocky chip on his shoulder. One Téya really wanted to punch off.
    Boone did it for her. He threw a hard right, straight into the guy’s face. He grabbed him and pinned him against the wall. “Okay, Nobody, you’re going to answer questions.”
    A crooked, bloody smile crept into his arrogance. “I’m not,