Chapter 40

GABRIEL

^TWO YEARS AGO^

^Yemen^

She wouldn’t meet his eyes as she served them tea the next afternoon. That worried Gabe. Katiya would often sit beside her dad and argue politics and economics with them, but she seemed preoccupied this afternoon. Then she sloshed tea over his cup, and Gabe pulled his hand out of the way just as the hot beverage splashed onto the table.

“Katiya! What’s got into you?” Mustifah demanded.

Her cheeks flushed, and she barely mumbled an apology to Gabe. She reached for his hand with the cloth. He was about to reassure her that he was fine when he felt something being pressed into his fingers. With a smile, he took the cloth covering his hand and slipped the folded paper into his pocket.

“I’m fine, Mustifah. Really,” he assured the older man. To distract him, Gabe asked about the topic floating around the town for the last few weeks. “Has anyone heard from the missing people?”

This had the desired effect as the other five men started talking about the one hundred and twenty children and women that had been disappearing in the area. There was nothing tying them to each other, and with no common thread, the local law enforcement office wasn’t putting too many resources into finding them. Each of the men knew one of the people who had disappeared, and in the case of Rafiek, it was two of his nieces, one in her twenties, another who had just turned ten.

This allowed Gabe’s mind to wander to the note Katiya had slipped him, and he was curious about it, especially when he thought about her strange behavior. When she glanced at him as she served her father some bread, Gabe recognized the fear in her deep brown eyes. And his heart sank because he knew the note had to do with Khalid, and his suspicions would be confirmed.

Two hours later, Major Kingsley stared at Gabe in shock as he explained how he got the information about the train, and more specifically the details of the carriage the explosives would be stored in as well as when the train would be departing. Kingsley looked down at the roughly scribbled note before turning back to Gabe.

“We’ll have to plan this carefully. We can’t let that girl get into trouble for this.”

“I don’t want her in this mix at all,” Gabe agreed. “If we send a small team in a single vehicle, we could leave the town without drawing attention, and still get the job done.”

“Makes sense. Choose your team and go and prepare.” Major Kingsley leaned over his desk, wrote something on an order sheet, and handed it to Gabe after putting his signature to it.

“Yes, sir.” Gabe saluted before leaving the office, his mind already going to the team he was going to take on this mission.

***

Three days later, Gabe was on his back under the car attached to the locomotive of the train leaving the district in the next ten hours as he attached the specially packed black box. Holding his breath, he placed the detonator clip where it was visible to Crane, the team sniper, but that would be easily missed by the insurgents. Biting his lip, he blinked the sweat out of his eyes and waited till his hands stopped shaking. It was barely four in the morning and already the heat was sweltering. Glancing to his left, he saw the soft rosy tint in the sky as the sun started peeking over the horizon. He needed to get done so that he could get back to their post before full light. With a steadying breath, Gabe carefully attached the wire to the clip, securing it with the small clamp.

Counting to ten, he made sure that the guard had passed before shimmying on his shoulders and ass to the edge of the carriage, his shoulders were too wide to allow him to turn and roll out. He grabbed hold of the metal step and pulled himself out from under the carriage on the opposite side to the rising sun, sticking to the shadows. With soft steps, he moved to the end of the carriage, being careful not to step too solidly on the loose stones between the sleepers. Crouching behind some crates waiting to be loaded, he waited for the guard to pass before he melted into the shadows again until he reached the place where his team was waiting.

Through the rocky outcrop of their hideout, he watched the sun rise, painting the sky a magnificent fiery red before turning a gentle yellow. He sipped some water as he watched the activity increase around the train. At the sound of the engine rumbling to life, Gabe’s stomach clenched, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before a large consignment of black-market explosives were taken out of commission. He hadn’t been able to believe their luck when Katiya had confirmed the insignia of the supplier. An Eastern European supplier that they had been looking for over two years, and they now had the group who was planning to send it to Libya to do some major damage to the foreign embassies. There were also rumors of a repeat of 9-11, but to more cities in more countries.

“What’s the timing?” Crane asked as he primed his rifle.

“Twenty seconds,” Gabe answered. Crane nodded as he turned his flat cap back-to-front on his head.

Gabe moved to a crouch as he heard shouting from the train and peered through the gap in the rocks to see if they had found the device, but most of the movement was on the other side of the carriage, preventing Gabe and team from seeing what was going on. The train was set to leave in the next hour, and Gabe knew his heart rate wouldn’t slow down until the final explosion and his team was back at the base.

He frowned when he saw an SUV pull up ten minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. And then he saw something that made his heart stop, the blood pounding heavily in his ears when he saw a tall, slender man get out, pulling a petrified Katiya with him. Gabe tried to swallow to wet his very dry throat as he watched Katiya trip and stumble, and when the shitass pulled her to her feet Gabe saw that her hands were bound.

“Fuck this shit,” he muttered and shifted so that he could move without being seen too soon.

“Go. I’ve got you,” Crane said, putting his rifle to his shoulder and pointing it at the furthest guard holding a machine gun. Palming his Sig Sauer M18, Gabe slid down the narrow path and made his way behind the SUV until he was in a position to see Katiya and who he suspected was Khalid.

“The train is moving,” Jenkins said softly, and Gabe looked at the corporal who had followed him down. Gabe shook his head as Jenkins slid to his stomach behind the wheel of the vehicle, the perfect position to watch the surrounding area without being spotted.

“She’s fallen again,” Marcus reported from his position at the hood of the SUV. Looking around the vehicle, Gabe’s vision flared red when he saw Khalid lift his hand and hit Katiya across the face. With a great effort, he sucked in a deep breath before he walked out from behind the SUV.

“Gabe!” Katiya called, her face filled with relief and fear when she looked up at him. When Khalid reached down to grab hold of her hair, she turned and kicked him in the groin. She stumbled to her feet and ran toward Gabe, her sobs just heard above the sound of the rumbling train.

Gabe reached out and was relieved when he felt Katiya put her hand in his. And then the world went still when several things happened at once. One of the insurgents had seen the reflection of Marcus’s weapon and was shooting in his direction. Returning gunshots from Marcus and Jenkins gave him and Katiya the cover they needed to get back behind the SUV. And then a single gunshot made Gabe’s world freeze.

He watched as Katiya stumbled and fell toward him, her dust-encrusted white shirt becoming red as the blood flowed from the wound in her back. Khalid had shot her in the back from his prone position. “No, no, no, Katiya, no…”

“Gabe…,” she gasped as he sank to the ground with her in his arms. He couldn’t stop the tears as they streamed down his face. “The…”

“Shh, girl, don’t speak,” he instructed hoarsely as he put pressure on the wound that had blossomed across her midriff.

“The…missing…” She coughed, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth as her hands clutched at his vest. He wiped the blood away, but she grasped his hand. “The…missing…people are…”

The bottom of his stomach dropped as he comprehended what she was trying to tell him. The increased activity just after sunrise was the insurgents loading the innocent people they had been kidnapping over the last few weeks. One hundred and twenty innocent women and children, their ages ranging from ten to thirty, were on the train…

On the train that was mere seconds from being destroyed…

At Gabe’s command…

He tried to key his radio, but his hands were slick with Katiya’s blood. Instead, he raised his voice, hoping that Crane could hear him. “ABORT!!!”

But the soft ping told Gabe that Crane had hit the mark of the detonator, and he knew they had very little time to move to safety. He rolled Katiya beneath him and covered her with his body as a loud click was heard in the sudden silence of the aborted gunfire. And then the metallic boom as the explosive twisted and lifted the heavy structure of the carriage and locomotive, both disintegrating in pieces of metal and wood. Briefly, screams could be heard before the heavier boom of the packed explosives shook the earth beneath them.

“Gabe…” He heard the faint gurgle of his name as Katiya breathed her last breath into his bloody vest.

“Katiya… no…” He wailed softly as he felt her body become still, tears falling from his eyes, the abruptly silenced screams of the innocents echoing in his ears as the smell of burned flesh filled his nose. He swallowed back the bile as his ration of muesli bar threatened to appear again.

When silence reigned once more, Gabe rolled to his knees, gently lifting Katiya’s lifeless body to his chest as he looked around. He didn’t look too closely at the debris that had fallen to the dust around them because he didn’t want to see the result of his worst decision scattered like petals at a birthday party.

With heavy legs, Gabe walked back to their hideout, and wrapped Katiya in a canvas sheet before placing her in the back of the Humvee. The two-hour trip back to base was made in silence as the rest of the team absorbed the massacre that had occurred at their hands.