Page 23 of The Lazarus Protocol

“A matter of a few hours.” Johannsen dug a flash drive out of his shirt pocket and handed it over.

Adam turned the drive over in his fingers. “Where is the drone?”

“Southern Turkey, far too close to the Syrian border.”

Adam glanced at Ash, and they shared a look. The clock was absolutely ticking. “Any chance it’ll be noticed by someone and shot down?”

“There is tech that’s part of the drone’s system to ensure it isn’t spotted by any radar. It is unlikely to be noticed while it’s flying, but as soon as it hits the ground, we run the risk that someone will discover it. If it’s shot at, or destroyed, we still require the pieces to be retrieved. But we’d much rather have it returned in one piece.”

Adam nodded. “Understood.”

“Your payment will be twice what it was for the job you just did. Per day.”

He didn’t want to react to that, but mere mortals balked at that much money. “We’ll take a look at the specs and let you know our final decision within an hour.” He figured they’d likely be wheels-up by then, but they could call from the plane.

Johannsen lifted his sandwich and wrapped it in a napkin. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

The other sandwiches showed up just as Johannsen was pulling away from the curb, and Adam took a big bite. The hot and spicy mix of meats hit his tongue, and he lifted his brows. “This is good.”

“Eat fast,” Ash said. “If we need to do a full workup on a new mission and loop in everyone, it’s going to take most of that hour.”

“We should order these to go for everyone.”

Ash slid out his phone. “I’ll ask Google Translate how to say that.”

Adam shot him a look. “I can do it.”

Ignoring that, Ash motioned the server to them. He spoke fast, reading off his phone.

Adam didn’t catch much of it. After the server left, he said, “I could’ve done it.”

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Marina. He slid his thumb across the screen and stuck the phone between his shoulder and his cheek. “Hey.” He took another bite of his sandwich and saw the two guys drive by again.

“We got paid, I see.”

“And we got another job.”

“Noah and I will be working something else, so we’ll be out today.”

“Got it,” Adam said. “We’ll be on the plane. Probably headed for Turkey.”

“Copy that. I’ll set it up and file your flight plan.”

The server came back with a white paper bag.

Ash grabbed it, and they were on the move.

NINE

Breckenrow, Montana

Noah watched through the living room window at the lawn in front of the house where Marina chatted with Noah’s sister-in-law Tessa and Morgan, the local vet. The three women watched Marina’s two dogs race around with Jay’s dog Cass and two other dogs that were rescues from a local breeder that Morgan was rehabilitating back to being pets.

Jay tossed Morgan’s daughter, Ava, who he planned to adopt, into the air and caught her as she came back down.

“So weird to see him like that.”

Caleb chuckled, standing beside him at the window. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen? Force Recon all the way to hometown family guy?”