Page 12 of Her Righteous Protector

“I can take a hint.” Max heard a smile in Kostya’s voice. Good, he wasn’t insulted that Max wasn’t in sharing mode. “Ebrahem showed me his kid’s pictures a couple of times. Both little girls. The way I figure it, the oldest can’t be more than eight years old. He told me that there wouldn’t be a chance in hell he’d be doing the kind of work he was doing without his wife’s total backing. Her mother and aunt had been killed by Taliban members, as well as Ebrahem’s father’s family. They were both committed to bringing a better way of life for their daughters.”

“It’s about time you told me who your sources are who told you about the Nuri family and Lark Sorensen. I’m assuming that the stuff that Kane and Gideon fed the brass is all bullshit, right?”

“Right,” Kostya said. “If I told anyone who my source was, it would blow things up.”

“Well, we’re all here, so it can’t blow up anything now. Who’s your source?”

“Lark Sorensen.”

Max sat up and swung around, his feet hitting the side of the bed. “What?”

“Lark. She’s aware of who her mother is and that she’d be extricated. She also knew that anybody who came in after her would not give two shits about the Nuri family; their marching orders would be to get Lark home, and that would be it.”

Max’s shoulders shifted. Kostya must have seen it in the moonlight.

“Max, you don’t have to tell me one way or the other, but I’m positive that your marching orders are to get Lark out of there and nothing else, that’s it. She knew it, that’s why she grilled Samira Nuri to find out the names of American military that her husband trusted, and then Lark got ahold of me. I’ll be damned if she didn’t track down my cell phone number and call me. I swear, she has a Gideon-like person on her payroll,” he said with pride. “I would bet that it’s somebody who works in her mother’s company.”

“So she got you on board with saving the Nuri family. I get it.”

“Max, this leaves you and your team free to do what you need to do to carry out your primary mission to get Lark out of Afghanistan. You can leave the Nuri family to me.”

Max snorted. “I told you, Ebrahem worked with me and my guys too. I’m on board with this, Kostya.”

“You won’t be if you have to make an either-or decision,” Kostya warned.

“Then it’s up to you and me to make sure there aren’t any ‘either-or decisions’. Where is Lark now? The CIA has told us Kandahar.”

“When she called me she was in Sangin. That’s where Samira Nuri’s parents lived, but she said it wasn’t safe there, and they would be moving on. I haven’t heard one damn thing from her since I was in your office back in Virginia.”

“Dammit,” Max bit out.

“I was going to say something worse,” Kostya admitted.

“What’s your gut say?” Max asked the man.

“I sure as hell wouldn’t count Lark Sorensen out. What’s more, I’ve decided to put my faith in a God who wouldn’t rain any more tragedy down on the Nuri family, so I say they’re safe someplace. I expect Lark to reach out to me again.”

“Or maybe the CIA will get us something.”

“Stranger things have been known to happen.” Max heard the smirk in Kostya’s voice.

* * *

“Wild boar, huh? Did I ever tell you about the time that we went huntin’ for wild boars? My cousin Freddy took me and two other cousins with him out near Abilene. I was fifteen,” Cullen started his story. Nigel and Randall were enthralled, but Max walked away; he was sure that somehow the story was going to end up with Cullen making a pet out of a baby boar, or wrestling an alligator, and he didn’t have time to hear it. He wanted to know the status of the weapons.

He walked to the back of the shop, past the welders and blacksmiths to the foundry, and found Roger talking to the foreman. He tilted his chin and Roger followed him out the back door. When they were out of earshot, Max asked Roger what the status of the weapons was.

“It’s only Tuesday,” Roger said. “I told you that you would have everything by Wednesday.”

Max gave the former Army Ranger a hard look; he really didn’t appreciate his lackadaisical attitude. Roger held up his hands to soothe Max.

“Seriously, Max, everything’s on schedule.”

“Do you mean to tell me that everything on the list is coming at one time? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No, some of it has already arrived,” Roger said.

What the hell?