“I think it plays better if we run them all the way to the hospital, Jed,” Hyeon called from the front. “There’s an overhang at the ambulance entrance to the ER blocking any eyes from above. We sit a minute under that, kill the lights, and then drift back out having supposedly dropped off our patient.”

Jed nodded. It made sense, but the SEAL inside hated the lights and “look at me” scream of the sirens. How these spooks did ops like this day after day was beyond him . . .

“Joshua One, Mother,” said Gayle, joining the party line.

“One,” Jed replied, his heart skipping a beat at the tension in her voice.

“Joshua, we may have a problem.”

“What’s up?” he asked, leaning forward to look out the front windshield, where Hyeon continued to weave expertly through the thick traffic.

“Nightingale Two may be in trouble,” Gayle announced in his ear, using the call sign for the other ambulance. Jed and his team were riding in Nightingale One. “The Chinese security team is catching up to them. If they stop them, we’re screwed.”

“Crap,” Bex said, looking up at him.

An understatement. Once they found the ambulance contained only a drugged Chinese agent and that Zhao was missing, it wouldn’t take them long to connect the dots.

“Anything headed our way?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Gayle said.

He grabbed the bench seat as Hyeon made the turn onto what he remembered would be the exit off the flyway for Garden Road. Another moment and they would be merging onto Queensway Road. In two minutes, perhaps less, they would arrive at Canossa Hospital, across the street from the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. Hyeon had made great time.

“What’s the plan for Nightingale Two?” he asked. “We need more time.”

“I’m directing them to divert from St. Paul’s Hospital and abandon Nightingale Two in a parking garage. They’ll leave the Chinese agent inside and exfil from there. My guess is you have at least ten minutes—fifteen at the most—before we’re blown.”

Jed gritted his teeth. That got them safely to the hospital, but then what? Hong Kong had surveillance everywhere now that the Chinese had taken control. He closed his eyes, imagining the satellite map he’d burned into his mind.

“There’s another parking garage in the north building of Garden Towers, near Canossa Hospital,” he said, talking to everyone now, not just Gayle.

“Check,” Hyeon said, glancing over his shoulder.

“Joshua Actual, unless you have one more trick up your sleeves, we’re going to need Four to pick us up there,” he said, hoping that Nisha and John had a contingency in place he didn’t know about.