“Negative,” Nisha said, dashing his hope before it could really take hold. “It’s empty.”

That meant the weapon probably had been here, Jed realized, and now it could be anywhere.

“Dry hole, Variable,” Jed said, unable to mask his disappointment and worry. “We’ll be off the X in two minutes with whatever intel we can take and one crow to interrogate.”

His words might have filled the team in the TOC with hope, but they did nothing for him.

Because the weapon could easily be airborne right now, and they still didn’t know the target. Victor, maddeningly, remained a step ahead.

“Variable, we need to interrogate any satellite overflight imagery and any other local security camera footage that might have recorded any and all aircraft coming and going from this hangar in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Copy, Sword,” Ben answered. “Retrieve what you can from the hangar and clear out. We estimate a police presence in less than four minutes, so be gone before then.”

“Where do you want us?” Jed asked, jogging toward the north end of the hangar to help Eli and the rest of Joshua Bravo collect any electronics that might be in the hangar and to photograph anything that might be useful.

“Back to your point of origin,” Ben said, referring to the Air National Guard base in Atlantic City where they’d briefed. “We’ll have more direction by the time you land. Secure the crow. I’m on my way to you.”

Ben’s coming to us. Does that mean he has fresh intel—something he doesn’t want to put out on the air?

“Roger that, Variable,” Jed said.

“Vandal is on the X and ready for dust off,” the lead pilot reported.

“Sixty seconds,” Jed replied as he watched his teammates dumping a couple of cell phones and a laptop into a canvas bag that Johnny had pulled from his kit. Behind him, Carl and Hyeon were dragging their prisoner toward the north hangar door as Nisha and Bex photographed and inspected the empty wooden crate.

There was precious little else to take.

Jed scanned the dead bodies littering the floor of the hangar and prayed their prisoner would have something to say.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE

177TH FIGHTER WING, NEW JERSEY AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE

SOUTH END OF ATLANTIC CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

1538 HOURS LOCAL

The conversation with Johnny was one Jed wasn’t looking forward to having but one that needed to be had. The two of them needed to sort out all the emotional baggage they’d both been carrying before they next found themselves in combat. The stress had been weighing on Jed for weeks, but there simply hadn’t been time before now to have a one-on-one.

Jed motioned for Johnny to join him, and the Shepherd’s sour expression signaled what he thought of that.

“You summoned me?” Johnny said with an edge to his voice.