Chapters (78)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Acknowledgments
- Discover More
- About the Author
- Also by Owen Laukkanen
“Sounds like a good judge of character,” Mason said.
“Yeah, well.” Jess was quiet for a bit. “Anyway, we were friends, good friends, and we worked well together too. She was tough when she had to be; she could bully her way into a room full of women who didn’t want to talk to an American, even a female, and by the time she was done yelling at them and giving them shit, they’d be offering me piraki and a place to spend the night. Plus all the intel they could muster.”
“Perfect,” Mason said.
Jess didn’t say anything for a couple of beats, and when she did, the smile was gone from her voice.
“She was too good at her job,” she said. “That’s what it comes down to. She was too good, and we didn’t protect her.”
Mason let it sit.
“We went on a big winning streak,” Jess said. “Thanks to Afia, we got advance word the Taliban was moving guys in for a raid on our forward outpost, nipped that in the bud. Then she got us word one of their big guys was passing through the valley on his way to Pakistan, and this guy was a big freaking get. We sent in a strike force and a couple of Apaches, took him out and three or four of his lieutenants. Really messed up their day.”
“And the other side didn’t like that.”
Jess shifted beside him. “No,” she said. “They didn’t. They found out it was a woman who was screwing them up—and a Pashtun woman besides—and you can imagine how mad it made them.”
“Sure,” Mason said. He figured the kind of guys Jess was fighting weren’t exactly on board with feminism.
Jess went quiet again. Rain lashed the ruined skiff and dripped into the cave. Lucy shifted position and stretched out and grumbled. And Mason could hear how Jess’s breathing had changed, quickened pace a little bit, and he knew she was going away again.
“You don’t have to,” he said, finding her hand in the darkness and squeezing. “It’s okay if you—”
“We were ambushed,” she said, cutting him off. “We were ambushed, and they knew she’d be with us, knew I’d be there. Someone in the villages sold us out; we were supposed to check up on some intel about enemy movements. But hell, Burke, it was a setup from the start.”
Mason said nothing, kept hold of her hand. And he squeezed again, and she squeezed back, weakly, but he could already tell she was slipping away.
* * *
And then she was back in the valley again. The air still and silent, the sun beating down. The village rose like a citadel in front of her, the village woman, Panra, waiting at the narrow stairs, gesturing forward to Jess, to Afia.