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Back Deception Cove
Chapters (78)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Prologue
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. Fourteen
  21. Fifteen
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-One
  48. Forty-Two
  49. Forty-Three
  50. Forty-Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Fifty-Seven
  64. Fifty-Eight
  65. Fifty-Nine
  66. Sixty
  67. Sixty-One
  68. Sixty-Two
  69. Sixty-Three
  70. Sixty-Four
  71. Sixty-Five
  72. Sixty-Six
  73. Sixty-Seven
  74. Sixty-Eight
  75. Acknowledgments
  76. Discover More
  77. About the Author
  78. Also by Owen Laukkanen

Jess caught the eye of her platoon CO, Lieutenant Grieves, who nodded up toward the village and shook his head, frowning. His meaning was clear: no matter how many marines they brought to secure the area, the topography would give any enemy the advantage. From the cliffs overlooking the houses, any number of Taliban soldiers could camp out with rifles and RPGs, raining hell on any marine unlucky enough to be caught out in the open. It was not an ideal place to be spending time, not if you had an American flag on your gear, but Panra had sworn to Afia that her elders had good information, and Panra had always been reliable in the past.

Sweat had drenched Jess’s combat gear by the time she and Afia crossed the twenty yards from Grieves to where Panra stood in the shade. Afia and Panra exchanged a few words in Pashto, and Panra gestured up into the passageway behind her, a narrow stair cut into the mountainside, so steep it was impossible to tell exactly where it led. She smiled quickly at Jess, then gestured again, her eyes darting back to the marines spread out behind, ducked down behind low walls with rifles at the ready, waiting on the first shot that would reveal the ambush.

Jess might have woken at this point if she’d had Lucy with her. She might have called out in her sleep to Afia, a warning, or she might have moaned slightly or whimpered, and the dog, attuned to any sign of anxiety, would have saved her from what was to come. She would have woken to Lucy’s rough tongue on her cheek, or the dog might even have barked to rouse her. Jess would have opened her eyes, heard the rain outside, and the wind; she would have felt the dog’s presence, and she would have known, suddenly and clearly, that she was safe.

But the dog wasn’t here. Jess was alone, imprisoned in her nightmare. And there was no way she knew of to escape what happened next.

Six

Six

Avoid eye contact.

Mason had learned it pretty quick in the yard. Eye contact was a challenge. A challenge meant a fight. And a fight in Chippewa only led to a couple of outcomes: you kicked someone’s ass and you pissed people off, guards or the guy’s friends; or you got your ass kicked and the yard decided you were easy prey. Fights sucked. Mason had worked hard to avoid them.

Out in the free world, though, you couldn’t just go through your days not looking people in the eye, not if you wanted anyone to trust you.

Mason was still learning that. Still retraining his eyes to maintain a connection, training his face out of the slack, expressionless stare he’d cultivated inside. He was still learning to look like a human being again.