Harry had heard rumors about late-night gambling on base, but the flash of colored lights and muted musical notes resembled arcade tunes on old-school video games.

Incrementally, Harry rolled onto his stomach and lifted his head. Each soldier leaned over the mobiles in their hands, fingers moving, their young faces lit by the changing colors of their screens.

Gamers?

A few of the soldiers on base were still in their late teens and had barely reached the legal drinking age. Both of these boys had risked their honor for video games? Unbelievable.

“I just earned Janko status,” the second soldier hissed.

The intolerable humiliation he would endure at SIS Headquarters didn’t bear thinking if either of these soldiers spotted him. So, for what seemed like hours, Harry lay prone, while two video addicts gamed until gray touched the edges of night.

With the approaching dawn, the soldiers headed to their duty stations before the changeover. Harry had no idea who they were, but he had every intention of finding out.

Counting to one hundred after the last footfall had silenced, Harry stiffly climbed out of the MoD vehicle and started down the road. He had obtained necessary intel. Glenkinnon was missing two containers of assault weapons.

A tawny owl hooted high in the pines not far from where Elise huddled beside the sarsen stone. Her eyes strained in the near dark toward the base side of the chain-link fence while she debated whether to disregard SIS policy and go after Harry or stay as instructed. Hours had passed since Harry’s last communication. Anything could have happened to him.

She checked her Glock’s magazine, then shoved it inside her waistband. A stone rolled. Gravel crunched. Elise scooted forward with narrowed eyes.

Like a faded black-and-white film, Harry emerged from the darker gloom in the grayish light. Anger burned within her, eroding every vestige of her kinder emotions. Moments ago, fears for Harry’s safety had consumed her. Now, she was so blazingly furious she could spontaneously combust. Where had he been? And why hadn’t he responded?

The rattle of metal sounded as he crawled under the fence within a few feet of her. She slithered around the stone, keeping it between herself and Harry. He continued toward the 4x4, his boots quiet on the spongy sod. Soft-footed, she followed, reaching him as he opened the passenger door.

She pressed her Glock to his spine. “Rookie mistake, Benson.”

Harry went utterly still.

Elise fairly snickered. Nothing like a gun to put a man on high alert. Doubtless, in Harry’s exhausted state, he had not taken the necessary precautions.

With her free hand, she reached for the pressure point at the back of his neck that would place him on the ground.