“Master Chief Petty Officer Mueller was shot next. Also point blank to the head. Seaman Hobbs and Petty Officer Collins both took cover and tried to escape. Knowing their weapons were useless, they had no other option. Collins was shot in the shoulder. He was left to bleed out while the shooter chased Hobbs. Collins isn’t sure of the exact timeline, but he knows he lay in the forest for some time, possibly hours, before the initial shooter returned. Finding him alive, the shooter decided to take him to the lodge as another hostage. Collins lost consciousness while being dragged through the woods. He doesn’t remember being in the lodge at all. Waking up in the hospital was quite a shock.

Audrey couldn’t even begin to imagine how disorienting that would be.

“He said he has no idea what happened to Hobbs. He has provided their location in the woods as best he could estimate. We have a dozen men including Army Rangers, Special Forces, SEALs, and federal officers searching that area of the forest and expect to receive news soon.”

She swiped at her eyes, fully able to imagine the horror of the night. She could see the trees, feel the rain, hear the shots, smell the gunpowder and blood.

The captain resumed. “Communication continues to be a problem, but we’ve restored cable and landlines and located three signal blockers so far and suspect there are only one or two more. The signal blockers are highly advanced. Technology we’ve never seen before.” He cleared his throat, and his gaze flicked to Audrey, but he addressed Xavier. “We believe the mercenaries were hired by Grigory Laskin.”

Xavier gave a slow nod. “I was going to suggest the same thing. I’ve been thinking along those lines since we knew the mercenary leader—Mikhail—was after both Chris and me. The merc who died in the mudslide mentioned Belarus and a woman.”

Audrey had been the one to share what they’d learned from the mercenary on the hillside, as Xavier had been out of commission, first as he was being examined, then he’d been asleep, which was probably the only reason she was still in the room right now, because she had a feeling they were wading into the ultra-top-secret realm.

The admiral gave a sharp nod. Not surprisingly, he turned to her and said, “I’m sorry, but we’re now in territory that we cannot share with you.”

She nodded. “I understand.” She even knew Xavier wouldn’t spill the details later and had to respect that. There would be no blowback from what he’d revealed to her and George, but the military wouldn’t offer more information than absolutely necessary.

To Xavier, the admiral said, “We’ll discuss this further during your official debriefing.”

“Have any of the mercenaries been detained?” he asked.