“Of note,” the admiral continued, “it’s clear that Russia’s signal-blocking technology is far ahead of ours, but with the blockers we recovered from the forest, we have already developed a device that we believe can reduce the efficacy of the blockers currently in place in the target property where the scientist and her son are being held.”

Xavier jolted.

The mission is a go?

The admiral addressed him directly. “Yes, Mr. Rivera. Between what we learned inadvertently in the disastrous training and the technology we’ve reverse engineered, we have learned what we need to extract the doctor and her son from Primorsky Krai. In that sense, the LOLE was a success. We’re watching the weather forecasts for heavy rain to provide cover. As soon as one rolls in, we have a team ready to do a HALO jump into the storm.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Ten days later, the op went off without a hitch. The team had been prepared to hike out with the scientist, her son, and the data needed to halt the coming attack, but with the signal-blocker technology they’d recovered from the forest, they were able to disable the system and call for helicopter extraction in addition to being able to upload the scientist’s vast data collection directly onto US military servers before they left the woodland mansion.

Xavier called Audrey with the good news as soon as he was cleared. “They want me here for a few more days to debrief with the team, then I’ll be on leave.” He was taking two weeks leave to sort things out. While he planned to spend as much of it in bed with Audrey as possible, they’d also agreed to a trip to the Bay Area to introduce her to his family and possibly a trip to Arizona so he could meet her father.

“I can’t wait.”

He knew she’d been going stir-crazy. She’d been on leave herself from work while investigations continued in the lodge, but a few days ago, Mikhail’s body had been found inside an RV that had been abandoned in the woods near Sequim, a town fifteen miles east of Port Angeles.

The merc leader had hanged himself in the same RV that had been the home of the unruly campers who’d kept Jae busy the first night.

Three other dead bodies were piled in the rear bedroom, all shot in the head. Jae identified them as the campers he’d encountered in Mora Campground and ejected from the park.

The hanged man had a nasty wound to the shoulder that matched what they’d expect from a shot with a nail. If DNA could be gleaned from the balaclava, they would check for a match, but until then, the wound served to identify him as the missing merc leader.