Third door down, right side. The balcony overlooked the northern bay.

He gripped the doorknob with his left hand, the right holding his knife. Quieted his heartbeat. Then he eased the door open.

A hand caught him around the throat, slammed him against the wall.

Ranger’s arm jerked up, breaking the hold free even as his left swung hard.

He connected with cheekbone, and the man stumbled back, hit the bedframe. Bounced off it, lit.

Ranger blocked the right hook. “Pete. It’s me. Range.” He gave him a push, nothing too hard, but enough for Pete to step back.

He stood, breathing hard, his eyes widening on Ranger. “What the— What are you doing here?”

And for a split second, Ranger heard him, the old man, years ago when he’d told Ranger to stay away from his daughter. “The last thing she needs is a broken heart over a man who might not come home.”

Yeah, well, this was not that day.

“You haven’t checked in. Logan is worried.” Ranger’s mouth pinched. “Noemi is worried.”

Pete looked a little worse for wear, shadows under his eyes, a red mark on his cheek where Ranger had clocked him. Oops.

“Is she okay?” Pete wiped a hand across his face. “I had to destroy the burner phone, but—”

“She’s okay. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. After the call, I had some explaining to do. Said it was for a shipping contact. But they’re watching me. I haven’t been able to leave.”

“Do you know where they’re keeping the virus?”

“Yes. It’s in the pool house, in a number of small containers. They had it motored up the river a week ago.”

“Do you know when the attack is?”

Pete shook his head. “But it’s soon. They’re expecting someone—I think it might be one of the Petrovs—to arrive any day. He’s in charge of the deployment.”

Outside, voices lifted, shouting.

“Dodge, what’s going on?” Ranger said into his coms.

“Colt has the boat off the mangroves, but he’s run into the dock. I think he’s pretending he’s drunk. A few more guys have peeled off to the house. You need to exfil.”

Footsteps sounded on the stairwell, carried through the house.

“You gotta go,” said Pete.

“Noemi will kill me if anything happens to you.”

More footsteps.

“Listen, if I leave, we won’t have inside intel.”

“And if you stay, you’ll get made. Noemi can’t take you dying again.”

Something ticked in Pete’s expression. “I’m sorry.”

Pounding sounded at the door.

Ranger headed for the closet and tucked himself inside just as Pete opened the door.

Keeping the door open just enough to see through the sliver of light, Ranger ducked back out of the stream as one of the men thundered into the room.

Wow, he wished he knew Russian.