his team would be thanking Mendez for pulling out all the stops for them, considering he’d been such a pain in the ass on their op with him last year.
“Stuck in traffic. We’ll need to pull over soon,” Wyatt said a minute later, and damn, the cars were bumper to bumper on the main strip by the river. Not ideal. “We lost communication with the guys in the tunnel, but once we get closer to them, we should hopefully reconnect.”
A.J. had to remind himself Ana wasn’t on a solo op. She wasn’t alone down in those tunnels. His people were there, and she was smart. She’d make it out alive. He trusted her skills, but he didn’t trust the Volkovs.
“Parking here.” Wyatt swooped into a spot opposite the river when another car had backed out. “Perfect,” he tossed out sarcastically. “Right in front of a church.” Once parked, Wyatt scooted around on his seat to face the guys in the back, and Harper radioed the Feds their current position. A hundred feet away were three tourist boats about to unload their guests.
“Now would be the best time to move out. We can blend in with the crowd, then try and hop on board the speedboat,” Chris said, eyes on the river.
“The agents are moving into position,” Harper said once off the radio. “Move out. And be careful.” She gave the guys a stern but loving look. “I’ll be in touch when I hear more.”
A.J. stepped out of the van with Chris and Wyatt and slung a bag over his shoulder. He dodged traffic to get to the river and traversed the crowd of tourists flooding the walkways as they exited the riverboats.
He abruptly halted when static filled his line.
Roman? Ana? A guy shoulder-checked him, nearly knocking his bag off as A.J. stood still, waiting to hear who was on the line in his ear.
Were those Russian words?
“It’s me,” he said over the line, hoping he was now in range to once again communicate with Ana over comms. “If you can hear me, I’m okay,” he told her. “I’m on my way to you.” He hoped to hell Ana heard him. She’d focus better knowing she hadn’t actually killed him.
Wyatt turned in the crowd, searching A.J. out, then hurried back his way. “Come on,” he urged, but A.J. held a hand up, begging for one second.
“A boat to get to a boat?”
Ana. Thank God. And she was giving them a clue.
“They’ve already exited the tunnel,” A.J. said as if Wyatt hadn’t also heard Ana on comms, which he had.
“They must be taking a smaller boat to get to one of the yachts,” Harper chimed in. “We won’t need to wait on the drone to eavesdrop. I’ll have the Feds fly the drone higher in the sky and track the yacht they board.”
“Roger,” A.J. said, still having mixed feelings about all of this. He wished Plan A had been in play, the one where the Volkovs didn’t make Ana prove her loyalty so he’d still be with her now.
“Echo Four, what’s your status?” Wyatt asked as they put eyes on their ride, a Pershing 72 speedboat. Two plainclothes agents were on board, pulling the boat up alongside one of the empty tourist docking sites so Wyatt, A.J., and Chris could quickly board before drawing attention from law enforcement. They’d prefer to keep the local cops out of this op for now.
“This is Echo Five. Sons of bitches wired the tunnel exit with explosives. We’ll be a hot minute,” Finn announced in A.J.’s ear a moment later.
“Lucky you all caught that before exiting,” Chris rushed out.
“We’ll catch another ride out to you if we have to,” Finn added, a bit out of breath from whatever he was doing. Basically, ensuring he and Roman didn’t die.
Another ride meant stealing a boat, probably a tourist vessel, but hopefully, it would be a quick infil and exfil tonight. Their rules of engagement, per Mendez . . . try not to kill anyone. Mendez wanted every last Volkov brought in alive if possible, which would make things trickier.
A few security guards working the tourist docks began yelling in Hungarian at the presence of their speedboat, and the FBI yelled right back at them in the same language. Adding a few hand gestures for good measure. Just great. Gonna get into a gun battle with the local cops.
“We gotta jet,” the dark-haired agent said from behind the wheel. “Get below deck. There’s dive gear down there if you