The Protector Read Online Free PDF Page B

    
     
    Jackson sat back, stunned and disillusioned.
     
    “Look at it this way,” his supervisor added more quietly. “We needed evidence. Now we have a body, the remnants of a bomb, and soon a packing slip. We are going to find these bastards, Maddox. And we are going to make such an example out of them that this new trend in terror will be snuffed out forever. Now, are you with me? Or don’t you have the balls for it?”
     
    “I’m with you.” Jackson had squelched the devastation wrought by extremists in Iraq.
     
    Odd, but what had happened today at a location that was supposed to be a closely guarded secret had the same smell and feel as that hot, unpredictable warzone.
     
     
     
    **
     
     
     
    Ike pushed out of the SUV into the smell of country air and horse manure. He’d tried calling Cougar while driving; only the winding road that took them far from the D.C. Beltway made cellular reception intermittent. Plus, the throw-away phone he’d bought for the mission was a cheap piece of crap that only worked when he tilted his head thirty degrees to the south.  
     
    Ike had made up his mind. Cougar, who’d been AWOL from the get-go, could damn well take over from here.
     
    Glancing back at the Durango, he assured himself that Stanley’s daughter still slept. That pill she’d gulped down earlier had knocked her out, saving him the stress of listening to her nervous prattle. If the fates were kind, he could hand her off to Cougar without having to dredge up another word.  
     
    Nothing personal, but she was just the kind of woman who made feeling nothing, being nothing difficult. The less time he spent with her, the better.   
     
    “Come on,” he muttered, willing Cougar to answer. He had gotten Ike into this mess, and now he was nowhere to be found.
     
    After ten persistent minutes, Ike finally made contact.
     
    “Where the hell are you?” he growled with relief. “I’ve got the package. Tell me where to rendezvous and I’ll hand it off.”   
     
    “Change of plans, LT.”      
     
    Ike scowled at the cryptic message. “What do you mean?”
     
    “I can’t leave Carrie right now.”
     
    Cougar’s older wife—and the source for his nickname—had health issues. She’d been diagnosed with breast cancer when Cougar joined Ike’s team.  
     
    “Can’t leave her,” Ike repeated. What did that mean?   
     
    “I’ve got hospice people all over the place. I can’t keep the package here.”
     
    Hospice people. Oh, Christ, then Cougar’s wife was...dying. “Damn.” Ike felt like the ground had just shifted. “I’m sorry, man.”   
     
    “Yeah, me too.”  
     
    At a loss for what more to say, he listened to Cougar’s labored breathing. The kid was holding it together, one breath at a time.    
     
    “What do you want me to do?” he finally asked. They still had a mutual problem to deal with.  
     
    “Pops said you can keep the package.”  
     
    “No.” Ike’s refusal was immediate and visceral.
     
    “Once the excitement dies down, he’ll give you a call.”
     
    He felt a distinctive throbbing in his temples. “Negative. My place isn’t right for her. There has to be another way,” he insisted, abandoning their code-speak.  
     
    “Well, there isn’t any other way!” Cougar exploded without warning into rage. “Carrie’s gonna die and there’s nothing anyone can fucking do about it!”
     
    “I wasn’t saying—”
     
    “I know what you were saying. Why don’t you think about someone other than your fucking self, you selfish bastard?”
     
    Pain whipped through Ike. Cougar wasn’t just talking about their current situation. He was making reference to the incident at Yaqubai . He closed his eyes and brought up a hand to squeeze the back of his neck. “I can’t take her to my place,” he reiterated.  
     
    “Fuck you, LT. You wanna quit? Then you call the Commander yourself and tell him.”
     
    “Don’t hang