Covert by Carolyn McCray Read Free Book Online

Covert
    Brandt stopped as their new point man, Levont’s, hand balled up into a fist. Brandt didn’t even complete his step. He stood, balancing on one foot, waiting, listening for why the point man had called them to the halt.
    Tension rippled through his muscles. Brandt shouldn’t be here in the steamy African jungle. He should be home, in the humid Southern summer, getting ready to marry Rebecca. But no, some tribe had to find a lost Nazi mine.
    And not just any mine, but one with enough uranium to fuel a nuclear bomb. Hence the urgency of their mission, and why they hadn’t even disembarked from their plane in South Carolina before getting shipped out to the Congo. The nearest other rapid response team was in Turkey, busy on the Syrian border. Hence why Brandt and his team were needed here.
    Levont’s hand relaxed, then snatched up into a ball again. Okay, that was enough. This was the fifth time they had stopped in as many steps. Once again, Brandt missed Svengurd. The tall Swede had been rock solid. None of this stop-start kind of crap. And even though Harvish was by no means a great point man, he had saved their lives in the end. So Levont had some pretty big shoes to fill, and just about now they didn’t seem to fit quite right.
    Carefully, Brandt made his way past Davidson, Talli, and Lopez to come shoulder to shoulder with Levont. The dark-skinned man’s fingers swept from his eyes out into the jungle.
    At first, Brandt didn’t understand what the man was looking at, until he spotted a hint of orange. Was it a flower? Then it moved, the color disappearing behind a wall of green. Guess Levont did know what he was doing.
    “They’ve been tracking us for about a half a mile,” Levont whispered.
    It didn’t make sense, though. If the figure was a member of the tribe guarding the uranium, they would have sent up the alarm, not quietly tracked them through the jungle, let alone while wearing orange, of all colors, while doing so.
    Perhaps it was a curious villager? They didn’t have a single second to delay in searching for someone who did not want to be found. Not if Brandt’s team wanted to make their evac time. And Brandt very much wanted to get home.
    With a nod, Brandt gave the order to move forward. Levont took point, but that orange color flashed again. This time, though, looking closely between the fronds, Brandt saw that it was a little girl tracking them.
    He went to take a step forward, but the girl put a hand up, cocking her head to the south. Sure enough, the sound of footsteps drifted up from the path. His team abandoned the game trail and hid amongst the dense foliage.
    Machine guns slung over their shoulder and dressed in jungle camouflage, soldiers ran past them. If the girl hadn’t warned them, they might have been discovered by a random patrol.
    By the time the soldiers had trotted by and his team came out from the bushes, the girl was gone. Levont looked to Brandt. Should they try to follow the girl? They should, of course. She could raise the alarm back at the village. Although, somehow, Brandt didn’t think they needed to worry about that. If she wanted to get them caught, all she had needed to do was sit by and allow the soldiers to find them.
    Brandt indicated toward the village and Levont set out. Lopez, Talli, and Davidson passed by Brandt, each giving him a curt nod and approval to his decision. Not that he needed it, he thought as he brought up the rear. He didn’t run his unit on popularity, yet his men would still follow him into hell. Actually, if you factored in Rome and Jordan, they already had.
    He hoped the Congo wouldn’t be quite that brutal.
    The key word there was “hoped.”
    * * *
    The deck bucked and rolled under Rebecca Monroe’s feet. Rain lashed at her face, soaking her hair. She clung to the guardrail as if the metal could somehow save her. They were being hounded, and if they got hit before they made shore…
    For once, it wasn’t a secret millennia-old