Chapter 5
Ethan snapped, “Colonel, you can’t be serious.”
Peterson turned on him.
“I am listening to the only person in this room who noticed the way in.”
Ethan’s face burned.
Linda moved to the tactical table.
Her finger traced the ridge, then the valley floor, then a dry riverbed east of the hostages.
“Send the assault team through the cut. Not the main ravine. They’ll expect that.”
The operator adjusted the map.
Linda continued.
“Use the drone to pull their eyes west. Make them think the rescue is coming from the old road.”
Peterson nodded.
“And the hostages?”
Linda stared at the screen.
“Maddox will know.”
Ethan barked a laugh.
“Oh, now the hostage is going to read your mind?”
Linda reached for the radio headset on the table.
The communications officer hesitated.
Peterson gave a small nod.
Linda put it on.
Her fingers trembled for the first time.
Not from fear.
From memory.
“Patch me into short-range burst,” she said.
The officer swallowed.
“That frequency is encrypted.”
Linda’s eyes stayed on Maddox.
“Then use channel Blackbird Nine.”
The room went silent again.
No one outside a small group of classified operators should have known that channel existed.
Peterson’s face lost color.
Ethan looked around, suddenly unsure.
The communications officer patched her in.
Static filled the speakers.
Linda leaned toward the mic.
“Barber says the back door is open.”
At first, nothing happened.
Then on the giant screen, Chief Maddox blinked.
Once.
Twice.
He slowly lowered his chin.
A signal.
May you like
He had heard her.
Read Part 6 to find out who Linda Carter really was before she became the woman cutting hair beside the PX.
