ChapterForty-Three
Ten days later, the op went off without a hitch. The team had been prepared to hike out with the scientist, her son, and the data needed to halt the coming attack, but with the signal-blocker technology they’d recovered from the forest, they were able to disable the system and call for helicopter extraction in addition to being able to upload the scientist’s vast data collection directly onto US military servers before they left the woodland mansion.
Xavier called Audrey with the good news as soon as he was cleared. “They want me here for a few more days to debrief with the team, then I’ll be on leave.” He was taking two weeks leave to sort things out. While he planned to spend as much of it in bed with Audrey as possible, they’d also agreed to a trip to the Bay Area to introduce her to his family and possibly a trip to Arizona so he could meet her father.
“I can’t wait.”
He knew she’d been going stir-crazy. She’d been on leave herself from work while investigations continued in the lodge, but a few days ago, Mikhail’s body had been found inside an RV that had been abandoned in the woods near Sequim, a town fifteen miles east of Port Angeles.
The merc leader had hanged himself in the same RV that had been the home of the unruly campers who’d kept Jae busy the first night.
Three other dead bodies were piled in the rear bedroom, all shot in the head. Jae identified them as the campers he’d encountered in Mora Campground and ejected from the park.
The hanged man had a nasty wound to the shoulder that matched what they’d expect from a shot with a nail. If DNA could be gleaned from the balaclava, they would check for a match, but until then, the wound served to identify him as the missing merc leader.
The three mercenaries in custody refused to make an identification one way or another, and all three men only identified their leader as Mikhail, no last name.
Given that there had been no sign of anyone in the forest and there was no proof any other mercenaries remained at large, the search of the Lake Olympus basin and beyond came to an end. The op was over. It was time for cleanup to begin.
Yesterday, inholding landowners had been permitted to reenter their cabins. Repairs on the lodge would begin next week.
With the success of the SEAL mission, Mikhail’s suicide, and the Russian oligarch’s assets being seized as he now topped the FBI Most Wanted list, the nightmare was over.
“I’d like to meet with your boss when I’m in Port Angeles,” he said. “To explain.”
“You don’t need to. I’ve talked to him. He doesn’t know the details, obviously, but with everything that happened, he’s ready to accept you had your reasons. He acknowledged that if I can forgive you, he certainly wouldn’t make waves or do anything to jeopardize your retirement.”
Xavier’s brain stopped working the moment she uttered the words “I can forgive you”.
“You…forgive me? But what I did was unforgivable.”
“Apparently not, because I do forgive you. I think I stopped hurting over it that night in the lodge, when you explained about the…thing.”
He smiled at her way of avoiding revealing Top Secret information on an unsecure cell phone. “Thank you. I—I’m speechless.” He picked up the ring box from his dresser top. Last week, his mother had shipped her mother’s rings to him. He was more eager than ever to fly north and see Audrey, but their planned two week vacation wasn’t nearly enough.
It was fast, but it was right. If Audrey wanted to wait until after the baby was born to get married, that was fine with him. He didn’t care when they actually did the deed so long as it was a settled matter that they planned to be together forever. In sickness and in health, until the end of their days.
“You don’t need to say anything. Just come back to me as soon as you can.”
“I will. I promise. Who’s staying with you tonight?” he asked.
“Undine. Jae’s working today. Honestly, it feels weird having babysitters now, but I’m not ready to be alone.”
“And I’m glad you don’t have to be. Just a few more days and I’ll be there. In the meantime, have fun with your pregnant girls’ time.”
She laughed. “We’re already sick of the subject. This much time together is too much of a good thing. We’re now binge-watching Leverage and planning our own con games.”
“Isn’t the point of the show to use cons to help the good guys?”
“Oh, naturally, we’ll use our cons for good.”
“Phew.”
“When you get home, will you be able to tell me what all this was really about?”
The fact that she was already referring to her house as his home was an unexpected pleasure that almost eclipsed the second part of her question. “What do you mean?”
“It’s pretty obvious that if you were able to run the op to rescue the chemist, then halting that mission wasn’t the motive. No way in hell would a team of SEALs HALO jump into a compromised op two weeks after…everything we went through.”