Page 40 of Dangerous Protocol
“Do as you are instructed, Adnan.” The king did not soundpleased.
Jeffrey swung the door open, and they all swept into the room. He twisted the knob and, without so much as a click, shut the door and secured it behind them.
He tapped his ear. “Casey, on my mark, douse the lights.” He counted down, “Three, two, one, mark.”
The team was immediately plunged into darkness.
They lowered their night-vision goggles into place, and the heat from their bodies glowed green.
A loudthumpfollowed by a horrendouscrashpreceded the sound of glass shattering in the hallway.
“Dammit.” Sounded like Adnan Bashar ran into the table and knocked it over. “Where is my phone?”
“Cover the door,” Jeffrey whispered to Wolf and Mason, and he and Andi rushed over to the bed. “Jesus, she looks so small.”
Andi knelt on the bed and pressed a finger to the side of Isla’s neck. “Pulse is slow but strong.”
Jeffrey bent forward, slid one arm beneath his daughter’s knees and the other under her shoulders, then lifted her into his arms. She was slender and weighed next to nothing. Her head lolled back over his arm, and the scarf slid off and landed on the floor. Her long hair tumbled free and draped over his arm.
“What about Bashar?” Wolf asked.
“Neutralize him,” Jeffrey whispered.
Wolf nodded and cracked the door open just enough to hear the man’s footsteps resume.
Bashar cursed under his breath as he slid his hand along the wall and headed right toward them.
Wolf locked the door, signaled for his team to back away, then waited.
Isla began to stir, and Jeffrey tightened his hold.
A key rattled in the lock, the door swung open, and Bashar’s bright green heat signature stepped into the room.
He took three steps into the space, and Wolf moved up behind him. He wrapped one long arm around the front of Bashar’s neck and squeezed. A sort of guttural grunt came from his throat. He clutched at the arm around his neck and began thrashing his legs around.
Wolf simply lifted him a few inches off the ground, and in less than a minute, Bashar stopped struggling, his head drooped to the side, and his arms and legs hung limp. Wolf carried him over to the bed, tossed him onto the middle of it, and threw the comforter over him.
“He should be out long enough for us to get out of here.” He adjusted his vest.
Jeffrey looked at his watch—two minutes to spare.
He tapped his earpiece so that Viking, Calliope, and Casey could hear him. “We’ve got her and are on our way back down to the tunnel.”
“Affirmative,” Viking said.
“Excellent,” was Calliope’s response.
“Casey, you know what to do,” he said.
“I’m on it.” He would call Maya to let her know they’d retrieved Isla.
Before Jeffrey left to meet the team, she’d promised not to respond to Al-Mansoori’s message. She trusted Jeffrey and the team would get their daughter out before the deadline.
“Let’s go.” He held Isla close and followed Andi into the hallway.
She would cover his front, and he trusted Wolf and Mason to have his back, leaving him to focus on Isla.
Careful to avoid the shattered glass, water, and flowers strewn everywhere, they made it to the stairwell, where the emergency lights had come on. They tilted up their NVGs, and since Jeffrey’s arms were full of little girl, Andi lifted his for him.