Page 34 of Ford

Sneaked back out of the country, redonned the scuba gear, swam to the bottom of the ocean, and reinflated the raft.

And finally, motored out to the extraction point.

All in ten hours.

At night.

So yeah, Ford felt pretty sure he could travel to Russia, whose militiawasn’tshooting people at their border, as far as he knew, track down his sister—yeah, that might be a challenge, but he had a few leads, thanks to Senator White—and get her out of said country.

Okay, that last part had him a little befuddled. He could use backup. A teammate.

But his preferred teammate hadn’t exactly answered her phone when he’d called, twice, from the airport in Helena.

He was taking quite the leap here.

Yeah, this could be a very bad idea.

But he’d been doing a lot of leaping since Hardwin’s phone conversation yesterday morning. He’d put the senator on speaker when White called back less than an hour after Hardwin’s request.

“Here’s what I could find out,” he said. “And if you tell anyone where you got this—”

“This conversation never happened,” Hardwin said, looking directly at Ford.

He still didn’t like the guy, but Ford had to admit, he did a good job of comforting his mother.

All the same, it put him off to see another man holding his mother, replacing his father’s embrace. He’d had to avert his eyes as White talked.

“According to her boss, Sophia Randall, Ruby Jane Marshall left a cryptic message on her phone a week ago saying that she got a tip from one of Randall’s European contacts. He said he’d picked up chatter about an assassination attempt on General Boris Stanislov. Randall was out of the country herself, away from her phone, and didn’t get the message until she landed back in her office four days later. By that time, the shooting had already happened, and Randall was trying to sort it out. She says that she’s been in contact with the bureau chief in Moscow, and he’s trying to find Ruby Jane. They’ve also put out feelers to agents in the Moscow and St. Petersburg areas, and they’ll let me know if she turns up.”

Silence around the table. Ford hung his head in his hands.

“And now I’m going to give you a name, Hardwin. It’s a guy I served with—he was a young buck when I was leaving the SEALs, but he did ten years in that area of the world, and he has the contacts to equip you with what you need to get in and out of the country. He’s no longer active duty, but he runs an international SAR team out of Minneapolis called Jones, Inc. I’ll text you his number. Ask for Hamilton Jones, and you can tell him I sent you.”

The look Kelsey gave Knox had Ford’s radar beeping, and after White hung up, Kelsey filled him in.

Jones was her half brother, a former SEAL with Team Three, and right then, Ford okay-ed the op. He’d heard of Jones and his legendary mission that got him expelled from the teams. Made the guy a bit of a hero in Ford’s book.

The family had waged a short argument as Hardwin tracked down Jones about who, if any of them, might go to Russia with Jones.

Ford didn’t care whose feelings got hurt. “No way am I bringing Knox or Reuben in with me. Sorry, guys, but you don’t know the first thing about covert ops.”

He ignored their ire and turned to Tate. “You. I’d go with you.”

Tate swallowed, glanced at Glo.

“You should go,” she said and slipped her hand into his.

“Whoever was trying to kill Senator Jackson is still out there,” Tate said and looked up at Ford. “I’ll go, but only as a last resort.”

Fair enough. Because even as Tate said it, Ford saw the torment in his eyes.

Family versus the woman he loved.

Ford didn’t want to make him choose.

But Hamilton Jones had a different idea. The former SEAL went right to the point when Ford explained their situation. “I’ll go, but you need backup. It sounds easy, sure—track your sister down, get her a new passport, hustle her out of the country. I’d send my guys in, but I have my own reasons to talk to this contact personally. We might need someone for logistics, someone who can watch our backs, connect us with help if we need it. Can you round up someone?”

And that settled it. Because Tate wasn’t going to fly across the ocean to sit by the phone. Not when Glo might be in danger.