Nobody moved.
“By dawn, we were down to three. Vale, me, and Haskins. The asset had been hit. He kept repeating one phrase in Russian.”
“What phrase?” Margaret asked.
I looked at Shepard.
“He said, ‘The orchard has roots in the Pentagon.’”
Shepard’s face hardened.
Richard looked suddenly alert.
“At the time, we thought he was delirious,” I continued. “Then the extraction coordinates changed. Only command had those coordinates.”
Margaret’s pen stopped moving.
“Changed to where?”
“A dry riverbed west of Qarah.”
Shepard whispered, “No.”
I nodded.
“They were waiting for us.”
The conference room lights hummed overhead.
I could hear my own heartbeat.
“Haskins died first. Vale ordered me to take the children and run. I refused. We argued while mortars walked toward us.”
A memory flickered.
Daniel’s hand on my vest.
His blood on my cheek.
His voice: Claire, that is not a request.
read more in next page
