He nods. “Think she brought the sniper who was on the ridge?”
“It’s possible.”
The whole situation with a possible sniper still bothers me. Why would he have been on that ridge? He wouldn’t have had a view of where we were sleeping. How would he know we’d head that way?
Moose grunts as he takes a step.
“Hey, let me take a look at your stitches. You’re probably due for a new bandage.”
He sits on a stool. “Sounds good. It’s hurting more than earlier.”
I find a first aid kit in the bathroom and bring it out. I remove the old bandage, and his stitches are more inflamed than I recall them being before. Fortunately, there is some antibiotic cream in the kit, and I slather that on and apply a new bandage. He winces as I work.
“We need to leave here soon so you can get this looked at,” I say as I dig around in the kit. There are a few packets of ibuprofen, so I hand him one.
“Thanks,” he says.
We take turns getting sleep while the other one keeps guard. Just after four in the morning, a car pulls up, and three people get out. Immediately, I recognize one of the people is Harding. Rover and Davis follow her. I open the door, and they shuffle into the kitchen.
“No one came to the house,” Harding says.
“That’s great news,” I say.
Rover yawns. “Yes, except now we’re all exhausted.”
“Rover, you and Davis should try to get some sleep. There are some blankets in the loft.” Harding points to a ladder that leads to a small room overheard.
“Sounds good,” Rover says and is halfway up before Davis even moves.
“What about you?” she asks Harding.
“Well, now that we know we can trust the agency, we should plan to hand off the two we are holding. Then we can return to the States,” she says.
Davis nods. “Sounds good.”
Harding walks out of the room with her phone to her ear.
“Will you be in charge of finding Damien’s killer?” I ask Davis.
“Not likely. I’ll probably be sent out on another assignment. Maybe we’ll work together again someday.”
I nod.
“I’m going to get some sleep.” She heads up the ladder.
A moment later, Harding walks back toward me.
“It’s all set. We are to meet another team in Minsk at four this afternoon local time. After a debriefing and handoff, we will be free to leave.”
That’s great news. Now, we just have to figure out how to keep either Nancy or Sylvia from leaving before we hand them over.
“What’s wrong?” Harding asks. “And don’t say nothing. I can see it on your face.”
“Nancy said she’s leaving as soon as she wakes up. She asked Sylvia to go with her, but I’m not sure why. After hearing Nancy talk, it sounds like she might have had something going on with Damien.”
Harding frowns. “Like what?”
“Either business or an affair. We aren’t sure.”
