Ambush (Michael Bennett #11)(75)

“Said he never had any intel. Didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.”

“What?”

“Don’t panic, Corporal. We’ll figure it out.”

But the key was Dougie’s. He had to know. The key would take us somewhere, give us something with which to buy Cohen’s life.

I nodded. “You’re right.”

But I felt like I was climbing Everest with a flashlight and a pack of chewing gum. I didn’t like the odds, and it was Cohen’s life I was gambling with.

Sarge must have heard something in my voice. He squeezed my foot. “I filled him in on the way over. Told him about Osborne. About the video. The fact they took your man. You watch, Parnell. Between the three of us, we’ll put it all together.”

Dougie reached us. He scooped a beer out of the paper bag, ruffled Clyde’s ears, and sat next to me on the wall. He touched his hand to my knee for only a second. My skin went hot. He looked and smelled the way I remembered him in Iraq, the way he’d been in my dreams.

I had a thousand questions for him. A million. My mind buzzed with them, a nest of hornets careening off the inside of my skull, drilling me with their need to know. I wanted—craved—a rundown of everything that had happened to him since he’d kissed me good-bye three years ago and walked away to join his team.

But not now. Now all that mattered was Cohen. And Malik.

I took the key from my pocket and pressed it into Dougie’s palm.

He stared. “What’s this?”

My heart stepped onto an elevator and pressed B for Basement. “It was in your compass.”

He turned it over in his hand. “I don’t understand.”

Sarge got to his feet and took his own look.

I stared at Dougie. “The Alpha says you have what he wants. Isn’t that right, Sarge? You had what he wants and then you gave it to me.” My voice rose. “The key has to lead to Malik’s video.”

“Rosie, I’m sorry. I’ve never seen this key. And I didn’t hide any intel.”

“You gave me your compass.” My skin was on fire. “That last day before you—before I thought you’d been killed. Didn’t you mean for me to find it?”

Dougie made a fist and popped it softly against his thigh. “Rick Dalton.”

Sarge looked from me to Dougie. “Say what?”

“Rick and I worked together. When we were in the field, we usually shared a sleeping space. A tent, or a room in the house of a friendly. A lot of times it was just the two of us deep in enemy territory. You develop a lot of faith in someone when they have your back. I even trusted him to look after Clyde. He could have left the key, no problem.”

“That’s why the Alpha was asking about Rick Dalton,” I said. “He knew Sarge and Rick Dalton were pals and that Sarge sometimes worked for him.”

“That’s right,” Sarge said. “The Alpha would have known I’d give Malik’s video to Rick.”

“And the Alpha,” I went on, “also thought the same thing everyone else did—that Rick was still alive.” I turned to Dougie. “Rick hid that key in your compass so you would have it if something happened to him.”

“I don’t suppose he left an address, too,” Sarge said.

Dougie stirred. “He was going retire to Vegas. He bought a condo there.”

“But he wouldn’t have mailed the video there,” Sarge said. “He would know that’s the first place the Alpha would look.”

“A postal store, then,” I said. “There have to be a lot of them in Vegas.”

But Dougie shook his head. “You have to think like a spy. If you want to hide something, you don’t bury it in your backyard.”

“Where, then?”

“Somewhere anonymous. Close but not too close. And a place you’d have a reason to visit.”

“That narrows it down.” Sarge made a disgusted sound. “Sounds like mission impossible.”

“It’s meant to be.”

“Why didn’t he just upload the video and email it somewhere?” I asked. “And for that matter, if he trusted you so much, why didn’t he tell you about Osborne and the video? Or just give you the key and say something like ‘in the event of my death’?”

“Maybe he didn’t trust anyone at that point,” Dougie said. “You realize somebody on the inside is a traitor, how can you believe anyone? As for uploading the video and emailing it somewhere, likely he did. Rick would have wanted multiple copies in multiple places. Assuming he dared. The Alpha would have been monitoring communications—by sending that video, Rick would have risked exposing himself.”

“Not only that,” Sarge said. “Malik’s phone was an old piece of shit. Maybe Rick couldn’t upload the video.”

“Okay,” I said. “So he would have needed to send the original somewhere. And not to family, because the Alpha would look at them.”

Dougie laughed. It was a faint flicker of the big booming laugh I remembered so well. This laugh was dry and sharp and came from a place I didn’t know. But it still counted for something.

Clyde must have thought so, too. He rose from where he’d sprawled below Dougie’s feet and leaned against his legs.