Free Under the Wire: Bad Boys Undercover by Helenkay Dimon Page B

satellite photo from the last two weeks but could not place any mention of a field operation disguised as a science expedition. “And that’s where I come in? You think this is something the Alliance either knows about or should?”
    “Reid is there. I think he took Parker Scott with him.”
    Tasha could hear the air rattling around inside her chest. Feel the tension ratchet up as her body and brain prepared for battle. “Excuse me?”
    Caleb blew out a long breath. “I lost contact with Cara and I went to Reid.”
    “You’re telling me you lost two of my men.” Two men she planned to strangle when she got her hands on them.
    “I wouldn’t say it that way, since you know how to use a gun, but yes.”
    Good thing she had plenty of fury to go around because right now it extended past the man in front of her to the two on the ground she trusted not to be so reckless. Apparently they were unclear on the concept of vacation. Since neither their real names nor any of their aliases tripped an alarm through passport or visa control, she had to assume they sneaked into Russia. Not exactly a country with the warmest regard for that sort of thing.
    “Why?” And she didn’t explain further. She knew Caleb knew what she was really asking.
    “Cara has a tracker. I thought maybe Reid could find her faster than I could.”
    This conversation just got worse and worse. “You’re saying Cara let him implant a device on her?”
    Caleb winced. “‘Let’ is the wrong word.”
    “When Reid gets back and starts the mandatory refresher course on international travel restrictions I plan to make him take, I’ll throw in one on consent as well.” Reid’s boundaries had never been great, but this . . . damn it .
    “She’s in Russia on a grant from the Bastion Foundation.”
    Tasha didn’t even try to hide her frustration over that news. She grabbed onto the armrests and dug her fingernails in to keep from yelling. “Of course she is.”
    “What?” When Tasha gestured for Caleb to keep explaining, he did. “They are there under the guise of testing theories about some old hiking incident. One of those big unsolved conspiracies. But I did some digging—”
    “I don’t want to know how.” Plausible deniability was a big concept in her dealings with Caleb.
    “She’s there for something else.”
    All the pieces fell together in Tasha’s head. The CIA’s insistence they had agents working to assess what could be a threat in the Urals, and the steadfast refusal to let her bring in the Alliance to help. Those idiots at Langley were using scientists, endangering people without sufficient training.
    She exhaled. “Let me guess. You stumbled upon allegations that a faction within the Russian military—or worse, a private former military group—is using former Soviet era compounds throughout the Urals to do something weapons related, possibly nuclear but also could be chemical, it’s not clear except that the complete takeover of the Ukraine seems to be the endgame.”
    Caleb’s arm dropped and his hand smacked against the side of the chair. “I see you already got the memo.”
    “It’s my job to know these things.” And since she might need Caleb’s backdoor assistance, she filled him in on the basics. “I’d been told there were assets in the region tracking truck movements and poking around to see if the Alliance should investigate. Then satellite access cut off. Signals are being jammed on the ground.”
    “Reid, Parker, and Cara are in the middle of all of that.”
    “I’m not happy about you using my men for your personal mission.” Now there was an understatement. She’d firmly crossed over from frustrated to pissed, but with her people scattered, the Alliance being watched closer than usual after Harlan’s murder, and the need to keep this off the intelligence community’s radar for now, she needed Caleb.
    “I didn’t know about the alternative reason for the expedition until communication got cut off