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He flipped open his cell phone and dialed Monroe's private number

"Monroe," answered the colonel on the first ring

"I've got her, sir You'll need to send a cleanup team to her house"

"What kind of "

"Did you get all her research?" asked Monroe

"Think so Do a sweep to be sure, but she said it's all in her head She didn't have any notes"

"Damn I knew she was shead"

David glanced at Noelle's lier seat She didn't look spooky, but he hadn't exactly spent a lot of tiht now she just looked vulnerable and he kept stealing glances to

He had no way of knohat kind of tranquilizer they'd hit her with or how much was in her system The only comfort he had was the fact that he knew that the Swar real bullets He just prayed that their intelligence had been better than his and that the man who had shot her had dosed the tranqs for her sht never wake up And if they lost her, they lost their last, best chance for breaking the most complicated bit of ciphertext that had surfaced since the end of the Cold War That hy both the Swaret her to a hospital," said David

"No She'd be too vulnerable there You've been trained to deal with this situation, so deal with it"

"I don't like this She'd be better off with professional medical attention"

"You take her to a hospital and she'll be dead before sunrise You, too You have your orders, Captain No hospitals"

David resisted the urge to tell Monroe to shove those orders up his ass and glanced at Noelle Her red curls had spilled over her eyes, but he could still see the clean line of her cheek Her skin was too pale and it worried hiet her tucked away at the closest location he'd scoped out during his quick preparation for this op Not far up ahead was a little motel where he could take the ti her and getting the drugs out of her system

"I'll call you when I'm settled and check back in," said David

"Where are you going?"

David had no idea if anyone was listening to this conversation, so he didn't dare give anything away "I'll let you know soon Have a different vehicle ready to switch out with ours, justin case ere followed"

"Is that likely?"

"No, sir I took out all the Tangos I saw I think we're clear, but I'd rather be safe than sorry"

"Right Report in as soon as you can"

"Yes, sir"

David drove until he was a hway and pulled off at the next exit After turning off the headlights, he pulled around the corner and waited to see if anyone else took the obscure exit into Nowhere, Kansas While he waited, he wiped the greasepaint off his face with so for just that purpose When his face was relatively clean and he was satisfied that they were not being followed, David drove down narrow, poorly kept roadways until he reached a cheap, cash-only motel that catered to the desperately horny or the hopelessly lost

The flashing neon vacancy sign buzzed a lazy rhyth lot and slid the truck up close enough to the officethat he could keep an eye on Noelle while he went inside to get a room

The man in the office turned away from his staticky black-and-white TV and pressed his nose to the glass to look outside into the darkness

Daniel glanced at Noelle, who sat sluer seat of his Ford truck He'd seat-belted her in, but during the drive she'd slid down so that she looked etting her into a roo her, which could well raise suspicion on the part of the htest of men David had picked this location because of its relative privacy and the last thing he needed was to have the local police knocking on his door in a half hour, wanting hi around an unconscious woh he had fake ID in his wallet that would fool even the best-equipped police station, his CO wouldn't take kindly to having to cover up the trail of a soldier who bu a place for Noelle to sleep for a few hours

David slid across the bench seat and lifted Noelle so that she sat ht She let out a soft moan and her head lolled forward and landed on his shoulder Her ainst his throat and warm breath swept over his skin like a caress

David's body responded like the man he was--one who hadn't had a woman in two years After his last operation with Delta Force, he'd gone into isolation--co to cause another wo for sex

He clenched his jaw, squeezed his eyes shut and an to field-strip every weapon he'd ever used

With bis eyes shut, the faint scent of strawberry sha his thoughts His body hardened in aout of his brain