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the chance that he’d screw up and bin Yusuf would walk away, now could we? The mission was still critical.”  
    Mendez turned away without waiting for an answer. “As it is, he escaped anyway.”
    Nick didn’t bother to protest that it wasn’t his fault. It was . Victoria had been there, right beneath his nose, and he hadn’t known it. She’d been setting up for a shot as difficult as his—but she’d fired first… and changed everything.
    Dex looked over at him and frowned. Nick gave his head a small shake. He didn’t think Dex planned to tell the colonel it wasn’t their fault, but the guy was still new enough that maybe he did. Dex leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest, looking as pissed as anyone in the room.
    “Good job identifying our mystery sniper, soldier,” Mendez said, spinning around and pinning Nick with another look. “Without that, we’d still be in the dark about what was going on.”
    Nick blinked. Was the colonel screwing with him?
    But no, everyone was looking at him and nodding their approval. And he felt like shit inside because he’d let her get away. Jesus .  
    He should have rushed her when he had the chance and to hell with the pistol in her hand. She might have hesitated. He might have surprised her enough to get the gun from her before she shot him. But he’d been so pissed he’d walked away, giving her the chance to escape before he could double back and take her by surprise.
    “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”  
    But the words stuck in his throat like barbs.
    Mendez sat at the table and flipped open the folder. “Victoria Faith Royal. Twenty-five years old. Single. Red hair. Gray eyes. Her sister is Emily Hope Royal, twenty-three years old, blond hair, brown eyes. Emily has a history with substance and alcohol abuse. But then she began seeing a man a few years ago who helped her get clean. This man came to the US from Qu’rim to learn engineering but dropped out of school after a couple of years and started hanging around a mosque. He became radicalized.”
    Mendez paused and looked up. Nick felt himself leaning forward, hanging on the colonel’s every word.  
    “Emily converted to Islam and went to Qu’rim with this man. We think she may have married him, but we don’t know for certain. Once here, he became active in the Freedom Force. He was a minor player, but with the collapse of the organizational structure and the subsequent resurgence, he’s become someone to watch. In short, he was our target.”
    Nick felt as if someone had sucker punched him. This was the reason Victoria had left the Army? She’d said that she hadn’t failed. But her sister associating with known terrorists must have been too much for the Army to take.
    “Jesus,” Ryan “Flash” Gordon said, echoing what they all had to be thinking.  
    It was a tangled web of relationships worthy of a soap opera. But far more dangerous.
    “Is that why Victoria left the Army?” Nick asked.
    Mendez glanced down at his papers. “Though there was never any evidence she sympathized with her sister or bin Yusuf, she was thought to be a security risk. She was offered a desk job with no access to classified information, but she refused. Subsequently, she was discharged.”
    Nick shoved a hand through his hair and frowned. Victoria’s sister ran away with a terrorist, and now Victoria was in Qu’rim, working for an outfit that seemed to be protecting the very organization her sister’s lover—or husband—was part of.  
    Nick thought of how she’d threatened to shoot him, and fresh anger swelled. He’d let her get the jump on him because he’d believed her to be on his and Dex’s side, however temporarily. She’d needed them to escape the opposition fighters, but what if she’d run right into the arms of the Freedom Force once she’d disappeared? It made Nick’s blood run cold and his stomach tighten.
    Mendez slapped the folder closed and Nick jumped. All eyes went to the