“Just intercepted a covert message. Encrypted, but I cracked it. Mentions an American scientist in Costa Rica being targeted for abduction. Green sea turtles, Tortuguero region.”
There was a pause, then a hissed curse. “Casey’s with me. We’re stateside.” Tex could hear movement in the background, the scrape of a chair. “Where exactly in Costa Rica?”
Tex scanned the data again, fingers flying over the keyboard until he found what he needed. The coordinates popped up on the map, blinking near the Caribbean coast. “About twenty clicks north of Tortuguero proper. That coastline’s a prime spot for nesting. Makes sense the poachers would base out of there.”
“Shit,” Beatle muttered, his voice going lower. “Casey’s gonna lose it when she hears about this. You said it’s a scientist?”
A few keystrokes pulled deeper the information he sought. “Yeah. Female, by the looks of it. Gabriella Valentino. Marine biologist attached to some international preservation group.” He did another search.
“She’s recently divorced and forty years old. Currently five-foot-eight and one hundred and seventy pounds, per her driver’s license. Brown hair and green eyes. Graduate of UCLA. She was paired with the University of St. Andrews in the UK for a research study they were conducting. Fundings are public and online for viewing.” He clicked on a photo of the group of scientists accepting their awards, and he spotted Gabriella, the sole female amongst the group.
He heard a heavy exhale from the other end. “Damn. They always go after the ones trying to do good.” Beatle’s tone hardened. “You think the agent embedded in that group is still alive?”
Tex grimaced. “Can’t say. Message was fragmented, so it might’ve been sent under duress. Whoever it was, they were trying to get the warning out before comms went dark.”
Beatle’s voice shifted, all business now. “You want me to loop in Ghost?”
Tex chuckled softly despite the situation. “You know me too well.” He started typing again, sending the file through a secure channel. “Already uploaded the data packet. But I’ll need someone to verify the intel down south. Someone who can make quiet inquiries before it hits the wrong ears.”
“Copy that,” Beatle said. There was movement on his end, a door opening, the muted sound of Casey’s voice in the background. “We’ll see who’s closest. Maybe Ghost’s new team can help. They’ve been running training ops in Panama.”
Tex nodded, even though his friend couldn’t see him. “Good call. Let me know what you find. I’ve got a bad feeling about this one.”
“Youalwayshave a bad feeling,” Beatle said dryly, though Tex could hear the undercurrent of concern.
“Yeah,” Tex admitted softly, eyes drifting towards the upstairs hallway where Melody slept peacefully. “But this time … it feels personal.”
Beatle’s voice came back quiet but firm. “We’ll handle it, brother. Send me everything you’ve got.”
Tex did, and as the last file uploaded, a chill crawled up his spine.
Because buried in the encrypted metadata, almost invisible, was a phrase he hadn’t seen in years. A codeword he hadn’t heard since his SEAL days.
And it didn’t belong in a poaching op.
THE VEILHAS STARTED MOVING.
CHAPTER 3
GABRIELLA
The jungle continued to swallow them whole, pressing in from every direction with its dense, layered walls of broad leaves and hanging vines, the canopy above them so thick it killed the moonlight before it reached the ground. The darkness here was absolute—not the soft dark of a bedroom with light bleeding under the door, but the total, disorienting dark of a place that had never needed to accommodate human vision.
Somehow Mateo knew the path to take, though there were no markings or trail which added to Gabriella’s confusion.
And there were bugs.
So many bugs making so much noise—a relentless, layered wall of sound built from the high whine of mosquitoes working close to her ears, the rhythmic sawing of insects she didn’t know, the percussion of beetles and moths colliding with leaves, the whole living orchestra of it pressing in from every direction.
She had only mentioned briefly to Mateo that she was afraid of bugs. She’d hoped he would have remembered. Or cared.
They can’t hurt you. You know they can’t hurt you. They’re more scared of you than you are of them.
Her logic dissolved the moment a winged insect brushed her cheek.
She screamed, the noise competing with the background. Mateo stopped briefly to check in. “What happened?” he asked, his voice thick with concern.
“B-bugs!” she choked out, unable to hide her horror.