Game of Dust and Ashes (Book Two in the Covert Operations series)

Epilogue

JFK International Airport, New York, February 14, 2021, 5:36 A.M.

They watched from the window of the airport terminal as the small private plane was loaded.

On the tarmac below, a small congregation had gathered. The characteristics of the people were near-indistinguishable, both because of the distance and the darkness of the morning. The sun had not yet started rising on the horizon and the tarmac was wreathed in shadows.

Not like it mattered if they could see the people or not. They already knew who was down there.

A young woman with blue eyes and brown hair. There would be a man next to her, taller and broad, with eyes that were blue, but darker – not the sky blue that hers were. His hair was the colour of sand.

And then a young dark-haired woman standing firm and confident next to a man in a hospital bed. This was a flight home for him, but it was also a medical transportation. The copper-haired man in the bed had been shot in the spine and would likely never walk again.

At least, that was what the doctors assumed. The couple watching from the terminal windows were of a differing opinion, though it could take years for them to perfect their research.

Maybe less, the man thought as he looked towards the other near-indistinguishable figure. This one was more familiar – the green eyes and black hair. The strong and assured way that he moved, nimble and lithe. They'd met several times through Project Redfire over the years.

Now, Daniel Ortiz was the last surviving experiment. The last chance to get it right, since their labs had been ransacked and obliterated. The man's research remained, contained within his mind and his journals. But a test subject would be nice.

"There he is," the woman said.

The man didn't look to see if she were talking about Ortiz or the man in the bed – their son. "Yes."

"Do we act now?"

"No."

He spoke without turning to look at his wife. He kept his eyes on the scene in the distance, as they began loading the hospital bed into the plane. As hugs were exchanged by the other dark figures. A goodbye.

"Not now," he said, tracking the figure he knew to be the dark-haired man with green eyes. "But soon."