Raven Strike Read Online Free

asked Nuri.
    The man looked at him. “That’s not your business.”
    “That’s what I thought.”
    Danny and Nuri got out and went into the building. It consisted of a single room. A set of tables formed two long rows in the center, with chairs running down one side. Dim red lights shone from overhead fixtures; there wasn’t enough light to read a watch by.
    “Most of them bugged out already,” said Nuri, surveying the room. “Shit.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Too few people. If they were running UAVs from here, they would have needed dozens of people. Even if it was just a skeletal crew. Even if they were flying from somewhere else. And the security would have been tighter. I’ll bet they had tents, and just took everything away. I don’t like this.”
    Dubious, Danny looked around the room. It looked more like an empty Knights of Columbus hall than a command post.
    “So where’s this Melissa, you think?” he asked Nuri.
    Nuri pulled out a chair and sat down. “Damned if I know. I never even heard of her.”
    He shook his head. Danny was used to dealing with Nuri—he tended to be a bit of a crank—but this was cantankerous even for him.
    “There aren’t that many people who can deal with East Africa,” Nuri added. “I know them all. And she’s not one of them.”
    “Maybe it’s a pseudonym.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, this is a bullshit way to treat us,” said Danny. As he turned to go back to the door, it opened. A short, thin man with several days’ worth of stubble on his face entered.
    “Colonel Freah?”
    “That’s right.”
    “I’m Damian Jordan.” He reached out and shook Danny’s hand. He had a grip that could crush rocks.
    “We’re supposed to meet Melissa Ilse,” said Danny.
    “She’s not here,” said Jordan. He offered his hand to Nuri. Nuri just stared at him.
    “Where is she?” asked Danny.
    “She got a lead on the aircraft and she went to check it out.”
    “By herself?” asked Nuri.
    “Melissa is like that.”
    “You’re in charge?” asked Danny.
    “Melissa is.”
    “Where’s the rest of your team?” asked Nuri.
    “With the aircraft down, we were ordered to move to a more secure location. We’re pretty wide-open over here. So it’s just me, Ferny—who drove out to get you—and two Ethiopian nationals working as bodyguards.”
    “You trust them?” asked Nuri.
    “Only until the shit hits the fan,” said Jordan. “Then they’ll take off for the hills. Come on into the other building and we’ll get something to eat. I’ll brief you on the way.”

Chapter 9
    Southeastern Sudan
    I t took Li Han several hours to reach the crash site, most of it on foot. A boy in a village allied with the Brothers had seen the aircraft fall from the sky. He showed Li Han the way himself, plunging down hillsides and scrambling over the rocks like it was a game. The Brothers who were with Li Han couldn’t keep up, and in fact even Li Han, who prided himself on his excellent condition, had a hard time toward the end. The moon kept poking in and out of the clouds, and he stumbled several times, twisting his ankle and knee, though not so badly that he gave up.
    And then they were there.
    One of the wings had broken off in flight, but the rest of the aircraft was nearly whole. It looked like a black tent, sitting in the ravine where it had landed. Li Han approached it cautiously, afraid that the Americans had booby-trapped it. They were capable of anything.
    Li Han knelt down next to the fuselage, examining the strange-looking aircraft. It had landed on its back. A missile was attached to the wing.
    Li Han caught the boy as he started to scramble onto the wing near the missile.
    “No,” said Li Han. He used English. The child may not have understood the language, but the tone was enough to warn him away. Li Han pointed, telling the boy to move back.
    Li Han rose and walked to the nose of the small plane. Its skin was covered with a black, radar-absorbing paint,