“Get it over with. I’ll even give you my good side to hit.” Constantine turned his cheek and made a come-hither motion to a man who looked every bit as intimidating as my brother.
So much for not starting shit. I stepped around Constantine and spread open my arms, blocking him from Carter’s path. “It’d be better for us if he has use of both eyes when we go break a few dozen laws tonight,” I told Carter in case he was considering the offer.
“He’s right,” Jesse remarked, standing between Carter and his other teammate, Jack London. Jack had been army SF and after that worked for the CIA’s Special Activities Division. All I knew was if Jesse trusted him, so did I. “We need to be united tonight,” Jesse went on. “Put the past behind us.”
Constantine elbowed his way around me to get to Carter. “Let me guess,” he began, “that pistol you have at your side doesn’t have rubber bullets. What are you planning later? Accidental crossfire?”
In all fairness, my Sig Sauer M17 wasn’t exactly shooting blanks. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to use it tonight.
“If I wanted you dead, I’d look you in the face and do it, and you know that.” Carter’s words were a low hiss, a crackle in the night air.
We were outside Syracuse in Fayetteville, four miles away from Green Lakes State Park. The CIA’s location for a safe house was a bit of a question mark, and although my opinion on the Agency was less jaded than Constantine’s, I had some concerns about the officers who had the cleaner. Hence the pistol at my hip and the rifle I’d be taking with me tonight.
Jesse set a hand on Carter’s shoulder, urging him to step back. “We need to roll out.”
“Come on.” I grabbed hold of Constantine’s arm, mirroring Jesse’s moves.
“I’m sorry,” Constantine surprised me by saying. “I never said that to you back then. Only to her.” He drew his hands to his hips and bowed his head. “You weren’t just her friend in college. You were dating her, and I convinced Rebecca it was a bad idea to date a friend. I shouldn’t have done that, and I’m sorry.”
Ah shit. Well, I supposed the anger from Carter made a little more sense now.
“But you weren’t really her second choice. She should never have been with me in the first place, and she did go back to you.” Constantine spoke as if trying to reinforce his words with titanium so they’d deliver more of an impact. “I get it, you had to pick up the pieces after I left. And I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry she died.”
Carter’s shoulders relaxed for the first time since we’d arrived. “We were young,” he said. “And I’m angry she died. I’ll always be upset.” He shook his head. “Like you’ll always be upset about Bianca.” He jerked a thumb toward our SUVs parked side by side, a motion to get a move on. “Let’s just do what we came here to do.” And then he turned, and Jack followed him to the back of their SUV.
Constantine joined Hudson and Alessandro, and they began strapping on their vests. Prepping for the mission.
Jesse looked back at his team leader, then focused on me. “That was close. Carter’s not one to let go of a grudge.”
“I can see that. You sure he’s going to be fine to roll on this op?” I asked him.
“He’s one of the best, so yeah, he’s solid,” Jesse remarked with a nod. “And we’ve called in for backup just in case we get any unexpected visitors showing up looking for the cleaner as well.” He checked his watch. “But the schedule is tight. Not sure if they’ll make it in time, and we can’t afford to wait for them.”
“Let’s hope we’re first to the cleaner, then,” I said as Jesse reached out and patted me on the shoulder before joining his teammates.
I went over to our rental SUV and double-checked my Kevlar plate carrier vest. The ballistic vest came with chest plates for protection, a first aid kit, a grenade pouch of ten, twelve ammo mags, and more. And tonight, rubber bullets.
“I got a bad feeling. You?” Hudson asked as I adjusted my knee pads, then flexed my hands into fists, stretching out the tactical gloves.
“You feel like we’re being watched?” I looked over at the bank of trees off to my right.
“I do, so heads on a swivel.” Hudson patted my shoulder as Carter and his men joined us.
I clipped on my helmet and knocked my night-vision goggles up out of the way.
“Your comms.” Jack handed out the earpieces. “We’ll be in your ear the whole time. No need to tap them on or off.”
Alessandro positioned it into his ear, and I did the same. “You ready?”
“Let’s go over the plan one more time.” Carter had an iPad, and we gathered around him, since he was Alpha One, team leader tonight. And thankfully, Constantine hadn’t argued about that. “This is our insertion point.” Carter zoomed in on the aerial view of the cabin. “Only four heat signatures inside. Pretty light for the CIA.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking Uncle Sam didn’t approve of their grab-the-cleaner-from-the-border-mission.” Jack spoke up.
“It’s possible the man we’re hunting paid off those CIA officers,” Carter said.
“And does that man have a name?” I asked.
“No, but we’re hoping to find it out tonight,” Carter answered, eyes on me. “But still, no killing any officers. We clear?”
“Roger that,” we agreed in unison.
“We’ll advance together until we’re three hundred meters from the cabin,” Carter went on. “We’ll break off, and the assault force will move in, and snipers will head to overwatch.”
The assault team consisted of Jesse, Jack, Alessandro, and myself. Carter, Hudson, and Constantine, the best shooters, would move to higher ground to get to a better field of vision with the widest coverage, and they’d have our sixes as we moved in. Well, that’d been the plan Jesse had shared with us on our drive to meet up with them from the airport. With any luck, it’d be a quick in and out.
But historically, luck was rarely on our side, and shit always went sideways. And with that “watched” feeling having my spine tingling, I readied my rifle and lowered my NVGs, and the green glow filled my line of sight.
“Let’s do this,” Jesse said after we did a comms check; then he fist-bumped us all, and we scattered into our positions.
I kept tabs on the rest of my crew on the assault team over comms, since I couldn’t visually make them out anymore, our camo clothes blending us into the terrain. “Nearing target location,” I shared, and a pop of static filled the line, followed by bursts of rounds being fired off in the distance. And then there it was. The bad feeling coming to life. “The cabin is under attack. A sharpshooter somewhere. Probably two.”
“This is Alpha One,” Carter said. “Get down until we can make out their positions. Stay low until the threats have been eliminated.”
“The men inside won’t have time.” I low-crawled, trying to locate where the shots were coming from.
“This is Alpha Five, I have one scoped. Let’s hit the snipers at the same time. Can anyone locate the second shooter?” Hudson asked.
“This is Alpha Seven. I have movement. Prepping the shot.” I lined my sights on the man’s chest. Dialed in my scope to two hundred meters. Then, letting go of a breath, I relaxed my body in anticipation of the shot.
“On my count,” Hudson said. “Three, two, one.”
I squeezed the trigger, and the recoil came back and into my shoulder. Contact made. “He’s down.”
“Mine as well,” Hudson answered.
“Charlie Mike,” Carter ordered. Continue mission.
“Fuck.” I heard someone curse over the line not even a second later, certain it was Constantine. And then an order. “Shields the fuck up. We’ve got a swarm heading our way from behind. We were followed.”
“I have movement. There’s still someone alive inside,” I said amid the gunfire. Screw rubber bullets. We’d been under attack for the last five minutes from every angle. I’d taken three lives so far tonight, and as I neared the cabin to check for life, I had a feeling there were more kills to come. “Permission to move inside and check?”
“This is Alpha One, I’ve got you covered. Move in,” Carter answered. “Alpha Two, go in with him. We’ve got you.”
Maybe it was something primal inside me, but as I maneuvered along the side of the cabin to access the room where I’d spied movement, my body hummed, and adrenaline propelled me forward. This was what I was good at. What I felt like I’d been made to do. Fight. Win wars. Be a fucking gladiator of modern times.
I caught a flash of movement from the side, ensured it wasn’t someone from my team, and set my crosshairs on him. After a quick calculation, I adjusted and squeezed off a round. My fourth kill now.
“Keep your head down, Seven.” Constantine’s voice cut over the line, using my call sign, as I swapped my rifle for my pistol.
Jesse set a hand to my shoulder and tapped, letting me know he was there. I kept my head low and carefully opened the door. A bullet punched the door, almost hitting me.
“Fuck. Sorry,” Constantine groaned. “You’re clear.”
“A little close there, brother,” I hissed while moving inside.
The cabin was pitch-black, but with my night vision, I could make out two bodies not going anywhere, face down in the room. And another in a chair. Head hung. Probably cuffed to it. “Cleaner is down,” I alerted the team in a low voice. “But we have movement. Looks like one officer is still alive.” And he was crawling, trying to get cover.
“This is Alpha One. That’s a good copy. See if he knows anything. Get him to talk. We’ve got your back out here.”
War rumbled around us from outside and from every direction. And from the sounds of it, we’d be needing that backup and soon. By my guess, we had more than one team of bad guys out there trying to get inside the cabin, and we were all that stood in the way of them doing it.
A few more bursts of fire tapped at the exterior of the cabin, and I ducked out of view of the window and put eyes on Jesse, ensuring he was still good. He nodded and flicked his wrist and pointed to the guy crawling.
“We’re friendlies,” Jesse told him. “Here for a rescue.”
The man on the floor went still, and I spied his hand curling into a fist. Did he have something he was trying to protect?
“How do I know I can trust you?” he asked, still flat on his belly. No weapon in hand from what I could tell, and whatever was in his palm was too small to be a grenade.
“And how do we know we can trust you?” I countered. “The government sent a small team for such a valuable man. It’s almost like your boss didn’t clear this mission.” I took a knee, keeping my arm extended, pistol on him.
“Everyone wants the cleaner, but he’s dead. If you get me out of here, I’ll give you the client list he gave us just before the attack,” the man said instead. “Do we have a deal?”
Fuck, that was good news. “Deal,” I said without hesitation, but then a prickling sense of awareness washed over me as a red dot appeared on the guy’s back.
“Move,” I yelled to him, but it was too late, and he collapsed as the round made contact.
Jesse and I searched for cover as an unrecognizable voice came over comms. “This is Echo One. Sniper down.”
Echo One? And was he British? “Tell me that’s our backup,” I mouthed to Jesse, and he nodded.
“Sorry we’re late to the party, boys,” the Brit went on, “but we’re here now. And it looks like we have company. Two vehicles are en route, and they’re armed to the teeth. I suggest you get cover now.”
“Roger that,” Jesse replied, then low-crawled to the downed officer, and he unfurled his palm. “We have jackpot,” Jesse announced, letting the team know we weren’t walking away empty-handed.
“Wait for my orders to leave the cabin,” Carter said. “We need to get you and that package out of there, and there are too many threats out here.”
A whooshing sound of static hit my ear from the comm, followed by rapid sounds of gunfire outside the cabin as we made our way back to the side door. I exchanged my pistol for my rifle while we waited for orders.
“This is Echo Two. You want any of these fuckers rolling up in armed vehicles alive, or do you prefer them extra crispy with a side of bacon?” A Southern accent rolled through the line, hard to miss even over comms.
Who the hell were these guys?
“This is Alpha One. Keep a few alive if you can.”
“Roger that,” the Southerner answered.
“Echo Two’s my wife’s brother,” Jesse shared with me in a low voice. “So don’t worry, he’s highly motivated to get us out of here.” He looked back at me, and a flash of his bright-white teeth from a smile was visible through the green hue of my night vision.
“So your wife will kill him if something happens to you?” I asked.
Another smirk from Jesse. “Let’s just say you don’t want to get on a Southern woman’s bad side.”
“That’s the truth.” Another unfamiliar voice, and I detected a Boston accent. I forgot the fancier-than-normal comms meant they could hear us whether we wanted them to or not.
“And that voice you just heard . . . my sister’s husband,” Jesse remarked.
“A family business, huh?” I was shocked we were smiling and joking in the middle of battle. But hell, it only brought me back to my days in the army. And it wasn’t any different back then, only my dark sense of humor in my early twenties was a lot worse than now.
“You don’t know the half of it,” the Southerner, Echo Two, said in response. “And we’re preparing to send a little gift basket in the form of a fuck-you-up-the-ass present to the men hot on your tail on the southside. Take cover,” he warned.
“Roger that,” Carter remarked, and then an explosion rattled the ground.
“I could use a gift like that,” Alessandro said. “I’ve got two fuckers who just won’t quit twenty meters from the east side of the cabin. Lassoing their location with the IR laser now.”
“This is Echo Two. Target location confirmed,” the Southerner said. “And you’re welcome,” he added before the ground rocked beneath our feet yet again.
“This is Echo One,” the Brit said in my ear a minute later. “I can confirm from my vantage point there’s no more movement. Targets all appear to be down. There’s a chance one or two are alive, but they’re for sure as hell not threats now.”
“Roger that,” Carter responded. “Alpha Two and Seven, you’re clear to move,” he told us, and we left the cabin.
I took a deep breath, trying my best to relax, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. Literally and figuratively.
“This really your life now?” I asked Jesse as we moved, meeting up with Hudson and Alessandro on our trek to exfil.
Jesse tapped his ear, muting his comm this time, so I copied his move. We could still hear the others, but our conversation was now private. “Well, we prefer not to call in SEALs for an assist, because they’ll give us army boys hell for it later, but we do what we have to do.”
Alessandro motioned to Hudson and said, “SEAL too.”
“Of course you are,” Jesse laughingly commented.
“That wasn’t what I meant,” I told him, not referring to the fact they had SEALs for backup.
“I know.” Jesse looked over at me, his night-vision goggles still blocking his eyes. “But yeah, this is my life. You looking for it to be yours, too? Or are you out for good?”
My stomach dropped at what felt like an offer. But I didn’t have a chance to answer, because the thump of rotors overhead had me going still. I peered up at the sound of the whup-whup-whup chopping the sky and searched for a helo.
“A lot of people really want this list,” Jesse said under his breath before unmuting his comm. “Looks like it’s not game over yet. You ready?”
We all nodded before Alessandro said, “Yeah, let’s go toast these fuckers, shall we?”
“And try not to start a forest fire, if you don’t mind,” the Brit said as figures overhead began to fast-rope down.
“This is Alpha Two, they’re dropping in from the sky at our location,” Jesse told the team.
“Like shooting fish in a barrel,” Hudson remarked, shifting into position while readying his rifle.
“Oh, I like him,” the Southerner answered over comms.
“You would,” Jesse said. “He’s apparently one of you. A Team Guy,” he added before Hudson squeezed off a shot.
