Page 4 of Tango

It didn’t take them long to find me. They had their weapons drawn as they exited their car. Two men opened the back door and carefully lifted Lexi’s body out as three men covered me.

“What’s your code and number?” the one in charge asked.

“Fox One. 135241494.”

The man repeated the information into his radio. “Confirmed. Let’s go.” They formed around me, and we rushed to the Land Rover.

I watched as the others drove off in a different direction with Lexi and we headed for the border.

“Major,” the leader turned in his seat, “we’ve got no time to go to the safehouse. We have orders to cross you now.” He looked at my dress shoes and pants then at my sweatshirt. “Shit.”

Yeah, I looked like I was the one just kidnapped.

Ty

“You seem off,” Moore side-eyed me as we prepared for a round of interviews for our new team, “like your head isn’t in the game.”

“I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Have you,” Moore lowered his voice as we passed by the meal hall at Camp Green, “spoken to Ivy?”

“No.” I wavered in my step. “She slept in her room last night.”

“No, she didn’t.” He shook his head. “But Abigail said she was fine when I asked this morning.”

“You asked?”

“When have I not had your six, on and off the field?”

“True.” I pushed the door open between two hallways. “Where’d she sleep, then?”

“She wouldn’t say, just that she’s okay. I waited around to see if I could spot her, but given we left at the ass crack of dawn…”

“Yeah, well, I wanted to see how well these guys work in the morning. But thanks for that.”

“Hooah, brother.”

Twenty minutes later, we were in a room with three physically drained Dark Water recruits. Ray stopped at the door and looked in. He was the one who oversaw Camp Green and was a former Blackstone agent under Cole’s father. He gave me a nod, and I nodded back. I really appreciated his help with the recruits. I put my attention back on the three men.

One of them was Tommy Gear.

“Sir,” he sat straighter when we did the one-on-one interviews first, “I listened to what Dr. Knight said, and I took the time to understand exactly what I wanted out of life and if I can leave my family. My decision wasn’t taken lightly, nor should it be, and no matter how many times I talked myself out of not doing this, my heart wouldn’t let me. I was made to be a part of this team. I feel it deep inside, and I want the chance to prove it to you.”

“I’m glad you did that. It shows a lot about your character, Gear.” I had a good feeling about him.

“I assure you that my sister and mother have lots of help, and they both understood I needed to live for me now and not be on hold.”

There was something to be said for that, but there was still a part of me that wondered if he’d be better suited for the team at Dusk rather than Dark Water. That way, when he got leave, he’d be closer to home.

“Okay,” I nodded and looked at his file, “let’s finish with this interview and see how you do with the group one.”

“I’m ready.” He smiled, and I knew he was.

I’d taken a page from Ivy’s playbook and after we asked all the prepared questions, I went deeper into their minds on their group interview.

I really liked that Steven Lee was smart and quick on his feet. Chris Perez was funny and resourceful. Perez was the smallest of the bunch, and I knew that could be an advantage in the field. Gear answered our questions slower the second time round, he put more thought in his answers. I could tell he’d gone away and really thought about what it might mean to join Dark Water. He impressed me a lot, but even better, he won over Moore. Perhaps I was wrong about Gear. I now believed he was what we were looking for.

“At ease.” I closed their files and watched as they sagged into their seats and smiled, pleased the group interviews were over. “We’re going to step outside. Hang tight.” We removed ourselves from the room and went into another room farther down the hall. We didn’t have a window to watch them, but we did have a live camera feed. This was an exercise to see how they interacted now they weren’t trying to impress us or each other.

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