Smiling to myself, I followed her in.
Colonel Duke ran a hand over his face. “Other than a couple soldiers on the intel side, no one else knew the details of your mission.”
“Well, it was clearly compromised. They were gone long enough before we got there, long enough that not a single fucking thing was left.” Dom crossed his arms, squaring up to the colonel. “Honestly, if we hadn’t decided to change things and breach seven minutes early, those mortars would’ve hit with us inside.”
“I’m aware, Commander.”
“So, with respect, Colonel, what the hell are you going to do about it? That was supposed to be a quick in and out mission. We’re rolling with a new sniper, so I know why it wasn’t our usual complicated kind of mission, but come on.” Dom shook his head.
“I hear you. Let me run things up the chain of command, and I’ll let you know.”
“You’ll let us know,” Dom grumbled.
Colonel Duke straightened his back. “Watch your tone, Lieutenant Commander. You may be a SEAL, but I have temporary—”
“Yes, sir.” Dom quickly said. He inhaled sharply and wrapped his hands together behind his back. “Sorry, sir. It’s my responsibility to make sure my team is able to perform to the best of their abilities, and with wrong intel, it hinders things.”
“I understand, Commander Stone. And I’ll see what I can find out on that side of things as well since it was soldiers in my command that relayed the intel.” Colonel Duke stepped away from Dom and sat down in his office chair. His eyes drifted away as the fuse that burned hot fizzled out.
“I really don’t understand what went fucking wrong,” he muttered.
“That tunnel must have been how they got out so damn quickly,” Dom explained.
Colonel Duke nodded. “Yes, but you choppered out of here five minutes after the intel came in with the Black Box’s location. We got you as close as we could. There was no way they would’ve known you were coming. They couldn’t have known you were coming.” He leaned back in the chair and stared at the roof. “We know how they got out quickly, but not how they knew to leave.”
“Maybe they were already planning on evacuating the premises,” I offered.
“True, but then why did they send some men back, as if they knew you were there?” the Colonel replied in question.
“And why did they only send ten men? It was as if they knew there wouldn’t be an entire platoon of soldiers, but a small team,” I continued, and he nodded.
“Though they certainly underestimated your team, as most do,” he muttered.
More questions swirled silently in the air, but no one spoke. There was too much left unexplained. Too much that wouldn’t come with any answers.
“Well, go eat something, rest up, clean up, and wait for your next orders. You all smell like shit,” Colonel Duke said, dismissing us with a simple wave.
Chapter 7
MIKEY
Leaning back against a tent pole outside the chow hall, I let the sun beat down on my face, and blew some smoke from my nose. My belly wasn’t as hungry as it had been, the stench was gone after a quick wipe down and a change into a different uniform. This moment of simple pause couldn’t have been more needed.
“Yo! Mikey! You’ve got a letter!” a soldier called out, someone I vaguely recognized. He jogged my way, waving the envelope in the air. I hadn’t bothered to check mail, wasn’t planning on checking at all this deployment since the only person who used to write to me was my ex.
As I stood upright, my feet carried me across the sand to meet him. “From who?” I asked, though I knew the answer before he spoke, as my eyes scanned the name in the upper left hand corner. Snatching the letter from his hands, I grumbled, “You’re fucking kidding me.”
The soldier took a step back, his brows furrowing, so I quickly offered him a comforting smile—one that didn’t extend too far upon my face. “That was not directed at you.”
“Oh…” His gaze twitched over my shoulder. “Okay.” And he scurried away.
My fingers tore at the short edge of the envelope, the paper hissing as I rounded a corner, my feet mindlessly taking me back to the tent that would provide me with some privacy. The rest of the team was still in the chow tent, while I’d finished early to step out and have a smoke.
A much needed one. The second cigarette used from Griffin’s gift.
Rolling it around on my tongue, I ducked under the tent flaps of the shared sleeping quarters and plodded toward my bedroll. It was closest to Scottie’s, but also as far away as I could respectfully put it—nearly on top of Duncan’s as a result.
Staring at the letter still folded, dread filled my stomach. I didn’t want to read whatever Rachel had written. There was a reason that I’d blocked her number from my phone and hadn’t told her that I temporarily lived with Jane and Griffin while finding a new house. So how the hell did she know—