Page 62 of Peace Under Fire

He turned back to Mandy with her helmet in hand. When he plunked it down on her head, the damn thing swallowed her entire face. He pulled it back up and adjusted the straps inside. It took two more adjustments before the helmet fit correctly. He snugged the chin strap and flipped down the NVDs.

Her breath caught. “Wow….” Her fingers brushed the plastic casing of the NVDs. “I didn’t realize these see in the dark thingies turned everything green.”

“See in the dark thingies?” Grumpy repeated beneath his breath, shaking his head in evident disgust.

Mandy’s helmeted head turned in Grumpy’s direction. “Yes. See in the dark thingies. Unlike you special forces over-amped apes, I don’t sit around memorizing the technical terms for equipment I never use.”

Squish’s lips twitched. Mandy was proving to be far less sweet and far more assertive by the minute. Over-amped apes? Now that was some creative insulting. He needed to remember that.

“We’re not special forces. We’re special operators, or simply operators,” Squish drawled, his lips twitching.

“Yeah,” Crusher told her, amusement resonating through the words. “For some of our less civilized brothers, calling us special forces is a hazing offense.”

Squish stepped closer to Mandy and turned her chin his way until the huge, bugged out lenses were locked on his face. She needed to see the seriousness of his expression. She needed to get it. “From this moment on, you do exactly what I tell you.”

To her credit, she took his warning seriously and nodded.

“I will,” she assured him quietly.

“Okay,” Crusher said, with a now that that’s been established tone in his voice. He glanced from Mandy to Squish. “Billy and I will take point. Ajax, Fabio, and Grumpy are next. Gray and Brick are on our six. You two," he nodded at Squish, and Mandy, “are our sardines.”

Squish had never met, or even heard of Ajax and Fabio before tonight. They must have come from Tex’s other contacts.

“Sardines?” Mandy’s voice rose suspiciously, like she thought Crusher had made the term up.

“Squashed in the middle.” Squish grimaced.

He wasn’t used to being in the middle of the lineup. Point was his position. He reeled the frustration back. Crusher was a twenty-year special ops veteran. He was also barely retired, which meant his instincts were still solid. But most importantly, he was Tex’s choice for lead, and this was Tex’s show.

Crusher turned to study the hulking shadow of Gray Winters, who was playing hide and seek at the edge of the tree line. “Nostradamus, you getting any heebie-jeebies we should know about?”

The tall, dark silhouette of Gray Winters stepped forward. “Nothing yet. But I rarely sense anything until seconds before things turn to shit. Unless someone is going to take a bullet in the next minute or two, it’s unlikely I’ll sense anything yet.”

Ah, yes. Crusher was asking their squad mate about that nifty little trick he had of predicting when a teammate was about to make the ultimate sacrifice.

He’d never worked with the Winters brothers, but he’d heard about them. Or at least two of them—Zane and Gray. The teams thrived on gossip about the pair. Both men were rumored to get flashes of upcoming deaths. Zane received the images through touch. Something about that niggled at him, but it took him a moment to chase the thought down.

Touch.

Zane had to be touching someone to see their deaths. Just like Giulia had to be touching someone to read their mind, or JoAnn had to touch someone to heal their injuries—or possibly cause their deaths.

Maybe there was something about physical touch that focused extrasensory abilities.

Gray, though—at least from what Squish had heard—didn’t need to touch someone to see their fate. Unfortunately, sometimes his instincts triggered so late he didn’t have time to prevent the impending disaster. Which meant good men still died on Gray’s watch. Just not as many as there would have been without his early warning alarm.

“Wait.” Her jaw slack, and her mouth half open, Mandy turned around until she was staring at Gray. “Are they saying you can see into the future?”

Dead silence greeted her question, but whatever she saw on Gray’s face answered that question.

“Are you kidding me?” Her voice rose. She turned to Squish and then Grumpy. “You don’t believe in my ability, or my sisters’ psychic talents, but you believe in his? What the hell?” She sounded nonplussed.

“Gray isn’t claiming he has the ability to see the future.” Grumpy scowled. “He’s got finely tuned instincts that’s all, instincts that have saved lives. His warnings come true. He’s proved that—over and over. You and your sisters haven’t proven jack shit.

“Hey, back off, bro.” Squish stepped into defense mode before his mind caught up with his mouth. “Mandy proved herself with that voicemail she left me.”

Grumpy spun around to square off against him. “For all we know she was involved in that fuckup, bro. Or, hell, it could have been a goddamn coincidence. Not everything—”

“Stand down, you two.” Crusher’s good ol’ boy façade vanished. “None of that makes one iota of difference right now. We have a job to do. If you can’t focus on that, climb back in the vehicles.”

---