Page 112 of Peace Under Fire

Squish simply nodded. The dude was right. He pressed his thumbs into his head, trying to alleviate the pressure enough to think…to plan.

He needed a location to take Mandy once they got her out of the bunker. Someplace the cockroaches didn’t know about. Someplace they couldn’t find. But where was that?

It was looking more and more likely that these bastards weren’t using conventional methods to track her. How could he hide her from psychics? Was there even such a thing as a psychic-proof location? He glanced at his watch. He had five hours to come up with something.

Maybe Tex had some ideas. The guy seemed to have allies everywhere. He highlighted Tex’s number on his phone. The dude answered before the phone even rang. Tex was two hours ahead of Los Alamos, which put it at 2:30 a.m., Pittsburgh time. The dude must never sleep.

“Hey, Tex…” He explained the situation and waited.

A long thoughtful silence rode the line, as though Tex were flipping through possible locations. The silence was so long, Squish lost faith that his buddy was going to be able to haul his ass out of the fire this time.

But then Tex came through. “Zane might be a possibility.” His voice was guarded, as though he didn’t want to get Squish’s hopes up. “I’ll ask Gray to reach out and explain the situation.”

“Zane.” Squish cocked his head in surprise. “As in Winters?”

Last he’d heard, the guy had disappeared along with Simcosky, Rawlings, and Mackenzie after they’d been thoroughly goat-fucked by SEAL command.

“How the hell can Zane help? He’s been 86’d from…everything.” He wouldn’t have the resources to hide him and Mandy.

“Yeah…look…” Tex’s cough rattled with discomfort. “I don’t want to go into details until I’ve talked to him—until I’ve talked to all of them—and they’ve agreed to help.”

All of them? “You mean Commander Mackenzie?”

Zane and Mac had been tight. Were they still crewing together? If so, what were they doing? He hadn’t heard a damn thing about either of them in years. Last he’d heard, they’d both up and vanished after the charges against them had been dropped.

“Mackenzie isn’t in charge anymore. Just hang on. I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve made contact.” With that, Tex hung up—to call Gray, no doubt, and get the wheels rolling. Squish was frowning as he lowered the phone.

“Tex couldn’t help?” Pipe asked.

“He’s not sure yet. Making some calls.”

Pipe grunted, turned back to his laptop, and punched through his camera feeds again. “We might as well find a place to hang. If we return to the Refuge too early, the bastards might come after us. We’re the only ones who can tell them where Mandy is.”

They parked behind a supermarket and went to work twiddling their thumbs in-between feed checks. After an hour, Pipe leaned into the back seat and emerged with a couple of energy drinks. Fuck, did Squish ever appreciate that unanticipated wake-me-up. He popped the top and drained the whole can.

Before the buzz had a chance to hit, his phone rang. He lifted it to his ear before checking the screen and prayed like he’d never prayed before that the call was from Tex, and the dude had found them a crash location.

“Good news,” Tex’s voice spun in and out of his aching head, like a buoy on a raging ocean. Maybe that energy drink hadn’t been such a good idea. “Shadow Mountain has given the greenlight. They’re sending a bird along with a full extraction team.

That would, indeed, be excellent news—if he knew who or what Shadow Mountain was.

“What the hell is Shadow Mountain?” From the little Tex had said, they sounded like a paramilitary group. How could he trust guys like that with Mandy’s life? “Are we sure we can rely on them?”

Tex must have been expecting that response, because he answered with what sounded like a canned reply. “Shadow Mountain is impossible to explain. I’ll let you discover what they are for yourself. As to whether you can trust them…you trust Zane, Cosky, Rawls, and Mac?”

Squish considered the question. The four men under discussion had been some of the best special operators he’d worked with. True blue. Loyal. All around good dudes. It had been their moral compass, their insistence on doing the right thing—even when it wasn’t in their best interest—that had gotten them into trouble and scuttled their careers. Did he trust them?

“Yeah. I trust them.” A man’s soul didn’t change in a few years.

“Then you can trust the Shadow Mountain crew. Mackenzie and his boys wouldn’t climb into bed with a questionable organization.”

Fair point.

“They’re working for this Shadow Mountain group now?” Squish asked, some of his unease dissipating. He couldn’t see Mackenzie or the others crawling into the dark zone.

“They are. They’re on the bird headed your way, part of the extraction team. They’ll land near the bunker and help you get Mandy to the bird. From there, you’ll go to Shadow Mountain—their main base. I’m told the place is a fortress. Nobody will get to Mandy in there.”

Tex already had a chopper headed their way? Squish relaxed even more. He’d been wondering how he was going to get her out of the Refuge safely. Looked like they’d be flying her out. “Where’s this Shadow Mountain located?”

---