Page 14 of Scorpion

“A kid just showed up,” Marks mutters. “No signs otherwise.”

I grit my teeth just as the captain’s voice rumbles through the headset. “Give it two more hours.”

TJ sighs. “I need to take a leak.”

Lovely.

Shuffling ensues beside me, and I glare at him when his ghillie suit slaps me in the face. He returns shortly after, and after an hour of silence, he says, “Want to play I-Spy?”

Whatever. What the fuck. Why not?

Our captain would be mortified if he knew what we’re doing for the proceeding hour. After years of playing this game during stakeouts, we’ve gotten really good at mind fucking each other with the answer.

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with S.

Sand?

No. Stratosphere.

Can it be seen? No. Is it cause for ample bickering to pass the time? Yes.

I’ve had other spotters in the past, and TJ is the only one I’ve ever clicked with. Now we couldn’t get rid of each other even if we tried.

“Meet at the pickup point at twenty-hundred hours,” the captain finally says three hours later.

I glance at my watch. Thank god. It isn’t so hot anymore, but the showers are calling my name.

“Copy that,” TJ answers for me.

I wrap the towel around my body and squeeze out the excess water from my long hair, then get dressed into my clean uniform in case the captain decides he wants our asses back out there.

TJ walks out of the bathroom at the exact same time. A grin slashes across his face when he sees me, and he lifts up his arm to take a deep whiff of his armpits. “Smells like roses.” He sighs dreamily.

I gag. “Disgusting.”

“Nice and washed just for you, roomie.”

My lips curl into a scowl as we both walk to the designated room I have the misfortune of sharing with him—as if spending fifteen hours with him wasn’t enough time for us to bond. I love him, but I wouldn’t mind some space every once in a while.

It’s one of the smaller bases in this country, and our team is only meant to be here for a couple days. Because I’m the only woman in a ten-mile radius, they don’t have the place to spare to let me bunk by myself, so they shoved me in with TJ and a sleep-talker.

My dog tags sway as we walk through the building to the rooms. Most of the soldiers have gone to bed already, so we sneak into our room without waking anyone. I slowly open the door and glance inside, but there’s no one in our temporary stay. The third person we’re rooming with must still be on a mission.

Unlucky for some.

We shuffle forward to switch on the lamp against the back wall.

“I’m fucked. If you start snoring, I’m covering your face with a pillow,” TJ grumbles as he plops down onto the cot.

“Ditto.” I copy what he does, except more eloquently.

I untie my boots and place them right next to my cot before lying down on the uncomfortable material. Reaching inside my pocket, I grab the picture I always keep on me. A lot of people here have wives and children waiting for them back home. Or parents eagerly waiting for their return.

The matted picture feels brittle in my grasp, but everything I want to see is still there. I think the photo was taken when I was seventeen and while my parents were out on a work trip. Gaya, Amy, Mathijs, and I snuck away to go paintballing. All of our hair is a complete mess, standing on all odds and ends. Out of the four of us, I have the least amount of paint on me, but there’s a splatter of green going up the side of Mathijs’s face, and a big red blob right in the center of Gaya’s chest.

Mathijs has his arm wrapped around me, pointing the gun in the general direction of the camera, while Gaya is holding Amy bridal-style. Each one of us is smiling ear to ear like we have the whole world in front of us, and nothing could ever get us down. We’re grinning like fools, even though the other team annihilated us.

It’s what I imagined a happy family might look like. Whenever I come back from deployment, there’s always a feeling like something’s missing. Even though I live in my sister’s spare room, it never feels like home. But out here? Sleeping in a random cot in the middle of fucking nowhere? With the chance of getting attacked while I’m asleep? This feels more like home to me.

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