Page 103 of No Going Back

“I spoke to him outside the hospital,” Sam tried to reassure him. “I won’t lie to you. He knew he’d pissed you off and he was concerned. But I told him we go at each other like that all the time and not to take it personally. He was worried about Mira, but I didn’t see anything to suggest he would do something like this, either.”

Dex sighed. “So what happens now?”

Sam folded his arms. “That’s why I asked you to step outside.”

“We’re going to get him, Sam. We can’t let him do this by himself.”

Yeah, he anticipated Dex would say that.

“And I can’t let you do it with him.”

Dex went to protest, but Sam held up his hand to silence him. “But I will let you go and bring him home.”

Dex stared at him, his face tense.

“Nothing's changed regarding taking down Reborn. Onyx cannot be on the ground there asking questions without orders. I’m going to have to pull strings and favors to get you there at all. If Tyler gets caught in Pakistan, the ramifications could be disastrous.” Using resources to go get an operator that took off on his own? Oh, yeah. Washington was going to love that if they found out. Better make sure they didn’t find out.

“What if Tyler’s got Aziz by the time we get there?”

“Then we’ll have a problem. We will deal with that if it happens. As it stands, you go get Tyler and come home. Anything else and Onyx is done.”

Dex nodded. “Understood.”

Sam wasn't convinced.

“I mean it, Dawson. You pull one of your stunts on this one and there’s no coming back from it. If you’re going to have trouble with that, tell me now and I’ll send Nyx to get him.”

“No! I got it,” he snapped, then immediately he continued calmly, “It has to be me, Sam. I need to be the one to get him.”

“Alright. You better make sure the team understands. Any of them goes offside, it’s on you.”

“What about Tyler. His place here?”

“He went rogue.” Sam didn’t miss the shock on Dex’s face.

“You’re going to drop him? When he needs us most?”

“This isn’t about dropping him. It’s about where his head is at. Let’s get him home first, then we can discuss what comes next. He can't operate in this mindset, Dex, we both know that. I already told you I was going to bench him.”

Sam deliberately kept his voice calm. He didn’t want to lose Tyler, but if he couldn’t get past what was going on with him, there might not be a choice.

“Let’s go and see if Kelly confirmed he was on that flight.” Sam headed for the door, Dex right behind him.

When they rejoined the rest of the team, Ryan confirmed Tyler had been on the flight under an alias.

“So what’s the plan?” Mackie looked between Sam and Dex.

“You’re going to Pakistan,” Sam said.

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