Page 3 of Javier

The shitshow had been Tracker Team’s first official mission. It had also come dangerously close to being our last. In the end, we’d emerged on the breathing side of the fight. We’d struck a deep blow to our enemy—a shady global mafia known to the intelligence community as the New World Order.

Unfortunately, the fucker at the top of that pyramid had kept his head. The SOB had made it very clear to all involved he wasn’t done, and neither was his mysterious beef with the Astor family. For reasons that were not entirely clear yet, he intended to exterminate Richard Astor’s offspring from the planet.

It was this threat that made Goddess ask for my help. Somehow, she was sure I was the right man for this job. I had no idea why. I was screwed up, but I wasn’t stupid. The gleam in her pearl-colored eyes left me wondering if she knew stuff I didn’t.

I couldn’t say no to Goddess. It just wasn’t done. So, here I was, hacking my way through the jungle, trying not to get detected, or worse, killed on arrival.

A one-man scouting mission was the safest, fastest way to verify the intel we had, but infiltrating a totalitarian government hostile to the United States came with high risks. The autocrat who ran this place would love to trap and parade a MarineRaider like me through the international press circus before he imprisoned me for life, or better yet, tortured and killed me.

No fucking way was I gonna embarrass my team, my country, or myself by getting caught. This mission meant everything to my crew, my future, and my sanity. That last one was my dirty little secret. Bottom line? This was my one chance to prove to the whole fucking world that I wasn’t a complete and total screwup.

“Green, this is Top Dog.” The boss’s voice crackled in my ear. “Do you copy? Over.”

Talk about keeping this ape waiting.

I clicked on my mike. “Top Dog, this is Green. I copy. Over.”

“You’re a go to take a look,” Dagger said. “Aquicklook. Donotget caught or killed. That’s an order. Over.”

“Copy that.” I was so goddamn relieved he hadn’t pulled me out that I might have done a little jig if I wasn’t in stealth mode.

“Green, this is Control.” Mina came on the radio, her voice high and fast. “Be advised. Live satellite images are showing a government truck loaded with armed personnel heading your way. Do you copy? Over.”

“Copy that, Control.” I lifted my binos and scoured the road all the way to the distant horizon. Nothing yet. As far as I knew, nobody had a clue I was here.

“Any chatter?” I asked.

“Stand by,” Mina said.

“Green, this is Top Dog.” The boss sounded even more curt now. “Have you been detected?”

“Negative, Top Dog.” Why were there government troops heading my way? “Unless your comms are compromised? Over.”

“We’ll run another check,” Dagger said. “Control reports that chatter is related to the government’s decision to expelreligious groups out of the country. Any stragglers will be thrown in prison. Or killed. Over.”

Shit.

The resident dictator had never been kind to religious freedom. His latest whim complicated my mission. Well, at least they hadn’t discovered I was on the ground… yet.

Snap out of that pathetic mindset, Marine. You willnotfail this time around.

“Control, this is Green.” I searched the road with my binoculars again. “Government truck. Head count? Over.”

“Estimating about twenty soldiers,” Mina said. “Over.”

“ETA?” I asked. “Over.”

“Because of the rains yesterday, the road’s barely passable. You’ve got...” The clicks of Mina’s keyboard echoed over the airwaves. “Fifty to sixty mikes, give or take. Over.”

“Green, this is Top Dog,” the boss spat. “Pull out. I repeat, pull out. I want you out of there now, way before the troops arrive. Do you copy? Over.”

Dashiell Dagger was one of the gutsiest, bravest warriors I knew. He was also highly motivated to accomplish this mission. If he wanted me to pull out, he had a good reason to believe the danger was imminent. I trusted him with my life.

But then again, he wasn’t boots on the ground and the back of my neck was buzzing like a hive of wasps. My instincts told me there was something worth the gamble down there. The clicking of a pair of invisible dice rattling in their cup echoed in my head.

Go or no-go?

Hell, I didn’t see the need to waste all the resources we’d invested in this mission to get me to this point. Fifty to sixty mikes were an eternity to a special operator like me. I could sneak downhill, sniff around the compound, get me some solid intel, and hoof it out way before the damned soldiers arrived.

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