Page 82 of Don't Look Back

The room quickly filled with the rest of his new team, along with brass and the specialists who kept NSWC operational. It was a replay of last Tuesday, after the shooting, with the base commander near the head of the table and representatives from base security pushing the room to full capacity.

Another SEAL platoon had responded to the shooting, and Teague nodded to them as they filled the standing-room-only space along the back wall beside other members of Teague’s new team who didn’t have the AOIC save a seat for them.

He wanted to ask Flyte exactly why he’d received this special treatment, but then an admiral entered the room, and they all stood at attention until the man took his seat at the head of the table.

The admiral began the meeting without preamble. “Captain Huang, I understand we have an update from Lieutenant Commander Fallon regarding the shooting on base last Tuesday.”

“Yes, sir,” Captain Huang said. “Two days after the shooting, we authorized Fallon to go to Malta—on personal leave—because the shooter had information on his computer regarding Dr. Kira Hanson’s trip. His role in seeing to Dr. Hanson’s safety in Malta was unofficial and only agreed to in an abundance of caution until we could determine if Hanson was the target or the shooting on base was a direct attack on military personnel made to look like a personal attack on a civilian. Today, Lieutenant Commander Fallon contacted the AOIC of his SEAL team with intel that warrants calling this meeting for a full debrief.”

Huang nodded in Flyte’s direction. The lieutenant stood and walked to the front of the room. “Fallon called me because I have history with an individual he met today in Malta at approximately 1330 Malta time, 0730 Eastern. This is going to require some background to bring everyone up to speed. The admiral has authorized Dr. Hanson to be read in on this, as it directly relates to her. Lieutenant Commander Fallon says she has relevant intel. Right now, I have no context for how the meeting today came to be. We determined for expediency, we would all be briefed at the same time.”

The screen at the front of the room lit up, and Fallon and Hanson were there, sitting on a sofa with a backdrop of a window overlooking the deep blue Mediterranean Sea.

Fallon wore an Aloha shirt and Hanson was in a fancy tank top—probably a sundress of some kind. Both sported skin that had more color than they’d had last Tuesday. Fallon’s blond hair looked to be a shade lighter. Dr. Hanson’s freckles had come out in the sun like stars come out at night.

Even though they dressed like a couple on vacation, their faces were deadly serious, and any envy Teague might have felt for his OIC enjoying a Maltese vacation with the pretty Dr. Hanson evaporated.

Fallon’s lips moved, and it took a moment to get the sound to emit through the speaker. “—got the encryption to work.”

“Can you hear us now?” Commander Gleeson asked.

“Yes,” Hanson said.

“Good. I was just about to give background to the team,” Flyte addressed both the couple in Malta and the room. “Nearly eighteen months ago, my SEAL platoon was sent on a training exercise in Olympic National Park in Washington state.”

Teague sat up straighter. He’d been expecting this, but somehow, it still managed to hit him in the gut.

Flyte nodded in his direction and continued. “Petty Officer Teague Collins was on that team and participated in the exercise.”

He wanted to grunt a denial. That was only true ifparticipatedmeant he watched his Fire Team get murdered and was nearly killed himself just minutes in and spent the rest of the time unconscious and a liability.

If Hobbs hadn’t run, Teague would have been finished off immediately. His life was saved by the other man’s failed escape. His new team knew he’d been injured, but they and others in the room didn’t necessarily know when and where. They’d find out today.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Flyte continued. “I’m sure many of you know about the LOLE—Lake Olympus Lodge Exercise—that resulted in a direct assault on a SEAL platoon on US soil, when we were isolated and armed only with Simunition.”

There were murmurs of agreement. “The motive behind the attack wasn’t as simple as it appeared, and the details remain classified, but I can share this much: my team was targeted in the assault because Russian oligarch Grigory Laskin was dissatisfied with an attempted rescue of his kidnapped daughter three years ago. The SEAL who ran the training exercise, Chief Warrant Officer Xavier Rivera, and I were the only survivors of the four-man Fire Team that tried to rescue Katerina Grigoryovna Laskina. The attack on the training was revenge on Rivera and me because we failed to rescue his daughter, who was killed along with two SEALs in the failed rescue.”

Collins knew these details. As a victim of Laskin’s revenge, he’d sought to learn everything he could about the man and done further research on his own when he’d exhausted what the Navy was willing to share or what the internet could tell him.

“The Defense Intelligence Agency has been monitoring Laskin for the last eighteen months, but legally, we can’t prove his guilt nor seek sanctions against him, not without revealing operational intelligence that would put informants and our agents at risk.”

Flyte looked at the screen where Fallon and Hanson sat side by side on a couch in front of a vast sea. “Today, Lieutenant Commander Fallon and Dr. Hanson were in the villa of Russian oligarch Luka Kulik. Kulik or his son, Reuben, might be behind the attack on Little Creek last Tuesday. While they were there, Reuben Kulik arrived with a guest who introduced himself to Fallon as Grigory Laskin.”

All the air in Teague’s body left him at once. He’d known Laskin had a golden passport and a home on the island of Gozo, but he’d never considered this.

His gaze scanned the faces of the people in the room, nearly all of whom outranked him. By far. He was going to have to tell them about Nadia and hope he wasn’t kicked off his new team.

ChapterThirty-Nine

Kira braced herself for the coming questions, even as she reeled from learning who Grigory Laskin was. Fortunately—or unfortunately—she didn’t have to wait long.

“Dr. Hanson,” one of the officers she’d met on Tuesday said, “what’s your connection to Laskin?”

“None that I know of.”

“You said on Tuesday that your trip was personal in relation to your father. Was he an associate of Mr. Laskin?”

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