Page 27 of D-Day

“Get the med kit,” Greg said, his voice grim. “Quickly.” Helen ran to the van and retrieved the medical supplies. She returned to Greg as he worked on Taer, his hands moving so fast.

“We need to go,” Lando growled. “The fighting is moving this way.”

Greg looked up. “You need to get him to a hospital. He’s in bad shape.”

“No time now. You will tend him.” Two men grabbed his arms. “You are coming with us.”

Greg reeled back, desperation and fear on his face. “I don’t have the equipment I need. This is insanity.”

Lando grabbed her arm and started to drag her toward the jungle. Fear rising in her, she pulled back, her breathing coming in labored gasps as she was unceremoniously tugged forward. She started to fight. “What are you doing?”

“You’re coming to help the doctor,” he snapped, telling her that he wasn’t bluffing or going to give them any quarter.

Then she realized she was getting an opportunity to do what Bailee had asked of her, she stopped fighting, but Lando’s next words made her blood run cold. “You will save my brother, or you both will die.”

9

The chopper setdown and D-Day, Buck, and Zorro exited. The minute his boots touched the ground, the hair on the back of his neck bristled. He tensed. His eyes, always scanning his surroundings, sharpened. He looked at Buck and Zorro, and they were as aware as he was that something had changed. Whether it was in the air or a vibration that only warriors could discern, danger was close.

His senses ramped up, awareness hard-wired into every cell the same way the muscles in his body were ramped up and hard-wired for speed and strength and very quick reaction times. Each of them automatically checked their weapon with a heightened sense of readiness passing through them.

“TOC, D-Day.”

“Go for TOC.”

“What’s going down?”

“What do you mean?” Bailee’s voice was buzzing with tension.

“Something isn’t right. The twins aren’t here, and neither are their men. The medical team hasn’t returned. Where the fuck are they?”

“Hang on,” she said.

“Recon,” D-Day said, and Buck and Zorro moved into the camp, then the two of them disappeared into the jungle. He waited, getting extremely impatient. “TOC. What the fuck is going on?”

“Be advised,” Bailee said, her voice hushed. “Government troops have engaged the NPA in your area. There is heavy fighting not far from the village that the medical team was visiting. The fighting is flushing out other…undesirables. We have the last location of their van.” She rattled off the coordinates. “We’re sending the rest of your team in. Find the medical team and get them out.”

“And the op?” D-Day asked, his brain frying on the edges with fear. No one could see it, but it was taking everything he had to not run toward Helen’s last known location and go on the rampage, looking for her. The only thread of reason he had was knowing the guys were on their way, and they would scour the jungle for her and her colleagues.

“We’ll reassess once we figure out what is going on with the Ambong twins. They are allied with the NPA, so there’s no worry there, but the government troops won’t give them any quarter. You’ve got to find the twins and engage them if you can. Get the location of those damn triggers. But for now, find our people.”

Buck came out of the jungle and shook his head. He looked tense as hell, overcome with the same emotions and fear D-Day was experiencing. In this situation, with Helen and her team missing, it was easy for him to make tactical decisions like consult the last coordinates and move out to intersect. Or they were late, which meant they might be in distress. Those were straightforward decisions.

“Copy that,” D-Day said as he started for Buck and Zorro. Buck was already calculating what direction they needed to travel. Without any spoken words, they were all in unison asthey started to run. His mind was fully on his surroundings, but the thought of what Zorro had said about making a decision and getting off the fucking X really started to sink in. He had made a mistake with Helen and their on-and-off relationship. He kept thinking about what he could do not to upset the balance and make sure he was fulfilling all his duties. He was doing it out of the way he felt for her, and out of his fear of losing her. It was the same way he was thinking about his teammates, terrified of losing his support system. That kind of toxic thinking had trapped him because he wasn’t sure how to face the consequences. But what Helen was, and the team intertwined, were safe spaces filled with respect, genuine affection, and a deep, fulfilling connection.

Maybe, just maybe he needed to not only trust his instincts but trust all of that to remain unchanged no matter what happened. Defensiveness was the enemy of progress, and fear was the enemy that kept him from moving forward. He wanted to step on that path and be free of both. One way to do that was honesty, and the other was to give himself over to the people who had never let him down in his life. His past was a reflection of a lack of support and pride, but all of that was wrapped up in this terrible, persistent fear…of betrayal.

There was no place for any of that in the teams, or with Helen. It was time to think hard and forge a new path, and unlike the coordinates he ran toward, that new path was unknown, and therefore obscured.

Helen kept puttingone foot in front of the other, sticking close to Lando, with Greg at her back and the rest of them, including Taer’s litter, following behind.

She’d never been this deep into the jungle before, and it was an odd, kind of lost feeling to see nothing but green surrounding her without one urban landmark in sight. The remoteness made her feel vulnerable, and the danger all around them enough to drive anyone into panic mode, but she was an RN, and nurses were calm at all times. They had to be.

They were far from help or resources and at the mercy of someone who had already threatened to kill them, depending on Lando for food, water, and protection. In the distance she could hear automatic weapons, and her body tensed even more. It was close, and she had no idea who was battling not far from their position. The only lethal apex predators in the Philippines were human males.

Lando looked over his shoulder at the sudden bursts, appearing just as tense as she felt. It struck her how young he was…maybe nineteen or twenty. It was a shame that they had been forced into living this way, or even if it was by choice, something had prompted it.

But that look of maturity in his eyes made her realize he was a seasoned combatant. He squared his shoulders, a determined, intractable set to his jaw. He studied the terrain. “Move until I tell you to stop.”

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