Page 58 of Searching for Valor

Ahead, Zeke “Fuse” Mitchell crouched by the door, his grin stark against the streaks of camo paint on his face. “You want it open, Chief, I’ll give you open.”

“Do it,” Shane said, his voice cold as steel.

Fuse set the charge, his hands moving with practiced precision.

Rylan exhaled slowly, bracing himself. This was it. His first real mission with Echo, the moment he’d been waiting for. A chance to prove he was more than just a green kid. A chance to prove he deserved to be here.

The world erupted into chaos.

“Hostiles incoming from the west!” Mack bellowed into their comms, his rifle responding with sharp cracks that echoed over the grounds.

Gunfire exploded from every direction, ripping through the quiet darkness.

“Door’s charged,” Fuse said.

“Blow it,” Shane said.

“I’ve got your six covered, Echo One,” Jax said through his comm. “We’ll hold ‘em off. Finish the mission.”

A blast rocked the ground beneath his boots, sending a shockwave through the compound that knocked Rylan flat on his back. His head slammed against the rocky dirt, and for a moment, everything was spinning—sky and sand and smoke blending into one dizzying blur. The sound of gunfire exploded around him, sharp and deafening, as tracer rounds lit up the night like fireworks.

Shane’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp and unforgiving. “Push forward! We finish the mission!”

Rylan scrambled to his feet, his rifle shaking in his grip. His legs wouldn’t obey. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

“Six, what are you doing?” Shane’s voice barked in his ear. “Move your ass!”

“Grenade out!” Alejandro was beside him, his face grim as he lobbed a grenade into the mass of enemies swarming toward them. “C’mon, Kentucky. Head in the game. We need you here.” The explosion sent bodies flying, but it wasn’t enough to stem the tide. Shadows swarmed toward them, figures emerging from the darkness like wraiths.

They needed him. Right. They needed him to do the job he’d trained for. The only job he’d ever wanted. They needed him to?—

His heart pounded as he turned to cover their flank, and movement at the far side of the compound caught his eye. A man darted behind a stack of crates, carrying something bulky. His stomach sank as the realization hit—an RPG launcher.

He had a clean shot. His rifle was trained on the man’s head, his finger already brushing the trigger. One squeeze. That’s all it would take. But his body wouldn’t respond. His finger locked up as if frozen, his breath caught in his throat.

The insurgent turned, his face illuminated for a brief second in the compound’s dim light, and met Rylan’s gaze. He smiled. A cruel, knowing smile that seared itself into Rylan’s memory as he lifted the launcher to his shoulder.

Rylan pulled the trigger, and his bullet hit its mark, but it was too late.

“RPG!” Jax’s shout also came too late.

“Get down!” Rylan turned and reached for Alejandro…

The rocket hit at Alejandro’s feet, and, in the split-second before the flames consumed him, Alejandro’s eyes locked with Rylan’s, wide with shock and fear. Then the world exploded in a blinding flash of heat and light. The force of the blast hurled Rylan backward. His head cracked against the rocky earth, the impact driving the air from his lungs. His vision swam, but he forced himself to sit up. Smoke choked the air, turning the night into a hellish landscape of fire and chaos. Fuse lay motionless a few feet away, his face distorted into a horrific version of his usual grin, the skin peeled back off his skull.

Jax’s garbled voice was both in his ear and simultaneously miles away, nothing but an echo of a shout. “One is down! I repeat, Echo One is down! Echo Six is down! Four is down! Three is—Jesus. Alejandro is gone. Just fucking gone.”

“Six is still alive!” Mack shouted. “I’m going in for him.”

“Don’t,” Rylan tried to say, but his voice came out as a broken rasp. Pain lanced through his arm, his shoulder, his chest. “It’s a trap.”

Nobody heard him.

Or if they did, they didn’t listen.

Through the haze of smoke and dust, he saw Mack running toward him…

Bullets tore through him before he made it halfway across the courtyard. He staggered a few more steps, then collapsed when another bullet blasted past the protection of his helmet.

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