Page 2 of No Man Left Behind

As he often did, Marcus wondered what Elina was up to these days. He’d avoided searching for her online. Not that he’d have gotten far, as he didn’t even know her last name. He’d required a lot of hospital care to save his life and then get his prosthesis. She’d probably forgotten him by now.

Still, he wondered where she was and how she was doing.

Elina Vasquez soaked up the scenery as she drove from Albany to Vermont. She’d enjoyed her week in New York’s state capital, exploring art galleries and flea markets. Not that she’d bought anything. Without a permanent home, she didn’t accumulate physical items.

But shedidaccumulate memories and images. Albany’s galleries boasted incredible exhibits, including animé and Renaissance. She thought she could survive solely on the joy of those images for a week or two.

Well, as long as she had her tablet so she could keep up with her comic strips. And chocolate. And kahwa tea. Or chai. Okay, so she wasn’t exactly living life without the finer things.

Those thoughts brought her right back to Afghanistan. The village of Suraih and the people she’d worked with for a few years. Those people hadn’t had an abundance of physical things, but they’d had the important stuff. Love, work ethic, family. Every home had pots of tea prepared, ready to share with guests. It had been a wonderful village until the insurgents had attacked and changed everything.

So many hard memories of that time. She refused to let them blot out the good ones. The villagers had been wonderful people. She’d enjoyed living there and helping to educate the children. The girls had been thrilled to be included, and teaching had been a joy. But she couldn’t go back to that life. She wasn’t brave enough.

Her current mission was to find Arrow. The man had saved her life, along with those of the girls in the school. He and his team of soldiers hadn’t ever used their real names, so finding Arrow was difficult. But she wanted to make sure he was doing well. That he’d not only survived the wall caving in on him but that he was thriving.

He’d been unconscious, and his leg had been crushed when the helicopter had lifted him out. Blood had poured from his body in terrifying amounts. His team had been devastated but they’d stayed on, helping the villagers gather what they could. Their crops had been burned in the attack, so they needed to find a new home.

The attack had taken the heart out of Elina, and she’d planned to ask the remaining men on Arrow’s team if they could assist her in getting back to the States. Unfortunately, they’d been called out to a hotspot, so she’d moved on with the villagers.

She shook her head to clear it. There was no point in remembering what had happened after that. She’d survived and was back in her home country. Had been for years.

And if she couldn’t find a place to settle, that was on her. Instead of moping about it, she’d decided on her months-long mission to cross the country to find Arrow.

One person in a country of over three hundred million. When she didn’t have a picture or a name. One of the helicopter pilots had slipped and called ArrowMar…before cutting himself off.

Elina wasn’t sure if it was a first name or a last name. Mark. Marco. Marshall. Marvin. Marconi. Martin. So many possibilities.

Arrow and his teammates had been visiting Suraih for a few years, and the villagers had trusted and respected them. In conversations over that time, she’d learned a little about all the men.

The man they called Epic had often talked about getting his teammates to move back to his hometown after they retired from the army. She didn’t think he’d ever mentioned the town name or even the state, but it had been somewhere with winter. Elina hoped she would one day find Epic and his town. And maybe even Arrow himself.

Would he think she was weird for searching him out? Maybe. But it was something she needed to do. She wanted to thank him. And she wanted to see him again.

He’d always helped her feel safe. Protected. She patted her Accord’s steering wheel. “And let’s not forget the chemistry. The man pretty much exuded the stuff.” Her cheeks flushed at the thought. They’d never exchanged an inappropriate word or touch, but she’d wanted to. And if she hadn’t mistaken the look in his eyes, so had he. They’d had a definite connection. The strongest one she’d ever felt.

The man was probably married now with the requisite two point five kids but she wanted to see him, anyway. To ensure he was happy. She tried to convince herself that was all she wanted.

At a rest stop, Elina bought a chai tea latte and a sprinkled donut to get her through the next stretch of the drive and to decide on a destination. The large map outside the restaurant showed the surrounding area.

She let her eyes roam the map, searching for anything that sounded familiar or intriguing. It amazed her how many towns and cities used similar names. London. Jamaica. Dublin. Springfield. But none of those reminded her of anything connected to Arrow or Epic.

Phail. That was a name she’d never seen anywhere else. And it niggled something in her brain. Jokes made by Arrow and the others when they’d talked about Epic’s hometown.

Where you go to fail.

Fail isn’t an option.

Doomed to fail.

Had they been making jokes because the town’s name was Phail? And why would anyone choose a name like Phail for a town? Even spelled with a Ph instead of an F, it had a terrible connotation.

Excitement buzzed through her veins. This was a good lead. Even if it didn’t work out, how could she resist a visit to a town named Phail?

Chapter2

Out Of Left Field

Elina grinned when she spotted the I-Phail tower as she rounded a curve that led to town. The water tower displayed the moniker proudly, and she was smiling when the town came into view.

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