Page 16 of Defending What is Mine

Chapter Eight

Jack:Present—January

“Sir?” A Sergeant motions at his computer. “We’ve got movement headed this way. Looks like a convoy coming down from the mountains.”

Lt. Colonel Haskell nods. “Let’s get it up on the main monitor. Are we talking friend or foe, son?”

The Sergeant hesitates. “I’m sorry sir, it’s too dark and they’re kicking up too much dust to make out much else.”

Haskell sighs. “How much time do we have?”

“At their current speed? Not much. Five minutes, maybe ten.”

“All right, people.” Haskell claps his hands to get the room’s attention. “For anyone who didn’t hear, listen up! We’ve got some fast movers headed this way and I need someone to figure out what we’re dealing with. ASAP.”

Before the Colonel’s finished speaking I’m back at Specialist Kerr’s desk. “You said Lt. Liddell and his team were on the move, correct?”

“Sir,” she says with a nod.

“I need to know if that’s my team.” I point toward the satellite feed. “And I need to know two minutes ago.”

“Understood.” She quickly looks something up on her workstation then reaches for her phone.

I make my way back to the Lt. Colonel and clear my throat. “Colonel? I have reason to believe those may be my men.”

“Has that been confirmed?”

“Working on it now, sir.”

The Colonel shakes his head as he returns his focus to the information in front of him. “Keep working on it. We’re in no position to take chances.”

A soft voice from behind me interjects. “Excuse me, Colonel. We made contact with Captain Wilde’s team.” The Specialist smiles. “It’s them, sir. Or, one of them at least. But they’ve taken some heavy fire and report wounded on board.”

“Well, that explains their speed. If they got caught up in the leading edge of this, I bet those boys have seen Hell firsthand today.” The Lt. Colonel turns to me. “Captain…notify medical. Let’s have them prepped and standing by.” He notices a Staff Sergeant hunched over a desk nearby and taps him on the shoulder. “Contact base security. Inform them we’ve got friendlies inbound, and this group is not to be stopped at the gate to check any goddamned ID.” When he returns his attention to me, his brow is creased and his shoulders stiff. “Without air support, if whoever’s doing this turns their attention to that convoy, it’ll be a massacre. They aren’t out of the woods yet.”

Anxiety whips through the air around me, like lightning crackling along my skin. “Colonel, if you don’t need me here, I’d like to head over to medical to wait for my team.”

“I’d be there myself, if I could, son. You let those boys know we’re proud of them.”

I exit comms but don’t make it to medical. Instead, I find myself at the perimeter, watching for my team. Scanning the darkness beyond the base, I spot a dim line of lights in the distance. That’s got to be them, moving double-time to get back to us. With a deep exhale, I whisper a silent prayer for their safety and feel my anxiety begin to dissipate the closer they get.

Five hundred meters to go.

Four hundred.

Two hundred.

Fifty.

That’s it, boys. Almost home.

And then…

Like a firework exploding in the night, there’s a flash of light at the back of the convoy. My head doesn’t know how to process what I just saw. Was it an RPG? Did they run over an IED? What I do know…what every fabric of my being is screaming, is that things just went from bad to worse. Right before my eyes.

As the lead vehicle cruises through the security checkpoint, it’s clear they don’t know what’s happened behind them. Fueled by instinct and adrenaline, I sprint toward the closest Humvee skidding to a stop inside the fence. I jump into the driver’s seat a half second after a Staff Sergeant—Santos, I think—climbs down from behind the wheel. He only notices when I slam the door closed and push the ignition to bring the engine back to life.

“Sir? What are you…?” he asks with his arms extended. I punch the throttle, spinning the tires and throwing dust as I swing the truck around. On my way past him, I point ahead, out beyond the base, toward the accident. Up ahead, an MP begins to close the gate I’m accelerating toward. I blast the horn to catch his attention and he freezes in a deer-in-the-headlights-like-trance as I fly past.

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