Page 29 of Trusting the Team

“Embry, Gentry,” he looked at both. “You're ready for this?”

“Yes, Sir,” they said in unison.

“Chaos is getting edgy, Sir, if we could move right along,” Trey interrupted from the back.

Within minutes the ceremony was complete. Ferret, Cowboy, and Dari cleared the office shutting the door as they stepped out; the newlyweds stuck in an emotional cascade of a kiss signifying their beginning, full of longing, sadness, and promise. Five minutes later, after multiple threats and complaints Duke opened the door and joined his team who took off toward their ride.

Dari waited for Embry to come out, “You want to crash at my place? We have a spare room.”

“Did Gentry say something to you?”

“Of course he did, well, to Lowell, but same thing. But he didn't have to. You’re family now and I have an unopened bottle of wine.” The two women walked out of the hangar together.

Team Mission

Africa.“Does this place always feel like a hell on earth?” Cowboy rhetorically asked. “Let’s just get in and out,” Hammeranswered. The team nodded. A raid to rescue any recently stolen kids, these rarely went well. They were about three miles from their expected rendezvous location. The team separated into pairs to come at the camp from multiple directions.

When they arrived at the camp, they started surveillance. The camp did have the children. The age range was between four and twelve. Cowboy and Trey found the mass burial site of the children that proved too old or troublesome. It did not appear this was the first batch of stolen children based on the multiple levels of decomposition. Hammer and Chaos identified ten children were alive in the camp and shift changes. Ferret and Duke mapped the camp layout during the night, slipping through the area unseen.

Two days and the team moved in to pull the kids out. Chaos set a distraction for the security, a storage building imploded. It destroyed both the building and the food stock for the camp. Trey and Ferret ran through the buildings housing the children. Releasing and corralling them to leave. The children were in bad shape. They had been hijacked on their way to school. They had been beaten and/or raped. The men were disgusted and worked as quickly as they could to get out of the area. They were leaving with more children than they thought and knew they would be slowed down.

“We have to get these kids somewhere. They are going to slow us down, we don’t have food, clothes; nothing for this large a group,” Chaos uttered to an unhappy but agreeing team. They split the kids into groups even age groups in the hopes they would help them cover ground. Older children would help motivate and carry younger if necessary. The team kept a security circle around the children, knowing that they would be followed. Duke split from the group to see if he could get comms to work; his goal to find a fast rendezvous point to drop the kids.He linked back up after getting a location to meet with local law enforcement.

“Wish we could’ve done more damage to the camp,” Cowboy muttered.

“Chaos did get rid of most of the camp’s food,” Hammer spoke up.

Their flight home was somber. Children always made it harder. They would all have to find a way to keep what they do away from their women. Some missions were easier than others. The ones with children were harder to separate to keep their lives clean.

Home

25

MADDOX

Ferret invited her to the next team get together. They met at the beach, had rented a fire pit. When they arrived, Chaos was wrestling with Dari over cornhole set up. Cowboy was starting up the grill and fire. Trey was sitting with Arianna cuddled in his lap. Embry was dragging Duke through the sand, waving at Ferret as she headed toward him. Ferret wrapped her in a hug when she got to him, “Hey.”

“Maddox,” Embry stepped back, trying to show she was not moving in. Maddox smiled dutifully.

“Do you want something to drink?” she motioned toward the coolers near Cowboy. They all started walking that way.

Cowboy turned from the grill, looked down the beach and yelled at Chaos, “If you don’t get your hands off my woman-"

“She's kicking my ass, man!” Chaos cut him off. The team laughed as they watched Chaos moving boards to Dari's direction as she dusted herself off.

26

DARI

When she was satisfied Dari headed toward the grill and fire pit. She grabbed a white claw and tossed a beer at Chaos. Cowboy grabbed her as Chaos seamlessly took over the fire pit. Tucking Dari against his front, Cowboy kissed the side of her neck, motioning toward Ferret. “This is Maddox,” he got out before Ferret.

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