Page 48 of Dangerous Mission

Ginger's lips turned up. “Only because he can’t find any information on me other than what was planted. His team read a bogus report about me. I’m guessing you didn’t find anything either, Cy.”

“Honestly, I never looked. Every man in this room is my brother. It’s about having each other's backs on each mission, not our pasts. We also let each other know information so we can help each other.”

Ginger hobbled over to a chair and sat down. “Well, I’m not sure how much you’ll call me a teammate after this. I’m not a SEAL.”

“Bullshit,” Casanova growled. “You know your shit and can do many of the things we learned in BUD/S. The only issue we have is your lack of team acceptance. You keep your distance.”

“For a couple of reasons. Six years ago, I served as team captain for a Green Beret unit. Our team tracked a chemical engineer selling US plans to the Russians. To get close to him, we learned everything about him. At the time, he had a wife.”

“Carter. Fuck,” Casanova said. “Angel needs to hear this.”

Ginger’s eyes dimmed. “Not yet, mate. Commander North knows some, and he didn’t want me to say anything. Back to the story. The woman became close with one of the men on my team. Like this team, we worked closely together and would do anything for one another. Those men were my brothers. Viking wanted to get the woman out. I knew it might cause issues, but we did it anyway. We faked her death and sent her to a remote location. Our doing that set other things in motion.”

“Did you fake his family’s death also?” Casanova asked.

“No. Honestly, we don’t know what happened or why it happened on the same day.” Ginger paused. “What’s worse is it all set a different plan we didn’t account for in motion.”

“The money,” Casanova groaned.

Carter had a huge life insurance policy out on his wife.

“Yes. We went after him, but he was ready for us. I didn’t see it coming, and we walked straight into an ambush. I was the only one to survive.”

Axel couldn’t help but run his hand over his chest. The scars were a reminder of the brothers he’d lost when he was taken. It was hard to live after watching the men you cared about die.

“Hell, man, I thought you were heartbroken over Tamara dying,” Casanova said. “She was one of the women Carter helped rescue on a fucked-up mission.”

“No, I got close to her for information. That woman was pure evil. My handler told me to keep everything to myself, but I can’t keep lying.”

“Why now?” Axel asked.

“Even if I’m not truly part of the team, I don’t want anything bad to happen to the people you care about. It started when my contact in the CIA showed up with intel on Hex. I told him I would get Commander North to go. The fucker said it wouldn’t work. Before I knew it, he’d kicked my leg, and it broke. Then he somehow got you guys on the training mission. The guy is crazy, but I think he tries to do good.”

Axel didn’t know whether he should hate Ginger or be happy for what he’d done. “Dude, shit would be so much easier if you talked to us. You might not have ever stepped foot in BUD/S, but that doesn’t mean we don’t consider you a brother.”

“I went to BUD/S the day after hell week. I was in the bunker when my drill sergeant walked in with a man in a black suit. It was as hot as hell outside. He had a pair of glasses on. The sergeant's face was redder then when he yelled at us during hell week, and he was clenching his fists at his sides. They wanted me to come with and promised me vengeance for my brothers who were killed,” Ginger said.

Axel still remembered hell week, even if it had been years ago. His body was beaten and bruised by the last day, but he had never been so happy to get his brown shirt, a symbol of making it through hell week. The following week was called walk week, when they still ran through activities but at a low intensity.

The process of becoming a SEAL took almost eighteen months before you could be put on a team.

“Vengeance makes us do crazy things,” Doc sighed. “What I want to know is did you know Casper was in danger on his first mission?”

“No. I had no clue Carter was involved until the woman let it slip out in a conversation. I reported back to my handler. By that time, you had already known about Carter, and it didn’t matter.”

Casper stood and walked over to Ginger. “I believe you.” He patted him on the back. “But you still haven’t answered ‘Why now?’”

Ginger took his phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen. He showed the video of Axel at the charity event. “This.”

“I’ve watched it a million times,” Axel grumbled. So had the world.

“But you don’t have the information I do.” He paused the video. “This woman here.”

Axel squinted and caught a glimpse of the woman Terri had said was her ex-assistant. “Yeah. Franny.”

“No, this woman here is Carlota Phasedown. She works for Carter. Well, she did back when we were going after her. She will do anything to get what she wants. Though I’m not sure why she targeted Terri.”

Suddenly, Senator Wilson’s demands and his top-secret military project made sense. If Axel could get his hands on the information, he bet it would lead back to some chemical compound Carter wanted to sell to the government.

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