Page 1 of S.O.S. Mizzay

CHAPTER ONE

Fourteen years ago: South Sudan…

“Mayday, mayday, mayday.”

Screams and gunfire sounded over Missy’s tactical radio.

Second Lieutenant Millicent Andriopolos didn’t waste a second. She yelled to the squad she was currently leading even though they’d all heard the distress call.

Feet scrambled.

“Winch. What’s happening,” she barked into her comm as she and her team rushed from the building they’d just cleared and secured.

The call had come from her second in command, who, withhissquad of five, had been tasked to help relocate a UN Peacekeeping delegation. The UN faction was packing to move their office closer to the new seat of power in Juba. That was where the SPLA—the Sudan People’s Liberation Army—was basing their capitol, now that they’d won control of the region in a highly contested election.

Missy’sArmy platoon had been recently deployed as a Cultural Support Team, or CST, to assist not only the new government, but the local opposition groups trying to navigate where they stood after the takeover. Things, however, weren’t going exactly smoothly. The Nile and Cobra factions in the area were resisting the newly appointed SPLA led government, and she hoped that wasn’t translating to big trouble for her squad.

“Winch!” Missy yelled into her comm unit as she ran, trying to raise her Sergeant to no avail.

Goddammit.What was happening? Her gut clenched, and even though her mind shouldn’t go there, her immediate concern was for one man in particular.

Cobble.

She shook off the distraction she couldn’t afford.

“Squad B,” she clipped over her mic. “Heading in to assist Squad C. Requesting additional backup.”

“Copy, LT,” Turner’s steady voice from B team came back. “We heard. ETA, six minutes.”

She and her squad would be on site in three.

Hopefully that would be soon enough.

****

Approaching the building while sticking to the early morning shadows, a shudder traveled up Missy’s spine as she perused the situation ahead. All was quiet. Too quiet. Which had her spooked. There should have been bustling personnel. Files and computers being carried out. Vehicles being loaded.

The silence was eerie.

She raised a hand for her men to stop behind her as she studied the outside of the building. She’d been here before, and nothing detectable stood out as being different, but that didn’t mean anything. After the mayday call she’d received—and the silence that had ensued—they needed to approach, carefully.

“Grogan. Fletch,” she whispered to two of her team flanking her. “Head around back. There’s a door that leads inside from the alley. Let me know when you’re in position, then wait for my word to breach.”

Grogan gave a nod of his head before he and Fletch disappeared into the shadows.

Less than a minute later, she got a click over the comm that signaled the pair were in place.

“Make ready,” she told the three men who remained on her six.

“Copy that, LT,” they spoke in unison.

She opened her mic. “Okay. On my go. Three, two, one…”

The small group ran for the main front door, kicking it in, which wasn’t hard to do as it already stood ajar.

Ajar because…

…what met her eyes inside was carnage. Total and utter carnage.

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