Page 26 of Over the Edge

“About what?” Lily asked, looking confused.

“Why are all of you so off? Every one of you is fucking up by the numbers. Before I rip you all a new one, I want to know why.”

Axe sighed. “Honestly, boss. My head’s on an airplane with Trevor and Anna. Why in hell are we sitting here with our thumbs up our…noses…while Trev’s on his way to rescue Kenny?”

“You know why. No military operations of any kind are authorized in hostile countries to rescue dead soldiers whose remains are in an unknown location.”

Jojo piped up. “We don’t know Kenny is dead. He’s presumed KIA, not proved to have been killed in action. Why won’t our higher ups authorize some sort of recon mission to get us over there to check it out?”

Leo jumped in. “Hell. I don’t care if I get court-martialed for going over there to pull out Kenny and kill that mother-fucking bastard—“ His voice broke.

Cal was worried about Leo. The guy had been strung way too tight ever since he got home from the Swat ambush. He’d tried to talk with Leo a few times, but the guy didn’t want to share whatever was going on in his noggin. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “We can’t go AWOL. I won’t be responsible for destroying all of your careers—“

Jojo cut him off. “Speaking for myself, I want to do this even if it does end my career. I’m not too proud to beg you if that’s what it’ll take.”

Cal sat down on a wooden crate, bringing himself down to the level of his operators. “Look. I would do anything—anything—to save Kenny except lose all of you.

“Don’t you think we’re good enough to find him and bring him home?” Axe asked. Desperation and real pain vibrated in the big man’s voice. “You trained us, Cal. We’re the best. You know better than any of us that we could do this. For God’s sake, let us try.”

Jojo piped in. “Let us at least think about a rescue op. Let us plan it and walk through the hypotheticals. If, at the end of the day, we agree it’s impossible, we’ll let it go. But it’s killing all of us, Cal. Including you. And you know it.” Jojo stared at him with wise eyes that saw right into Cal’s soul.

He’d been refusing to admit it to himself, but the guys were right. Something had been eating away at the Reapers for a while, now. He just hadn’t wanted to put a name to it.

Soberly, he said, “What about you, Lily? If, hypothetically, we were to do this, it would have to be unanimous.”

She was silent for a moment, thinking. Then she said, “The Reapers’ motto is, We Take Care of Our Own. And I’ve always heard that no SEAL gets left behind. I think it’ll destroy us all if we don’t at least try to live up to those values.”

Her words were daggers to his heart. “When did you get so smart?” he asked her.

“No one asked for my opinion before now.”

Cal spoke gently, but dead seriously. “Lily Van Dyke, you listen to me, and you listen good. You’re a full member of this team, and your opinion counts every bit as much as anyone else’s. Don’t you hold out on us. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” she said meekly.

He looked around at these people. His family. His brothers and sister. He loved them more than he loved himself. And he’d been letting them down. Lily was spot on in her assessment. At this rate, the Reapers wouldn’t be fit for field operations, anyway.

“I’ve been turned down consistently to go on rescue missions, and to go on a body recovery mission. But maybe I could work up some hypothetical threat that requires a SEAL team to run a down range observation mission.”

Lily commented, “Trevor’s mission came out of the CIA. Since the military’s stonewalling you, Cal, do you know anyone in the intel world who could give you some hot intel that needs chasing down?”

Cal nodded slowly. “Yeah, in fact. I know a guy. Owes me a favor…”

He felt the team holding its breath while he thought it through. Yeah. That could work. “Tell you what. I’m willing to go into mission planning mode for a rescue operation to go get Ken. I won’t ask for a green light if I think it’s going to fail. But if we can figure out a way to get into that part of the world undetected, get our guy, and get the hell out, I’m in.”

Interestingly enough, nobody shouted with joy or responded with any enthusiasm like he’d expected. There were merely grim nods and silent fist pumps all around. Whoa. His team was in worse shape than he’d realized.

“You do realize we may not get any support if we run a CIA op,” he warned. “We may not even be in country legally. If we get caught, it could go down very bad for us.”

Jojo shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Fine with me,” Axe replied.

“No problem,” Leo responded

Lily grinned as wolfishly as he’d ever seen from her. “Yeah. And?”

His heart lighter than it had been in a long time, Cal nodded. “All right, then. We’ve got a job to do. Let’s get to it.”

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