Page 68 of Over the Edge

She glared at him, but he looked sincere.

He added, “I’m just trying to be honest. It’s a bit of a shock to see you shoot someone.”

She sighed. “Fine. I get it. Everyone is conditioned to think of women as not capable of…doing what I did. But we are. That’s the whole point of having women SEALs. We can do the same job men do, and we bring a few advantages of our own to the table.”

“You don’t have to convince me,” he said quietly. “I always thought the Valkyries were a good idea.”

She smiled a little at him. “It’s getting light out, and this is an exposed position. What’s the plan, boss?”

“Oh,nowyou acknowledge that I’m the boss. Where was that last night when you decided to stow away expressly against my wishes?”

“I didn’t technically know what your wishes were.”

“Don’t B.S. me,” he retorted.

He was right, of course. He’d made it crystal clear he didn’t want her to come with him. “I figured it would be easier to apologize than try to argue you into letting me come along.”

Trevor looked ready to throttle her, but merely said, “We’ll discuss that at a later date when we’re not so exposed.”

Yep. He was going to chew her out but good, and it was going to sting. But it was worth it. And she’d been right to come along. She knew it in her bones.

Trevor was speaking again. “…Mansur. Dude. Look at me.”

When the guy managed to raise his head, Trevor asked, “How many more checkpoints between here and the Bagva Pass?”

“Two. Maybe three.”

Trevor frowned, and Anna knew that look on his face to be him thinking.

He announced, “Mansur will drive the truck. Anna, you ride with him and keep an eye on him. I’ll drive the Range Rover these gentlemen have so kindly provided for us, and I’ll follow you. Anna, load up all the weapons and ammunition you can find in the Range Rover while I take down the checkpoint.”

It took about ten minutes to carry the six bodies to a small ravine nearby, lay them out, and say a few words to send them to their eternal rest. There was no need to disrespect the dead, after all.

Trevor kicked apart the sawhorses while she loaded up all the weapons, ammo, and assorted gear. One of her best finds was a pair of battery-operated headsets with short-range wireless capability. She handed Trevor one, and a quick radio check showed the units to be scratchy, but intelligible.

She conferred briefly with him as they got ready to head out. She suggested, “How about if I pose as Mansur’s sister if we come to a checkpoint. You can be our hired guard. Do you want us to stop and let you drive up first if we come upon any checkpoints?”

“You go first in the truck. Your Zagari is better than mine. I’ll hang back and look menacing and bodyguard-like,” He added grimly, “And don’t get fancy. No embellishing on the plan.”

She nodded meekly. He was still plenty ticked off about her stowing away. But right now, they had jobs to do. And hers would be to keep Mansur from getting any bright ideas. At least she’d gotten several solid hours of sleep in the back of the truck last night.

As the sun rose in the pink and peach sky behind them, they drove away from the scene of the ambush, heading west into the mountainous wilds of southwestern Zagistan.

Mansur was scared stiff of her and hardly looked in her direction, let alone tried to make conversation with her as he drove. She caught him side-eyeing her like she was some sort of crazed murderer.

She sighed. “Look. I didn’t like killing those guys. I simply did what was necessary. I told the family I’m a soldier in the United States military, and I wasn’t kidding.”

He blurted, “I thought you worked in an office, or maybe cooked and cleaned for soldiers. You know. Women’s work.”

She didn’t know whether to shout with laughter or be mortally offended. Women’s work, indeed. If he had any idea what she and the other Valkyries were trained to do, he would drop dead from the shock of it.

They hitthe next checkpoint a little after noon. The guards had obviously just eaten and were sloppy and lazy. Trevor generously greased everyone’s palms, bought gasoline to fill up both vehicles at prices that were highway robbery—and they were waved through with hardly a second glance.

The third checkpoint was a little more interesting. At this one, the guard who hung in the window of the truck wanted to know if, early this morning, they’d been through a checkpoint a ways east of their current position.

Ahh. Somebody had noted the missing militants. “No, sir,” Mansur answered nervously.

“Did something happen?” Anna ventured to ask. She pitched her voice in high tones that she hoped made her sound like a young girl who might be impertinent enough to ask a question of a strange man.

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