Page 19 of Over the Edge

“Did you overreact on your first field mission?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, hell yes. I jumped at every sound, and was sure a gunman lurked behind every boulder. I was a mess.”

She sincerely doubted that, but it was nice of him to lie about it in the name of comforting her.

Their flight was called, and they spent the next few minutes shuffling through the line and boarding the plane. They had a row to themselves and the jet was noisy, so she leaned close to him and murmured, “Do you have a plan for finding Kenny?”

Trevor leaned in close, as well. So close his breath lifted her hair a bit as he muttered back, “I’ll make my way to the Swat Valley and start there. Thought I’d poke around and find out what the locals know. Ideally, I’ll pick up a trail and follow Haddad and Kenny’s movements.”

“And if you don’t find a trail? Will you declare defeat and come home?”

“Hardly. My back-up plan is to contact some intel folks I know in the region, and ask them if they have any information on where Haddad has been hanging out recently.”

She frowned. “You’re assuming Haddad has kept Ken close by. It’s possible he moved Kenny to the other end of Pakistan from him. For that matter, Ken could be in any of the surrounding countries by now, or shipped off to some other corner of the world, entirely.”

“Haddad strikes me as the type to gloat over his defeated enemy. Kenny is a trophy. A symbol of power over America. He’d keep Ken with him.”

She grimaced. “I have to agree with you. Haddad profiles out as a hardcore megalomaniac, out to impress and intimidate both friends and foes.”

“That’s right. You were a profiler before you joined the Reapers, weren’t you? Do you have anything to add to the profiles we’ve all seen on Haddad?”

“No. They’re as complete as they can be with the intelligence we have.”

“What do your skills say about me?”

The question jarred her. “You sure you want me to answer that?”

“Why not? Let’s see how good you are.”

She tilted her head to one side, considering how much to share with him. She actually had fully profiled him over the past year, updating her opinions as he’d shared various personal details.

“You said you spent a lot of time with your grandmother—on your father’s side. Is that correct?”

“Correct.”

“Your parents divorced, you were sent to boarding school every year by your mother, and you spent summers with your father’s family in the country, yes?”

“Again correct.”

“How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

“One older brother, one younger sister.”

“Ahh. Middle child.”

He rolled his eyes. “Please. I’m not that easy to pigeonhole.”

“Actually, you are. Your profile suggests you felt ignored as a child. Invisible. Depending on how accomplished your siblings were, you might have felt inferior. Which would have given you something to prove. You would choose an impressive, even daring career.”

“That’s cheating. You know what career I chose.”

She shrugged. “Nonetheless, it fits the profile. You’d be prone to grand gestures, the kind that would garner you a lot of attention from your family.”

“Hah!” he exclaimed under his breath. “I work in a field where I can’t tell my family about my work at all.”

“Your teammates and the SEAL community are your intentional family. It’s them you’d want to impress.”

He fell silent, his expression closed down tight.

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