Page 2 of Extraction

A strange feeling crept up my spine as something odd came over me. I swung the camera around and saw the building had suddenly emptied, the exits were clear of Cartel, and the two on lookout on the roof were no longer there. That little prickle intensified as it moved up my neck and into my hair. My sixth sense screamed as I slowly turned and scanned every inch I could see, and that’s when it –

“Fuck!” I started to radio what I’d seen but stopped myself. I decided to make the call without the team leaders weighing in. After all, that was why I was there.

“Stonewall One to Stonewall Three, do you copy?”

“I copy.” Cole’s father, Daniel, the original Blackstone team leader, was all business.

I couldn’t even count how many men were in a line and closing in on the west side. “We have a code red.”

The radio went quiet. No doubt he’d switched from the teams’ camera to mine.

“Permission to?—?”

“Do whatever you need to,” he interrupted, and I knew he could see what I did.

“Copy that.” I switched channels then and gave an order to the pilot to move his pickup spot to a closer location. There was no way we could fight off that many Cartel with only ten men. I moved a few feet from where I was protected and got a better look at why the house was suddenly evacuated. The blood drained from my head when I saw a Cartel soldier run with a roll of wire from the building to where they all had taken cover in the shrubs.

“Fuck!” I switched the channel back to the teams. “Get out of there now!” I screamed, and all eleven men burst out the door as the first bomb went off. My camera blinded me for a moment, but I was ready and had closed my eyes a second before the place went up in a fireball. “Head east!” I headed down the hill as a second explosion went off then switched from my camera to night vision. The NODs weren’t great, and it was a risk, but I needed to see better.

“Raven Two, on your left!” Ty shouted as bullets zipped in the darkness. I aimed my weapon toward where they’d come from and fired at will. The teams all wore watch trackers, and once the mark was found, one was put on him as well in case we got separated. “Two, four, six, ten, plus the mark,” I quickly counted out loud. “All right, fuckers.” I swung around, locked in an RPG launcher, and fired one of my own homemade creations.

“Holy shit!” Mark cried out. “I think you took my nuts with that blast.”

“Nice to hear you’re still with us.” I chuckled and swung my weapon to pop three men coming up on John’s ass.

The sound of the chopper was bliss, and I moved into position as he hovered to do the dangerous task of lowering to the ground.

“What the hell did I miss?” Keith shouted at me as he carried the mark over his shoulder. “You better tip the pilot for this one.”

“Go! Go! Go!” Cole shouted once the chopper door closed. As it started to lift, the enemy fired with all they had. The chopper dipped to the side, and our mark went flying into the side of the beast before we could get him strapped in. He rubbed his shoulder in pain and his mouth gaped open at the impact as Cole quickly went to his aid.

I dug my feet in, flexed my hands, and waited as the fuckers raced toward me. It was like a battle scene in Game of Thrones. “A little closer.” I listened as the chopper got higher in the sky. “Come on, come on.” My head lived for this shit. “Bye-bye.” I hit the button, and fifty little metal bubbles shot into the air, and as soon as they were over the enemy, I fired them all off at the same time. The sound would have been chilling if I were the target, but we were fighting good versus evil, and all bets were off.

“Fuck yeah!” Mark called into the radio. “It’s like the Fourth of July!”

Then silence took over, and I struggled to check for any Cartel that might have been spared. I felt nothing for their pain, only that these monsters were stopped, and my teams would come home in one piece with their mission complete.

Once I got word that they’d crossed the border, I dropped my head back and allowed myself to suck in a deep breath.

“Paul?” West, my second in command, said from behind me. “Would you like me to take over?”

“Yeah, I would.” I happily let go of the drone’s controllers and stepped out of the pod to stretch my back.

“Great job, sir.”

“Thanks, West. Let’s get her home.” I nodded toward the screen. The drone had been pre-programed to return to a post in Texas, and he would monitor it until it was safely back there.

It was my biggest accomplishment since I returned to Shadows over a year ago. I spent countless hours making sure the drone was small enough to fly with our teams but large enough that it had incredible firing power. It was silent, sleek, a real beauty. It would take an RPG to bring it down. There were six cameras that covered all the angles, and each could rotate three hundred and sixty degrees. The best part was the real-time communication I had with the teams while I flew it. It allowed me to be with them where I belonged without exposing my identity to the enemy. Basically, I conducted security from the sky.

I rubbed my tired eyes and looked at the time. I had been in the pod for nearly thirteen hours. I might not be able to show my face in Mexico anymore, as I’d been compromised, but I sure as hell had found a way to continue to fight alongside my brothers. People might think my story ended, but really, it had just begun.

It was nearly five p.m. when I went upstairs to the main living room of the safehouse. I spotted Doc Roberts talking to his new hire, Dr. Bash Barella, as they were exiting the kitchen.

“Good evening, Paul, how was the mission?” Doc Roberts fixed his glasses on his nose.

“All good, everyone’s fine.” I looked at Dr. Bash and changed the subject. “I hear you’re adjusting pretty well.”

“Slowly but surely, I am.”

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