Page 1 of Protected By The Green Berets

CHAPTER1

Zinnia

“Hey Z! Director wants to see you,” Randy bellowed out from the hall as he rushed past.

I jumped, having been so immersed in the case I was investigating, the loud sound startled me. Randy was a good guy, but made a shitty coworker. He was one of those types whose energy had no limits so he rushed and stomped around like he was being timed in everything he did.

Standing, I straightened my blazer then packed up the folders that were spread over my desk. Placing them neatly in my drawer, I locked it. I’d been given this case a month ago and it was devastating. Six U.S. Soldiers had been killed in a bombing in a small village in Iraq. Only, the U.S. government kept getting intelligence that claimed that one of the soldiers survived. Survived—and was killing insurgents— or so the unofficial intel reported.

Staff Sergeant Colby Harris was reportedly spotted in several locations in Iraq after the bombing had occurred. I was the CIA liaison for the U.S. Army, so naturally the file had fallen on my desk. There wasn’t anything I wanted more than to find this woman alive and bring her home. It’d been slow going so far and I was worried that I might have a lecture coming my way even though I was doing my best.

The director of the CIA calling me into his office was never a good thing, but all I could hope was that he wanted an update on this case. I only wished I had more to go on. Random sightings across Iraq, sightings in places where the bodies of insurgents were piled up, just added to the mystery. There wasn’t exactly a pattern or trail that could predict her next location.

Investigating a bombing and the potential for survivors wasn’t easy when I was here in Washington D.C. and the bombing had taken place in Iraq—in a hostile controlled area of Iraq at that.

I squared my shoulders, pulling myself up to my full height of five-nine, and strode confidently into the Director’s office. “Sir? You asked to see…me?” I hesitated as two men, sitting opposite of the Director, stood as I announced my presence.

“Z, perfect timing.” Director Johnson stood and motioned for me to take a seat next to the men.

They remained standing, watching me with solemn eyes. They were decked out in full military dress uniforms, Army dress uniforms to be precise. This had to be big. The Army didn’t wear those uniforms casually, only at official functions or, as was evident here, when they needed to play nice with other agencies.

I tried to make a quick study of the uniforms. The man standing to the right had a huge rack of medals, combat patches, combat infantry badge, and a special forces pin, indicating he was a Green Beret. They were the Army’s elite Special Forces group, meant to work behind enemy lines and train foreign allies in a war zone. Whatever this was just got interesting.

“Gentlemen, this is Special Agent Zinnia Hart. She’s the one who’s looking into the disappearance of Staff Sergeant Harris. Z this is Colonel Tim Williams and Captain Keller King. Keller is the leader of The Green Beret Alpha Team.”

Alpha Team?Interesting. A Green Beret team is normally twelve men. When they broke into Alpha and Bravo teams, it meant they were creating smaller, specialized teams for very specific missions. Very rare.

The Colonel I could understand being here to receive an update, but why would they send the leader of a special forces team to this meeting? Not to sound rude, but typically a Captain wasn’t important enough to come to Washington, let alone the Agency headquarters. It made no sense.

“Nice to meet you,” I told them as I sat down. They returned to their chairs afterward.

I looked over at my boss with curiosity clear on my face. I’d been a CIA operative since I turned twenty years old. Graduating high school at sixteen, then college before my twentieth birthday, had demonstrated a certain motivation that garnered the attention of recruiters and I’d been thrilled to join.

My family didn’t care much for my job, though they didn’t really know what I did. They knew I worked for the government and that I was hardly ever around. Whenever I was, I had to be extremely secretive about my work. Dealing with classified information meant I couldn’t discuss my day around the dinner table.

“Certain…events have transpired and the Army has decided to increase the level of the investigation.”

I blinked at Director Johnson as I processed his words. “I think I’m finally getting somewhere,” I told him. “I’m confident that I’ll be able to locate the whereabouts of Staff Sergeant Harris, if she is, in fact, alive.” I didn’t want them to take this case from me. I’d been living and breathing it for the last month and I was positive I was close to a breakthrough. I had a call scheduled for tomorrow with a potential witness that could crack it wide open.

My eyes slid over to the other men and I studied them as discreetly as I could. The Colonel was probably in his fifties, gray hair creeping through the blond, and had a stern face. The man sitting next to him looked equally stern. His features were as hard as stone and he resembled some of those statutes they’d carved of Greek Gods.

His features were too masculine to be beautiful, but holy crap he was gorgeous. Dark hair was gelled back, only semi taming the loose waves that were longer on top. The sides were shaved close to his head and he had a full dark beard. I knew special forces had a different set of regulations for grooming. They often needed to be able to fit into different cultures and beards were an easy way to do so.

Eyes as green as a glass bottle sitting in the sun settled on me and I jerked my gaze off him. Guilt and embarrassment heated my skin as I felt his piercing gaze remain on me while Director Johnson gave me my new set of orders.

“Things have changed. You’ll still be looking for Staff Sergeant Harris, but in addition to that you’re going to be going after him.” He tossed a file down on his desk.

My hand trembled slightly as I picked it up. I wasn’t afraid of much. No, I was shaking from excitement. I had a feeling whatever was in this folder was going to give me some deviation from the rut I’d found myself in.

My life was stagnant. I was bored. Work hadn’t really offered up any exciting opportunities lately and somehow I kept getting passed over for field duty. I wasn’t sure why, but it lent to the restless feeling deep inside me. I was like one of those tigers in a circus who knew her act so well all I could do was pace my cage and wait for the show to start. We wouldn’t even speak of my non-existent social life.

“You’re going on assignment to Iraq,” Johnson told me as soon as I opened the folder.

My head snapped up as hope and eagerness flooded my system. “Okay.” I kept my voice calm. It wouldn’t be professional to squeal in excitement with representatives of the U.S. Army sitting a foot away from me.

I scanned the first page of the document and realized it was a compiled report on Roj “Asad” Badawi. Frowning, I glanced up at Director Johnson, then over at the other men. “This name sounds familiar,” I admitted.

“Roj Badawi is responsible for the bombings that have been happening in Iraq recently,” the Greek God informed me.

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