Page 20 of Hunter's Mission

Wyatt sat across from me with his face set in a determined expression. He knew the stakes just as well as I did.

Charlie leaned in our open door. “Good luck, boys. Go get her.”

“You not coming with us?” I scowled at him.

“No can do, buddy. Got my own shit going on.” He saluted us and crouching over, he stepped back as the whir of the rotors blew his hair into a frenzy.

“Fuck.” I thumped my fists onto my thighs.

“We don’t need him, anyway.” Wyatt’s upbeat tone was obliterated by the concern etched on his face.

Booker took us airborne and within three minutes of leaving the airport, we crossed over dense jungle that stretched as far as I could see. Every mile took forever. Every minute took too long.

Every thought of Layla made my chest ache, and I couldn't shake the fear that we were too late.

Fucking focus, Hunter. I repeated the mantra over and over.

We crossed terrain that was straight out of a nightmare.

“It’s gonna be impossible to land in this jungle,” Booker spoke through our comms. “You’ll have to drop in via cable and extract the same way.”

“Roger that,” I said, and Wyatt and I nodded at each other.

“But it also means I can’t land and wait for your call. It’ll take three hours to reach the coordinates, so we’ll need at least three hours to get back. We only have enough fuel to give you four hours on the ground. Don’t miss your taxi home.”

I checked my watch and set my time.

“Four hours,” I muttered.

Wyatt thumped my shoulder. “We’ve got this.”

“Hell, yes we do.”

Wyatt winked. “You must really like this chick, huh.”

“Yeah. Pity she didn’t feel the same.”

He did a double-take. “She called you, buddy.You.That’s one hell of a sign that she does.”

“Three minutes to drop zone,” Booker said. “You’ll be about two miles from target.”

“Affirmative.” I clipped the cable onto my tactical vest and Wyatt did the same.

Below us was a sea of green vegetation. Not a clear patch of ground anywhere.

“Welcome to the Amazon,” I said.

“Yeah. Where the spiders are bigger than your head, and the pigmies will eat you for breakfast.”

I glared at him.

“What?” He shrugged. “Just stating the facts.”

“Not helpful, Wyatt.”

“This is it. See you boys in a few hours,” Booker said. “Keep up the comms.”

“Roger that.” Hanging onto the drop line, I jumped out of the chopper, and the jungle canopy rushed up to meet me. “This is gonna be fucked!”

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