Page 50 of Red Hunt

Next in line came Peter. “I can’t believe this.”

We shook hands, then hugged, and I giggled. Giggled. If this wasn’t the best surprise I’d ever gotten, I didn’t know what was. Then my eyes fell on Lucas aka Motor, as his unit had called him. Probably because he could repair and repurpose anything that had ever been drivable.

“Motor,” I said. Peter stepped to the side, and I bro-hugged him.

Then I took a step back, angry at my awkwardness. I’d stayed in touch with Christopher Thomas, who was still in the teams, heard about Motor losing his leg. I looked down at my own feet and then rubbed my neck. “Shit.”

I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know where to look. How could I, a guy who’d seen so many wounded soldiers, whose mission had been to save lives and aid the injured, be awkward about something like that?

“At least now we got a chance of keeping up with Motor. Levels the playing field, you know.” Blake slapped Lucas on the back. And everybody laughed, including Motor and me, though it didn’t reach his eyes and it didn’t reach mine. Fucking hell.

Carter got up, moved his chair to the side, and carried a couple more from the next table to ours. “Come sit.”

Once we’d all settled down, it was on. Peter and Blake rehashed all the old stories, mishaps, and missions when I was attached to their unit, and even Motor relaxed and laughed alongside the rest.

“You good?” I asked Motor when Peter and Blake got into a heated discussion about who exactly came up with the plan for a mission where the team got stuck in the basement of a destroyed house right underneath some Tali-fighters.

“Super-good,” he answered, his face a mask.

Fuck. “How’re you managing the pain?”

“Doc. I’m fine, really. Would I rather be out there fighting alongside my brothers? Of course, but I survived.”

Yeah, not fine at all. Losing a leg, getting taken out of the game like that, must suck. And surviving wasn’t living or thriving.

“I haven’t talked to Chris in a long time; you guys still close?”

Lucas shrugged. “They call. But they’re busy. Mostly in Africa nowadays, after ending the war with a shit show of epic proportions.”

I nodded. For everyone I knew who’d fought in these last wars, the prolonged and ungracious ending was like a punch in the gut. Twenty years for what? “Is Rey still on a team with Chris?”

Lucas nodded. Then the door opened again, and two other guys entered.

Carter’s eyebrows shot up. “Who invited the DEA guys?”

Peter raised his hand. “I did. A couple more volunteers never hurt, right?”

I looked from Carter to Peter to the new guys. Goofy and Peaches had told me about the DEA guys, who were apparently not a very forthcoming part of the task force. Carter introduced me, and just as I shook hands with Jeremy and George, Peaches got an alert on his phone and jumped up. “Need to check on something. Got my laptop in the car. Be back in a sec.”

I excused myself and ran after him. Something in his tone of voice made all my spidey senses tingle.

Once at the truck, Peaches booted his laptop, tapping nervously with his fingers.

“Tell me what’s wrong.” I got in at the passenger’s side and could feel the tension coming off of him in waves.

“Remember Edith’s ex? We’ve been monitoring his phone.”

I nodded. Of course, I knew.

“He just called a number I’d flagged some time ago. It’s presumed to be one of the cartel higher-up’s numbers, but we never got to confirm that.”

He started the app that logged all the traffic happening on the phone, then searched for a timestamp.

I scratched my head. I was reasonably well-versed in the tech stuff but not anywhere near to Peaches’ abilities.

“Got it.”

He pushed a button, and a video started playing. We watched for a couple of seconds, but that was enough to identify Edith. “Shit.”

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