Page 51

“I’ve heard of Delta. Isn’t it some secretive elite unit?”

I nodded. “Their existence isn’t a secret, but their missions are. I was deployed overseas a lot. My own mother had no idea what I was up to.”

“Is that what you can’t tell me?”

“Well, there’s that. And after I proved myself in Delta, another government agency recruited me, though you won’t find them on any records. That’s where I met Shep. He wasn’t always a hitman.”

Team Zulu handled every mission with stealthy efficiency. Even within the military, no one knew our unit existed, and we’d liked it that way. People might hear about a Ugandan warlord’s demise, a Colombian diplomat’s disappearance, or the rescue of an abducted American schoolgirl in Yemen, but there would have been no mention of our involvement. Our team of a dozen multidisciplined elite operators had had the skills and resources to take on just about anything. My job as a tracker and intelligence expert had been critical to completing our objectives.

“Holy shit. Sounds like spy stuff,” said Sage.

“No, we weren’t that. But we took on some pretty crazy missions.”

“And the hacking?”

“Been doing that since I was a kid. My parents didn’t want to pigeonhole my sister and me into a life of farming and thought it was important that we stayed in touch with the rapidly changing tech scene, so they bought us a computer. Any spare time I had, I was pushing the limits to see what I could get away with. Turned out, it was a lot.”

“So, why did you join the army? Sounds like an odd choice given your extracurricular activities.”

“You’re right. The army wasn’t even on my radar. Enlisting was a penance of sorts.”

She arched a brow. “What’d you do?”

“I might have overstepped the mark when I accessed a US Intelligence secure site. We received an unexpected visit from some intimidating government officials. I can still remember the look on my old man’s face when a half-dozen black SUVs sped down the dirt road into our property. Pretty sure he thought the president was paying us a visit.” I smiled at the thought, which I looked on with humor now. Not so much at the time. “Instead, it was a bunch of guys in black suits, who confiscated all my equipment and demanded to know who’d hacked their site. They were surprised to discover a sixteen-year-old was responsible, but were still prepared to throw the book at me. I struck a deal to spend only three months in juvenile detention on the condition that I enlisted upon my release, which was the week after I turned seventeen.

“It wasn’t a high point of my life. Disappointing my parents was my biggest regret. It was actually Dad who suggested I offer to enlist in the army as a bargaining point for my lawyer. He thought the military would knock some sense into me and keep me away from computers for a while.”

“And did it?”

I winced. “That part of Dad’s plan kind of backfired on him. My online adventures had gained the attention of various agencies who were eager to exploit my skills. And since I was excelling in the army and moving up the ranks fast, they started training me to become a very specific weapon. A tier one operator with the ability to monitor and track targets. Then take them out.”

“I thought there were analysts who gathered intelligence?”

“You’re right. There are teams of skilled people who do that. But there are certain assignments where it’s risky bringing too many into the fold. Too often, a target gets spooked right before a mission, either because of a tip-off or they figured out they were being watched. When it was me doing the tracking and my team carrying out the mission, there’d be no external interference.”

“That must’ve been an exciting life. Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes. I probably miss the brotherhood most of all. The Team Zulu guys were a solid bunch. We had each other’s backs. But after what happened to my sister, it felt like the right time to move on. I’d served our country since I was a teenager and given ten years of my life defending it. I’d spent so much time deployed that I’d never had the opportunity to live a normal life. Maybe it was selfish, but I wanted to experience that before I got too old.”

“That’s not selfish. You deserve that.” Sage shifted her position. “So, they just let you quit? I imagine the government or whoever trained you were unhappy about losing someone so valuable.”

“Unhappy is putting it mildly. The discharge negotiations were tense. My superiors weren’t excited about letting me loose in the civilian world. I reminded them that the leash they thought they had on me had never been there at all. If I’d wanted to be a menace, I could’ve already taken that path. Eventually, we reached an agreement. If they left me in peace, I wouldn’t penetrate every weak spot in their security shields and paralyze their systems.”

“You can do that?” Sage narrowed her eyes before sipping her Sprite.

“I wasn’t bluffing, and they knew.”

“That seems bold. Aren’t you worried they’ll send someone to kill you for threatening them?”

“It’s not in their best interests. If they try and fail, it’ll just piss me off. That’s the last thing they want. And as skilled as I am at finding people, I’m also the best at hiding. If they were onto me, I’d know before anyone was sent to take me out.”

“That’s not very comforting.”

“I stay off their radar and live low-key, and they don’t bother me. If I were to cause trouble or use my skills to make a lavish life for myself, it would draw unwanted attention. It’s one reason I keep a—what did you call it—economical apartment.”

“I guess that makes sense. But…aren’t we causing trouble now? What we’re doing isn’t exactly low profile.”

“And that’s why I’m covering our steps. It’s not only so we don’t end up in prison or with the Mob knocking on our door.”