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ONE

Sometimes a promise to yourself has to be broken in order to make things right.

PAUL

“S tonewall One to Raven One, what’s your position?” I hovered behind some greenery that shielded me from the bastards who were closing in and asked again for Cole to check in. “Raven One, I’ve requested your position. Do you copy?”

“Stonewall One. I’m coming up on your six.” I could tell by the strain in Cole’s voice he was hurt. “Got clipped in the arm.”

“Copy that.” I whirled and saw him coming toward me, then I spotted Ty with Moore. “Dark Water One, assist Raven One.” I was careful not to use our names. I knew the Cartel would be alerted to our presence the moment we crossed the border into Mexico.

“Copy that.” Ty didn’t miss a beat as he slid across the dirt and ripped Cole’s shirt open to check the damage. He dumped hemostatic powder over the wound to help clot the blood.

“It’s just a graze.” Cole’s voice was raspy with pain. “I’m good.”

“We’re good here. He’s right. It’s just a graze,” Ty assured me, “but Dark Water Two just checked in. Says the next checkpoint is surrounded, and we should move to the next.”

“I’ll take a look.” I headed in the direction he indicated.

I just had to follow the path of dead bodies.

It didn’t take long for me to gain ground on Mark, Mike, and Keith, who were in a full sprint toward the compromised checkpoint.

My infrared camera told me we were about to have company.

“Raven Two, you have three men coming up on your ten.”

“Copy that,” Mark huffed into the radio. “You have eyes on Raven One?”

I smiled at that. I’d almost forgotten the feeling. The closeness we had. The way we could almost feel what our brothers were going through. “Clipped in the arm. He’ll be fine. Beta Seven, your left!” I let two bullets go as I yelled and nailed the man about to fire at Keith.

I swung around and reassessed the situation.

Our cover was blown the moment Moore walked up on one of the child scouts who had radioed in our location before he could stop him.

In seconds, we were under fire and forced to head south when we needed to go southeast. Time was running out, and we didn’t even know if our mark was still alive.

This rescue was incredibly important, not due to who it was, but what they did for a living.

“We have a Hummer approaching from the west side, boys,” Mike said, “packed full of men and even more weapons. Shit,” he paused, “is that?—"

“Yeah, ’fraid so,” John chimed in. “Shit, boys, they’ve got some sort of homemade RPG.”

“Stonewall,” Cole’s voice broke through the radio, “I think we could use some code forty right now.”

I grinned and got into position. “Copy that.” I lined up my scope, flicked the top of the button open, and steadied my breath.

I made sure I had eyes on who my target was as I cleared my head, ready to end this.

“Code forty in three, two, one.” I squeezed the trigger and felt my body come alive as each one of the canisters shot into the air and burst above the enemy, releasing a million little bullets straight down on top of them.

It was one of my finest creations. It was a quick and quiet kill.

Unlike what the Cartel offered us. But that was what separated the men from the monsters.

I scanned the area with the infrared. “Clear!”

We rushed past our next checkpoint with no need to stop and regained the time we lost. We moved like knights on a chess board. Each move was thought-out, but there were constant pawns at every turn. Endless bullets fired into the sunset, and our window to save our mark closed at a rapid rate.

“Check in,” I called into my radio, “Blackstone start.” I took note of all who spoke, and none missed a beat. That was a crucial part of being on a special operations team. Once Cole’s team checked in, Ty’s Dark Water team did the same. All ten were accounted for.

I was ahead of the pack and again used my camera to see what we were up against. “We have two doves, four chickens, and at least eight wolves between you and the mark.” Which meant we had two snipers on the roof, four men walking the perimeter, and eight men around the only entrance.

“Copy that,” Cole and Ty said one after the other.

I spotted Moore and Gear from team Dark Water sneak up and grab two of the chickens. They snapped their necks and moved on to the others.

My mind went back to all those years ago, when I was on Team Blackstone. The way we moved through the night as shadowy figures, people would second guess if they even saw anything, but before they could make a move, we made ours. That was our time to shine, and we were the best.

I could practically feel the men’s adrenaline surround me as I watched. My breathing evened out to an eerie calmness, my heartbeat slowed, and everything became very still. I’d waited a long time for that moment, and I was excited to show the men what I still had to offer.

I watched as Cole’s team took the lead, with Mark, Keith, John, and Mike all hand to shoulder as they moved through the small hallway of the packaging building.

Their bodies glowed through the infrared screen.

“Left,” I whispered to help keep their focus as I guided them.

“Door on your right.” Cole made a move, and they were with him.

“Reach out and feel the rail for the stairs.” We couldn’t risk the guys using night vision goggles; they had to trust me to guide them.

The Cartel was stronger and wiser than they were only a year ago.

They’d come up with new ways to hurt us like never before.

Our last mission, they were ready for the guys and momentarily blinded them when they used their NODs.

It was a constant battle to keep up with their newest tactics, and we had to consistently revise our strategy.

“He should be behind that door.” I tried to study a strange object that was reading as cold as ice.

“Hold.” I needed a moment. What the hell are you?

I moved around the best I could, but whatever it was, it didn’t seem to have a heartbeat.

“Fuck it, whatever it is, just bang it. I have eyes and will eliminate if necessary.”

“Copy that.” Cole gave the signal, and gunshots and shouts echoed through the night air. “Your three, Raven Two!” Cole shouted as Mark got pistol-whipped in the head by a Cartel rat.

“Move, move, move!” Ty yelled at his team as they freed the mark from the chains on the wall, covered his head for protection so he wouldn’t panic, and bent him over at the waist to keep him low as they headed out into the hallway.

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.