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Shine listened to the plans and shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

Sharp blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t either, but what else can we do?”

"We don't wait until midnight. We go now, or we wait until the storm passes."

Griz grunted. “Fucking weird weather.”

Shine pulled up the forecast. “It flooded a week ago about twenty miles away, and now we’re looking at another potential flood here. It would be devastating to be trapped in that. Once those rains start, we’ll lose the upper hand. Instead of moving like normal, we’ll be just trying to survive.”

"Plus, the target may run if it floods here. People are twitchy." Griz pulled on his beard. "We're in a bad spot if we don't move right now."

Squat grumbled. “I don’t like either option.”

“We’ll be stuck here for longer,” Sharp said.

Jay shrugged. “Maybe we should be stuck.”

Sharp closed his eyes. “I know. I just don’t like delaying. But rushing would be just as bad. We can’t go now because we’re not set up. This area isn’t used to rain. If we get three inches tonight like the weather is predicting, we’ll be screwed. I know this isn’t good, but we don’t make the weather, and we can’t stop it, either. We need to pause and see what happens. Once the storms clear and the water goes down, we can make our move.”

They all grunted, knowing that was the best course of action. They didn’t want to delay this mission, but that seemed like it was the best way to proceed.

Shine knew that meant he would be away from Rowan for longer, but if they went in right now, they might not make it back. The weather was too unstable. Normally, they wouldn't delay because of rain, but this part of Africa only received three inches or fewer of rain a year, and they were expecting at least two inches in the next thirty-six hours. It would be a shit show, and they could end up being trapped in a dangerous flood. The military might do crazy stuff, but they weren't willing to push them into beginning an operation that would fail.

He wished he could contact Rowan and tell her what was going on, but that wasn't how this worked. His team would be in lockdown mode, trying to make sure no one knew they were close. If the target got one whiff they were lurking, he might take off. They would have to wait months or maybe a year to find him again. Though Shine didn’t want to be here longer than they needed, he would have to wait to return to Rowan.