Page 34 of Colombian Chemistry

“Yes. But there are several teams, and each team comprises four members. Every team consists of people with specialties that together form an unstoppable powerhouse. My team was Alpha team, and they were the only people on this planet I trusted... still true today.”

“What was your specialty?”

“I was the recon guy and the sniper. I planned our missions and focused on the silent hand-to-hand stuff. Most of the time, our enemies never saw me coming.”

Chong tried to stop again, but I kicked him on, not wanting to fall behind and miss Marcus’s story. I was surprised he was even telling it to me, and I didn’t want to miss a word. “And the others?”

He paused for a moment, then went on. “Knox is a weapons and explosives specialist. Kind of our version of a human tank. He’s a huge dude, and when shit got real, he was the one who would come in guns blazing and bombs exploding. Not as stealth as the rest of us.” He chuckled. “He’s also our pilot. We all know how to fly, but Knox can fly an airplane through a needle eye. Dude’s crazy good. Then there’s Piper. She’s like a chameleon that can charm her way even into a President’s bedroom. Piper can take on virtually any identity, and her strength is her ability to take out a target without anyone ever knowing she was there. I do a pretty good job of blending in and going undercover to get close to people, but Piper is the epitome of stealth. She may look harmless to a civilian’s eye, but she’s got about six hundred and one ways to kill a man in any given situation. She’s extremely lethal. And Wesley is our technology expert. He can hack any system, break any code, and basically is a genius behind a computer. Originally, he’d been arrested for hacking the FBI’s system and accidentally unveiling the names of undercover operatives. When they caught him, they offered him two choices... work for them or go to a black site for eternity.”

“Oh yikes.” I grimaced. “So he took the deal?”

“Lucky for us, he did. Together, the four of us were a pretty tight team.”

“And you all retired, or are they still working?”

“We all retired together. Knox got nabbed on a mission when he was saving our asses. Basically, threw himself to the wolves so Piper and I could get out alive. They took him deep underground, and we lost him. We wanted to find him and bust him out if he was even still alive, but the powers that be reminded us that when we signed up, we agreed that there would be no help for us if we got taken. We were off books. Didn’t exist.”

“So, they were gonna leave him?” My jaw slackened.

Marcus softly shook his head. “Yep. It was total bullshit. He stayed back to save us, and then they were gonna make us leave him to his fate. And to make matters worse, they were going to send us off on another mission, so we couldn’t even go get him ourselves.”

“That’s awful.”

“That’s the job. We knew it when we signed up, and it’s one thing to know you’re done for and accept it, but it’s another to know your brother is out there somewhere going through hell.”

“So, what did you do?”

“Well, our contracts were all up a few weeks later. Even though we’d all planned on staying for a long time, we agreed to walk away together so we would be free to go get Knox. So, that’s what we did. Of course, when we said we were out, they tried to convince us to stay and even told us we could go get him, but to hell if we were gonna keep working for people who truly did consider us expendable. After everything we did for them, and the one time we need them back, they bail on us. Total bullshit. We all refused to sign up again, and after we walked out, we went and got our boy back.”

“That’s incredible. And he’s okay?”

“Yeah. He went through hell to survive, but he knew we’d come for him. Says he never gave up hope we were coming, and that’s what kept him breathing.”

It was incredible to hear about his life, even just the Cliff’s Notes. To think that we had these brave men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us, and none of us even knew they existed to thank them. Of course, I would never utter a word about their existence, not that I knew their name or anyone would believe me anyway, but I wanted to scream to the world that these people exist and we should all be thanking them every day.

“Sounds like he was right to trust in you guys. Do you ever see them?”

He shook his head. “No. We keep saying we’re going to get together, but so far, we haven’t accomplished it. Everyone is spread out across the continents living their new lives. We’d all made enough money through our contracts to live comfortably for the rest of our days, and we talk once in a while, but that’s about it.”

Chong tried to snatch a bite of grass, and I grunted while I pulled his head back up. “Wait. So, are you rich? If you’re so rich you can be retired, then why the hell were you trying to get fifty thousand dollars from me?”

“I’m not rich. I planned my retirement precisely, and I know exactly what I can draw from it each year without running out of money until I’m ninety. I doubt I’ll live that long with what I’ve put my body through, but I don’t want to be swiping groceries in my eighties to get by. So, your fifty grand would have meant I could upgrade the cottage I bought to a twenty-acre oceanfront spread. Total privacy. No one around to bother me. It would have been heaven.”

“Oh,” I said, now feeling guilty I’d dangled that dream in front of him then snatched it away. “So, without my fifty thousand, you can’t buy it?”

He shrugged. “I guess I could. I have the money, but drawing out more than I planned on would affect the interest and maybe cause me to run out of retirement funds early. I’ve just got to think on it more. But it would be nice.”

The sound of an engine coming down the road drew our attention. Marcus stiffened up and twisted his ear to the sound.

“A car!” I said excitedly. “Maybe we could ask them for a ride!”

“We need to get off the road. Now.” Marcus spun his donkey to the thick vegetation lining the road.

“But it could be—”

“It could be the cartel,” he said quickly. “Hurry up, Irene. Get in here.”

I pulled on the left rein to get Chong to follow Marcus, but the stubborn donkey just planted its feet leaving me stuck in the middle of the road. “Come on, Chong! Move!”