Page 95 of Rangers Last Promise

“It was after the ambush. Maybe two weeks.”

“Grant was already dead?” I ask.

“Yes.”

His voice changes.

The humor disappears.

“We were still at the forward operating base waiting for transport home. Everyone was being questioned about what happened in the valley.”

“By Army investigators?” Sheriff Tate asks.

“Some. Intelligence people too.”

“Hampton?”

“No. Hampton disappeared immediately after the ambush.”

Doc's jaw tightens.

“I remember.”

Trigger continues.

“One of the investigators asked me whether Grant had ever mentioned Operation Twenty-Three.”

Wolf goes still.

“Operation?”

“That's what he called it.”

“Not Mission Twenty-Three?”

“No.”

Doc walks to the desk.

“What did you tell him?”

“That I'd never heard of it.”

“Had you?”

“No.”

“Who was the investigator?”

Trigger opens his eyes.

“I don't remember his name.”

Doc curses quietly.

“It was fifteen years ago,” Trigger says. “I had just watched friends die. I wasn't memorizing name tags.”

“Would you recognize him?”