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“This Ryker McQueen?” a man answered.

“Chief Master Sargent?” Ryker asked.

“Whatcha need?”

“This is critical. I’m the scrounger for the Omega SEAL team. I have an assignment. I need a Navy service uniform, in size huge.”

“I need you to be more specific than that, sailor,” Eastman replied.

“XXL regular for the shirt, pants in-seam thirty-six.”

“What kind of insignia?”

“E-5, and lots of fruit salad, I know we can’t be particular on that.”

“Last name for nametag?”

“Drakos.”

“Got it. Where do I need to bring this?” Eastman asked.

Shit, I left before even finding out where my team was heading.

“I’ll text you. I’m not sure where my team is being briefed.”

“I have a couple of ideas. I’ll get you something.” The man sounded confident, so Ryker sighed a breath of relief.

“We need to take off to Batman, ASAP. We’ve got a private jet waiting.”

“I’ll drop everything. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.”

“I appreciate that, Chief,” Ryker said as somebody walked into the bathroom.

Ryker hightailed it out of the bathroom, texting all the way. Jase got back to him, telling him that the meeting was—Hallelujah—one building over from the command center! He texted Eastman the building and room number, then double-timed it to the meeting room. When he got there, he ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath, trying to look halfway normal before he entered the briefing room.

He made a beeline for the back of the room, knowing that’s where Jase would be, and sat down next to him. The guy standing in front of them, the guy who was supposed to be giving them a rundown of how things should be operating was…was…a lost cause. That was Ryker’s impression listening to him for a total of one and a half minutes.

“Tell me it’s been better than this, I’m begging you,” he whispered to Jase out of the corner of his mouth.

“It hasn’t,” Landon said from his other side.

Shit, if the guy wasn’t making it up to Landon’s standards, they had a real fucking problem. Ryker leaned in, his elbows on his knees, and really concentrated.

“Mrs. Akbas is going to be providing me with the intelligence I need to find the kidnapped men. Once I parse her data, I will determine if it is worthy to provide to you. We will be meeting with Mr. Kaplan, the CEO of RTP Enerji. He has agreed to meet with us this evening, but I have postponed the meeting until tomorrow morning so that I have enough time to study up on the Turkey/American foreign policy—”

Kostya stood up from where he was sitting next to Gideon in the front row.

“Mr. Carlisle, I want to thank you for the briefing that you have provided us, up to this point. I appreciate that you have some ideas on how things should be run in this operation. I think you can sit down now.” Kostya waved him to the seat in the front row where he had been sitting.

“But I’m not finished.” The guy was young, and he looked a little bewildered. Ryker appreciated the fact that he didn’t sound pompous, only confused.

“You are for now,” Kostya said in an even tone. He must have realized that the kid wasn’t going to give him any push-back, so there wasn’t any point in annihilating him. “I’m going to have to insist that you allow my second-in-command to now take over as point person with Akbas-Bey.”

“Who?”

“Akbas-Bey, that is the appropriate way to refer to a woman in Turkey. As a diplomat representing America here in Turkey, you would be expected to know that. You will also refer to the CEO as Kaplan-Bey. Got that?”

The kid nodded.