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Tyler
“Players are on site. Holding positions at the perimeter,” Mark said over the coms.
“All right. Listen up,” I said. “You all know what to do. Everybody stay frosty. We don’t move a muscle until I give the signal.”
When you’re on a mission, the hardest part isn’t combat. When the bullets are flying, you don’t have time to think. You just react. But before the gunfire starts, when it’s quiet, and you’re alone, there’s nothing to do but think.Thinkingis the hardest part. I was crouched into position and looking through my night-vision goggles.
“I count 11 armed guards,” Mark said over the coms.
“Make it a baker’s dozen,” Jackson replied. “Two more just came out.”
“You would know what a baker’s dozen is, Muffin,” Mark joked.
“Keep the chatter down,” Ben said.
“OK, what do we do when the guys with guns see us?” Liam asked.
“Hopefully, they don’t,” I said. “But if they do, you just run faster.”
Mark snickered.
During training, we’re exposed to as many real-deal situations as possible, ensuring that when we did encounter them, we’d be ready. As a SEAL, we were trained for a wide range of external threats. Combat missions trained us for pursuit, capture, interrogation, and even torture.
There were situations, just like this one, though, for which I simply couldn’t prepare. I didn’t have the time to. And no amount of training or real-world experience could help, especially when that threat came from inside my own head.
In any infiltration, knowing your target is the most crucial part. There are many techniques for dealing with guards without alerting them. It pretty much all boils down to being able to stop them from raising an alarm and then subduing them to keep them quiet and incapacitated.
Keep your head in the game, I told myself. “Fuck,” I grumbled out loud and then told myself to focus on the task at hand. “I’m gonna kill every single last fucking one of them. López and anyone else who gets in my way.” I said to myself as various scenarios played out in my head. I had no idea what was going on, I had no clue what was happening to Marisa at this very moment, and I didn’t know what I was going to find when we did catch up to them. Not to mention that it wasn’t just Marisa in danger. It was her CI too. And I knew that had to be eating her up right now.
“As much as you want to kill them, our only mission is to get Marisa and Guadalupe back in one piece. Keep it together,” Jackson said. His tone was flat and direct. I knew without him saying so that he was as focused and determined to get these motherfuckers as I was. But we couldn’t afford to let our emotions get in the way of the mission. No matter how much I wanted to, the only way to ensure everyone came out of this on the other side and in one piece was for us to unite, focus, and work as the solid unit we were. “Jackson, Davis, and I will enter from the west.” I nodded, tuning his instructions out, already knowing the play-by-play we would take.
I hated that I couldn’t save Marisa and take out the thugs who took her all at the same time.
An owl hooted in the distance, and I imagined it planning an attack just as we were. I could almost see it sitting in a tree, focusing on whatever rodent was in its line of sight. The only difference between us was that nothing would intercept or retaliate against the owl in its hunt.
It didn’t have to worry about someone or something trying to kill it when it made its final attack. We had plenty of enemies ahead of us. Sure, our attack would be a surprise, and we were all trained for this sort of mission, but putting my friends in harm’s way didn’t sit well with me. I asked for their help, not the other way around. I was used to following orders and doing what was asked of me. Being the one to need help and calling in all the markers I could didn’t make me feel like a leader.
Trees rustled above us as we sat silently in the dark, taking in the surroundings, making sure, one last time, that we were good to go. The eerie quietness was unsettling but calming at the same time. I didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that time seemed to be at a standstill.
I noticed a bungalow tucked into the corner of the property. It was a hundred feet south of the main building. There was a light glowing from inside. But that wasn’t my target. My eyes landed on the lit windows of the compound. Both my feet and my trigger finger were itching to get this shit over with.
“We’re in position,” Quinn said. Ben is with him.
“We’re ready to roll.” Liam’s confirmation let us know he and Mark were in position too.
“Don’t anybody go rogue. Fire only when fired upon. We’re not supposed to be here, so leave no trace,” Jackson said.
“Are you serious?” I snapped and leveled my stare at him. Anger consumed me as the adrenaline surged through my veins. All I can see is red as I imagine Marisa hurt by the hands of these assholes. “Marisa’s in there. I’m gonna empty my mag into anyone who gets in my way.”
“I want them in the ground too,” Davis said. “That piece of shit has my partner. But we know they’re armed. They have guns. And if we go in there like Annie Fuckin’ Oakley, she’ll be dead before we ever get to her.”
“He’s right, Sandman.” Jackson’s jaw ticked. “We need to take him alive.”
“And, if we kill him, he gets the easy way out,” Davis said.
“And we don’t have a way out of this. Legally anyway,” Jackson reminded me.
“Marisa wants him in the ground too. But we need Alonso López alive, Tyler. He’ll go to prison. And then Big Bubbah can deal with him.”
