AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Drake was one of my oldest friends and Cole’s cousin. Knights took an oath and would never abandon each other. So it didn’t matter if this was a fool’s mission.
We would find Drake or die trying.
After a plane ride to New Mexico, we followed the coordinates to Drake’s location. Unfortunately, the signal was spotty, and we weren’t sure this was the right place. But we had to try all available options.
Mark Hauer, my second-in-command at Alpha Command, drove us to the middle of the desert. The small group of us would check the site before deploying the rest of our team. If the coordinates were correct, we were going into a cave. So we needed men on the outside to assess any issues.
As Mark drove across the bumpy terrain, Cole put his hand on my knee. “If anything happens to me, tell Grace I love her.”
“Tell Alex the same if anything happens to me.”
Cole nodded as the vehicle stopped.
Mark turned to look at me. “Marcello, you’re with me. Cole, you’re with O’Connor’s team.”
“Roger that,” Cole said to confirm.
Our team climbed out of the SUV, and I joined Mark as we moved to the trunk to put on our gear. We grabbed bulletproof vests, combat helmets, and guns with extra ammunition.
Cole stayed in the rear as we entered the cave. He was about two hundred feet behind me. I walked with Mark and four other guys. The cave was dark, with no light other than our flashlights leading the way.
Mark never showed an ounce of fear. He was a former Navy SEAL, the best on my team. So if I was going into a situation with a sketchy outcome, I was glad I was doing it with him by my side. That brought me some comfort. It also made Alex and my family feel better about this mission.
“I don’t like this,” Mark said as we crept forward into what felt like a never-ending sea of darkness.
We could hardly see more than a foot in front of us. But it wasn’t like we could pull engineering plans for a cave. There was no way to navigate the space other than using the heat maps and technology built into Lovelace. I tried to get the lay of the land before we got here. But even with Drake’s tech on our side, I still couldn’t predict the correct route.
The men behind us coughed on the dust particles flying through the air. I covered my mouth and cleared my throat. But as we walked deeper into the tunnel, the air became too dense.
“Respirators,” I shouted. “Now!”
We put on the respirators, breathing harder as we inched through the cave. When we hit a fork where the cave split into two, each team took a different path. Not long after we parted ways, I heard footsteps behind us and halted.
“Did you hear that?”
Mark shook his head. “I don’t hear anything.”
Maybe the lack of oxygen was causing me to hallucinate.
We traveled for another five minutes before I heard more footsteps. This time, my team turned around to search the darkness for the source. Even with a flashlight, I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me.
A bullet sailed past my head and plunged into Mark’s forehead, his eyes widening as he hit the ground. I reached for my gun, but the shooter was faster. He took out my team, one by one, leaving me for last.
I aimed the gun at a man well over six feet tall who strolled toward me with an arrogant smirk. He had huge muscles bulging from a fitted shirt that clung to his skin. Dressed in all black, with a mask over his face, I couldn’t see more than his dark hair. He had tons of tattoos on his skin, though none I could identify.
A group of men gathered behind him with guns.
“Don’t bother fighting us,” the man taunted in a thick French accent.
Keeping my hand steady, I pointed at his forehead. But before I could take the shot, something hard hit me on the back of the head.
And then, everything went black.
* * *
Iwoke up with my wrists bound behind my back. Rocking back and forth on the cold, dirt floor, I tried to sit up. But the assholes tied my ankles together.
My head pounded like a jackhammer drilling into the bone. An intense pain that made it hard to keep my eyes open. I looked up at the cave ceiling. The room was dark, save for a sliver of sunlight peeking through a crack in the rock above us.
