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As she read it out, all Mary could think of was the piles of dirty laundry with no clean clothes to pack. She didn’t even know what kind of weather was in Haute Nendaz. And she’d just bought those perishables she still needed to get into her fridge.
Chapter Two
September Second
Washington, D.C.
The door stood open. A brass plate labeled this the Panther Force War Room. He was in the right place.
As Halo paused in the hall, waiting for an invitation to enter, Max sat politely at his side, on his best behavior.
A man moved into his view.
Now, Halo was improbably big for special forces. As a rule, the men were about five foot ten in American measurements. Their wiry frames had musculature that was magnitudes stronger than one would suppose. They were the kind of men who liked to run ultramarathons for fun and could easily get into small spaces and out of tight situations. Honestly, moving the height and bulk of Halo’s own six foot four, two-hundred-fifty-pound frame—using the Yank’s measurements—had advantages and disadvantages. For one, he was an outlier among his team and the only one who dangled over the end of a standard-issue cot. Ryder and he stood eye to eye, but the others were a good six inches shorter. Even Halo’s ex-wife, at six feet, was taller than the boys. They had hated it when she stood beside—towered over—them, looking down at their bald spots.
Normally, hulking over everyone, it felt nice when Halo met up with someone his own size. To be small in comparison? That was an unusual circumstance. But the man walking toward him had Halo tilting his chin up to catch his gaze, even if it was only a couple of inches. This guy was astonishingly large in the way Halo imagined that bear to be when he found the scat pile on his way to finding Mrs. Haze.
“Halo St. John?” the man asked.
“Sir.”
The mountain of a man extended his hand. “Honey Honig, welcome aboard.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Honey turned toward the man at the desk, who lifted a hand. “I’m Nutsbe Crushed, Panther Force mission coordinator. You’ll forgive me for not standing up,” Nutsbe said. “I’m in my wheelchair today.”
“Sir.”
“We’re going to tone down on the sirs when we’re not in the field,” Honey said.
“Yes, si— Okay,” Halo said, glancing toward the table with a go-bag resting in the center.
“Yup, that’s yours. As was explained to you during your assessments,” Honey said. “Cerberus Tactical has a dual role to play here at Iniquus. They do search and rescue if any of our clients find themselves in dangerous circumstances. Typically, that’s associated with mass disaster. Though, Team Bravo evacuated the entire corporation from a war zone last year.”
“We stick around after our clients are safe and lend a hand as part of Iniquus’s charitable outreach,” Nutsbe added.
“Amazing work you all do. One of the many reasons I’m glad to have signed on,” Halo said.
Honey looked down at Max, who looked up at Halo for information.
Halo gave his dog the “all’s well” brushing signal. And Max lay down, letting his tongue loll out as he panted. Yeah, Max knew that something was in the works, and he was excited for whatever came next.
“Since Max is tactically trained, you and Max will also deploy with the Iniquus force teams, like ours. On Panther Force, we meet diverse needs. It keeps things fresh on the job. Panther Force was over doing teambuilding with the Madagascar military for some months. And now, most of the team is in the Baltic region on a close protection assignment for Mr. and Mrs. Sutton. They own Pangolin.”
“And it looks like our team will be over there longer than we’d expected,” Nutsbe said, wheeling back from his desk.
“The Suttons have decided to move their board of directors retreat at the end of the month from Egypt to Estonia for safety reasons given our present global concerns.” Honey moved to the other side of the conference table, pulled out a chair, and sat, gesturing for Halo to do the same.
Halo pulled out a seat and signaled Max under the table.
“Mrs. Sutton will be in Helsinki until the third, when she will take a ferry across the Baltic to meet up with her husband, and they will be flying home together,” Honey explained. “Our team will now be staying on-site while we conduct our due diligence on Tallinn and their planned excursions. We want you to be part of the process so you have a good idea of procedure and policy.”
“I like the challenge of working in new environments,” Halo said.
“Good to hear since you’ll spend the first few months rotating between the tactical teams, learning the ropes while Command continues to build out Cerberus Team Charlie. With Iniquus, you’ll find it’s similar to your work as a Commando, but there are civilian rules, laws, and protocols that you’ll need to have down pat.”
“All right.” Halo tipped his ear toward the go bag. “Looks like Max and I are heading out soon, then?”
