It wasn’t my responsibility, but it was Adam. I didn’t care if I was breaking protocol.
“Alpha Three, Alpha Two is not visible at the moment. Two is DUSTWUN.”
I didn’t know how Mercer kept that flat tone all the time. It never mattered how dire our Sit Rep was. He always sounded the same.
“Repeat your last, TOC? Did you say Two is Duty Station: Whereabouts Unknown?” I asked.
My insides felt like they were on a Tilt-A-Whirl. My center of gravity spun frantically.
“That is correct, Three. Two appears to have been captured,” Mercer said.
Foster, James, Finlay, and Alex stared at one another as I stormed off, passing Carson as he raced toward us. I grabbed him.
“What the fuck happened?” I shouted in his face.
Carson blanched. “I don’t know, Brock. I was scanning left of him when his first two shots sounded.”
I nodded, letting Carson go as I raced toward where Adam had set up overwatch. This had to be a fucking mistake. He was just hunkered down, and the ISR wasn’t picking him up for some reason.
In my ear, I heard Foster talking with Mercer, arguing about pursuing the two vehicles, one of which Adam had to be in. I knew it would be shot down as soon as Foster asked. There weretwo vehicles and no indication as to which one Adam was in, and they were going in opposite directions.
When I was far enough away that I could still hear my teammates, but that I had a modicum of privacy to wrap my head around the situation, I started fucking praying, begging God to rewind time. When I got to Adam’s hide site, if you could fucking call it that, there wasn’t much cover to be found in this area of the country. I stood there for God only knew how long with my head down. Devastation flooded my system, choking me.
The suck just exploded.
That was what Adam would say. I’d heard it from him so much over the years since we’d met. Whenever anything went off the rails, that phrase would be the one he bandied about. As intelligent and analytical as Adam was, he tended to state the obvious, even when it was apparent to everyone around him.
I felt someone walk up behind me.
“We’ve been ordered to gather any intel and EXFIL,” Foster said.
Of course, we were ordered RTB because the people back at command are a bunch of paper-pushing, cake-eating pussies. Except Mercer. He’s a frogman from way back.
I nodded. I followed my teammates as we scoured the area, taking photos of the guys Adam dropped and pulling all the info from their corpses that we could find.
When we were done, Foster said, “Alright, boys. Let’s move out.”
I turned to Foster, my eyes burning. As much as I wanted to give chase, our INFIL had been a ten-mile hike. We had no hope of chasing down both of those vehicles on foot. Foster’s brow raised in question, and I nodded before I waved him ahead of me.
“After you, boss.”
Foster studied at me, then nodded. He flipped his night vision goggles and said, “On point, Finlay. Lead us out of here.”
Finlay took the lead, and Foster and I hung back while the rest of the team fell in. When it was my turn to head out, I looked around. I clenched my teeth to hold off the well of emotions. I didn’t think I could walk away. I looked down at my feet. This was the spot I’d left Adam. The last place I’d laid eyes on him.
Foster gripped my shoulder. “I get it. I don’t like this any more than you do. Believe me. I will be as far up Mercer’s ass as possible until he lets us go get our brother. I promise you that.”
Foster thought he got it, but he didn’t. The person he loved was in Vah Beach taking care of their kids, while the person I loved was lost to me somewhere in the dark of night. Possibly forever.
Anger and disbelief bubbled up within me. We’d been called in to discuss options. I didn’t know what the fuck there was to fucking discuss. One of ours was being held in some godforsaken corner of the world in fuck knew what kind of conditions. The only fucking option was to get loaded for bear, take back what was ours, and make the ones responsible feel the wrath of the Trident.
I sat there, dumbfounded, as people who freaking knew what being held hostage could do to a person discussed Adam as if he was a robot. They knew him. Most of them had served with us when we were coming up. Granted, most of the time, Adam did a damn good imitation of a cyborg, but he was a man. A SEAL.And these fucksticks were talking about leaving him in enemy hands.
Not their call. They’re just following orders.
Adam’s voice sounded in my head as it did on a regular basis. He was the one who kept my head screwed on straight. I was the one who made sure he didn’t take himself or anything else too seriously. We balanced each other out. We had from the jump.
Adam “Woody” DuBois annoyed the hell out of me, but I didn’t know how to be me without him. We’d met on the way to Great Lakes and had been together ever since. Side-by-side from day one. Even when we decided to go to BUD/S, we’d done it together. I’d never been a SEAL or gone into combat without him by my side, reminding me that not everything was fun and games, and sometimes, being serious meant making it back home to Vah Beach.
