The dealer, broad, sweating, a thick gold chain resting against his throat, watched Krueger with small, calculating eyes. “Payment clears,” the dealer said in accented French. “You get your weapons. You move the shipment. No problems, yes?”
Krueger smiled slowly, the kind of smile that never reached his eyes. “With me? There are always problems, but I handle them.”
The dealer raised an eyebrow, wary but intrigued. What Krueger didn’t say was that the routes he was taking were stolen. Smuggling paths originally built for CIA shadow operations.
Paths Ford Cox had mapped, tested, and handed off to Chase Security years ago. They were routes buried deep in black files Krueger had pulled apart one stolen page at a time. And now Krueger walked them openly, arrogantly, like a man convinced he’d cracked the system that made him.
He took a drag from his cigarette, the ember flaring in the dim light. The ash fell like a tiny meteor to the dirt floor. “The Americans think they run this desert.” He exhaled a slow, poisonous breath. “They don’t.” His smile widened. “I do.”
AIR BASE 201 – FLIGHT LINE – 05:42 LOCAL
The rotor wash thundered beneath them as Shannon hovered her Black Hawk in a tight station-keeping pattern over the convoy. Dust blew up in spirals across the barren Sahel, the horizon shimmering with heat.
The convoy commander’s voice crackled in her headset. “Falcon Three-One, all quiet. Appreciate the overwatch.”
Shannon kept her tone crisp. “Copy that, Viper Six. We’ve got you.”
Beside her in the cockpit, Gil Peters glanced over, helmet tilted just enough to show a grin. “You’re settling in fast, Falcon. Feels like you’ve been on this AO longer than the rest of us.”
Shannon didn’t look away from the terrain lines ahead. “It’s different every time. Quiet doesn’t mean safe.”
“True,” Peters said, adjusting the collective. “Still, two missions with me this week, zero drama? I’ll take it.”
In the back, Keating muttered over internal comms, “Please don’t jinx us before lunch.”
Shannon smirked. They escorted the convoy through two checkpoints and maintained altitude until the commander gave the final all-clear. “Falcon Three-One, you’re good to break. Appreciate the ride.”
“Stay safe out there,” Shannon replied.
She peeled them away cleanly, banking southwest toward the refuel point. The low hills cast long shadows, and the air trembled with heat haze. Shannon felt the shift of the bird beneath her hands, the give and pull of the controls like an extension of her own instincts.
Peters’ voice came through her headset. “Fuel team’s ready. Once we’re down, I’m grabbing some damn breakfast. Pilot privilege demands one too, LT.”
Shannon shook her head, smiling for real now. “Pilot privilege demands you eat something green occasionally,” she shot back.
“Ma’am, in this theater? Vegetables are a myth,” Keating declared solemnly.
Peters snorted.
Shannon brought the Black Hawk down in a smooth, textbook landing on the forward arming and refueling line. As the dust settled, her radio chimed with an incoming message.
FROM: CO, ROTARY-WING OPS
Good work today, Falcon. Keep flying like this.
It wasn’t a speech. It wasn’t a ceremony. But sitting there in the cockpit, sweat drying on her skin, adrenaline settling into warm focus, it was enough. She was finding her footing.
She was earning her call sign. And she was exactly where she needed to be.
BEHIND THE SAFEHOUSE – WALLED COURTYARD – 06:29 LOCAL
Dante stepped into the courtyard first, hands loose at his sides, posture still in the guise of Rafe Moretti. The morning sun cut sharp shadows through the broken brick wall. A figure dropped from the rooftop like smoke. Sean Paulsen. His uniform was dusty, his face was leaner, and his eyes were harsher than Dante had ever seen them.
Two more silhouettes appeared behind him. Red Canal and Beach Sands landed with their rifle barrels low. Ther trigger discipline was perfect. All embodied predators in human skin.
Paulsen studied Dante. “You’re late checking in.”
Dante kept his voice in Moretti’s accent. “Hard to check in with ears around every corner.”
