Prologue
“Fuck!Incoming!”SamWilson heard his teammate Marcel Cross call out moments before thenight around them exploded into a cacophony of gunfire.Thedeafening boom of a fifty caliber weapon being fired steadily fromsomewhere ahead of them rang through the continuous tat-tat-tat ofsemi-automatic fire.When Sam stepped out into the street just feetbehind Marcel, he fired in two tap short bursts at the two menrunning toward them, each of them firing small caliber pistols intheir direction.
Sam moved to the right of Marcel,knowing that Maddox Devereaux and Glenn “Reaper” Webster would bemoving to flank Marcel’s other side and cover the right side astheir CO, Lieutenant Devon Roberts, would cover their ass, just ashe had for the past six years.They were Sniper Team Bravo, andthey were the team that the powers that be sent in when someoneneeded to be erased.They were known for their skills, but alsotheir ability to get in and out unseen.Well, this mission hadpretty much blown that reputation right out the fuckingwindow.
Ironically it was their very lastmission as well.Each of them had taken the option to leave thathad presented itself a few months ago and had plans for a future.One that would see them still living and working as a team, andpassing on the skills they had each learned over the past sixyears.But first, they had to finish this one lastmission.
Their team had been sent in toeliminate a target that had been a thorn in their side for a longtime now.Hafez Maher al-Hassad had been supplying weapons andmunitions to the fuckers hell bent on taking over the world forwhatever radical belief they had, and he had been on their shitlist for a long time.When they had been given the go ahead to takethe bastard out it has been poetic justice as far as Sam wasconcerned.That was right up until the moment they got caught out,and the building he and his team had been set up in was targeted byan RPG.
Sam had taken shelter beside a wall inthe room he had been in, and the whole thing had fallen down onhim.At first, when his teammates had managed to get him out frombeneath the rubble, Sam had thought he’d made the wrong choice andhe should have made for the south wall of the room.That was untilhe looked in that direction and saw nothing but sky and air.Thatwall had taken the brunt of that warhead and had been blown open,and if he’d been there he would have either been blown to piecesalong with it, or fallen the three stories to the street below.Samfigured he’d take his current injuries and what he suspected was afairly significant concussion over either of those.
Now, they were heading for the EVACsite, and the only route open to them was covered in insurgents.Sam caught movement above him and to the right.He spun his weaponhigh, and shot three rounds center mass, the man falling to thestreet.Sam cursed the nausea the movement caused and swallowed thebile that rose.
Yep, definitely aconcussion.
“Marcel!We have someunfriendlies coming up our ass pretty fucking fast,” Dev snarledfrom behind them, and there was a tension in his tone that told Samthat things were not looking good.He wanted to turn and look forhimself, but every man on this team had their job to do, and if oneof them failed then it was all their asses on the line.Literally.
“Copy that,” Marcel calledback, and then they were moving quicker, jogging down the streettoward their extraction point to the north.
Sam kept his eye down the barrel ofhis M4 and continued moving in the direction of their EVAC.Theywere about halfway down the street when Sam heard a pained cry frombehind him.
“Maddox, you hit?”Samcalled out.
“Flesh wound to the upperright arm,” Maddox growled.“Nothing lethal, just hurts like abitch.”
“It’s bleeding badly, too,but looks like a through and through,” Reaper added.Sam knew thatMaddox would have downplayed the wound, but Reaper would give it tohim straight.
“To the left!”Marcelshouted, and like the well-trained team they were, the five of themmoved to the left, circling around the remains of a burned out caron the middle of the street, and closer to the houses that linedSam’s side of the street.
They were nearing the corner of thestreet where they would need to turn right, for the last threehundred feet remaining to their extraction point, when the door toone of the buildings burst open and a man ran out.From where Samstood, he could see that the guy wore a vest, and in this place andat this time that could mean only one thing.
“Bomb!”Sam shouted as helifted his weapon.He dropped to one knee in order to steady hisweapon a little better, trusting his team to protect him while hedid what needed to be done.
He lifted, sighted, and fired in thespace of seconds, and the man flew back as Sam’s bullets struckcenter mass.Sam heard increased bursts of weapons fire as he gotback to his feet, and felt a slice of white hot pain across histhigh and knew he’d been creased by a bullet himself.With a grunt,he kept his feet beneath him and started moving with his team oncemore.Sam would have liked to have told them that he was hit andthey needed to change formation and move without him.It wasobvious they could move faster without someone slowing them up, buthe also knew it would be a complete waste of time.
Bravo team never left a man behind andif one went down, they all would.Sam gritted his teeth against thepain and kept moving.Just as they stepped passed the man Sam hadshot, he saw the man twitch slightly and knew the man was stillbreathing.Not by much and not for long, but he was definitelystill alive.The medic in him wanted him to stop and renderassistance, but the warrior side, however, cursed the fact hehadn’t killed him outright.It was an internal battle Sam hadfought on many occasions, and one he knew he would alwaysface.
Bravo team moved past the man, and Samcontinued to cast his eyes around the street, firing and hittinghis targets with unerring accuracy.The familiar sound of his teamfiring their own weapons had a calming effect on him.If they werefiring then they were alive, and if they were all alive, then theyhad a chance of getting out of this hellhole in onepiece.
They rounded the corner, and Sam movedup a little when he saw movement down one of the alleyways betweentwo of the buildings.He saw a metal tube come flying out of thealley.
“Pipe bomb!”Marcelshouted, and all five of them sprinted for the shell of anotherburned out car that sat on the opposite side of theroad.
Sam was airborne, heading for as muchcover as he could when he heard the thing detonate.He was theclosest to the bomb and the furthest from cover when that thing hadbeen thrown into the street.He’d already survived a fucking RPGattack that day.What were the odds he would live through a pipebomb as well?He had no idea.All he could do was pray as he movedas fast as he could, and try to make himself as small a target aspossible.
If he didn’t make it, he hoped therest of this team did.The world would be boring as fuck without alittle Bravo in it.
ChapterOne
Sam concentrated on his technique,keeping limber as he moved around the punching bag, when he struckhe made sure to punch the bag not push it.When he punchedhe–
“Your brother needsyou.”
Sam shook his head toclear his father’s voice from his mind.What had he beenthinking?Punching.Yes, plant your feetand then—
“I know, Daddy, butI—”
“No buts, Samuel!Yourbrother is sick, and without this, he will die.Do you understandthat?If you do not do this for Thomas then you will effectively bekilling him.You will be responsible for killing your own brother.Is that what you want?”
