CHAPTER 1
SOUTH AMERICA – JUNGLE BORDER, SECTOR ECHO | 1254 HOURS
“Eyes up—two tangos north-northeast,eighty meters. Moving fast.” Hunter Savannah “Savvy” LaSalle’s voice cut through the comms with sharp control, her breathing steady despite the sweat slicking down her back. Leaves slapped her shoulders as she pushed through the underbrush, the weight of her rifle low and steady in her hands. This was just another day at the office. Quick and easy. Only, there was nothing easy about the secondary part of this job. Nothing easy about being the director of the 73, a secret cover organization inside the CIA. Nothing easy about taking down one of your own.
She and her bosses could have sent someone else to lead the mission. Someone whom they trusted. Someone who could’ve gotten the job done. But West and Vance didn’t trust anyone.
Only Savvy.
Other men and women had turned their backs on their country. This wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last. But this situation was delicate and it required a light touch.
Her touch.
“Copy,” Ramirez said from the left ridge. “I’ve got visual. Taking the shot.”
The silence whispered through the jungle, followed by a wet thump. One body down.
“Where’s—”
A deafening crack shattered the air, followed by a bone-rattling concussion meant to punch through a skull.
The explosion ripped through the tree line ahead, the force lifting her off her feet and hurling her backward into a thicket. Branches clawed her arms. Her head slammed into the dirt. She stared at the blaze, momentarily stunned. Flames reached toward the sky like long tentacles. Thick black smoke engulfed everything in sight, making it impossible to see the compound.
“Collins is hit!” Mendoza’s voice strained through the headset, choppy, panicked.
Savvy forced herself upright, blinking through dust and leaves. “Status. I need a SITREP.”
“Collins is down,” Mendoza repeated, raspy and breathless, wheezing through the words. “No pulse. He’s not—He’s gone.”
“Regroup at fallback point, Delta.” What the hell had just happened? Every mission was dangerous, but this one was different. The objectives… were different. The intel and asset… different. They’d ascertained enough information to know a 73 operative had been selling intel for months. That intel had been confirmed. Extracting him from an undercover operation would be the tricky part. He wouldn’t see them coming, but when he did, he’d know his cover was blown—that he couldn’t hide his treason another second. She didn’t think he’d surrender easily, but this she hadn’t anticipated.
The compound was small, quiet, with few guards. She’d mapped it out herself. She’d researched this mission from the very beginning. She knew it inside and out. She’d been watching the compound via satellite, and no way in hell had anyone had the chance to move in the kind of weapons that would make it light up like that.
“Copy.” Hale’s voice—calm, clipped. “Moving.”
The jungle lit up again—automatic fire stitching through the trees just behind Savvy’s last position. She bolted low and fast, heart hammering. Her HUD blinked red warnings. GPS failure. No satellite return. Jammed.
No friendly in the area. No exfil signal.
Her gut went cold.
They knew she was coming. More than that, they knew her plan. Fuck.
She slid behind a moss-covered log and pulled out the compact drone control. No aerial link. No surveillance return. Their eyes were blind.
“This is Ghost Ranger,” she said into the mic, using her code name. “Command, be advised. Multiple team members down, grid location Echo-Nine. Immediate evac request. Respond.”
Static.
“Repeat—this is Ghost Ranger. Team Huntsmen is compromised. I have hostile movement on all sides. Requesting evac and support.”
Nothing.
No static.
No ping.
Just dead air.
