"I don't know," she said honestly. "But I know he deserves someone coming for him. And right now, we're the only ones who can."
Sloane nodded slowly. "Alright. Then let's make sure we do it right."
They walked back into the operations center together. The team was already gathering. Nadia and Winter reviewing tactical plans. Kira organizing medical supplies. Reese studying flight paths and insertion options. All of them preparing for an operation that shouldn't exist, against an enemy who wouldn't see them coming.
Quinn looked up from her station. "We're ready. Delta's standing by on their end."
Mara took a breath. "Put them through."
The main screen flickered. The connection stabilized. And suddenly Mara was looking at five men in a team bay at Erbil Air Base, eight thousand miles away but somehow right there in front of her.
Her eyes scanned them automatically. Looking for him. Even though she knew he wouldn't be there. Even though she knew he was in a cell somewhere in Mosul. She was looking for Steele anyway. Looking for the face that matched the eyes she couldn't stop seeing. Looking for someone who wasn't there.
None of these faces matched. None of them were him.
She recognized the type immediately. Special operations. Delta Force, based on what Quinn had pieced together. Hard men who'd spent years doing impossible things in impossible places. The kind of operators who didn't quit and didn't leave people behind. The kind who'd trained with Steele. Who knew him. Who could tell her things about the man whose voice she couldn't stop hearing.
The man in the center spoke first. Older than the others, maybe late thirties, with the bearing of someone who'd spent twenty years leading men into combat. "I'm Hawk. Acting team lead for Delta Six. This is Bulldog, Ghost, Risk, and Joker."
Brief nods from each man. Professional. Controlled. But Mara could see the tension in their shoulders, the way their eyes moved across the screen trying to catalog details about Shadow Veil's operation center.
"Mara Lennox," she said. "Team lead for Shadow Veil. This is my second in command, Sloane, and our tech specialist, Quinn."
She didn't introduce the others. Operational security. They'd already revealed more than she was comfortable with just by having this conversation.
Hawk's eyes locked on hers. "You were in the compound."
"Yes."
"You extracted the civilians."
"That was our mission. Woman and child being held against their will. Intel suggested imminent threat. We moved to get them out."
"And ran into us."
"We didn't know you'd be there," Mara said. "G.I.D.E.O.N., our intelligence system, didn't flag any other teams in the area. If we'd known?—"
"You would've done it anyway," Hawk finished. "Because the civilians were your priority."
"Yes."
"Same as Steele. The woman and kid were in danger. He made the call to help you extract them instead of securing the primary target. That's why Nazari escaped. That's why Steele got separated from the team."
Steele. There it was again. The name that made him real. Mara felt something tighten in her chest. Hearing it from his teammate made it different. Made the man she'd left behind more than just a memory of dark eyes and a calm voice.
The accusation hung in the air. Unspoken but present. Your operation cost us our objective and our team leader.
Mara held his gaze. "Your team leader made a choice. He saw a seven-year-old boy who needed extraction and he helped us get him out. That's on him, not us."
"And then you left him behind."
The words hit harder than they should have. Because they were true. Because she'd run when every instinct had screamed to stay. Because the image of his face when she'd turned away was burned into her mind. Mara felt Sloane shift beside her, felt the team's eyes on her back, felt the weight of that decision pressing down again.
"He told me to go," she said, voice steady despite the anger building in her chest. Despite the way her hands wanted to clench into fists. Despite the memory of his voice, calm and certain even while bleeding out. "He was wounded. Bleeding out. Nazari's men were closing in. He made the tactical call that the kid's life was worth more than his. So yes, I left him behind. Because he was right."
Except he wasn't right. Not about the value calculation. Not about anything except that the kid needed to get out alive.
Bulldog spoke up, his voice rough. "You could've stayed. Could've fought."
