Mara watched it happen. Watched two teams that shouldn't exist, that shouldn't be working together, that shouldn't even know about each other, start to function as a single unit. It wasn't perfect. There were still gaps. Still friction points where military precision clashed with civilian flexibility. But it was something.
Hawk pulled up a timeline. "Assuming Quinn confirms the primary site in twelve hours, we need another twelve for final planning and positioning. That puts us wheels-up in twenty-four hours. Insertion at 0200 local time tomorrow night. Same time as the original operation."
"Why 0200?" Sloane asked.
"Guard rotation happens at 2200. By 0200 they're two hours into their shift. Settled but not yet tired. Alert but not hyper-vigilant. It's the sweet spot for operations like this."
Mara nodded. "We can make that work. Reese, can you get us back into Iraqi airspace undetected?"
Reese had been studying flight paths on her own screen. "Different approach vector. Different aircraft. Route through Turkey instead of Kuwait. We ghost the transponder data and fly nap-of-earth through the border region. It'll be tight but doable."
"Erbil Air Base is compromised for us," Hawk said. "Command's watching everything we do. We'll need to launch from a different location."
Ghost was already pulling up maps. "There's a forward operating base sixty kilometers west. Smaller. Less oversight. We can stage there without raising flags."
Quinn and Ghost worked together to plot the convergence. Two teams approaching from different directions, different insertion methods, arriving at the same target at the same time. The logistics were complex. The coordination even more so. One miscalculation and the whole thing fell apart.
But slowly, piece by piece, a plan emerged. Not perfect. Not even close to the kind of detailed operational planning both teams were used to. But functional. Achievable. A joint operation between Delta Force and Shadow Veil that shouldn't work but might.
Hawk looked at Mara across eight thousand miles of encrypted video. "Twenty-four hours. We hit the site. We get Steele out. We disappear before anyone knows we were there."
"Agreed," Mara said.
"And if he's not there? If Quinn's intelligence is wrong?"
"Then we adapt. Figure out the next step. Keep looking until we find him."
"Or until there's nothing left to find."
The words hung heavy. Neither of them wanted to acknowledge the possibility that Steele was already dead. That all this planning and coordination was for a recovery operation instead of a rescue. But it was there. The unspoken reality that every hour in enemy hands reduced his chances of survival.
Bulldog spoke up, his voice rough with emotion barely contained. "He'd do it for any of us. Go back. Risk everything. Never leave anyone behind. That's who he is."
"Then that's who we'll be too," Mara said. "We go in. We get him out. No one gets left behind. Not this time."
The teams signed off with promises to reconnect in twelve hours for final coordination. The screen went dark. And suddenly the operations center felt very quiet.
Sloane turned to Mara. "You just committed Shadow Veil to a joint military operation with Delta Force. If this goes wrong?—"
"I know."
"Do you? Because this isn't like our other operations. This isn't extracting trafficking victims with local law enforcement backup. This is combat rescue against a target who'll kill his prisoner the second he thinks we're coming. The risk profile is completely different."
"I know," Mara said again. "But the alternative is leaving an American operator to die because we didn't have the courage to try. I'm not okay with that."
Quinn spoke up from her station. "I'll have confirmation on the primary site in twelve hours. Ninety percent confidence or better. We'll know where he is."
"And if you can't get to ninety percent?"
"Then we do it Hawk's way. Hit all three sites simultaneously and hope we guess right."
Nadia stood and stretched, her body protesting hours of tension. "I'm going to start working tactical plans for bothscenarios. Primary site assault and three-site split. We should be prepared for either option."
"Good," Mara said. "Winter, coordinate with Reese on flight logistics. I want options for insertion and extraction that don't require Erbil Air Base. Kira, work with Delta's medic on casualty protocols. Make sure we're not stepping on each other's procedures."
The team dispersed to their stations. Planning. Preparing. Doing the work that might save a life or might get them all killed.
Sloane stayed behind with Mara. "You're sure about this."
