Page 300 of Broken Oath

Sarah sat across from me.

For most of the flight, she didn’t speak.

Her rifle rested against her leg, but her mind was somewhere else.

I saw it in her eyes.

She was remembering.

Wade teaching her to ride a bicycle.

Wade carrying her home after she fell from a horse.

Wade sneaking candy to her when their father wasn’t looking.

Wade laughing.

Always laughing.

The memories hurt because she had spent five years believing they were all she had left.

Her father sat a few feet away, pretending to study the mission file.

He looked at Sarah when he thought she wouldn’t notice.

She looked at him when she thought the same.

Neither knew what to say.

Hope had brought them back together.

Fear was keeping them apart.

I understood that look.

I had seen it in mirrors.

It was the expression of someone carrying hope and terror at the same time.

Hope that Wade was alive.

Fear that we would reach him too late.

The combination could destroy a person.

Or make them dangerous.

Sarah had chosen dangerous.

Twenty-one hours later

The transport landed on a remote runway surrounded by dark, unforgiving mountains.

The airfield consisted of a weathered hangar, two fuel trucks, and a row of portable lights marking the strip.

Two unmarked helicopters waited beside the hangar.

Their rotors were already turning.