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“Nope.”

“Wanna put Kathy on the line?” Ryker sighed.

“You figure talking to a three-year-old about her stormtrooper collection will make you feel better?”

“It’s worth a shot. And thanks, Carmen. I love you to pieces.”

“I love you too. I sure hope this Amy woman pulls her head out of her ass.”

7

It was never a warm and snuggly moment when Commander Clark was in the briefing room. Ryker caught Jonas Wulff’s eye, then Gideon Smith’s. His lieutenant was at the front looking all business. Nope, this was not going to be your normal mission.

Ryker did a quick headcount. It was official; Sebastian Durand had put in his paperwork to leave the teams. With all of his qualifications, he was a shoo-in for a trainer, but Ryker would bet his bottom dollar that they were going to put him through officer training. Therefore, no Sebastian in the room.

He looked some more. Victor Hendrix, Keegan Harris, and Braxton Walker weren’t in the room, and from what he’d last heard, they wouldn’t be. All of them were doing some cross-training with the Cascade Blue team in desert conditions. That left Tanner Robb and Lincoln Hart. Where in the hell were they? He cast a quick glance up at the podium and he could see that Kostya was beginning to look pissed. Most people wouldn’t know it. They’d think it was his bored expression, but Ryker could tell the difference. When his left eyebrow went down just a little bit, it meant bad news.

“Gideon, where—” Kostya started.

“Talked to Linc. Big surprise, there was a bad wreck at the 62-264 flyover, traffic was at a dead stop. But now his ETA is ten minutes.”

“And?” Kostya growled.

“We’ve got a problem with Tanner.”

Kostya raised his eyebrow.

“His daughter is in the hospital again. It’s a pretty bad episode.”

Kostya’s whole demeanor changed. Hell, so did the energy in the room. “Maya’s mom?” Kostya asked quietly.

“Flown the coop. Tanner’s mom has the flu. There’s no way he can make it.”

“Understood. I’ll call him after the brief.”

Ryker figured everyone would. Fucking bitch of an ex-wife. What kind of mother would ace out when her four-year-old daughter was going through what she was going through?

Kostya turned to look at the men in the room, and Commander Simon Clark moved closer to the podium.

“Gentlemen, we’ve got a hot one,” Kostya started. “We’re going to move out as soon as the briefing is over. This is hitting at the highest levels. Commander Clark is going to explain things since there are a lot more ramifications he’s familiar with, that I’m not.”

Clark was stonefaced, but Ryker had heard enough scuttlebutt to know that stonefaced was his default setting, so he could be calm, happy, or furious. But according to base scuttlebutt the man hated politics almost as badly as their former Commander Liam McAllister, and that was saying something. Captain Hale had to be at the Pentagon or over in Coronado, otherwise, he’d be handling a political hot potato.

“Gentlemen, we were just brought in seven hours ago. Three seniors from Princeton are being held for ransom. Ten days ago, they sailed a yacht from Athens to Turkey, ostensibly to give a lift to some girls who needed to get back home.”

“Of course,” Braxton said under his breath. “Who doesn’t give a girl a lift on their yacht to another country?”

Ryker kept a straight face…but yeah! Who the hell were these kids?

“The yacht measured two-hundred and fifty feet and was not chartered. It’s owned by one of the boys’ fathers, Franklin Talbot. He and his brother Edward run the largest hedge fund in the world.”

Ryker could feel every single one of his teammates give an internal groan. This wasn’t politics, this was rhino-swollen-septic-ball-sack-politics. Even Landon Kelly, their youngest team member, who usually knew nothing about nothing, was looking pale.

“The boys took their time getting to Turkey. They set sail from Athens to Skyros, then to Amani before docking in Izmir—that’s when things started going to shit. The three women that they had aboard with them, their passports were forged. They were taken into custody by the Turkish Gendarmerie General Command.”

Commander Clark frowned. “Gideon, do you have the file ready to preview?”

“Yes, sir.”