Edge of Reason (EDGE Security Series Book 2) (20 page)

The plane hit the tarmac and thundered to a halt. She unbuckled and grabbed her gear, ready to deplane the moment the back hatch opened. Her team followed her onto the tarmac and across to the tower, where an armed squad of soldiers trotted out to meet them.

She halted and felt her team do the same. She drew in a deep breath while the soldiers approached them. At least they weren’t pointing their weapons yet.

“You’ve made an unauthorized landing,” the man in front said. “Who’s in charge here?”
 

She placed her weapons case carefully on the tarmac and held her hands out to the sides. She couldn’t look completely harmless with her sidearm strapped to her leg and her knife in her webbing, but she tried. She even pasted a smile on her face. By the way the soldiers adjusted their grips on their M4 assault rifles, the smile had been too much.
 

A quick glance behind showed her team all staring with cold, hard eyes at the squad. Nope. A smile would never be enough. Her team stood casually, hands nowhere near weapons, but that didn’t fool these soldiers. Time to reign this in.

“Sergeant,” she said to the man. “I need to speak with Major Steve Dougall.”

The sergeant shook his head. “I’m sorry…” His eyes flicked to her collar and over her chest to look for her rank. But E.D.G.E. never wore it. “Ma’am,” he finally said. “I need your unit and your reason for deployment here. We have no record of any personnel scheduled for today.”

Cat had known this was coming. “Of course not, Sergeant. If you’ll show my team to a shaded waiting area, I’ll be pleased to accompany you to your commander, Major Dougall.”

The sergeant stared at her a moment. Of course it wasn’t protocol for her to jump the chain of command like this, but it was obvious they weren’t an ordinary unit. The sergeant nodded and ordered his men to accompany hers.

“I’ll join up with you when I’m done,” Cat said to Zach, her second-in-command for the operation. “Until then, get some rest.”

She followed the sergeant into the hangar and waited while he called in.
 
He turned to her. “Can I give him a name, ma’am?”

This sergeant had obviously dealt with spec ops before. She nodded. “Tell him Valkyrie is here.”

“Valkyrie? You’re the one who busted Corporal Anderson up?”

She hesitated only a moment before nodding.

The man smiled. “Nicely done, ma’am.”

It was only a few minutes before Steve strode up to her, his shoulders back and his chin high. He nodded at the sergeant. “You can return to your duties.”

The sergeant saluted and left them to talk.

“What are you doing here, Cat?” he said. “There’s nothing on the books.”

“This mission won’t be on any books.”

“Black ops?” he whispered.

This was the tricky part. A black ops mission could be denied by the government if found out, but usually had support going in. It would be too easy to lie and say yes. Steve, who so desperately wanted to be part of special ops, would bend over backwards to give her everything she needed if she let him get involved.

She shook her head.

Steve frowned. “What are you doing, Cat? I can’t sanction a rogue mission.”

“I’m not asking you to sanction it. I’m asking you to let us use the airbase as our base of operations.”

“Shouldn’t you be asking the base CO this?”

Her lips twisted. “You know Colonel Harris dislikes me and anything to do with me. If he hears I’m here again, then the mission won’t get off the ground.”

Steve sighed. “And what do you expect me to do for you?”

“I need med support for casualties and any fresh intel you have on the Boko Haram’s encampment. I’d also like a squad of men. The best you have.”

His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “What are you planning, Cat? If you want intel then so do I.” He held up his hand to forestall her protest. “This mission isn’t sanctioned. I need to know what I’m signing my men on for.”

He didn’t need to know, but if she told him then she might get more help from him. It was a gamble she was willing to take. “We’re going to rescue those girls.”

He stared at her, then looked beyond her to her team lazing in the shade of a plane. “You’re joking. I grant that you’re good—”

“I made it into CSOR and you didn’t,” Cat said.

His jaw tensed and he shook his head. “Why are you risking this? For a bunch of girls the world has forgotten?”

That question reinforced her belief that she’d done the right thing leaving Steve. All at once, she thought again of Rhys, and his reaction when she’d made the impossible decision to leave the schoolgirls behind. Of anyone, Rhys understood her need to save those girls–she knew he felt the same way she did. It was going to kill him that she’d left him behind.
 

Damn—she needed to stay focused. Rhys was a distraction even when he wasn’t with her.
 

“I want your cooperation, but I don’t need it,” she said. “This mission will go forward with or without your help.”

His lips firmed and she knew she had him. He couldn’t arrest her because they technically hadn’t done anything yet. The special ops community protected and punished their own. If he ended up complaining she was on base, he’d be seen as a troublemaker by those who decided the postings. His career would be in jeopardy of stalling out worse than it had.
 

“What do I get out of it?” he finally said.

And again he showed his true colors. Her voice carried a hard edge. “What do you want?”

His gaze went down to her boots and back up.
 

She cocked her eyebrow in response, refusing to let him faze her. “Try again.”

“Relax, Cat.” He huffed a small laugh. “I’d never want that again. I want a favor. I want you to recommend me to your superiors.”

Insult upon insult. What the hell had she seen in this guy? Had she been that desperate for a relationship? Again, she couldn’t help comparing him to Rhys. She shoved those thoughts aside.
 

“You want to be in the regiment?” she asked, referring to CSOR. “You’ve already tried twice. They won’t ask you back again, no matter what I say.”
 

He scowled and crossed his arms. “No. I’m done with that. I want to work where you do. I don’t know what unit you’re in, but if you want help from my men then you’ll get me off this fucking base.”

What the hell was she going to do with this loser? “I can’t get you into my unit. It’s not my call, you know that.”

“Then get me off this nowhere airbase and doing something real.”

She ran a hand through her short hair. Sweat ran down her back from the heat. “Fine. I might be able to whisper into the right ears about getting you back to Canada.”

He shook his head. “Not good enough.”

“That is all that’s going to happen,” she snapped. “Why don’t you just do the best you can and then earn a better position? I can think of a lot worse ones than this.”

“You don’t get it, Cat. You never did. It’s easy for you—”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Cat laughed. “It’s pricks like you that have made my life tougher than it should have been. I’m a damn good soldier—a better soldier than you. My team is going to rescue those girls with or without you. You want to do something real? Then help me.”

She could see him calculate her odds of success in his head, which weren’t good. So she sweetened the pot.

“If we’re successful, you can take the credit.”

His eyes lit with avarice. That was why he would never be in special ops-he wanted others to know what he did and how good he was. Being in spec ops meant never getting recognition, but that’s not why they did it. At least for her, she did it to help others and to help her country. She didn’t do it for praise.

Steve nodded. “I’m in. Tell me your plans and I’ll see what my men can do.”

She shook her head. “Not gonna happen. Like I said, lend me a squad of your best men. Your best. And I’ll see they get commendation for what they do.”

His eyes lit up when she said commendation. “Fine. I’ll lead them myself.”

That was going to be trouble. “You need to stay here and make sure no one asks questions about us.”

He drew himself up and put his hands on his hips. She almost snorted. Did he think she found him intimidating?
 

“I’m coming,” he said. “Or my men aren’t.”

She considered all the cons of taking him. She wanted his men as a distraction far away from the actual Boko Haram encampment—which would hopefully be far enough away that Steve wouldn’t be able to screw up her mission.

“Okay,” she said. “But I’m in charge. In fact, anyone on my team has the authority to tell you what to do.”

His jaw tightened. “Fine.”

“We’ll leave tonight,” she said. “Briefing at 1600 hours. Get some rest.”

She left him and strode back to her team. Her gut twisted with the thought of Steve on her mission. She prayed she’d made the right decision.
 

Eight hardened men sat at the table in front of Cat alongside her team. She pointed at a position on the map. “This is where I want your men, Major.”

“Hold on,” Steve said. “That’s not what we signed up for.”

“You signed on to follow my orders. You and your men will take position to the east of the encampment. When I give the signal, you will begin a false attack just as morning prayers end. Lead them on a chase.”

She pointed to a bridge further down from the one she planned to use. “I’d advise you to withdraw here. Don’t let them cut you off. Head across this bridge. The Niger Army patrol here. They should be able to assist you if you get into trouble.”

“Do they know we’re coming, ma’am?” one of the sergeants asked.
 

“They will. The major and I will let them know to expect you.” She pointed to the bridge they’d used originally to get to the encampment, and then to the infiltration site. “This is where we’ll set the Black Hawk down.”

“Who’s flying?” Steve asked, staring at Dylan. There was no love lost there.

“The best pilot here,” Dylan answered. “Got a problem?”

“Enough, gentlemen,” Cat said. “Major, we’ll need your Chinook with your best pilot on standby to transport those girls when we get them out.” She went over details of call signs and timings next. “Any questions?” she asked.

“What about the rest of the plan?” Steve asked.

“Need-to-know only,” Cat said.

“That’s bullshit.”
 

To their credit, Steve’s men shifted uncomfortably in their seats to hear their CO address the mission leader in such a way.

“Be ready for 2200,” she said to his men. “Dismissed.”
 

She turned to Steve. “Major? We need to talk.” She left the briefing room and strode down the hall to another empty room. It held two desks and filing cabinets, the admin domain.

Steve stomped into the room after her. “Don’t think you can boss me around. I’m a higher rank than you.”

Cat let him ramble on while she shut the door carefully and then crossed her arms. She didn’t have time for this crap, and she let him see that on her face.

“Are you done?” she asked when he’d finally stopped ranting.
 

His eyes narrowed. “I won’t be sidelined.”

“And I won’t have you hampering my mission. You will do what I say, when I say it. Are we clear?”

“I’m not—”

“
Are we clear
?”

Steve looked like he’d just stepped in something nasty. “Yes,” he finally said.
 

“Be ready for 2200 hours or be left behind.” She went back to finalize the real mission with her team.
 

In the briefing room, Dylan stood waiting for her, his arms crossed. “I can’t believe you’re letting that asshole come on the mission. He’ll fuck everything up.”

“Without him, we don’t have air support or the extra men.”

“We can do this without him,” Dylan said.

Sarah stepped into their field of vision. “You’re called Cowboy, right?”

Dylan nodded.
 

“That tells me that you’re impulsive and probably a bit of a showoff.”

Cat bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn’t smile. Dylan scowled. “Or it could mean I’m from Calgary. Cowboy country.”

Sarah shrugged. “It could, but I don’t think so.”

“What’s the point of this?” Dylan turned back to Cat, but Sarah’s next words stopped him.

“The point is that you’re impulsive. You aren’t thinking this through. Of course we need air support. How did you plan to get twenty young girls back over fifty miles to this base?” Now Sarah crossed her arms and a coldness filled her voice, telling them that this woman, no matter how petite, had seen her share of dangerous situations. “That impulsiveness needs to be checked. Now. I won’t have you endangering me or the team.”

Cat stepped in. She couldn’t let Steve’s negativity influence any of them. They needed to trust each other. “Easy, Ghost. Dylan may be my brother, but he’s also one of the best damn helicopter pilots I’ve ever flown with. If you trust me, then trust him.”

After a moment of cold scrutiny, Sarah nodded. “I trust you.”

Cat had a feeling that Sarah didn’t speak those words often. It was time to get down to business.
 

Rhys liked being back with his old team again. He sat in the back of a C-130 heading to Niamey, the capital of Niger, for a fueling stop before heading to the remote base where Cat’s team would have already landed.
 

He’d had a friend in Navy intelligence track their movements. It hadn’t been easy, since they’d gone undercover and stowed themselves on civilian and transport flights. According to his friend, they’d arrive approximately eighteen hours before Rhys’s team.
 

Rhys turned up the classic rock on his iPod, something he always listened to before a mission. He pulled out his deck of cards and began shuffling. He flicked card after card through his fingers. Ace of hearts, seven of spades, queen of diamonds. He wanted to throw the cards like knives, but didn’t think the air crew would appreciate that.