The smile on his face spread. His wife.
He made it to his camp long before the sky darkened. He parked his car far from the campsite to set up his second base, and to map out his fallback location. A knoll overlooked his planned spot of execution, the perfect watch point for either him or Rick.
Neil sat there now with a pair of binoculars and scouted. Within an hour, he noticed a figure working his way slowly toward camp. In less than a minute, Neil knew it was Rick. He waited until Rick walked the perimeter of the camp and doubled back to his car. As Rick returned to the site, Neil worked his way down the hill, keeping himself hidden.
Neil moved behind his friend and didn’t make a sound.
“I was wondering when you’d join me. Thought you’d stay up there all night,” Rick said without turning around.
Rick had always been good at detecting the enemy, or in this case a friend sneaking up from behind.
“How did you see me?” Neil moved in front of his colleague and extended his hand.
“I showed up an hour before you did. Moved from the knoll to the fallback by the creek and waited.”
Neil laughed. Rick had executed the same moves he had.
“Good to see you.”
Neil agreed. They spoke for a few minutes about the drive, the weather…any damn thing but why they were there.
“We have work to do if we’re going to get this guy,” Neil finally said.
“Any idea who we’re dealing with yet?”
Neil shook his head, frustrated. “Wish I did. Think he’s military.”
“And knows about Raven.”
“Or maybe he was told about Raven.”
Neil didn’t like that scenario. “Which suggests a second party is on to this.”
“They’re either a party to it by calling the shots from somewhere else, or we have two guys on our tail,” Rick said and nodded toward the tent. “We setting up here for the night?”
“Part of it anyway. No use getting comfortable.”
“Don’t think comfortable is possible until we catch this guy.”
Neil set his pack aside and shrugged off his coat.
“You really think there are two people involved here?”
“I think we need to consider the possibility. It would have taken some work to make the drop on Billy. Even if a woman was involved. Not a lot shook him.”
“We need to get inside this guy’s head if we’re going to win this,” Rick concluded.
“I survived the Middle East. I’m not dying in my backyard.” Not when he suddenly had so much to live for.
“What about your girl?”
“She’s safe.” And for reasons he couldn’t, or didn’t want to identify, he didn’t elaborate as to where she was to Rick.
“I still can’t get over the fact you have one.” Rick’s signature smile spread on his lips.
“Me either.”
Rick snorted and swatted Neil on the back. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t sleep without a woman at my side.”
Neil hesitated. “I know the feeling.”
“It’s gotten better. But the memories never really leave me. I think it hit us all like that, which is why we all left.”
“Mickey stayed in,” Neil reminded him.
“Mickey was just a kid. Wasn’t it his first time out?”
“Second. With special ops anyway. He’d done a tour in Afghanistan before meeting up with us.”
Rick rolled out his pack and laid it on the fabric covering the dirt. He bundled the bulk of the material under his head and he stretched out. “Mickey was moldable. Just what the major wanted on his team. He took his purple heart, shoved it in a box, and moved to the next mission.”
He’d forgotten about Mickey’s injury. Damn unfortunate that was.
Neil took a space by the burned-out campfire he’d shared with Gwen only a couple of nights before. “We were moldable, too.”
“Until we saw our guys get blown to bits. Tends to shake the mold.”
“And for what? Didn’t stop the war…didn’t even calm the fighting for a day.” For that, Neil left. He and his team were given base assignments for a short time and then were allowed to disappear.
Unheard of. “Ever wonder why Major Blayney let us all go?”
“I didn’t question it. Figured he knew we weren’t functioning the way we needed to. He was like family to most of us.” To Neil anyway.
“I wonder if he knows who could be behind this? He knows those above him that called the order.”
Neil already knew Chuck didn’t have a clue. “You think the higher brass is behind offing us now?”
“Never know.”
“Why would they bother leaving a token? Why go after women to get to us then?”
Rick shook his head. “You’re right. It’s personal. Someone’s need to get back at us for surviving.”
“If I believed in ghosts, I’d think Boomer, Robb, or Linden was behind this.”
Neil ran his fingers over the hair on his face. “That’s the problem with us. We have a hard time believing in anything we can’t see. Rules out ghosts.” Yet the ghosts of his past were catching up to them…to all of them.
“So what’s the plan?” Rick asked.
“First we see if Raven takes the bait and comes after us here.”
Rick glanced around. “A sharpshooter would make quick work of us right here.”