––––––––

“IT WAS A COORDINATED effort,” Captain Hale said grimly.  He was briefing Midnight Delta and Black Dawn.  The pictures on the screen showed the explosion at the airport in Douala, Cameroon. 

“How many casualties?” Mason asked.

“Over one hundred, at least twenty dead.  The car bomb at the Nigerian Embassy killed three of our marines.  They stopped it before it made it to the building itself.”

“Hooyah,” the SEALs shouted. 

“My sentiments exactly.  Boko Haram has taken credit for both incidents.  One thing that both Nigeria and Cameroon are working to keep under wraps is the fact that a girl’s orphanage on the Cameroon side of the border was overrun.”

“Fuck.”  Drake’s heart sank.  The high-profile kidnapping of over two hundred girls from a school in 2014 was just one incident, there were many more that flew under the radar.

“How many girls?” Finn asked.  Mason’s head turned swiftly to stare at Finn, he knew how badly affected he had been when young girls had been trafficked in the past.

“It’s not known,” Captain Hale said. 

“What’s our mission?” Mason asked.  Drake could read the waves coming off his entire team, they all wanted to go after the girls. 

“The CIA has intel that there is going to be a shipment of arms coming into either Ekong, Nigeria or Mundemba, Cameroon.  I need both locations covered.”

Well that explained why both teams were being briefed.  Come on Cameroon.  He had a feeling that was where the tangos were going to be.  He wanted them.  He wanted them badly.  He felt heat on his neck.  He turned and saw Clint staring at him.  He mouthed Cameroon.  Yep, it was a lock. 

Gray Tyler, the lieutenant of Black Dawn spoke up.  “Is our mission contained to just stopping the shipment?”

Captain Hale looked at Gray, then at Mason.  “Your mission is to stop the shipment first and foremost.  As always, I trust my teams to get the job done.  I understand that every mission is fluid, and you will do what is right.”

Damn, Captain Hale had tacitly given them permission to save the girls if at all possible, as long as they stopped the shipment.  Mason caught his eye.  He could read his mind.  He’d planned to help the girls no matter what.  Righteous.

“You’re flying out in an hour.  Black Dawn will be going to the airstrip the CIA identified in Nigeria.  Mason, you and your team will be headed to Cameroon.  You’ll be sharing transport to the Margaret Ekpo Airport in Nigeria.  There’ll be choppers waiting to take you close to your destinations.”

“Was the orphanage close to the Margaret Ekpo Airport?” Aiden asked.

“The orphanage was in Amoto, Cameroon, which is almost exactly sixty clicks from Mundemba, but it would take you ten hours to get there from the airport because the Cross River National Park is basically a jungle.  That’s why you need the choppers.”

“I’m leaving the rest of the coordination up to the two of you.  I’ll need reports as often as possible when you hit the ground.  Do you have any questions?”

“Who’s our intelligence liaison?” Mason asked.

“You’ve got two.  Sheila Baker is CIA, she’s going with you, she’ll be here soon.  Then there is Edwin Marsh, he’s with the Nigerian Embassy, he’ll be meeting you at the airport.  By the time you get there, he’ll have something set up.”

Gray asked what Drake was thinking.  “Are they setting up a command center near the airport?”

“That’s the plan.”

Thank all that was holy.  Drake remembered one clusterfuck of a mission where a CIA operative thought he could keep up with the SEALs.  He’d almost gotten Jack killed.

Captain Hale left the briefing room and Gray huddled up with Mason.  Aiden gave a head jerk to Drake, and he followed him to the back of the room.

“Yeah?” Drake asked.

“The girls?” Aiden asked.  “They’re not going to have gotten far.”

“Depends what CIA has to tell us about the rendezvous point for the arms deal.  Hell, if they take them into the jungle it’s anybody’s game,” Drake pointed out.

Aiden nodded. 

“But we agree on one thing.  It’s not going to be like that school three years ago.  They’re not going to disappear.”

“Amen, brother,” Aiden said.

“Don’t call me that.  It gives me the heebie jeebies.” Drake shuddered.

Aiden grinned.  He liked rubbing in the fact that he’d married Drake’s sister as often as possible.  “I wonder how Karen’s brothers are going to take to having you in the family.”

“They’re going to love me,” Drake said positively.

“Sure, they are,” Aiden taunted.

***

SHEILA MADE IT JUST in time to board the plane.  She was still getting information from Langley at the beginning of the sixteen-hour flight, and they decided she’d brief them when they were closer to Africa.  They strapped into the plane for the long flight.  Drake sat between Finn and Jack.  Mason was on the other side of Finn, they did it on purpose, they were taking his temperature.  This couldn’t get any worse.  The thing that had sent Finn into a tailspin in the first place had been young girls in the slave trade in Canada, so the fact that they were going on a mission where young girls had been kidnapped by Boko Haram had to be his worst nightmare.

Mason played it cool.  He leaned back and closed his eyes.  Drake waited until everybody was asleep, except for Mason.  He knew he was faking it.  Then Drake waded in, because he couldn’t help himself.  The blunt approach was always his methodology.  He stared at Finn until he finally rolled his head against the headrest to look at him.

“Drop it, Avery.”

“Are you going to wig out?”

“Jesus.  You have the tact of an elephant in a dollhouse.”

“That’s a bull in a china shop,” Drake shot back.

“I said what I meant.  You’re worse than a bull.  Are you going to tell me you’re not torn apart about those girls in the hands of those animals?”

Drake didn’t answer.  How could he?  He had six younger sisters and a four-year-old niece.  It made him sick, but they had a mission to complete.  Stopping those weapons meant that they would be saving the next school or orphanage, and the next, and so on.

“Yes, it makes me want to puke, but I’m going to be able do the job.  Are you?”

Finn shook his head, then he grinned.  “I’ve missed you and our special little times together.”

What?

“No matter how bad it got, you never treated me with kid gloves.  Even Mase watched his words, you never have.”

“Just answer the fucking question.”

“If I didn’t know.  And I mean know that I was rock solid, I wouldn’t be on this plane.  We’re going to stop the shipment, then we are going to rescue those girls and annihilate those fuckers.”  Finn’s smile was fierce.

“Hooyah,” Drake said.

“Now that you’re done being my shrink am I allowed to get some sleep?”

“Yep.”  Drake shut his eyes, and leaned back against the hard headrest.  Images of Andrew and Karen filled his head as he willed himself to sleep.

***

DRAKE HADN’T SEEN MASON so pissed in years.  His face was carved out of stone.  Sheila had given the two lieutenants and their seconds the lowdown on the plane.  Which meant that Mason, Gray, Drake and Aiden felt confident they knew what they needed to get done on the mission.  Then they got to the airport and Edwin Marsh pushed his way into the picture. 

Everyone knew many of the embassy members were CIA, and that’s who Marsh was.  Turns out, he was the head CIA guy in Nigeria.  He started countermanding Captain Hale’s orders right from the get-go.

“The Boko Haram won’t do any kind of pick-up in Cameroon, they will stick to Nigeria.  That’s their preferred area of operation.”

“They are already way out of their preferred area of operation.  They’re usually in the desert, instead they’re here in the jungle.  We need to listen to Langley on this.”

“I don’t care if they’re south.  They’ll still stick to Nigeria.”

“What are you talking about? Even when they’re in the North, they dip into Cameroon all the damn time.  Look Marsh, Langley has a source.  That’s all I’m at liberty to say.  That source says the Haram have two points of entry in the South, those are airfields in Ekong, Nigeria and Mundemba, Cameroon.”

“Why wasn’t I told about an informant?”  Edwin was outraged.

“It was need to know,” Sheila responded.

“I don’t give a shit what Langley says, there is a group of Boko Haram in Nigeria that just took a shot at the embassy, and then there’s the group in Cameroon who took the girls from the orphanage in Amoto.  The Haram that has the new stash of girls will be too damn busy to go to an airfield, if you get my meaning.”  The way he said that made Drake’s skin crawl. The idea that the terrorists would be hurting those girls turned his stomach.  “Trust me, I know both sect leaders.  There’s Sani and there’s Yemisi.  Sani has more power than Yemisi, he’s going to be the one dealing with the arms.”

“These aren’t our orders.  We are going to cover both airstrips,” Mason said, his voice was stone cold.

“No, you’re not.  Sani is your target.  End of discussion.  Yemisi is not a big enough fish, trust me, I know what I’m doing.”  The man was a pompous ass.

“The airfield in Mundemba has been recently cleared, we have satellite imaging that shows that.” Sheila tried explaining. 

“You also have imaging that shows the airfield in Ekong has been cleared.  You will not go after Yemisi.  This conversation is over.”  Edwin Marsh crossed his arms and stared at everyone in the room.

“Seems to me like your dismissy Yemisi awful quick.” Clint rhymed the two words, making a joke.  Drake smothered a laugh.

“This is nothing to laugh at,” Marsh shouted as he turned, trying to figure out who said what.

“That’s enough,” Mason’s voice cut through the room.  “You’re right it’s not a laughing matter.  Marsh, we have our orders, and Ms. Baker’s highly reliable intelligence.  We are going to be following those.  We thank you for your attendance today.  You are dismissed.”

“Dismissy,” Clint said just loudly enough for Drake to hear.  Drake almost lost it.

“I outrank Sheila,” Marsh sputtered.

“Hunter, show Edwin the door,” Lieutenant Gray said to his biggest SEAL. 

Drake enjoyed watching Hunter Diaz all but shove the wide-eyed Marsh out of the room.

“Ms. Baker, is there anything you would like to add before we board the choppers?” Mason asked.

“Can I take you back to Langley?” she said pointing to Hunter.  “You would come in real handy.”

Hunter grinned.

***

THE BLACK DAWN SEAL team boarded their helicopter and Clint nudged Drake.  “You know the action is in Cameroon, right?”

“Yeah, I feel it too,” Drake agreed.

“Quit the girl talk and climb aboard,” Finn shouted above the roar of the rotors.  Drake grinned.  Finn Crandall was definitely back.

They climbed aboard for twenty click trip to the Mundemba airstrip.  They were going to have to hike in.  It’d been awhile since Drake had been out to play in the jungle.  The others had a recent mission in Costa Rica, so they had a leg up.  Not that he’d ever admit it.  Jungle schmungle, he could outdo everyone on this team.

An hour later he was breathing hard, but he was near the head of the pack.  Jack was up ahead on point and Drake was beside Mason who was acting like he was out walking his goddamn dog or some shit. Drake put a grin on his face.  Mason glanced over at him and smiled.  Fucker knew he was faking it.  Well, fake it ‘til you make it.  That was his motto.  Despite their fast pace, they were silent.  They wanted to get close to the airfield before dawn so they could check things out.

Like a ghost, Jack appeared in front of them, calling a halt.  Finn, Clint, and Dare, who had only been a few yards behind Drake, and Mason gathered around Jack.

“We have company,” he said in a subvocal whisper.  “Five armed men are asleep against the trees on this side of the airstrip.    I’m assuming they’re the guards.”

Mason nodded.  “Time to spread out and see what we’ve got.  Do a headset check,” he whispered.

After that was done, they parted ways.

Drake took the far north end of the airfield.  It had to be the end where the plane would land because there was plenty of room to turn around.  He found just one guard.  This guy was actually awake.  He reported in to the rest of the SEAL team.  When Mason had them gather back at the rendezvous point, they had counted sixteen Boko Haram soldiers, and according to Dare there were three beat-to-shit jeeps on the far side of the field.

“The leader was with one of the jeeps.  He was speaking in French to two other men with him, but was speaking Arabic over the radio.”

“What was he saying?” Mason asked.

“He was apologizing to whoever was on the radio.  Apparently, it was his brother who overran the orphanage and leadership is pissed.”

“Anything about the weapons shipment?”

“Nothing.”

“Clint, you need to get ahold of Dex, and find out what their team found at Ekong.”

Clint nodded.

They hunkered down, finding a good spot to hide, and waited for an incoming report from Black Dawn.  It took two hours, but finally it came in.

“They have nine guards on their airstrip.  They also have a fuel truck.  Sounds legit,” Clint reported.

“Six of one, half dozen of another,” Drake said.  There was no way to call which airfield was going to be used to unload the weapons.  They would both have to be on alert.  According to Sheila, the delivery was going to go down in two days.  Drake was itching to search for the missing girls, but Clint had already done the calcs and the Amoto Orphanage was sixty clicks from where they were.  What were the chances that the forty-five girls would have travelled this way?  Still, he knew they would be keeping an eye out.

***

“I HATE THE RAIN.  I hate the rain.  I hate the fucking rain.”

Drake looked at Clint, and watched as water dripped off the end of his nose.  If anybody else bitched as much about the rain, he would have throat punched him, but Clint Archer had every right to complain.  Drake vividly remembered the grueling five days he’d carried Lydia Hildalgo through the rainy jungle in Mexico.  He wouldn’t accept anyone else’s help, step after step, mile after mile, he carried her like she was a gift from God. 

Drake would never admit this to anyone, not even to Karen, but he had been sure that Lydia was going to die.  Finn had done everything medically possible to save her, but Drake believed it was Clint’s will that had kept her alive.

Yep, no wonder Clint hated the rain. 

“It’ll let up soon,” Drake assured his friend.

Clint peered over at Drake.  “I’m out of my mind.  I’m so into myself, I didn’t even think about you.  How are you coping?”

Drake pretended not to understand.  “I like the rain.  Fuck, this is nothing compared to a Tennessee rainstorm.”

“Cut the shit, Avery.  I’m talking about being away from your son.  Hell, I can’t believe I’m even saying that.  I would have thought you would have been the last one of us with a kid.”

“What do you mean by that?  I’m the perfect guy to be a father.”

Clint snorted so hard, that water sprayed out of his nose.

“I resent that,” Drake said.  “I’m the oldest brother of six girls.”

“You’ve been an insensitive jackass most of the time I’ve known you,” Clint countered.

“Doesn’t mean I wasn’t right ninety-nine percent of the time, that’s why I’m second-in-command.  Which proves I’m perfect father material.”

“I’m wrong, you’re not an insensitive jackass, you’re a megalomaniac.  I feel sorry for young Andrew.  Thank God Mason is his namesake, he has a fighting chance.”

Drake grinned and so did Clint.  Drake was happy his friend was no longer thinking about the rain and Lydia’s near-death experience.

“Did I hear y’all talking about you naming Andrew after Mason and not me?” Jack asked.

“How the hell could you hear us?” Clint asked suspiciously.

Drake wondered the same damn thing.  What with the rain and the two of them whispering, they shouldn’t have been overheard.

“My stepdad always said I could hear a deer fart in the woods when we went out hunting,” Jack said. 

Drake wasn’t laughing.  They shouldn’t have been heard.  He gave Jack a hard look.

Dare duckwalked over in the mud.  Even in the dark, Drake could see he was grinning.  What the fuck? 

“Jack, quit messing with them.  Drake’s getting pissed.  Next thing you know, he’ll be throwing a punch.”  Dare turned to him and Clint.  “Hey, Bonehead, your mic was on.  For the record, Clint’s right, you have an uncanny ability to insert your foot in your mouth at the most inopportune moments.” 

Drake switched off his microphone, and turned on Dare.  “That’s bullshit, I just have the balls to say the things to your women that you won’t man up and say.  I call them on their shit.” 

“Yeah, you did such a great job that Rylie went off the grid for months before I could find her again,” Dare said heatedly. 

Drake winced.  He still regretted that one.

“None of that matters anymore,” Jack said.

“What do you mean?” Clint said.  “I have my own story to tell, he wasn’t a peach with Lydia either.”

Jack chuckled.  “He’s a fallen man.  As a matter of fact, he’s fallen further than the rest of us.  He has Karen, and that little kindergarten teacher is schooling him.”

Every man surrounding Drake broke into a wide grin.  He flipped them all off.  That made their grins even larger. 

“Okay, enough chit chat, time for another check of the airstrip, we need to make sure nothing’s changed.  Tomorrow morning is when the shipment is supposed to fly in,” Drake said to his men.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mason give a nod.  Damn, if anybody could hear him without his mic on, it would be his lieutenant. The man was spooky.

Finn broke away from Mason and left as well.  Then Drake went to go talk to his leader. 

“They’re going to be coming tomorrow morning,” Mason said.

“You sound sure.”

“I have a feeling.”

It was foolish to discount Mason’s feelings.  “When the team gets back, we’ll huddle up and strategize.”

Mase nodded.  “You have a plan, don’t you?” Drake asked.

“Mostly.  Like Captain Hale said, it’s going to have to be fluid.  They won’t land unless they see the Haram waiting for them, so we can’t take them out ahead of time.”

Drake agreed. 

“The rain would definitely be to our advantage,” Mason mused.

“Damn right.  So are Jack and Finn.  Put them in some trees and they could take out almost everybody before they knew what hit them.  I’ll go check out the North side of the airstrip again and report back.”

“Good.”

Drake left Mason, then slowly and quietly made his way through the wet jungle.  Near the edge of the airstrip the vegetation was cut back.  He didn’t see his guard sitting against his tree.  Maybe he was sick of getting his ass wet and was up and walking around.  With his night vision goggles he could see clearly, and found no sign of the guard.  He did see the three guards that Clint normally reported on.  Drake continued to look. 

It was the coppery smell that warned him.  Even with the rain and the monkey shit, the smell of blood was distinctive when you were about to step in it.  He looked down and saw not one, but two bodies.  He recognized his guard.  The two men had been eviscerated.  Cut open stem to stern.  Somebody was making a point. 

He made his way back to Mason.  He was the last man there.

“Report,” Mason said curtly.

“My guy, and another had been killed.  Butchered.  My guess is that somebody was trying to show the others that this could happen to them if they made him unhappy.”

“Finn ran into the same thing.”

“So how many are we down to?” Drake asked.

“Eleven.”

“Our odds just got better,” Drake said.

“Roger that.”

“Clint, find out if Black Dawn is running into the same thing.”  Clint nodded and went over to his backpack.  They waited in silence for him to come back.

“Nope, everything is status quo on their end.”

“We’ve got a wildcard here, instead of two on watch, I want three, while the other three sleep, then we’ll trade off,” Mason ordered.

Everyone nodded.

“Did you scope out the trees you want to shoot from?” he asked Finn and Jack, the two best sharpshooters in the team.  Both men nodded.  They had coordinated where they would be shooting from for maximum coverage of the airstrip. 

“I don’t want anyone in close range unless we need to.  But God knows what kind of weapons they’ll have on the plane that they can deploy, so we’ll need to be ready to stop them.”

“On it,” Drake said.

“Okay, get some rest.  I’ll take first watch with Clint and Dare,” Mason said.

They nodded.