Shane's Last Stand (Short Story) by Suzanne Brockmann

Author:Suzanne Brockmann [Brockmann, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-345-53505-4
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three

“Our intel was incorrect, the target is not here. I’m aborting this mission, and I’m ordering you,” Shane said, looking steadily from Rick to Owen to Magic to the senior chief, “to go back over the border, with the rest of the team. With the understanding—”

“With all due respect, sir,” Owen interrupted earnestly, looking up from the equipment he was using to try to tap into the mystery team’s radio signals. He, like the senior and Rick and Magic, was now dressed like a goat herder—down to the cap that helped cover his face. “We’re not leaving you here, alone.”

“That’s enough,” the senior spoke over him, giving the kid his best dead-eye glare.

“With the understanding,” Shane repeated, talking over them both, “that you may be delayed by humanitarian efforts to help innocent civilians move to safety in the face of a coming attack from an unknown, unidentified, potentially deadly enemy.”

“Jesus, sir, that was a mouthful,” the senior said.

“Semantics, Senior Chief,” Shane told the older man. “And this is where you say Aye, aye, sir. All of you.”

They murmured it back to him without a whole hell of a lot of conviction, and he went on. “I’m in command. I made the call to abort, and gave the order. You obeyed said order. If and when you’re asked, you’ll be telling the truth. These are now simple facts that will protect you.”

Because of the SAT signal jamming, there’d be no timeline or record of when the team had left the area. And since Shane alone would remain, and would be picked up by the helicopter at the planned extraction point, he would insist that he’d acted alone in his efforts to save the misidentified woman.

The wording he’d been so careful to use would allow his men to pass lie detector tests, if it came to that.

Except for Magic Kozinski, who knew the truth, but who had the bizarre ability to control his pulse and blood pressure while lying wildly.

They’d all been trained to fool rudimentary lie detectors to some degree. But it was actually kind of freaky how adept Magic was at achieving the necessary calm. In fact, he’d once lowered his pulse to fifty in the middle of a firefight.

So Shane wasn’t worried about him, which was a good thing, because Magic knew details, like Tomasin Montague’s name. Shane had decided it was best to withhold that information from the rest of the team. The less they knew, the better their chances of surviving the administrative shitstorm hovering on the horizon.

“And what protects you, sir?” Magic asked now. The tone of his sir was back to asshole. “From the senior corporate officials who want the incorrectly identified target taken out anyway?”

“I’ll be okay,” Shane said again. Maybe, with Ashley and her powerful father and uncle on his side … Maybe he could survive this.

But it really didn’t matter. He didn’t have a choice.

He wasn’t going to give the order to kill an innocent woman.

The senior chief broke the silence.

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