The Only One 01 - The Only One Who Knows by L.A. Witt & Cat Grant

Author:L.A. Witt & Cat Grant [Witt, L.A. & Grant, Cat]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-01-07T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Josh needed a cigarette. Desperately.

None on this trip, though. This was a short mission, assuming all went well. They’d be back in Osan in less than forty-eight hours. Most likely under twenty-four. Since they’d be in hostile territory from the moment they jumped until the moment they were picked up out in the water, they had to be careful. And nothing tipped off a sniper like an incriminating swirl of smoke rising from behind a bush.

No smoking on the plane either. Especially not with all these oxygen bottles on board with them.

Nicotine gum would just have to do. That eased the oral fixation too, giving his mouth something to do as well as popping his ears as the plane ascended. He couldn’t chew it like regular gum, just had to tuck it against his cheek as if it was chewing tobacco so he didn’t swallow too much nicotine too fast. Still, it helped.

Some of the guys wore nicotine patches, but during the flight, they also passed around a container of Skoal. Just the thought of the taste of that shit made Josh want to gag, and thank God he had some decent-tasting gum this time. He’d resorted to dip before, back when it was the less horrific alternative, but that wasn’t an issue anymore.

The Skoal can made it to Flint, but he put up a hand and shook his head. No gum for him either. He seemed hyper-focused, his jaw set tight and the crevices between his eyebrows deeper than usual.

He glanced at Josh.

Josh held up the pack of nicotine gum and raised his eyebrows.

Flint visibly relaxed and nodded, so Josh tore off a couple of individually blister-wrapped pieces and tossed them to him. Flint held them up and gave a subtle nod, an unspoken “thanks” since the plane was too fucking loud for anything else.

Josh smiled, then sat back.

He sensed someone watching him, and looked to his right. Big shock: Benton was watching him. The chief’s cheek bulged slightly where he’d tucked in a wad of dip, and that only made his smirk look that much more obnoxious.

Not now, asshole.

He pulled his gaze away and ignored both Flint and Benton, instead closing his eyes and concentrating on the mission ahead of them. He ran through the mental map one more time. Was a HALO insertion their best option? Not that there was any turning back now. They’d be in the drop zone in no time, and then it was go time. A jump from this altitude—they’d be dropping from over thirty-thousand feet—was inherently dangerous anyway, especially when it would be a long, cold free fall until just above three thousand feet. Lots of shit could go wrong. Hypoxia. Chutes not opening. Tangled lines with no time to unfuck them. Night-vision goggles on a crack-shot sniper. Trees. Mines.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Plan ahead to prevent problems and deal with them as they arise,” his Airborne School instructor had beaten into his head. “But don’t create them in your idiot head.

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