Chapter 15 #3
“I overheard a plot to hijack a plane and crash it into Diego Garcia.” Shaun kept the rest to the bare bones, and his voice low to give Rock enough to understand what had happened without getting into anything that could wait for a proper debrief.
He’d reported what he overheard to the MPs, asked to speak to base command, then returned to his cover before being taken later during a scheduled fuel run.
By the time he finished, he was having a serious case of déjà vu from the four fucking hours he’d spent going over the same ground with Noble.
“Well, fuck.” Rock glanced toward Noble, who was still on the phone with JSOC. “So much for fucking peace.” He dropped back into his chair hard enough to slam the front legs onto the floor. “Explain how you got from Iraq to Syria.”
“After I reported it, I was taken from a tea house when we stopped for lunch on the way back from a fuel run.” Shaun didn’t need to explain the route or why he’d been there.
Rock had helped plan the undercover mission, and every scheduled run had been covered in their mission briefing before Shaun ever set foot in Iraq.
What Rock didn’t know was what had happened after someone had blown his cover wide open.
Rock lowered his voice before asking the question. “Was it connected to our original brief?”
Shaun lifted one shoulder. “There were some questions that made me think it might be connected.” He kept the answer deliberately vague.
He wasn’t entirely sure what Noble’s clearance level was, and even after everything Red Squadron had done for him, he knew better than to assume Noble had access to everything Ghost Team did.
Until Rock told him otherwise, some parts of the original brief stayed exactly where they belonged.
“Fuck.” Rock got no further before Noble suddenly roared and hurled the phone across the room. Shaun flinched as it hit the wall hard enough to shatter, pieces of plastic scattering across the floor.
“Noble?” Rock was out of his chair immediately, the debrief forgotten as he approached the man who was almost a brother to him. “What’s going on?”
“I have bled red, white, and blue for fucking years.” Noble paced back and forth across the room, anger coming off him hard enough that Shaun stayed exactly where he was. “I swear to fuck I have done things that would make Momma disown me, all for the flag and our country.”
Fuck.
Shaun had no idea what JSOC had said to him, but whatever it was had pushed Noble well past pissed. Rock definitely saw it, too, because his boss stepped directly into Noble’s path and planted a hand against the center of his chest, forcing him to stop pacing.
“Tell me.”
“Orders are sending me back to the Middle East for a mission.” Noble snatched up a stapler and hurled it at the nearest window, then scowled when the damn thing bounced off the bulletproof glass and landed on the floor with a thud.
“And you, Rock.” He jabbed a finger into Rock’s chest for emphasis.
“You are going to take my cousin to her brother, and you are going to help them find Lexi.”
“Ugh, Noble.” Rock sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “We have orders, too.”
“Not anymore, you don’t!” Noble yelled back. “Your only priority is to find Lexi, and I am taking the dumbfuck over there with me to capture the asshole who set him up.”
Shaun blinked. It took him half a second to realize exactly which dumbfuck Noble meant to take with him.
“Excuse me?” He pushed out of the chair and got to his feet.
His debrief might have been forgotten somewhere between the murdered phone and the flying stapler, but apparently he hadn’t been.
If Noble was making plans that involved him going back into the field, then he damn well wanted in on the conversation. “Do I get a say in this?”
Shut up, you fucking idiot. This way you get to spend more time with Zenko.
“Not your decision,” Noble told him. “I have clearance to use any and all assets for this mission. You have more reason to want Former Commander Wade Sheridan captured than anyone else, so you are fucking coming with us. GOT IT?”
Wade fucking Sheridan.
Shaun stared at Noble as the name registered. If JSOC was sending Red Squadron after Sheridan, then the questions Noble had been asking back in Turkey had obviously turned up a hell of a lot more than he knew.
“Out.”
Shaun spun toward Rock. His boss jerked his thumb toward the door, his expression making it clear this was one order Shaun wasn’t going to argue his way around.
“Out, Shaun.”
Shaun clenched his fists as anger surged through him.
Noble had dropped Wade Sheridan’s name into the middle of the room and announced he was being commandeered for the mission, while Rock clearly expected him to walk out without another fucking word of explanation.
Right about now, planting a fist in Noble’s face held considerable appeal.
The asshole had some nerve deciding where Shaun was going without even asking him.
Yeah, calm down, dude. He’s the guy who runs the team that rescued your ass when you needed it.
That didn’t mean Shaun had to fucking like him.
He ripped open the door and stalked through it, slamming it behind him hard enough to rattle it in the frame. “Assholes.”