Chapter 27
TRENT
Eighteen hours since the highway extraction, and I still hadn’t let myself sleep.
The abandoned farmhouse creaked in the Estonian wind, its weathered walls shuddering against the coming storm.
I sat on an overturned crate, my rifle propped against my knee, watching Sophia’s chest rise and fall beneath a threadbare blanket.
Evelyn curled around her like a human shield, one arm draped across her daughter’s small body even in sleep.
Dark circles shadowed Evelyn’s eyes, her face finally slack after days of hypervigilance.
They both needed the rest. So did I, but that wasn’t happening while the threat of discovery hung over us like the storm clouds gathering outside.
Sophia whimpered, her small fingers clutching at the blanket.
Since the extraction, she’d barely spoken, clinging to Evelyn with a desperate intensity that broke something inside me.
The researchers had kept her sedated for most of her captivity, but she remembered enough to know she’d been taken.
Enough to be afraid it would happen again.
I checked my watch. Fourteen hours since we’d crossed the Gulf of Finland on a fishing boat that stank of mackerel and diesel, Sophia bundled between us as waves slapped against the hull.
Ten since we’d abandoned the second vehicle on a rural road, switching to a battered delivery van with Estonian plates.
Four since we’d reached this safehouse, a forgotten farmhouse twenty kilometers from the nearest town.
My back ached from the hard wooden crate. The coffee in my metal cup had gone cold hours ago. Outside, the first fat drops of rain began to hit the windows.
“Any update?” Flynn asked, moving silently into the room despite his bulk. His usual easy confidence had hardened into something wary and watchful. He kept away from windows, checked exits compulsively, scanned every shadow. Same as the rest of us.
I shook my head. “Kate’s still working the exfiltration. Says we should have transport by tomorrow evening.”
“They’ve upgraded the warrants,” he said, handing me a tablet. “Interpol now.”
The screen showed security camera images from the highway, our faces clearly visible despite caps and sunglasses.
Finnish authorities had released our photos to every border checkpoint in Europe.
The headline from a Helsinki newspaper screamed about armed American terrorists.
Another called it a kidnapping. Innovixus had already released a statement claiming we’d stolen proprietary technology and endangered a child who’d been receiving “specialized treatment” at their facility.
“Leo?” I asked as I scrolled through the alerts.
“Bruised to hell but alive. Vest caught the rounds that would’ve killed him.” Flynn rubbed a hand across his stubbled jaw. “He’s sleeping it off in the back room.”
“Rafe?”
“Cleaning his wound again. Says it’s just a graze, but it bled like a son of a bitch. Kate sent instructions for a field dressing that should hold until we reach proper medical.”
“Lyric?”
“In the kitchen with Nolan, checking our remaining supplies.” Flynn’s expression softened slightly. “She wants to run a perimeter check, but I told her to wait until the storm passes.”
“Gage?”
“Not good. Alistair’s with him now.”
“Jesus. Alistair should be resting.” He never should’ve come with us to begin with, but nobody could talk him into staying behind.
Flynn exhaled and dragged a hand through his hair. “Yeah, he looks like he’s going to collapse, but Gage is running a fever, and you know how Preacher gets when one of his flock is sick. He says we need to get Gage to a proper lab within forty-eight hours or...”
He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.
I nodded and handed the tablet back. Flynn’s hands were steady, but the skin around his eyes had tightened. The reality of our situation was sinking in. We were all wanted criminals now, our faces known, our biometrics logged.
There would be no going back to our old lives.
In the corner, Ethan paced in a tight circle, his satellite phone pressed to his ear. His voice stayed low, but his posture told me everything I needed to know. Back straight, jaw set, eyes tracking the room even as he spoke. The conversation wasn’t going well.
“I understand the political implications,” he said, the words clipped. “But these were American citizens in danger... Yes, I’m aware of the diplomatic... No, sir, I cannot provide that information at this time.”
He caught my eye across the room and gave a short, sharp shake of his head. The message was clear: the US government was cutting ties. Officially denying any knowledge of our operation. We were on our own.
I’d known this would happen. Had accepted it before we boarded the flight to Helsinki. My military record would be flagged, my security clearances revoked. I’d spend years looking over my shoulder, waiting for extradition requests. We all would.
Flynn leaned against the wall beside me, his gaze drifting to the sleeping pair on the narrow bed. “Worth it?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“Yeah, love always is.” A small smile tipped up the corner of his mouth as he looked over at his wife. Lyric moved past the kitchen doorway, her platinum hair slicked back into a stubby ponytail. Their eyes met across the room, and something unspoken passed between them—a reassurance, a promise.
A crash from the kitchen made us both tense, and Lyric spun toward the sound, hand moving to her weapon before Nolan’s voice called out a surprisingly quiet apology.
Flynn relaxed marginally, but his eyes stayed alert, scanning the room one more time before he pushed off the wall.
“I’ll take next watch,” he said. “Get some sleep if you can.”
I nodded but didn’t move from my position. Sleep wasn’t going to happen, not with the adrenaline still coursing through my system.
Ethan ended his call and crossed to us, his face grim. “It’s official. We’re all being terminated, effective immediately.”
The words landed exactly as I’d expected. Not a surprise, but still a blow.
“All of us?” Flynn asked.
“Every operator involved in the Helsinki operation.” Ethan’s voice stayed neutral, but a muscle jumped in his jaw. “Officially, we went rogue. Unofficially, we embarrassed people who don’t like being embarrassed.”
“They knew the risks when they sent us in,” I said.
“They knew the potential rewards too.” Ethan glanced toward Sophia and lowered his voice further. “Getting her back was the right call. The political fallout is just the price we pay.”
On the bed, Sophia stirred, her face scrunching in distress. Evelyn’s arm tightened around her instinctively, pulling her closer even in sleep. The sight made my chest constrict. This was what mattered. Not careers or records or official sanction. Just that little girl, safe with her mother.
“We need to brief the team,” Ethan said. “All of them. There are decisions to make.”
I turned, reading something unexpected in his expression. Not defeat. Something else. Something that looked almost like... purpose.
“What kind of decisions?” I asked.
“The kind that determines what happens next.” He glanced toward Evelyn and Sophia, then back to me. “The kind that might give us a way forward, if everyone’s on board.”
I studied him, trying to read the meaning behind his words. “I’ll wake them for the briefing.”
“Not yet.” Ethan’s gaze softened slightly as it rested on the sleeping pair. “Let them rest a while longer. We’ve got a long road ahead.”
He walked away, leaving me with the weight of his unspoken message. Something was coming. Something beyond the consequences we’d all accepted. I looked back at Sophia and Evelyn, peaceful for the first time in days, and made a silent promise.
Whatever came next, I’d be there. Whatever it took to keep them safe, I’d do it. My old life was gone, burned in the fire of our choices. But looking at them, I couldn’t bring myself to regret a single moment.
The farmhouse kitchen smelled of burnt coffee and gun oil, the team gathered around a wooden table that had seen better decades. Ethan stood at the head, hands planted on the scarred surface, the overhead light casting shadows beneath his eyes.
Everyone looked rough: Flynn with his torn tactical pants, Leo nursing the bruises beneath his vest, Rafe with a makeshift bandage on his shoulder.
Alistair’s complexion rivaled candle wax for colorlessness.
Even Decker, which was the tell. He was the kind of guy who kept his hair in place during firefights, but now his collar was crooked and a smear of grime sat under one eye.
He hadn’t even tried to wipe it off. Nolan, beside him, looked half-asleep and had a fresh tear in his shirt from the run out of Helsinki.
Kate joined by video link, her face small on the tablet propped against a coffee can. Evelyn sat beside me, Sophia asleep in her lap, the little girl’s face pressed into her mother’s neck.
Gage sat apart from the group, slumped in a chair against the wall.
His skin had taken on a grayish cast, sweat beading on his forehead despite the room’s chill.
His hands trembled where they gripped the chair arms. Alistair hovered nearby, medical bag within reach, his expression professionally blank but his eyes worried.
“By now, you all know we’ve been terminated,” Ethan began without preamble. “The US government has officially disavowed any knowledge of our operation. Our clearances are revoked, our military records flagged. For all intents and purposes, our careers are over.”
No one reacted. We’d all known the score before boarding that flight to Helsinki.