Secret Mission (Team Falcon: Agile Security & Rescue Team 2, #4)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Devil’s Belly Cave

Near Karma, Vandemora

Every one of us holds our breath, hoping we don’t see a dead woman on the tablet screen.

This is not how the hunt for Allison is going to end.

That’s my vow as the underwater drone pans left and right, moves forward, bringing the camera closer to something.

The seconds tick by as our team watches until we get our first look.

Pale and oblong, something rests on the cave floor.

If that is a body part from our client’s missing daughter, I’ll be the first to vomit.

The drone operator works the controller in his lap. “This is what I saw a few minutes ago.” His thumbs move to adjust what we can see on the monitor. “I’m going to try to get closer this time, but the current is making it hard.”

The lead diver, a behemoth of a man next to me, shifts in his raincoat, never taking his eyes from the video. “The current’s getting worse. We need to move now.”

I lean in closer, pointing at the screen. “What’s that right there?”

An oily sickness rolls through me as we all shift to gather tighter around the screen until the object comes into focus.

I swallow down an acrid sting.

Small, gray and white tennis shoes lay on the cave floor. One of the laces waves like an arm. Back and forth, twisting in the current. A morbid version of one of those inflatable waving tube men that inhabit car lots.

The drone pans left. Then right.

Rock formations stretch out as far as the camera can visualize.

“No dead girls yet,” the drone operator says in an offhand way that makes both of my fists knot.

Fuck. That.

Before I can reel my shit in, I’ve got his shirt clenched, and he’s spilling out of the folding camp chair, stumbling to get to his feet.

“She’s a person . She has a name. A fucking life.”

Beast, my team leader, grabs my arm, his angry eyes slicing me. “Truck, lock it down. Step back.”

We stand off, his jaw locked as tight as my own.

The need to knock that shitty-fucking twenty-something’s teeth in makes the pulse throb in my temples.

“Take a breather,” Beast rumbles. “We’re all wired tight. I believe she’s alive, too. All of us do. We just need to get this done.”

I force an inhale. Loosen my grip.

One stiff nod is all I can give him before I glare at the drone guy, issuing a silent reminder to watch his goddamn mouth.

My attachment to this case is unhealthy.

Pacing around, I try to blow off the steam, while I watch the others work.

The geology professor, who accompanied the drone operator, marks something on the laminated map he’s created for the underwater rescue team.

“Time to dive. Let’s get this done.” Beast circles his finger in the air as he lifts his dive tanks. “Rain’s getting worse. This cave will only get more treacherous. We don’t leave until we know there’s nothing else in there … including MZ’s body.”

MZ … code name for our missing woman.

Allison.

Hell, if the guy had even used that, I’d have felt better than him spouting his fucking mouth about dead girls.

I scrub at the back of my neck, an acute ache pulsing there.

I’m a pressure cooker.

Watching the team prepare to go into the cave twists another kind of blade into me.

The wound on my calf throbs as a reminder that I’m only a week out from being in a stateside hospital, getting my veins pumped with antibiotics.

Justice, one of my teammates, steps under the temporary canopy as he finishes putting on his wetsuit.

“I wish I hadn’t seen those shoes.” He flashes a tight glance toward me. “That gave me the willies.”

“No shit. I hate recovery dives.”

We all do.

As a team of former SEALs, we’ve all done them.

Now rescue is our business. Recovery is an unfortunate part of it.

The shoes are just one more clue that we need to follow.

I’d do it in a minute if I could, but I’ve been sidelined from diving today.

And Beast’s word is law for those of us on Team Falcon.

Justice gives me another inspecting glance as he twists his shoulders into his neoprene dive suit. “You good?”

“Right as rain.”

He snorts and gives a quick, very uncharacteristic frown. “You’re full of shit.”

Truth— I’m fucked. But he doesn’t need that on his mind.

Allison’s case has opened a gash the size of the Grand Canyon, and I had plenty of days during treatment for my injury to think about it.

Not that I had to think much. One look at the photo in her case file when our team was hired, and I was knocked on my ass.

“We’re going to talk later.” He thumps my shoulder. “Hold down the fort while we’re in there.”

“Copy that. Get it done.”

He walks away, leaving me to wait.

Scrubbing my jaw, I blow out a slow breath that leaves cuts inside me in its wake.

Get your shit together, Truck.

I grab some of the other dive equipment and move it closer to the edge of the water.

Proving my point that I’m distracted, my boot slips on the muddy ground.

“Goddamn, between the heat, the rain, and these fucking caves, Vandemora is pissing me off.”

Justice straps his watch over his wetsuit sleeve, his gaze fixed on the murky pool of water at the cave’s mouth. “Have I ever told you I hate caves? I wish we’d have found her bag and passport on top of a mountain.”

“I just hope someone stole her personal items and dropped them there and she’s not really in one of these caves. But those shoes…” I don’t even finish my thought.

My insides are twisted too tight, burning with a gnawing concern that goes way beyond any mission I’ve ever been on. “We should have found her by now. It’s like we’re a bunch of rookies—not a team of top-notch SEALs.”

The rattle of raindrops on my hood is loud enough to drown out the rest of the team’s conversation.

Letting my mind rove over the case, to her—always to her—I turn to scan the mountainous terrain, watching the trenches of water flowing more and more as the storm builds.

Wait.

My focus boomerangs back to something dark—a shape that’s foreign in color and outline in the Vandemoran jungle.

By the time my vision has adjusted, my chest is spasming.

A single glance destroys me.

“What the fuck am I seeing right now?”

Either my imagination has gone rogue, or Allison is standing on the hillside watching us. Which makes zero sense.

That shadowy figure shifts, the filtered light playing across a pale, worried face that may as well be etched in my heart.

A large, solid hand connects with my back. Shoving me forward.

“Go get her.”

Beast’s growled command lodges inside my ears, fighting with the sound of my thudding heart.

“Copy. On it.”