Tex
He leaned back in his chair, rubbing a hand over his jaw.
He should’ve gone to bed hours ago. Melody was already asleep upstairs, curled beneath the quilt she loved, her soft breathing still the most comforting sound he’d ever known.
He’d promised her, no, sworn to her that he’d slow down.
But old habits had a way of clawing their way back.
The encrypted transmission was faint, buried under layers of obfuscation, but once he cracked it, the message became clear enough:
An agent embedded with a poaching syndicate in Costa Rica has gone dark. Possible termination. Target: a female marine biologist working near Tortuguero. Potential trafficking of endangered green sea turtles.
And, unfortunately, poachers.
He exhaled slowly, leaning forward, fingers flying across the keyboard. He could hand it off to Beth, his best protégé. Sharp as a whip, she was a natural intel analyst for the team, but something about this one hit too close to home.
He’d been the one trapped once. The one waiting in the dark for someone to come, and somehow his own disappearance had brought the cavalry.
It had touched him and made him swear he would always step in when he could.
His leg ached thinking about it. A reminder of what he lost to be medically discharged.
Not again. He thought. Yeah, he wasn’t the type to let others wait to be saved.
Tex pulled up the map overlay, cross-checking coordinates. He knew of someone who could help. Someone with boots on the ground thanks to their wife’s specialty … at least when they were not stateside. He pulled up the team’s profile along with his contact card, which he kept saved in his database.
Troy “Beatle” Lennon. He was Delta Force, which meant he was smart, stubborn, and one of the few men Tex would trust with his life.
They had met briefly on another mission, and Tex knew he was his best bet.
Beatle and his wife, Casey, had spent months stationed in and out of Costa Rica on humanitarian and anti-trafficking ops.
Their own origin story involved Beatle rescuing her after she was kidnapped while studying bugs as an entomologist.
Tex didn’t like the thought that this could even remotely put Casey in danger again or the possibility that she was the one kidnapped.
The woman had been through enough already, and yet he knew she had a heart of gold.
Hell, she reminded him of Melody. They were both brave to a fault, the kind of woman who’d run towards danger if it meant saving someone else.
His gut twisted even as he grabbed his phone and hit Beatle’s number. He had to make sure it wasn’t Casey in trouble. And then once he knew she was safe, he would get Beatle’s thoughts on what he had found.
The line rang twice before a familiar gruff voice answered, “Hello?”
“Beatle?”
“Tex. Everything alright?”
Tex could picture him instantly—standing in some kitchen somewhere, brow furrowed, jaw working as he tried to figure out why Tex would call him.
It also meant Casey was safe. He let out a slow breath. “Got something weird on a dark channel. Can I get your thoughts?”
Without a beat, Beatle responded, “Shoot.”
“Just intercepted a covert message. Encrypted, but I cracked it. Mentions an American scientist in Costa Rica being targeted for abduction. Green sea turtles, Tortuguero region.”
There was a pause, then a hissed curse. “Casey’s with me. We’re stateside.” Tex could hear movement in the background, the scrape of a chair. “Where exactly in Costa Rica?”
Tex scanned the data again, fingers flying over the keyboard until he found what he needed.
The coordinates popped up on the map, blinking near the Caribbean coast. “About twenty clicks north of Tortuguero proper. That coastline’s a prime spot for nesting.
Makes sense the poachers would base out of there. ”
“Shit,” Beatle muttered, his voice going lower. “Casey’s gonna lose it when she hears about this. You said it’s a scientist?”
A few keystrokes pulled deeper the information he sought. “Yeah. Female, by the looks of it. Gabriella Valentino. Marine biologist attached to some international preservation group.” He did another search.
“She’s recently divorced and forty years old.
Currently five-foot-eight and one hundred and seventy pounds, per her driver’s license.
Brown hair and green eyes. Graduate of UCLA.
She was paired with the University of St. Andrews in the UK for a research study they were conducting.
Fundings are public and online for viewing.
” He clicked on a photo of the group of scientists accepting their awards, and he spotted Gabriella, the sole female amongst the group.
He heard a heavy exhale from the other end. “Damn. They always go after the ones trying to do good.” Beatle’s tone hardened. “You think the agent embedded in that group is still alive?”
Tex grimaced. “Can’t say. Message was fragmented, so it might’ve been sent under duress. Whoever it was, they were trying to get the warning out before comms went dark.”
Beatle’s voice shifted, all business now. “You want me to loop in Ghost?”
Tex chuckled softly despite the situation. “You know me too well.” He started typing again, sending the file through a secure channel. “Already uploaded the data packet. But I’ll need someone to verify the intel down south. Someone who can make quiet inquiries before it hits the wrong ears.”
“Copy that,” Beatle said. There was movement on his end, a door opening, the muted sound of Casey’s voice in the background. “We’ll see who’s closest. Maybe Ghost’s new team can help. They’ve been running training ops in Panama.”
Tex nodded, even though his friend couldn’t see him. “Good call. Let me know what you find. I’ve got a bad feeling about this one.”
“You always have a bad feeling,” Beatle said dryly, though Tex could hear the undercurrent of concern.
“Yeah,” Tex admitted softly, eyes drifting towards the upstairs hallway where Melody slept peacefully. “But this time … it feels personal.”
Beatle’s voice came back quiet but firm. “We’ll handle it, brother. Send me everything you’ve got.”
Tex did, and as the last file uploaded, a chill crawled up his spine.
Because buried in the encrypted metadata, almost invisible, was a phrase he hadn’t seen in years. A codeword he hadn’t heard since his SEAL days.
And it didn’t belong in a poaching op.
THE VEIL HAS STARTED MOVING.