Chapter 1
FBI Secure Remote Command Node, Undisclosed Location
Code Name: Raven
Jade Mitchell—code name Raven—sat motionless in front of her forty-nine-inch curved monitor.
Charlie Team’s four thermal signatures on her screen never wavered.
The glow of the display cast long shadows across her dimly lit office walls.
Her hands hovered above the keyboard despite the chaos crawling beneath her skin.
A familiar sensation, but not unusual under those circumstances.
Outside in the open—yes. Behind her computer, tucked inside her house—not so much.
She closed her eyes and blew out a long breath. Charlie Team, minus Xander, their pilot, had entered the area and made progress toward the objective.
Jade forced her shoulders back, adjusted her headset, and switched her attention to the target. “Charlie One, comms are live. I’ve got what I assume is Echo Team’s five thermals in the southeast quadrant of the compound. Grid Lima-Seven. No movement for the last three hours.”
“Copy.” Charlie One—Liam’s voice—came through steady and familiar. Liam McKnight didn’t rattle. Not in war zones. Not in blackout zones. Not even when the only intel came from someone like her—a voice behind a screen. Not a face on the ground.
“Raven,” he said again, quieter this time, “you sure about this?”
She leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling. Was she sure? Not entirely.
The data wasn’t conclusive. But honestly, it never was in her line of work.
The contractor code she’d flagged had looked like a glitch.
That’s what they told her—what he told her.
The man had the clearance to bury reports like hers in review limbo.
But why? She knew what she saw. Someone had tampered with experimental soldier tech.
The evidence proved the person had hijacked the communication encryption, making the wearable systems that should have been untraceable, visible to anyone with the special code.
Then a week ago, Delta Force’s Echo Team vanished mid-op. Not even a distress ping.
She scraped her teeth over her bottom lip. It had taken all of her skills, but she’d found them. “I’m sure enough.”
“Raven?” Charlie One’s tone questioned her sincerity. The man whom she’d never met knew her better than anyone else ever had.
“Fine. I’m positive.” Truth was, she’d never been more certain of anything. This wasn’t a random mission failure. This was deliberate. Someone wanted those men off the map. But the why continued to elude her.
When no one on the STRIKE—Special Tactics & Reconnaissance for Intelligence, Covert Engagement—Task Force listened, she contacted BlackKnight Security, aka Charlie Team, when she’d discovered Echo’s location.
Charlie Team, an off-the-book black ops private security company formed by Liam McKnight himself, hadn’t doubted her for a second.
They’d grabbed their gear and jumped on a plane.
“The heat signatures are clustered and stationary. My guess? Restrained. Possibly unconscious.” Jade focused on the task. “Structure’s primitive. Stone foundation, partial roof collapse on one side. No automated defenses, no electronic surveillance. It’s a ghost site.”
“Copy. Any guards?” Liam asked.
“Negative. But the compound’s been active. Supply trucks came in two hours ago. Staged like they want it to look deserted.” She hesitated. “You’re being baited.”
“Good thing I brought a blade.”
The faintest smile tugged at her lips. Typical Liam. But it didn’t erase the weight in her chest.
This mission had no backup. No official satellite oversight. No extraction team. Only the team’s own pilot, Xander Maddox—Charlie Five. And Liam’s crew—Dax, Boone, and Rafe—along with her voice on a secure uplink.
If things went sideways, no one would come for them. No one except her knew they were even in country. And then there was the missing Delta Force team.
She swallowed hard. “I should have fought harder for an official rescue.”
“They didn’t listen, and we refuse to let Echo rot in some hole. We both know waiting for the bureaucracy gets people killed.”
Guilt sucker punched her. She should’ve escalated her concerns. She’d waited when someone buried her flagged report. And then again, when her gut screamed that something was off, she didn’t push harder.
Now, Echo Team—Five elite operatives—were off-grid, and she was ninety-nine percent sure they were locked inside that crumbling stone prison.
Alive and probably broken. But not dead. At least not yet.
She watched Liam and the rest of Charlie Team’s comm signatures that she’d tagged bright green, drift closer to the heat cluster.
Charlie One believed in her—trusted her.
Jade refused to let the enemy win. She’d bring her men—her team—home after a successful mission.
They didn’t know her by any other name than Raven, but she knew Charlie Team.
She’d researched each one of them. Knew their specialties, their quirks, their names.
“Western ridge is your fallback,” she said, re-routing the digital map. “No flares. No drone cover. I’m dark beyond this feed.”
“Understood.”
“Liam…” She hesitated. She wanted to say more, but words failed her when it counted most. “Be careful.”
“Always am, Raven.”
The line clicked out, leaving her alone with her screens.
Liam’s comms signature and the others in Charlie Team moved as green dots on her screen. She stared at the heat signatures she’d pegged as Echo Team. They remained in the same place as when she found them forty-eight hours ago.
Jade had promised herself when she started working on the STRIKE Task Force that she’d never allow anyone to fall through the cracks on her watch.
So much for that.
But tonight, with the help of Charlie Team, she’d fix that error.
Now, if she could use her intel to keep Charlie Team alive and evacuate Echo Team from the hot zone without getting anyone killed.
Al-Jawf Province, Syria
Wednesday in Syria – 0300 Hours
Call Sign: Charlie One
Liam slid behind a berm next to his second in command, Charlie Two Rafe Mendoza. Charlie Three, Dax Hanley, and Charlie Four, Boone Wallace mimicked their actions twenty-five feet away, keeping an eye on the other side of the compound.
Time had chewed up the place and spit it out in pieces. Cracked stone walls, piles of rocks, and a partial roof stood before him, the silence so thick Liam’s breath sounded like a ripple of thunder.
He crouched low behind the small ridge, the desert chill biting through his gear. “Raven, Charlie One, confirm heat signatures.”
“Charlie One, still five.” Her no-nonsense voice came through his comms. “Clustered. No change in body temperature or position.”
Liam had never met the woman. He didn’t even know her real name. But they’d formed a bond over the past couple of years during the times STRIKE Task Force contracted his team for jobs. There was no one he’d rather have watch his six than Raven.
Rafe joined him, peering over the crest. The man scanned the perimeter. “They’ve locked this place down tight.”
“Acknowledged, Charlie Two,” Raven responded.
Dax inched closer to their position. “They wanted ghosts.”
“They’re not getting them,” Boone growled. His normal, easy-going southern charm had vanished. “Not tonight.”
“Agreed, Charlie Three and Four. Echo is not disappearing without a trace. Not on my watch.” The irritated mumble of Raven’s final words tugged a smile from him.
“Copy, Raven.” He lifted his hand, signaling his men forward. “Stay tight. No chatter. Raven, keep eyes on our flank.”
“Already watching. I’ve got no electronic traffic within ten klicks. You’re in a blind zone. This was a planned blackout.”
Liam’s jaw tightened. “Confirming no backup coming?”
“We never had any, Charlie One. The report is still sitting at the bottom of the pile. We’re it.”
“Charlie Three and Four, you have our six.” He and Rafe popped over the ridge. His team moved like shadows—silent, disciplined, focused like the retired special ops soldiers and sailors they were.
Liam slipped through the broken gate. His boots, along with his team’s, trekked over loose gravel without a sound, crossing the open kill zone. The southeast wall loomed ahead, half-buried in sand. A warped door stood wedged shut, a piece of wire hanging from the lock.
“Charlie Four.” Liam cued Boone to assess the entry point.
The breacher stepped forward and crouched at the door. “Tripwire’s a joke. Barely armed. They want us to walk through it.”
“A setup.” Liam’s mind whipped through the mental catalogue of information they’d acquired for this mission. Continue? Or change the plan?
“Charlie One, Raven. I’m detecting intermittent heat spikes above the entry—ceiling void level. Could be Overwatch positions or could be equipment. Unsure. No line of sight until you breach.”
“You think we’re walking into a slaughter?”
“I think you’re walking into a statement.” Raven’s words left no room for doubt.
Liam glanced at his second in command. Rafe gave a single nod.
“Charlie Four, breach it.”
“Copy, Charlie One.” Boone went to work.
Liam and Rafe rotated and aimed their HK416s toward the perimeter, scanning for movement in the dark while Boone set the charge and Dax monitored the door.
A sharp pop blew the door.
Liam spun and led his team inside. The responsibility of being Charlie Team’s leader weighed heavy. He refused to lose one of his men, and he lumped Echo Team into that category. They’d all leave this place alive. He wouldn’t accept any other outcome.