Page 75 of Resolution

“Mr. Mathis, this is Special Agent Cora Cooperson. You can stay here with her throughout the operation. If you have any questions before, during, or after, she’s your man.”

She grinned. “I’m your man,” she said, playfully pointing at herself. She held out a hand, and I shook it. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Mathis.”

“Please call me Raven.”

“Cora.”

“We’d better get going, Huerta,” Sorensen said.

All the air rushed out of my lungs as I felt my heart squeeze. It was too soon. I didn’t want to let him go. Something in my expression must have touched Miguel’s heart. He immediately threw his arms around me, and I hugged him back. “Please be careful.” My words were muffled against his collarbone.

“I will. I promise. See you soon, Sunshine.”

I squeezed him hard but a few seconds later, predictably, Miguel let go. I turned to Sorensen. “You take care of him, you hear?”

“I promise, Raven.” Sorensen gave me a serious look and nodded hard, abruptly turning away from us.

I reached out and caught Miguel’s hand right before he walked away. We didn’t say anything, just stared into each other’s eyes before I finally let him go.

He walked over to join the others waiting by the vehicles. They would take the FBI and DEA teams as far as they could before dropping them in an inconspicuous place to hike the rest of the way through the jungle.

As Miguel stood beside Mac, Jarrett, Max, and the rest of my friends, I watched Sorensen pull a small box out of his tac pants. He opened it and dipped his fingers into it. After painting his face with black and green paint, he passed it to Miguel who expertly applied some to his own face.

I watched the others load up in the vehicles and as Miguel turned to look in my direction one last time, I held my breath, raised my hand, and waited for his acknowledgment. It came with a brief, private nod of his head, before he climbed into the vehicle. He and the others drove through the second set of double doors at the back of the warehouse and disappeared a minute later.

I’d never felt so terrified in my life.

Chapter Eighteen

MIGUEL

Leaving Raven behind in that cavernous warehouse made my heart hurt. It was as if all the breath had been sucked from my lungs, and I wondered how I could ever take another one, without half of it being a wish for him. I rode with Sorensen at my side, comforted by the big man’s presence. Like I’d told Raven, I’d worked with other men like him for years, confident in the fact that they’d be as focused on protecting their partner’s back as they were about accomplishing the mission.

The Humvees took us to a thick copse of trees and we piled out, checking our gear one last time, before starting the hike in. We wore night vision goggles, making it easy to see our way through the steamy heat of the jungle.

By 0200, it was deep night as we reached our destination. I knew it was the compound by the thick, cinderblock walls encircling it. We’d seen the walls on the SAT images we’d studied at length, but we’d had no way of knowing how tall they were. Up close, I guessed we were looking at walls that were eight feet tall. We spread out, half of us approaching from the east and the other half from the west.

The plan was for the snipers to scale the walls first, sitting atop them to provide cover for the DEA which was entering the compound to take out perimeter guards or provide silenced cover for the agents. Once the way had been cleared for the FBI, our tac teams would move on the house itself with the goal of undertaking the hostage rescue, taking out any sicarios standing in the way. Sorensen and I were to locate Tawny Flores, Brian Leopard, Greg Aston, and Special Agent Willis. We’d get them out while a team led by Lincoln and Mac McCallahan would take Oscar Castillo prisoner. Whether they brought the cartel boss out dead or alive remained to be seen, but none of us planned to fail.

I waited with Sorensen on one side of me and McCallahan on the other, watching as Jarrett Evans did a running launch at the wall, grabbed the top with his hands and hooked his leg over the top, flattening himself out immediately. He gave the “all clear” signal, and Sarah Connor threw climbing ropes over the east wall where we were, knowing that the Spec. Ops sniper, Reese Monroe, was doing the same thing on the west wall. As soon as they were lying flat on their bellies up on top, the DEA began scaling the walls. Once they were up and over, it was our turn to make a move.

Sorensen moved to a recently vacated rope and pulled it taut, beginning to climb. The sound of boots scaling the walls and the soft thuds as men hit the dirt beyond, were the only things I could hear in the warm and humid dark night. I heard a spit from one of the sniper rifles and I knew either Jarrett or Sarah had silently taken out a perimeter guard. As soon as Sorensen reached the top, I began to climb, grabbing his outstretched hand for the final foot. We both hopped over and dropped to the ground, as others did the same.

I should have been prepared for the first volley of gunshots as they split the night, but the scream of a man being hit by bullets brought back horrifying, if not familiar, memories of another war in a faraway place. The element of surprise was lost as the DEA’s tac team began taking out the Sanchez Cartels’ sicarios. In a matter of moments, the compound sounded like every firefight I’d ever been in.

“Let’s go!” Sorensen yelled. We began running in an all-out sprint toward the largest structure on the property…the large, white, Colonial-style house. Twenty feet from the house, the front door suddenly crashed open and the three gunmen who came running out, firing weapons, were cut down in a matter of seconds. We stepped over their corpses and Sorensen and I flattened ourselves against the wall on either side of the door. When two more gunmen came out, we took them down with KA-BARs to the throat, relieving their gurgling corpses of their weapons in seconds. McCallahan and Snow ran up behind the two of us, guns on the ready. I looked at Sorensen and with silent nods of understanding, the two of us entered the house.

Almost immediately, we were met with a volley of gunfire, and ducked back around the heavy, wood doorframe as it splintered beside us. Sorensen and I immediately rushed back inside, laying down fire as McCallahan and Snow came in right behind us. The foyer was clear for now, so we began our search. I visually mapped the interior of the dark house, noting the wide, curving staircase leading upstairs. I signaled to the others waiting for Sorensen, Mac, and Lincoln to acknowledge me. As one, they silently nodded.

The four of us advanced, climbing the stairs as more of the FBI’s Spec. Ops team members entered behind us. A sicario appeared from behind a closed door at the top of the stairs, swung his weapon in my direction, but Sorensen was faster. The man died in a hail of bullets, toppling down the stairs in front of me as I sidestepped, seconds later. In the earbuds we heard the rest of the team calling out, “Clear!” every time they cleared a room, sometimes preceded by therat-a-tat-tatof gunfire. Outside, gunfire was ongoing as we began clearing the rooms behind closed doors one by one.

“Second floor clear,” Sorensen announced. “Proceeding up to the third.” We backtracked to the stairway, and started climbing, doing the same thing. As we approached the third door, a volley of shots punched through it, the bullets narrowly missing me as I dove out of the way. Running feet from behind the door and a second volley of shots rang out before Sorensen kicked the door open. It crashed against the wall and Sorensen went in shooting. A female screamed and my heart nearly burst out of my chest. Seconds later, the scantily clad woman came running toward me barefoot, wearing only a red, silk robe.

“Get down!” I yelled, spotting someone behind her. She dropped to the floor a split second before machine gunfire nearly took her down. She threw both hands over her head and screamed, shouting terrified curses in Spanish in a voice choked with tears. It took only moments to clear the bedroom of anyone else, and Sorensen led us out.

Several more of the team were in the hallway, checking doors, taking out whoever resisted. Judging from the volleys of automatic gunfire and the screams of dying men, it seemed like most all did. It took only a minute more to clear all the bedrooms. I turned to Sorensen.

“They’re not on this floor. Let’s backtrack.” His sharp nod had us all turning back around and running down the stairs.

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