Page 93 of The Sniper

I stared at the screen as a new dot descended from above. A slow grin tugged at Elias’s mouth. “You’re about to see something wild.”

“Wild how?”

“Drop team parachuting onto a peninsula surrounded by water and trees, with no room for error and a wind shear that would make most guys piss themselves.”

My chest tightened again. “And they’re still doing it?”

“Oh, yeah. They’re nuts. And loyal to the bone.”

The feed shifted again. Noah’s voice rang out—sharp and deadly:

“Target with rocket spotted—taking the shot.”

A pause.

Then a pop, followed by a grunt on comms. Another pause.

“Target down.”

I closed my eyes, the relief hitting so hard my chest shook.

Elias didn’t speak.

He just leaned back and watched, his face bathed in blue light, like he was used to moments like this. Used to being the one who listened. Who watched. Who waited.

“I don’t know how to do this,” I whispered.

He looked at me. “Sit. Breathe. And let him do what he does best.”

I nodded. Swallowed hard.

Then whispered the words only I could give.

“Come back to me, Noah. Just come back.”

Elias didn’t ask me to repeat it. He just turned the volume up by a hair, and kept the line open.

The radio crackled again—faint, a whisper under the static—and for a beat, everything on screen stilled. No chatter. No movement.

Then chaos.

“Shit—RPG inbound,” a voice barked—Atlas, I thought. Then another voice overlapped, sharp with urgency.

“Boat alarm’s gone hot—overwatch compromised!”

My blood turned cold. I looked at Elias, whose fingers were already flying.

“What does that mean?” I asked, barely able to get the words out.

He didn’t answer right away. Just toggled to a newdrone feed—night vision blurring across the water, where one of the boats rocked sharply, a flare of light streaking through the sky like a comet.

My heart stopped.

A moment later, Noah’s voice crackled in—but it was fast, panicked, distorted by the sudden onslaught of sound behind him.

“Incoming—everybody off the boat, I —”

Then silence.

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