Page 29 of Metal & Mud

*You could get it from Jess's cell phone,* her mind whispered. *She keeps a recall list of her fire team, and you know her unlock code.*

Yeah, but that wasn't an option either. They'd built up trust between them, and despite the fact she was hiding a secret from Jess now, Sabby didn't want to change that. She wasn't going to peek into her sister's Army stuff. Besides, if she did that, Logan would wonder how she got his number, and that wasn't the way to start the conversation she needed to have with him.

She knew when it came down to it, she was just scared. Not just for her job, though that was part of it. She was scared of disappointing Jess, of destroying the trust they'd built since she'd moved in. Her sister had given her a chance to rebuild her life, and she'd repaid that by hooking up with one of her soldiers.

She was certain that if the full truth came out, she could lose her job. After all, she had sex at work.

With one of her sister's underlings.

And nobody knew it except her, because she was pretty certain that Logan didn't know she was Jess's sister.

She'd worked so hard since moving in with Jess to get her shit right. And now it could all fall apart.

She didn't know what to do.

* * *

15

LOGAN

At the crack of dawn, on Wednesday morning, Logan felt like he was finally doing what he'd signed up for in the Army. The adrenaline pumping through his veins gave him a surge of pure satisfaction. This was real Army work, and he was thriving.

"Hey Hollywood, what's going on in your head?" Bron asked as they walked toward this morning's ambush location. "You look like you've got your wheels turning."

"Hmm? Oh, doing the math," Logan said. "Figuring out how many kills we're making per death. So far we're just a shade under three and a quarter for the fire team."

Bron laughed quietly. "You're doing that in your head?"

"Eh, not that hard," Logan said. "I grew up doing sports averages with my grandpa. Basically, we're getting about three kills for every time we die."

"Cool," Bron said, patting his machine gun. "I bet my Baby Girl Brenda here's been responsible for a lot of them."

"I don't know," Logan said with a small laugh. "Other than myself, I'm not keeping exact tabs on anyone else. Come on, we're falling behind."

They caught up with Sergeant Adams, who was checking her GPS against the orders she'd gotten that morning from Lieutenant Parker, and trying to determine their precise ambush site. Finally she nodded, and turned around. "Okay, here we are. Ideas?"

Logan looked around, and an idea came to him. The trees were relatively tight in this particular area for the Virginia forest, and the brush was heavy. Best of all there was a slight slope, and about twenty yards away there was could be described as a ridgeline, if a ridgeline was about ten feet higher than the rest of the area. A memory, a video he'd watched years ago came to mind, and he spoke up. "Sergeant... I think I've got one."

"Oh this should be rich," Tom Franklin scoffed, but he shut his mouth as Adams shot him a glance.

"I said ideas, and that means from everyone," she said. "I'll determine if they're good or not. Go ahead, Hollywood."

"Okay, bear with me." Logan looked around. "When I was in college, I majored in math but I did take some extra classes in history."

"Of course you would," Franklin mocked, and Adams gave him another look. "What, Sarge? We're supposed to be setting up an ambush, not listening to story time. Who cares what some ivory tower liberal fed him?"

"The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest is hardly 'ivory tower bullshit.' It's the battle that kept the Roman Empire out of Germany forever," Logan shot back, standing his ground. "An ambush by German tribesmen destroyed an entire Roman army. Three whole legions lost their standards. Twenty thousand Roman casualties, and the Germans losses were minor. You gonna let them call me names again?"

"I'm listening, Hollywood," Sergeant Adams said. "Just keep it quick and relevant to today."

"Will do, Sergeant. So the initial ambushes took place in terrain a lot like this. Because of how dense the forest was, the Romans were moving in a column formation along a marshy, muddy track. Now, this isn't swamp, but it's not easy movement. I'm looking around, and if I were trying to move, I wouldn't have my troops spread out in a firing line unless I had to."

"You're thinking they'll also be in a column," Adams said, and Logan nodded.

"Or at least in a tight series of three man wedges." Logan squatted down in the dirt and drew. "By this point in the week, they should anticipate that something's coming. But they won't know where, right?"

"The units are to be on various patrols," Adams confirmed. "And not all of them are being ambushed."

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