Page 33 of Forged in Deception

“Call it in, Rome! Kent? Guys, let’s go! Now!”

No one answered. Suddenly, his own voice sounded very loud.

Where was everybody?

He rushed to the window, peering over the edge of the sill, only to realize he could see nothing but darkness. The noise sounded again, but it was quieter now and harder to make sense of.

His heart was thundering in his chest as realization dawned.

He slid down along the log wall until his butt collided with the hard floor, sending a jolt of pain up his spine that knocked further sense into him.

There was no ambush. He didn’t have an M16, only a handgun that was currently locked up under the bed back at his guest cabin. He wasn’t in Afghanistan anymore.

He was in a different desert, thousands of miles away, and he was by himself.

None of his friends were getting hurt this time.

No one was dying this time.

He heard the sound once more, but this time, he wasn’t scared. It was almost certainly nothing more than the cry of a wolf.

At least that wasn’t a dream. Or worse, an auditory hallucination.

It was a real sound, and he wasn’t going crazy, even if he had forgotten for a few seconds where he was or what was going on.

He was totally fine.

So why did he still feel so guilty about what had happened halfway across the world?

It was a long time ago now. He wasn’t interested in crying to some Veteran’s Freedom Society counselor about his feelings. He just wanted to keep moving forward and trusting that if he acted fine, he would be fine. Just fine, fine, fine.

What other choice did he have?

He rubbed a hand over his face and sat back down on the futon, pulling the quilt around himself once more. It was even colder now than it had been when he fell asleep, and as freaked out as he felt being here, he wasn’t going out there in the freezing night with the clearly very active coyotes.

Karlin was definitely in bed by now. She had probably just gotten held up somehow. He’d see her in the morning.

He closed his eyes, praying that God would take care of her and that they would be able to succeed in taking Senera down.

At last the strange sounds went completely silent, and after a lot of tossing and turning, he finally managed to fall asleep once more.

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

KARLIN

Karlin hurried into the dining hall, wishing desperately for a cup of coffee. Maybe even an espresso. She didn’t actually like espresso, but it did seem like a more efficient way of getting a lot of caffeine into her body as quickly as possible.

For a brief second, she thought about how she might be able to hide an electric kettle and instant coffee in her staff sleeping cabin next time before remembering that there wouldn’t actually be a next time. Not if she and Axel got their way, and not even if they didn’t. Soon, she’d be free of this place and free of their draconian anti-caffeine bigotry.

She’d planned to be here early this morning, hoping that Axel would have had the same idea, giving them a chance to catch up alone before the day started. But for the first time in recent memory, she’d overslept. A lot. Ned had actually had to knock on her door and wake her up, no doubt having been dispatched by Bajwa to do so.

She grabbed a cup of tea, a banana, and a bowl of oatmeal before rushing over toward the table where the others sat,including the boss himself, who was calmly sipping herbal tea and looking annoyingly well-rested.

Axel was with the rest of the guests, looking about as exhausted as she felt. He caught her eye as she slid in next to Bajwa, and she could tell by his expression that he was relieved to see that she was okay.

Had he been worrying about her?

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