Page 13 of The Lost Soldier
“I don’t trust her.”
Chad rubbed his temples. “Why’d you leave the psychic book if you don’t trust her?”
“To help you understand your gifts so we can get our men back. I’ve been trying to find a way to get her out of here,” Scottie said.
Finally, the man was being honest.
“I trust her more than I trust you right now, so she stays.” Chad also needed her to help him understand exactly what talents he had and how to use them.
“I don’t care how strong her gifts are, she led the northern operatives to these men. Good men, I might add. I don’t want her here at all. If it were up to me, I’d put her on that chopper and send her home right now, but Mallard, for whatever reason, thinks we need her.”
“Mallard’s a smart man then,” Chad said. “Which doesn’t add up to him not wanting me to know the truth about these missions.”
“He’s given me control in the field to do as I see fit.”
“You know what your problem is?” Savanah inched closer, her face only about a foot away from Scottie’s.
Chad should probably interrupt her, but he figured it would be too much fun to watch her put Scottie in his place.
She waved her finger in the air. “You’re a sexist asshole who doesn’t think a mere woman should be in the field, and you take issue with the Projection Project and their advancements, which far out weight what the government has done, and can do, which is why your general has saught us out.”
Scottie narrowed his eyes, taking a step back.
“This is why we’re standing here in a field of death?” Chad let out a long breath. “If I can accept this damn psychic shit overnight, then you’ll get used to working with a woman, who I might add, has more skills in her pinky than you have in your entire body. So, I’ll ask one last time. What’s the truth behind these missions?”
Scottie opened and closed his mouth three times. If he did it a fourth without saying anything, Chad might haul off and hit the guy.
“Mallard gave team two to you. He wanted to try to pull out your gifts. He thought by hiring the Projection Project to remote view them—”
“Wait a second,” Savanah interjected, pinching the bridge of her nose. “The Projection Project wasn’t hired when Brett viewed that team. It was all part of a training exercise, but he sensed two other psychics. One of them was me.”
“The other was the North Koreans,” Scottie said, his stiff shoulders slightly relaxed. “One of the men on the team, Hunter Knight, reported he’d felt Brett’s presence, which was our partof the test, but he also felt someone else. We didn’t know at the time, Savanah had been kidnapped.” Scottie lowered his head. “There is the real reason I have a problem with you. For all I know, you could be working for the other side. I mean you led them straight to—”
“I wouldn’t finish that sentence if I were you,” Chad said, puffing out his chest. “We’re not going to start the blame game. Let’s focus on getting the two men who are still alive, back.”
Scottie nodded. “Team one, my team, was already across the border.”
“Why?” Chad asked.
“We had intel on a potential psychic threat, and we wanted to shut it down. The intel, however, sent us on a wild goose chase while the other team went missing.”
“You were used as a diversion,” Chad said, his mind churning over the ramifications of the botched missions. “But what I don’t get is team one is filled with psychics as well, correct?”
Scottie nodded. “We don’t know why, but the Koreans wanted team two.”
“I needed dossiers on every team member of both teams. Classified. Unclassified. Everything.” This was more than a leak and potential exchange of top-secret government information. Only he had no idea what it could be.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Scottie said.
“Don’t make me go over your head, because I will go directly to Mallard if I must,” Chad said, curling his fingers around Savanah’s biceps. “We keep everything between us three and Mallard.”
“I’ll agree to that,” Scottie said, glancing over his shoulder. “I need to get those men back to the base for transport back to the States. I’ll be in touch.”
Chad nodded, tugging Savanah across the field.
“Do you think he’ll get you the files?” Savanah asked.
Chad had no idea. “Do you mind driving back? I want to hop on the chopper.”
