Page 43 of Spyder
I look over and see Domino looking at me with a bit of concern in his eyes.
“Yeah, I’m good. Why do you ask?”
He shrugs. “I mean, this is really gonna be your first taste of combat. Figured you might be a little tight.”
I’m not gonna lie—I’m tight as hell right now. My stomach is turning itself inside out and my heart hasn’t stopped hammering on the inside of my chest in the last hour. But I’m a Marine. Perhaps not tested like the guys around me, but certainly trained as well as any of them. I give Domino a nod.
“I’m good, bro. Seriously,” I tell him. “You aren’t gonna have to worry about me.”
“If I don’t, who will?” he says with a grin. “Besides, if anything happened to you, I’m pretty sure Bellamy would kick my ass, so it’s in my best interest to make sure you get out of here in one piece.”
I smirk. “What are you talking about?”
“I see her now and again when I take Cole to school or pick him up,” he replies. “We talk now and then.”
“Oh, you do, huh?”
He nods. “We do.”
I’m just about to ask him more when Prophet calls me out. “You got somethin’ to add, Spyder?”
I shake my head. “Nothin’, prez.”
“Then shut your hole and listen up.”
“Yes, sir.”
Prophet goes over the plan with us… half of us will approach from the woods to the south of the cabin, the other half will approach from the woods to the west, and Domino is going to be stationed to the east with his sniper rifle, tasked with picking off anybody who tries to escape. The parameters of the mission are clear… nobody walks away alive. We want our message to Zavala to be loud and clear.
“Okay, that’s it. Make sure your night vision is working,” Prophet says. “Silence on the comms and wait for the signal. Any questions?”
I look around and nobody seems to have any. They all look tense and yet eager to get this going. It’s as if everybody feels the dark cloud that is Miguel Zavala hanging over our heads and we know the sooner we dispose of the problem, the sooner the clouds lift, the sun shines down on us, and we get our lives and operations back to normal. We won’t have to keep watching over our shoulders for one of Zavala’s men to put a bullet in the back of our heads.
“All right. Let’s move it out then,” Prophet says. “Watch your backs and be careful, fellas.”
We break into our teams and head out. I’m with Cosmo’s squad and we’ll be coming up with the main assault team coming from the south. I adjust the night vision goggles over my eyes, trying to get used to the ghostly green glow of the world as we pick our way through the woods, moving as quickly and quietly as we can.
“You ready for this?” Cosmo asks.
“As ready as I’m gonna be,” I reply quietly, but with heat in my voice. “And y’all can stop asking me anytime. I’m a fuckin’ Marine. Maybe I wasn’t in the shit with you guys, but I’m a Marine all the same.”
Cosmo gives me a grin. “That’s what I like to hear, Marine.”
We stop just before the edge of the tree line and hunker down, waiting for the signal to launch our attack. Lights glow in the cabin’s windows and every now and then, we can see shadows crossing the curtains. We hear laughter and loud music coming from inside the cabin, and a thick plume of smoke curls out of the chimney, drifting upward and filling the air with the aroma of a campfire. It’s a scent I’ve always loved, personally.
Surveying the terrain, I see about fifty yards of open ground between us and the cabin, which isn’t great. At least it’s overcast, though, which enhances the dark of the evening and will provide us a little bit of cover at least.
“Alpha team in place,” Cosmo reports in over the comm.
We wait in silence as the other team and Domino all move into place. They had a longer trek through the woods than we did, so it takes a few minutes. That time is filled with an increasing sense of tension among the guys. Everybody is locked, loaded, and ready to rock. An energy I can only describe as excitement is growing more and more palpable.
It’s definitely a feeling I share with them. The guys I’m with have all been through this before. They’ve been in more firefights than they can probably even count. They’re tested and battle-hardened. I’m a virgin. So yeah, I’m a little bit tense about this all going down. The idea that this could be the last thing I ever do in this world, not to mention that last night could have been the last time I ever see Bellamy again is freaking me out a bit, to be honest.
What I hate the most is that if this all goes sideways and I go down, she’s never going to know what happened to me. All she’s going to know is that I’m gone. That I just disappeared off the face of the earth. I’m sure Zavala’s guys would put us all in a big pit and cover us up… a mass grave like they’ve found in Mexico. And given how remote this place is, that grave might never be found.
The idea that Bellamy would be left with questions and no answers, that all she’d know is that I vanished is bothering me more than I can say. But at the same time, I can’t leave my brothers hanging. I won’t. They need me to be here and so I am. I’m here to help protect them and the MC. I feel like it’s my duty and responsibility to be here and taking part in this fight.
This is one of those things Bellamy was worried about me being a part of. One of those things that scare her about the MC. And yeah, maybe this is treading pretty close to that line of things you see in movies and on TV that give people the impression of an MC they typically seem to have. This is the sort of violence people all seem to think is an everyday thing for us. It’s not, of course. This sort of thing is rare and an exception to the rule. But we need to handle our business.
