Page 39 of SEAL's Spitfire
“They know about Miranda Stanhope.”
“Fuck.” They’d hoped to keep that information quiet. Most likely one of the other hostages said something hoping to help themselves. Not that you could blame them. They were probably terrified.
Bill nodded and continued, “This is where it gets dicey. Our intel says they’ve separated them. They still plan to sell the main group for arms. But now they’re demanding a prisoner exchange and money for the HVT.”
The grim expression on Jake’s face said it all. He also knew that Rafe had even more reason to want to rescue the other hostages. Their primary mission would be to recover Miranda Stanhope. The other hostages would be secondary if they were told to do it at all.
Sleep was no longer an option. Fear and fury warred within Rafe but instead of losing it, his training took over. One of his strengths was problem solving, running scenarios in his head until he’d found a solution. If there was a way to save them all, with or without permission, he’d find it. The only positive in any of this was that he couldn’t tell Meghan. His little spitfire would’ve had a nuclear meltdown, and he wouldn’t have blamed her. Rescuing all of them was the only option, whether JSOC agreed or not.
“Rafe, did you hear me?”
“Huh?”
“That’s what I thought. TOC now.”
“Copy that.”
* * *
Once they were gatheredin the Tactical Operations Center, Bill signed in to the video transmission from Joint Special Operations Command. An hour later they had their mission plan, the direction had come from the president, and there was no arguing with the commander-in-chief. Orders were orders. It sucked that they’d have to wait two days to go get her. But JSOC wanted proof of life and double confirmation of her location before they went in to do the rescue. Rafe prayed that the mission to save Miranda Stanhope didn’t mean a death sentence for the rest of the hostages.
After the briefing with JSOC was finished, Captain Knox continued with the specifics, going over maps and locations until they had their plan nailed down.
“You’ll helo in at oh-one hundred. If they haven’t moved her, it’ll be about fifteen klicks to the HVT. You need to be at the EXFIL at oh-five-hundred,” Captain Knox finished. “Any questions?”
“No, sir,” Jake responded for all of them. None of them were happy, from the captain on down. Their only option was to rescue Miranda and take out her captors before they could alert the others. And if they had good intel on where the other hostages were being held, they should be able to free them before it was too late. There were a lot of ‘if’s’ in the equation, but it wasn’t the worst plan they’d ever had to execute.
“I don’t like this, Boss,” Rafe said so only Jake could hear him.
“It doesn’t matter. You know the drill. It’s not the first double extraction we’ve done. It won’t be our last.”
“Usually they’re in the same location. We’re not even sure where the other hostages are being held.”
“Rafe, I know you’ve never been personally invested before, but these are our orders. Is this a problem?”
“No, sir.” Jake was right, he needed to get his head on straight. This was what they did, what they trained for every fucking day.
Back at their tent, they went over the maps, searched the terrain and re-read the reports. As tired as he had been, Rafe didn’t rest until late afternoon when his body didn’t give him a choice.
A wet tongue woke him too soon. He’d been dreaming about Meghan and didn’t appreciate Halo licking him awake. “What the fuck, man?”
“Jake sent me to wake you for dinner, bro. Unless you’d rather have an MRE?” Cam answered, but all he saw was the teeth and tongue of his furry teammate.
“Fuck, no.”
“Then you owe Halo an apology.”
Cam was right. “Thanks, boy.” He swore the dog smiled at him before trotting after Cam. Rubbing the sleep off his face, he checked the time and did some quick calculations. It was eight thirty a.m. in Atlanta. Way too early to call, but not to text. Texting would definitely be safer. There were too many things he couldn’t share with her, but he didn’t want to go dark without at least checking that she was okay. It might be a while before he had another chance. After typing and deleting a message three different times, he finally settled on brief, simple, and to the point. Then he clicked send.
Hey Spitfire. Stay positive. I’ll text when I can. Love you, Rafe
It didn’t take long to get a response. He hadn’t gotten halfway to the Mess when the phone vibrated in his pocket.
All good here. Tex is great. Be safe, big guy. Love, Meg
Maybe he’d worried for nothing. He’d know for sure if he could hear her voice, but he’d have to settle for her words for now. Besides, if something happened Tex knew how to get ahold of him.
Chapter 12
