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Chapter Forty Six
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“The storm could’ve damaged the phone lines,” Donnie yelled over the thrumming blades. Max ignored the logic, knowing in his gut that his family was in trouble and Johnny was either disabled or dead.
His teammate should’ve made mincemeat out of Muller’s slimy ass and contacted Max by now. None of the mobile phones were being answered, and the landlines were dead.
The colonel’s orders were to allow local law enforcement and the FBI to run the mission. But if Max was the first to arrive, he’d ignore that directive, just as he’d ignored the orders to stay on base until SOCOM briefed a fully manned black ops team.
Defying orders, Donnie and Max threw on battle rattle and relied on a friend and chopper pilot to give them a ride. Now MIT scrambled to cover their men’s asses. They’d departed on a mission on American soil that was not fully authorized. Max didn’t give a shit. His pregnant wife and child w
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Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Seven
Swiping at her mud-caked vision, Lizzy stumbled through the fence towards Charlie’s barn. When she’d flown off the porch steps, her immediate relief at seeing the deputy running towards her turned to horror when Muller’s bullet sliced through the man’s neck.Lizzy veered, then stumbled as a second one zipped past her cheek.Instead of heading for the road, she zigzagged across the field towards farm outbuildings that could provide cover. Her feet slipped, and she went down in the sloppy mud. Scrambling for purchase, she staggered towards the tree line before spotting the wooden barn. This time, tree bark shattered to the left of her, and she swung right, not daring to glance back.The farm was a ghost town. Charlie and her foreman were up at the hospital for her father’s third heart surgery. The rest of the staff had left early to set up a food stall at the Sunday farmer’s market in town. Still, a farm hand popped out from beh
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Eight
John kept to his word. Two days later and he was ready to be checked out of the hospital. Lizzy giggled as he waddled over to the bathroom. The back of his gown left little to her imagination.“Don’t laugh. It’s not funny. You’d think they’d have a larger gown for taller patients.”“I don’t think it’s your height, baby.” Lizzy laughed. “You look like the incredible hulk, hulking out of teeny human clothes.”Donnie walked in, grinning at John’s bare ass. “And the beard gives him a yeti vibe.”“I need clean clothes.”Lizzy spent a day in the ward, under observation. Charlie was kind enough to bring Lizzy a change of clothes the day before, but she’d mistakenly packed an old pair of John’s pants that no longer fitted around his muscled waist.“Relax, big man. I have your lumberjack clothing ready and waiting.”&ld
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Nine
WyomingThree weeks laterRay huffed out a snore as she rolled over to her side on the wooden porch. Scratching her velvety neck with his foot, Johnny took a swig of beer. The setting sun provided the perfect backdrop to Lizzy’s sweet profile as she strummed softly on her guitar.She paused, then swore. “Gosh, dang it.”“The finger again?”“Or lack thereof.”“Don’t push it. Give it time.”Lizzy stuck out her tongue, and Johnny grinned. She made a pretty picture, sitting cross-legged on the rocking chair with her hair twisted in a cute bun at the nape of her neck. Not quite long enough, tendrils fell around her face, dancing in the autumn breeze. Back to her normal weight with flushed cheeks—an outside observer would never guess at the trauma she’d experienced just a couple of months before. Dragging his chair closer, Johnny leaned i
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Peshawar, PakistanSeven months laterLizette Steyn disengaged the slide, pulled up the door handle and swung the aircraft door outward. Frigid air swept in and she barely repressed a shiver. “Freezing fudge buckets,” she muttered before greeting the ground agent at the top of the stairs. The miserable structure that was Bacha Khan International Airport looked archaic—with all the developing nations Lizzy had visited in the past five months, that was saying a lot. Peshawar, the wild west town of Pakistan, felt as cold as a dead man’s nose.“Well isn’t that just grand,” Brianna muttered, stepping out of the wind. “All I bloody packed was a vest and a sleeveless shirt.”Lizzy refrained from rolling her eyes. The two other cabin attendants had as much sense as two rolling hamsters. Brianna, a hardy Irish girl who started flying for JetHaven around the same time as
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The rickshaw dropped them off in Clock Tower Square. Brianna scurried into the first rug stall and the other girls followed. The locals seemed friendly, and the store owner immediately offered them a traditional green tea. Lizzy loved the sweet tea native to Pakistan so she gladly accepted. Suzie turned her nose up and Lizzy quickly drank it to ease her companion’s faux pas. Lizzy had brought her digital Canon along and snapped photos along the way. The expensive camera had been a gift from her father on her last birthday and she loved it, thinking maybe someday she’d write a travel book.The narrow streets crammed with wares were an overload on the senses. Donkeys clattered among bearded men in turbans selling their textiles. A pakol hat maker tried to sell her a hat as she dodged a moped bike. The decaying Sikh architecture littering the gray and brown streets was fascinating. Unstable wooden buildings were stacked together in grimy colors. Wires, phone lines an
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Four
Cold seeped up from the rough cement floor, and Lizzy wiggled her toes, trying to warm up the ice blocks that were now her feet. She shivered like a tuning fork, and her body thrummed as a cold breeze shifted the air. The sun had set hours ago, and the shouts outside the barred window had finally fallen silent.The women were placed in separate rooms. Lizzy hadn’t seen anyone since the phone call to John. That seemed like hours ago. Lizzy ignored the scuffling in a dark corner of the room—not wanting to know which critters crept in the shadows. Instead she focused on the grimy wall in front of her. Aside from smaller scrapes, her thigh throbbed in time with her racing heart. A well-placed kick from one of the attackers would result in a bruise the size of a plate.She’d allowed them to call him, and if he came, he’d see her like this—weak and dirty. That was not how she’d imagined their next meeting. Instead, she’d imagined run
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WyomingThree weeks laterRay huffed out a snore as she rolled over to her side on the wooden porch. Scratching her velvety neck with his foot, Johnny took a swig of beer. The setting sun provided the perfect backdrop to Lizzy’s sweet profile as she strummed softly on her guitar.She paused, then swore. “Gosh, dang it.”“The finger again?”“Or lack thereof.”“Don’t push it. Give it time.”Lizzy stuck out her tongue, and Johnny grinned. She made a pretty picture, sitting cross-legged on the rocking chair with her hair twisted in a cute bun at the nape of her neck. Not quite long enough, tendrils fell around her face, dancing in the autumn breeze. Back to her normal weight with flushed cheeks—an outside observer would never guess at the trauma she’d experienced just a couple of months before. Dragging his chair closer, Johnny leaned i
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Eight
John kept to his word. Two days later and he was ready to be checked out of the hospital. Lizzy giggled as he waddled over to the bathroom. The back of his gown left little to her imagination.“Don’t laugh. It’s not funny. You’d think they’d have a larger gown for taller patients.”“I don’t think it’s your height, baby.” Lizzy laughed. “You look like the incredible hulk, hulking out of teeny human clothes.”Donnie walked in, grinning at John’s bare ass. “And the beard gives him a yeti vibe.”“I need clean clothes.”Lizzy spent a day in the ward, under observation. Charlie was kind enough to bring Lizzy a change of clothes the day before, but she’d mistakenly packed an old pair of John’s pants that no longer fitted around his muscled waist.“Relax, big man. I have your lumberjack clothing ready and waiting.”&ld
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Seven
Swiping at her mud-caked vision, Lizzy stumbled through the fence towards Charlie’s barn. When she’d flown off the porch steps, her immediate relief at seeing the deputy running towards her turned to horror when Muller’s bullet sliced through the man’s neck.Lizzy veered, then stumbled as a second one zipped past her cheek.Instead of heading for the road, she zigzagged across the field towards farm outbuildings that could provide cover. Her feet slipped, and she went down in the sloppy mud. Scrambling for purchase, she staggered towards the tree line before spotting the wooden barn. This time, tree bark shattered to the left of her, and she swung right, not daring to glance back.The farm was a ghost town. Charlie and her foreman were up at the hospital for her father’s third heart surgery. The rest of the staff had left early to set up a food stall at the Sunday farmer’s market in town. Still, a farm hand popped out from beh
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Six
“The storm could’ve damaged the phone lines,” Donnie yelled over the thrumming blades. Max ignored the logic, knowing in his gut that his family was in trouble and Johnny was either disabled or dead.His teammate should’ve made mincemeat out of Muller’s slimy ass and contacted Max by now. None of the mobile phones were being answered, and the landlines were dead.The colonel’s orders were to allow local law enforcement and the FBI to run the mission. But if Max was the first to arrive, he’d ignore that directive, just as he’d ignored the orders to stay on base until SOCOM briefed a fully manned black ops team.Defying orders, Donnie and Max threw on battle rattle and relied on a friend and chopper pilot to give them a ride. Now MIT scrambled to cover their men’s asses. They’d departed on a mission on American soil that was not fully authorized. Max didn’t give a shit. His pregnant wife and child w
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Five
Max hung up the call to his wife and strode into the meeting room. Abby wasn’t resting or eating as well as she should. Screw trying ever again for a third kid. This pregnancy was the most stressful shit Max had ever experienced, and that included going head-to-head with suicidal extremist bastards.Those worrying thoughts screeched to a halt as soon as Max saw his boss standing in the far corner. Max and Donnie had been pulled out of morning training and asked to meet one of their analysts—Jace Martin—on base. Jace was in the room but so was Colonel Jack Hearst. Was it to do with Slater’s replacement? Max doubted it, as he stood at attention. Donnie fell in beside him. The look on the distinguished MIT mogul’s face had Max’s skin itching.“Sir. It’s good to see you. What brings you to Utah?”“Erik, we’ve fucked up. Not just MIT but every agency in the northern hemisphere. Close the door and sit.&
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Four
The mattress creaked, waking Lizzy. She didn’t move, preferring to savor the safe moment. Cocooned in John’s bed and his love, she’d slept through the night and woken feeling at peace. It wasn’t quite morning, the hint of dawn scrubbed over by the sound of a storm sweeping in. Lizzy reached behind and felt the empty warmth as she heard John slam the window shut.Ray shifted next to her chest, and Lizzy snuggled deeper. “What time is it?”“Four thirty. I might as well get up; I need to check on the animals. This storm looks nasty,” he said before brushing his teeth at the sink.Lizzy dozed until the bed dipped, and he pulled his boots on.“Do you need help?”“I’m all good, Lizbug. If you feel like getting up though, I hear Abby banging around in the kitchen. I think Gabe woke her.”The wind howled as rain pelted against the window. “Five more minutes,” s
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Three
Two days later, Max and Donnie rolled out, headed for training at Camp Williams with the newest team member, Dylan Jenkins. A local Utahan sniper from the 19th Special Forces Group. Johnny admired the laid-back soldier. Aside from his Army career, the operator embodied a reckless, surfer-like attitude as a well-known snowboarder in Utah. It would be interesting to see how their uptight team leader handled the Owen Wilson wannabe. Dylan’s long-range marksmanship and excellent skills in the field would make him a valuable MIT member—aside from the additional training lined up for him at MIT headquarters later in the month. At Max’s insistence, Johnny stayed behind with Lizzy. As they were still evaluating Jenkins’ skills, it wasn’t essential for Johnny to be at Camp Williams. If they needed him, they’d call.***“I forget how hot the summers can get in some parts of the States, is late May supposed to be this warm?” Abby gr
Stain on the Earth book Two of the MIT2 Series Chapter Forty Two
Balancing tentatively on the ball of her foot, Lizzy poked her head through the canopy of leaves. Wyoming was truly breathtaking. Silence surrounded her. Not true silence as she could still hear insects buzzing, the leaves rustling in the afternoon breeze and a bleating sheep answered by three more. The distant hills looked so clear in the waning light, the golden rays contrasting with shadowed crevices in the craggy mountainside. She missed climbing trees; she still loved it.Her head sank back below the branches, and Lizzy looked down. The branch she balanced on bent under her weight, and she transferred her foot to a sturdier limb. The new branch instantly disintegrated, almost melting into thin air. Before she could comprehend her predicament, she fell to the earth, bouncing through and over battering limbs. Just before she slammed into the ground, strong arms caught her and they fell, rolling down a steep hill at a dizzying pace.A scarlet blur filled her vision a
