“We will not allow Sarah Beth to be any more involved than her parents agree to,” Ben said, holding his eyes. “We will be asking David and Rachel to pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit on this one, and I have been praying in earnest as well. We will do the right thing, Jed. And she’s not leaving the Watcher compound, I can assure you.”

Jed nodded, feeling better and then guilty for worrying anything else could be true—especially from Ben Morvant.

Ben clasped Jed on the shoulder. “How are things with Johnny?”

Jed snapped back from ruminating about Sarah Beth and the Shepherds’ plans for her and shifted uncomfortably. “What do you mean?”

“Pretty obvious there’s still some tension there and not just because you didn’t want him with you in Peru. Are you handling it okay? Do we need to make a change?”

Jed sighed. “Honestly, Ben, he’s our weak link. Not as an operator, obviously. He’s top-notch in the field. I mean team cohesion. He’s pretty clearly not happy with my being in the lead at Bravo, for whatever reason. It manifested in ways that proved . . . problematic. Especially in Rome.”

Ben nodded. “He’s a great operator, Jed, that’s true. But we need Joshua Bravo to be tight. We’re thinking about making your team into our special missions unit, something we’ve not done before, and based in no small part on the fact that you, like me, have some unique gifts of value. But we can’t exploit that if your team isn’t dialed in. I can transfer him out if you need me to .”

Jed thought about that a moment. He knew that Edwin Epperson might yet be recruited, and he’d love to have him on his team if that happened. But Johnny was a great operator with tons of experience in the unit. He should be of great value, but he needed to fall in line. And that was on Jed, as a leader, to fix.

“No,” he said. “We’ll get it all smoothed out. I’d like to keep him.”

“Very well. Make sure you do. And be ready for what comes next, because whatever the Dark Ones’ target is, Joshua Bravo is going to be my 0300 alert team. As of now, you guys are locked and loaded and ready to roll out in thirty minutes or less. Have everyone prep gear and stand by.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE

YARNELL RESIDENCE

BETHLEHEM BOULEVARD

TRINITY LOOP HOUSING COMPLEX

0712 HOURS LOCAL