“Typical,” she said, turning her back on him, but before he could step close enough to give her shoulder a squeeze and apologize, she turned around with a resigned smile. “It’s okay. I’ll be okay. I get it. Somebody down there needs your help, and I—of all people—know what that feels like.”

Her strength and mature response assuaged the guilt he was feeling. “Thanks, Sarah Beth. That means a lot to hear you say that.”

She nodded.

“We’ll do pizza and a movie when I get back, even if it has to be on the TV in the common room. Cool?”

“Cool,” she said.

They stared at each other for an awkward moment, but she broke first and ran in to give him a goodbye hug. “Be careful, Uncle Jed, and come home safe.”

Hugging her back, he said, “Always.”

CHAPTER
TWO

AVENUE HUAYRUROPATA

CUZCO, PERU

1112 HOURS LOCAL

Jed turned sideways on the bench seat as the cramped minibus rumbled through the heart of Cuzco. He’d only managed to sleep a couple of hours during the multiple flights necessary to get from Nashville to this narrow, poorly maintained road in Cuzco. He just didn’t fit on planes very well, and even if he’d had a comfy bed, curiosity about this assignment had his mind spinning and would have kept him up anyway. The curved facade of a massive structure with white-painted concrete pillars and red accents drew his gaze out the left-side windows.

“That’s Estadio Inca Garcilaso de la Vega,” Bex said, butchering the Spanish as she looked up from her DK Eyewitness guidebook. The former combat medic and 18 Delta was one of two female members of Joshua Bravo, and she was borderline giddy today. “It seats forty-two thousand and is the home to the Sportivo Cienciano football club. . . . Whoa, it says here that the Cienciano team was founded in 1901.”

“Seriously, Bex, how did you have time to buy that guidebook?” Jed said, looking at her.

“Oh, I didn’t. I already had it. I love to travel. I absolutely love it. Visiting Peru, and Machu Picchu specifically, has been on my bucket list for a loooong time,” she said, drawing out the word for extra emphasis.

Jed glanced at Nisha, who sat behind Bex and was grinning at her teammate. There was something magical about seeing kidlike excitement in adults, and they both felt it.

“Me too,” Nisha said as she gathered her shoulder-length onyx hair into a stubby ponytail. “I want to step foot on every continent and meet as many different kinds of people on this earth as possible before my ticket gets punched.”

Jed nodded at the sentiment and turned to Eli, the final member of their ISR team. “What about you, Eli? Do you like traveling?”