Jed pondered the tremendous reach of the Shepherds organization as the huge but nearly empty cargo jet banked left on its turn from base leg to final. With a call, Ben had mobilized support for the Hong Kong op from whatever spooky task force Nisha apparently served in before joining Trinity. They’d fallen in on operators from the JSOC unit known commonly in the community as CAG, and in the public as Delta Force, just a few months ago in Iraq. They’d worked inside the Vatican, where Shepherds had a secret presence. And now he was on final approach in an active-duty Air Force C-17, made available to them in less than an hour after Corbin and Sarah Beth had found a potential lead, as vague as that lead seemed. They were arriving, with all of these expensive assets in play, with basically a sketch and a “feeling” that the target was in the northeast.

Ben was like the Wizard of Oz, and Jed couldn’t help but wonder how much more was hidden behind this curtain.

The instant the jet touched down, his teammates rose and began collecting gear, unfazed by the swaying of the still-taxiing jet. Jed rose out of the comfortable airline-style seat—one of only a dozen and a half or so secured in the forward area of the cargo hold of the enormous plane—and walked aft. He stopped at the door just aft of the wing and peered out through the small, porthole-style window, one of the few windows this plane had. As the plane turned left, he gazed at the airport’s main civilian terminal, crowded with commercial airliners and full of passengers going about their day completely unaware of the imminent danger.

Story of my life—chasing the evil in the shadows while the rest of the world goes on oblivious.

“Any chance we might hit the casinos—maybe take in a show?” Grayson joked, a big smile on his face.

“Yeah, right,” Johnny said, rolling his eyes.

“Maybe when it’s done,” Jed said, ignoring Johnny and slapping Grayson on the arm. “Hit one of those buffets, maybe.”

“Oh, I’m in,” Eli said with a chuckle, slinging his bag over his shoulder and dragging a large Pelican case behind him as he headed toward the aft cargo ramp, which already began its slow descent down. Johnny spun on a heel and followed him, avoiding looking at Jed, or at least that’s how it felt. Maybe the Shepherd felt frustrated to have been left behind on the trip to South America. Or maybe he just still resented that Jed, the nugget, was promoted to team leader. Whatever it was, Ben was right—Jed was going to have to address it soon, or the rift with Johnny would begin to erode the team’s ability to function at the highest level.