"I've got my Bravo Team at the chopper crash site. They see you but are holding to continue recon, over."

Mitchell sighed deeply. He got up onto his haunches. "Hold fire!" he cried to the men on the perimeter. "Fall back on me!"

The gunmen came dashing from the trees, and they were, in fact, Yano's men.

"Ricochet, the last of the Tangos is on the run," the captain continued. "Let's regroup on the pickup zone, over."

"Roger that. I need help with my wounded."

"My medics are on the way, out."

Mitchell shifted over to the pilot. "Captain, it's time to go. I'll try to take it easy on you."

"Well, it's not like we can fly. In fact, I'll never fly again. You know that."

Mitchell wasn't buying into the pity party, and maybe he could relight the man's hope. "Sir, we don't surrender--ever."

"That rocket just ended my career. My life. Leave me here."

"No, sir."

"What's your problem, soldier? I said get away. That's a direct order." He raised his pistol.

Mitchell took in a long breath. "I guess you'll have to shoot me." He slapped the man's gun away and lifted him over his shoulders as the Filipino guys arrived. "I got him," he said, waving off their offers to help.

"What's your name, soldier?" asked the captain, his tone as threatening as they came.

"Mitchell. Scott Mitchell."

"I'll remember that."

"I'm sure you will." Mitchell shuffled away from the chopper, fighting to keep his balance.

Every operator they could locate was transferred back to the pickup zone, but Mitchell's team still had five unaccounted for and presumed dead. The search for their bodies would begin at daybreak. The row of bodies was too hard to look at.

As they rested on their packs, being attended to by Yano's medics and waiting for the choppers to land on a broad field bordering the jungle, Mitchell tried to call Captain Fang Zhi. He even went on to ask for any member of the Taiwanese team to respond, but none did.

Rutang shared the grim news passed on by one of the Filipino medics: Carlos had passed away. To the best of Billy's knowledge, only himself, Rutang, and Mitchell had survived the ambush.

Mitchell backhanded sweat from his brow, threw back his head, and closed his eyes.

Welcome to the Special Forces . . .

He was exhausted enough to sleep into the next century and so emotionally drained that he felt only a deep emptiness in his chest, accompanied by a low hum, like Gregorian monks chanting, their voices carried on the breeze. His thoughts began swirling, moments flashing from the distant to the more recent past.

He was a teenager in Youngstown, lying on his back beneath an old Ford Mustang and learning how to do his first oil change on a car . . .

He was wearing his neatly pressed uniform and saying good-bye to his father and siblings before he shipped out for the first time . . .