“You telling me she’s not worth it, Dave?”

“Fuck you, General,” Luger snapped. “I’m thinking like a soldier—it’s about time you start doing the same. You tell me, Muck—how many lives is worth Wendy’s? Yours? Three? Five? Ten? Fifty?”

“We risked a couple dozen to get you out of Fisikous in Lithuania,” Patrick said. “I would’ve brought a thousand more with me if I could.”

“But you had hard intelligence on where I was,” Luger reminded him. “Without that information, wearing that battle armor and marching into an armed fortress like Libya would be suicide even for a hundred commandos. And you know it.” Patrick’s head slumped wearily again. Luger sighed heavily. “Muck, your son needs you,” he said. “Why don’t you go home? The CV-22 can lift you off the deck tonight, the Sky Masters jet is waiting in Tel Aviv, and you can be home by tomorrow morning. We’ll stay out here and keep searching.” He paused, then added, “And you have a brother that needs to be mourned and buried too, sir.”

“I’m not leaving without her,” Patrick said resolutely. “Dead or alive, I’m taking her home.”

“It won’t happen that way, at least not right away,” Luger said softly. “The odds are a thousand to one we’ll even get any information that she was recovered, and about five thousand to one she’s alive. But if she beat the odds and survived, the Libyans will keep her in complete isolation until she recovers, which could take weeks, even months. Then they’ll start interrogating her. She’ll be able to resist for a short time, but they’ll finally break her. They won’t be as scientific as the Russians. They’ll break her, and then they’ll discard her.”

“Dave, that’s enough,” Patrick shouted. “This search is going forward, and I don’t give a shit how hopeless you think it is. I don’t think she’s alive—I know she’s alive. And as long as I know she’s alive, I’m going to plan to locate her and rescue her.

“To answer your question: I’ll risk the lives of any man or woman who agrees to stand beside me on this mission, because I know Wendy would agree to stand beside me to rescue anyone on this team. Now, if you have any other problems with this mission or my leadership, I suggest you get off this ship and evacuate to Israel with the others. If you stay, you will obey my orders. End of discussion.” David Luger stood and looked at Patrick carefully. Patrick returned his glare until finally Luger nodded, satisfied that Patrick had his emotional act together enough to lead the team.

At that same moment, Patrick received a beep in his subcutaneous microtransceiver; then Hal Briggs spoke: “Patrick, supply barge coming in, one kilometer south.”

“Roger,” Patrick acknowledged. “Use the sensors in your armor to scan the supplies for weapons and explosives as they come aboard. I’ll be up to relieve anyone that needs a break.”