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The screen went blank for a second before returning to the news teae of the Freedom terrorists

“What’s the likelihood of Miria in to Freedom’s demands?” Striker asked his wife

“Not likely at all No one on that dais is irreplaceable Losing any one of those scientists would barelymore than a ripple in the news Freedom have sorely overestimated just how valuable those scientists are to the company”

“If Miriam doesn’t care about her scientists, she’ll send Enforce to turn into a war zone”

“And we have a man inside,” Sandi said

Striker felt the weight of responsibility Mace wasn’t only Sandi’s brother, he was his best friend, and he was family to every teay War

Each one of them should have been dead Hell, they’d expected to die Their co that an experi deployed

There had been tears in the man’s voice “They told us not to contact our tea bullshit, all of it A oodbye, even if that’s all he can do I’ued that we needed tiet our people out, but…”

Striker hadn’t said anything to console the man There hadn’t been time Instead, he’d cut the coiment, his team, the friends he respected and cared about, and told thee in an attempt to end the war

Those words were the hardest he’d ever had to utter

And he still had nightmares about the silence that followed Silence that morphed into the sound of Gray’s strained voice as he frantically tried to contact his wife and children To say goodbye To tell them he loved them To hear their voices one last time But all communications from the area had been blocked And Gray’s tearief

Each had coped in different ways In the corner of the cave where they’d set up ca, tears running down the bigon God in Spanish to protect his overnment that had betrayed them Zane hadn’t said a word but had punched the wall until his hand ran with blood Hunter, new to the teaht to his chest

“Is this real?” he’d asked Striker, his eyes ith shock

Striker put a hand on his shoulder “Yeah, mon ami, it’s real”

As he looked around his regiether, his eyes caht in his eh he could protect her from the blast Their eyes met, and over the distance that separated theaze