Lynn, Griff, and Jimmy were in the Middle East for one reason: a contract between their American militia company and the Israeli government to protect the Essenes. The plan required safeguarding the specialized sect just outside the Israeli border while workers readied a permanent safehouse deep beneath Jerusalem. Navigating the ancient, cavernous ruins without damaging the historic structures was delicate work. But once past them, the Israeli government would establish an entirely sealed sanctuary to keep the Essenes safe until the war blew over.
When the trio first arrived in Saudi Arabia, several addendums had been tacked onto their proposal—specifically, scouting friendly-occupied territories for unexpected enemy activity. Because of their unique status, the Holy Trio could go where conventional allied forces could not. Today marked their final patrol before heading to Istanbul, and all three had spent nearly the entire watch in silence, lost in their own thoughts as their air unit flew totally cloaked through the sky. Landing near a large, abandoned building on the edge of a scorched village, north where most of the damaged buildings lay to avoid detection. The routine was straightforward: inspect the recaptured structures for anything the enemy left behind. While Griff and Lynn cleared the premises, Jimmy would watch the landing zone, ready for a quick extraction.
Dawn promised the safest protection for the trio as Lynn and Griff made their way toward the abandoned substructures that, for some reason, the Russians continued to survey. Many of the outbuildings were ravaged by the last battle, leaving nearly all the complex destroyed by aircraft bombs. Lynn and Griff stealthily moved toward the site where some buildings remained somewhat intact. Leaving their vehicle invisible, Jimmy set up a perimeter to maintain until the others returned. He hid atop one of the highest remaining walls, allowing him to survey the ground and air for opposing activity. Enemy drones were the biggest complication to their recon. Even though they could not get a visual on the team or their vehicle while cloaking devices were active, spy drones—traveling in packs of four or more—would not cloak; too many invisible objects flying around simply increased the risk of a mid-air collision with each other.
At the abandoned enemy headquarters, Lynn cut her cloaking app just long enough to hand-signal the plan: Griff would breach the back, she would sweep the front, and they'd meet in the middle for a fast exit. Griff flickered into view, flashed a thumbs-up, and vanished around the corner before he became invisible again. Lynn went to reactivate her cloak but froze. Far to the west, a squad of Russian soldiers were moving in the open, uncloaked and talking over comms—oblivious to the Americans. Damn it, she thought, what's catching their attention? Forgetting the soldiers for now, she cloaked and slipped toward the entrance, testing doors. Every intact handle was locked. Finally, she spotted a shattered window with a clear opening and gingerly climbed inside.
This was going to be the fastest search on record, Lynn mused, clicking on her headlamp to scan the room. Inspecting small crumpled computer cases, she saw that the miniature hard drives had already been stripped. She climbed through the debris, searching for any clue to what had transpired within these compound walls, specifically hunting for intelligence that might explain the enemy presence. Legible or not, every sliver of paper she found was shoved into her pouch. After scouring the immediate area, she slipped down a devastated hallway and into the next room. She gently closed the door behind her, careful to keep her beam from attracting attention if the Russian patrols were nearby. Suddenly, rubble cascaded down just in front of her, echoing loudly on the other side of the frame. Lynn yanked at the handle, but the door wouldn't budge. She was trapped. She couldn't cry out for help—not after spotting the soldiers earlier. Had they detected her? It didn't matter now. They had definitely heard the collapse, and they would be coming to investigate. And it didn't take them long to find their way into the building.
Voices drifted from outside the door, the muffled but distinctive Russian dialect instantly recognizable. Lynn jerked to attention as a whisper rasped from inside the room itself. Her headlamp cut through the darkness, scanning the shadows until the beam caught fingers wiggling through a ceiling vent.
"Up here," the voice continued to whisper. She lit up the area with the beam of her flashlight and slowly walked to the vent. "See me?"
"Yeah," she whispered back, realizing then that it was Griff.
"Come over here. I'll pull you up when I get this vent off."
The moment Lynn stepped beneath the shaft, the ceiling gave way. The vent cover slammed down first, followed by a cascade of drywall and plaster. Finally, Griff tumbled out of the duct in a cloud of debris, knocking Lynn to the ground and rendering them both visible. She let out a sharp cry, but bit it back instantly. Both froze, holding their breath, waiting to see if anyone had heard the noise. Outside, the muffled voices rose to a frenzied pitch. The scraping sound of shifted rubble echoed nearby—the Russians were breaking through. Griff grabbed Lynn's arm and hauled her behind a fallen rafter in the back of the room, desperate to buy them a few more seconds to think.
Lynn launched into a frenzy of hand signals, bracing for a fight. Griff waved her gestures away and pointed to rays of early sunlight cutting through a hole in a nearby wall—their escape route. He scrambled up into the opening with Lynn trailing close behind. She hadn't made it halfway through when her headlamp illuminated a black scorpion directly above her arm. Before she could scurry past, the creature dropped onto her sleeve. Panic tore through her. She ripped at her uniform shirt, tearing away buttons and flailing wildly to shed the fabric before it could sting.
Griff stood outside beside the hole, stunned as a cloud of dust erupted from the opening. First came a flying fatigue top, then Lynn, scrambling out on her hands and knees, dragging her pouch behind her. She tumbled onto the ground, frantically brushing off the dirt and anything else attached to her.
"Are you okay?" he asked curiously and then assisted Lynn to her feet.
"Hurry, let's get out of here!"
Lynn took off like a shot toward the extraction point. Griff lunged forward, snagging her discarded shirt from the ground as he kept pace. Both bolted for the cloaked vehicle. Spotting the approaching adversaries, Jimmy didn't waste time. He remotely threw open all four doors, hopped down from the wall, and dove into the pilot's seat. Lynn threw herself into the back just as Griff slammed into the front passenger side.
"Go, go, go!" she urged, all three slammed the doors closed and plunged them back into complete invisibility. Jimmy focused on the engine, but before he could throw it into gear, a heavy thud rocked the vehicle. Griff threw the passenger door open and jumped out. A Russian soldier lay sprawled on the ground directly in their path. The man had clearly run blindly into the cloaked craft at full speed, knocking himself cold and short-circuiting his own cloaking app in the process.
"Help me!" Griff shouted. Jimmy, jumping out of the driver's seat, sprinted over and together they dragged the unconscious man clear of the vehicle's path. The men scrambled back inside, slamming the doors again as the rotors spun to life. Hidden from view, the craft lifted off, kicking up a storm of dust. Only a swirling cloud of dirt and a fleeting shadow marked their escape before they bolted into the sky. Jimmy pushed the electric engines to their absolute limit, racing toward the safety stop under the glare of the early morning sun. All three scanned the horizon for hostile drones.
"Hey, here's your shirt," Griff said as he tossed her top toward the back where she sat. Lynn instinctively batted it back across the seat into the front floorboard.
"I don't want that," Lynn shouted. "There's a scorpion in it, a big black scorpion!" Griff pulled his feet onto the seat and poked around at the shirt with a knife he pulled from his boot. A huge black scorpion crawled out of the folds and prepared to fight with the short blade.
"Jesus Fucking Christ!" Griff yelled and then jumped to his haunches in the seat. "Those things are poisonous. Give me your knife, it's longer."
"Don't kill it," Jimmy quickly responded. "I wanna keep it."
"I'm not going to catch that thing," Griff said as he pointed the knife at the arachnid.
"Here's a pee jug that's still clean," Jimmy said, shoving a plastic container from beneath his seat into Griff's hands. "Try and get it in there."
Griff snatched the jug, twisted off the lid, and slammed the mouth over the thrashing creature. Pinning it was one thing; coaxing it inside was another. Even with his knife blade, flicking the scorpion into the opening was a clumsy, frantic struggle. With one final, desperate shove of the blade, the creature dropped into the plastic. Griff slammed the cap home and twisted it tight.
"I will never do anything like that again inside a tiny space like this," he said, handing Jimmy his new friend. The three accelerated to high speed, racing toward the mobile safety stop. Upon landing, a trio of soldiers swapped vehicles with a local militia team to stage a pursuit. They relied on the shadow of an invisible decoy vehicle to bait the enemy away, while the Holy Trio planned to wait on the ground before slipping into the sky and back to the underground base. The strategy was put to the test immediately. A handful of enemy drones came into view, scanning the terrain. Spotting the decoy's shadow, they took the bait and pursued what they believed was the original crew.
Sitting in their vehicle on the ground, the only way to hide shadows, they watched the drones pass by in pursuit of the fake escapees. When they were able to finally head off unnoticed they kept close to the ground. The decoy unit, assured that the Holy Trio were safe, would then blast the drones out of the sky and speedily travel out of the area.
The trio returned to a motorpool buzzing with activity, the busiest sector of the entire underground base, leaving their vehicle and collecting their gear. Weaving past dutiful mechanics and foot troops, they headed toward the heavy steel doors that led to the command center. Beyond them lay the room where they had first met the American general, positioned strategically near the subterranean exit road. But this wouldn't be a standard briefing. Before launching Operation Istanbul Rescue to retrieve a group of stateless citizens, they faced a joint meeting with both generals, the American and Israeli elites, and a debriefing counselor. Griff, Lynn, and Jimmy exchanged uneasy glances. They had never been hauled before a briefing counselor before a mission. A quiet dread settled over the room; at that moment none of the American militia were sure they would be returning in one piece.
Back in their quarters, Griff unrolled an old antique map, folding it the way scouts had done a century prior. Long before digital grids and automated GPS, people survived on paper maps and a compass; he hoped that old-world tech would hold up when they left the grid. Lynn ignored the geography for the moment, focusing instead on counting ammunition. She packed three cans tight, wishing for the hundredth time that they had a sharpshooter for the job. But the high command had proposed to keep all the real assets on the main battle grounds.
Jimmy packed his backpack in silence, his mind miles away. When Lynn handed him a loaded ammo can, he took it mechanically, hoisting the heavy metal into a rolling locker without looking up. Any other day, he would have been the first to charge into a plan like this. But things are different now, he thought earnestly. There was Avril—someone he actually wanted to grow old with. If things went sideways today, "growing old" wouldn't be an option. Shoving the last piece of gear into place, he made a silent promise: if he survived this, he was going to build a life with her. He had never been sure about his future before, but he was more than sure about her.
"Here is jar," Avril said as she knocked and then entered the room. "Why ask for this?" She held up a large clear jar with a lid.
"My new pet," Jimmy grinned when he picked up the plastic jug to show her. "I thought it would be better...so he can see us."
"That no pet," said Avril, slightly concerned. "Those very deadly. Make sickness that wish you were dead."
"Yeah, I know," Jimmy continued to smile. "Could you put him in there, please."
"This not safe," Avril gave a half-hearted protest as she gently poured the scorpion into the glass jar. She screwed on the lid after taking out her knife and punching holes in it. Jimmy smiled. 'That's my girl', he thought to himself, taking care of the well being of something that was poisonous. How this made his heart swell. She was like no other girl he had ever met.
"So, you guys have a pet together," Lynn half-laughed.
"What are we going to name him?" Jimmy asked Avril. "Blackie?"
"No. Mozel," Avril answered as she raised the jar to look closer at the angry creature. "He looks like favorite of my uncles."
"Okay," Jimmy took the jar from Avril and set it on a nearby table. He turned and pulled Avril close against his chest. "Would it be too early to tell you, I love you?"
"Yes," Avril murmured, looking deep into Jimmy's dark eyes. "But I do like." When his lips met hers, Griff and Lynn exchanged a look of pure shock. Was this really the same man they had known for the last five years? He was acting like a completely different person. What on earth would his harem back home say when he walked in with her? The One. The journey back was shaping up to be a wild ride. Finally, their lips parted, and Avril delivered the real kicker: she was coming with them to Istanbul.
"Oh, no you're not," Jimmy insisted and then pushed her back to arms length. "You are NOT going."
"It would be better," Avril insisted.
"Not for me," Jimmy cut her off. "I won't be able to focus on the plan and that would be a detriment. Please understand."
"Oh... okay," Avril said, completely unsure of how to react. A heavy wave of emotion crashed between them, so thick she could almost feel it pelt her skin. Beside her, Griff and Lynn stood in stunned silence. Neither had ever seen this side of Jimmy before—his current demeanor was entirely unrecognizable.
"Can you stay with us tonight?" Jimmy asked. "I...I need you with me right now and until we have to leave."
"Uh," Avril stuttered. She couldn't think straight. The vibrations of his emotions pressed in on her. "No...yes...YES." She said finally and decisively.
"We need somewhere private to talk," Jimmy said as he took her hand in his. "I have all this inside of me. I need to get it out." Their arms fell to their side, fingers interlocked. Slowly she led him silently out the door.
"What just happened?" Griff asked, staring at the closed door. "I'm always looking for that, not him, he never..."
"The power of attraction," Lynn said, looking at her confidant. "It seemed Jimmy had wanted this long enough to finally bend reality to his will." A sharp ache from her own past love flashed through her, stealing her breath for a moment before she forced herself to keep speaking. The object of her affection sat only inches from her.
"I found that once," Lynn mumbled, suddenly needing to turn the focus elsewhere. Her countenance darkened. "He died, and I still don't know what's worse—losing him the way I did, or just missing him. The hurt doesn't change. You have this beautiful thing, and then it's just gone. Life honestly seemed a lot easier before I ever felt love like that. Now, the feeling is just a reminder that I'll never see him again. After going through this, I don't ever want to love anyone like that again." The last part slipped out before she could stop it; she truly hadn't meant to say it aloud.
"Your husband, I take it?" Griff said softly. "Is that why you always go out with us on these suicide missions?"
"No, of course not," Lynn snapped, incensed by his question. "I do it to help people. Who else is going to do it as well as we do as a team?"
"I didn't mean it personally," said Griff apologetically. But that was exactly how he meant it. "I was just asking if that is why you don't really seem to have any fear when we're out there. Well, minus the scorpion incident. I've never seen anyone run through a shower of bullets and stay focused, but then on the other hand, being afraid of a simple creature. That was a different side of you."
"Everyone seems to be showing a lot of uncharacteristic personality traits these days. Especially now that we're taking on Istanbul." said Lynn. "Maybe we should be centering our focus on the upcoming operation, not our feelings. I don't want to deal with emotions right now."
"Sure," Griff agreed and unfolded the map. "Let's go over landing at the beach again. We need satellite photos. I want to see that ground just the way it is right now."
"Good idea," Lynn said. She picked up her iPad and messaged ground support, requesting recent aerial video and still prints. The video feed appeared on her screen almost instantly, but the physical photos took nearly an hour to arrive, hand-delivered by a corporal from the command center. Griff thanked the soldier and laid the prints out, ready to finalize their entry and exit strategies.
Suddenly, Lynn stopped talking and put her hand on Griff's. "If anything happens to me and you are left to manage the business by yourself, get in touch with our lawyer, Tom Brantly. He can guide you through my daily responsibilities and help secure administrative support. I've been feeling overwhelmed since before we signed this contract, and I actually asked him to scout for someone to lighten my load."
"Don't," Griff said, snatching his hand from beneath hers. "Don't ever talk like that again. We're partners and that's how it's going to stay. No one is going anywhere."
"Well," Lynn sighed. "I made a living will. I suggest you do the same when we're home again."
"You own fifty percent and I own forty percent. It's all the same," Griff interjected and then stopped talking, returning back to the map. Their discussion back to their plan.
Jimmy and Avril spotted the Israeli general heading down the corridor toward the dining room. They pivoted, breaking into a sudden jog. "General Sefira, sir!" Jimmy called out, cutting off the leader. "Avril Kisselberg won't be in her bed tonight."
"Jimmy, stop," Avril said, pulling his arm and snapping to attention. Saluting was no longer protocol; that habit had to die so the military elite wouldn't be exposed and targeted by the enemy.
"She's going to be with us in our room going over the operation," Jimmy continued.
"Oh." The word caught in her throat as she realized they were working toward two entirely different agendas tonight. "Yes, the operation," she whispered. She caught the sharp gaze of General Sefira as the Israeli official looked up from his iPad. He gave a single, tight nod before walking away. Left in the sudden quiet, Jimmy turned and gripped Avril's shoulders.
"But first," Jimmy said, his eyes twinkling. "I want to hold you. I don't want anything between us...just skin to skin holding each other."
"You speak love differently," Avril said to him, wide eyed and emotional. She was glad that she read his initial vibration correctly. "I like." She giggled.
"Take me somewhere private," Jimmy whispered against her ear causing chills to populate her arms. She didn't answer with words. Instead, she caught his wrist and dragged him down the hallway. He let out a breathless laugh, matching her frantic pace until they reached a heavy door. She swiped her security badge, granting them entry to the server room—the building's digital nerve center. Stepping inside was a terminable offense, maybe worse, but with his veins on fire, Jimmy didn't care about the rules.
"The floor is cleanest of complex," Avril continued to giggled.
"Shhhh," Jimmy whispered.
"Soundproof." Avril said, pointing around the room, not lowering her voice. "No one come here, without badge alarm is loud. And I am keeper of room. I have badge." Avril held up her badge and swished it in a circle.
The flashing green and blue LED lights of the server stacks cast long shadows around them, creating a private alcove within the vast room. The cool concrete floor beckoned them, the cold eclipsed by the focus on each other. He picked her up to carry her out of view of the door.
"We shouldn't be doing this here," Jimmy whispered as she slid her body ever so slowly and seductively down his hips and legs from his arms, looking toward the dimly lit aisle, the intensity of the moment remained unchanged.
"That why is perfect," Avril replied, her voice barely audible over the machinery. The rhythmic hum of the cooling fans overhead seemed to pulse in time with the tension between them. Every moment felt heightened, charged with the thrill of potential discovery, turning the sterile, high-tech server room into an unexpected sanctuary away from the rest of the world.
It felt like a lifetime since Avril had felt the touch of a man. Her breath ran hot and heavy as she soaked in the brush of his hands against her skin, his lips effortlessly tracking the path his fingers left behind. When his touch grazed the curve of her right hip as he tugged his fingers between the waist of her pants, she drew a ragged breath—a silent invitation that drew his lips down harder against her skin.
In one fluid motion, he cleared the button and zipper of her pants, sweeping the fabric down to where it stopped at her boots. He trailed a path of breathless kisses from her ankles up to her knees, his tongue skating up the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. Gently guiding her legs farther apart, he nestled himself between them. Never once did he break his gaze from her, silently wondering how he could ever possibly get enough of this woman.
Avril lost herself in the electric vibrations of connection shifting between them. Despite her past relationships, she had never experienced anything close to this. The sheer weight of Jimmy's devotion reshaped her entire understanding of intimacy, turning every shared touch into a revelation. Shifting from his knees after pulling down his own trousers, he braced his weight on his outstretched arms, letting his lower body press flush against hers while keeping his face suspended just above her own. She looked deep into the dark pools of his eyes right before he leaned down to kiss her. Her eyes fluttered closed, melting into the heat of the kiss as their tongues met. She couldn't quiet the soft moans slipping past her lips when he pressed against her harder, sending a spike of anticipation through her. As he began a slow, deliberate grind against her, she shifted her hips to welcome him—but suddenly, he pulled back. Her eyes snapped open, searching his smiling face.
"Slowly," he said in a low sultry tone. "Let's make this last as long as possible."
Just his voice was enough to set her heart racing. Every shift of his weight, every breath he took, left her raw and exposed; he held her entirely captive. As he slowly slid into her, the boundaries of the room seemed to shatter, leaving only the sudden, overwhelming completion of their two bodies becoming one. Words failed her entirely. Was he anchored in this same current? He had to be. She could feel it in the heavy, trembling cadence of his breath against her neck—he was feeling it too.
"I swear," Jimmy groaned, his voice low and guttural, "this feels better than the first time I had sex."
Avril cooed in agreement, too lost in the sensation to speak. As he began to slide inside her, a slow and deliberate rhythm, she embraced the feeling of his entire essence reaching into her very core. Waves of heat pulled tight within her as his fingers found the button to her most sensitive depths. She moaned aloud, her body answering as his movements intensified.
Before she could catch her breath, the first pulses of her orgasm took over. Her chest heaved as she fought for air, her hips bucking instinctively to the rhythm of each consuming wave. She was entirely unprepared for the sensation to stretch even further as Jimmy caught his own impending rapture. Just when she thought he could not get any harder, his body went rigid. His thrusts increased to a frantic pace, his deep moans mingling with hers until he suddenly froze, suspended in the peak of release. His breath was fast and hot.
After the christening of their relationship and plenty of time to revive themselves, they dressed. Avril led Jimmy back to where Griff and Lynn sat mulling over the map and aerial shots strewn across the table.
"Is this where we're infiltrating Istanbul?" Jimmy asked, glancing at everything on the table. He stood with his arm around Avril's shoulder. "Do you think they, the bad guys, suspect that we're coming after the refugees?"
"Let's hope not," said Lynn with a half-hearted smile. "Our only real plan is to grab and go."
"We'll come in here," Griff said, squinting at Lynn with sharp displeasure and pointing to the map again. The last thing he wanted was to have doubt set in, "and just a few kilometers east of there we'll meet the dinghies that will pick us up."
"What if we are in trouble and can't meet?" asked Jimmy. He was well aware of their 'no person left behind' policy, he just wanted to know how they were going to keep in touch while invisible, or captured. He wasn't surprised when Griff ignored him and continued to speak.
"And it's there where we will regroup," Griff cut in, tapping a spot on the map. "After we separate, and until the rescue extractions are complete, we hold here. Everyone got it?"
He noticed Avril staring at him, her brow furrowed as she studied the map.
"We can keep the large group of people protected if we take this route." Griff said as he drew an invisible line on the map with his finger to a midway point. "If you haven't joined us here, we wait until you do." Griff tapped the midway point between their coming and going.
"Here's where the four groups are hidden," Lynn pointed out the four locations. "They do have Jordanian military with them, but as soon as we have hands on the refugees all the military are heading back to the front."
"Hmm," Jimmy said thoughtfully
Lynn stabbed a finger at the map. "Jimmy, you take this hidden group here. I'll handle the flank, and Griff has the one in the middle. We converge at this junction together to clear the final pocket of refugees before heading to the extraction point." Tapping each reference point as she spoke.
"Like I said," Griff cautioned, "we wait here until everyone is present." Jimmy pulled his arm from Avril's and leaned over the table, hands clasped against the surface. He memorized the marked locations on the map, then scanned the scattered photographs of the terrain ahead. Beside him, Avril studied the layout just as intently. If things went sideways, she needed to know exactly where to send backup.
The next morning's alarm found them sprawled across their beds, Jimmy and Avril still arm in arm. The team rose fully dressed, straightening rumpled clothing as they geared up for the operation. "Let's step it up!" Griff bellowed, stomping into his boots. Despite his energy, the group moved sluggishly, worn down by the all-night mission prep. They weighed down their packs, ran final weapons checks, and hauled rolling supply boxes through the corridor toward the motor pool. The garage mechanics would already have their vehicle idling. Eager to save time, Avril rushed off to grab a breakfast they could eat on the go.