Mercy and Mayhem Men of Mercy(2)

Jack Mankel, along with one of the top four-star generals in the Pentagon, had been secretly funding the development of a serum to create super soldiers. The research was lost twenty-five years ago. Right around the same time, Senator Cotter's daughter was kidnapped at birth-by Mankel. He'd held the girl, Nightshade, hostage, tricking her into believing she was his own daughter.

At first Mack had assumed the man's motivation was a secret crush on the senator's wife, who'd died giving birth to twin daughters. But that wasn't even close to the truth. Before going into labor, Sarah Cotter, a scientist, had injected herself with the last dose of the super serum she'd helped create. She'd destroyed the recipe, too, so the only remaining traces of the serum existed in her daughters' blood.

Mankel had kidnapped one of the girls so he could try to re-create the formula he'd lost. Nightshade was safe-she and Merc had fallen in love and married-but her twin sister, Caroline, had been kidnapped in her place. Mankel had her now, and Task Force Scorpion wouldn't rest until she was safe.

The one man in the craft who was not part of Task Force Scorpion stood a few feet back, hanging in the shadows. Reaper was the result of Mankel's first trial run, and from the way he stared at the rest of the group with flat eyes, it was obvious Mankel must've wiped the man's emotional capacity clean. What other changes had he made to the serum?

The only reason Reaper was on this flight was because of Merc.



       
         
       
        

Merc, only on the team for a few years, had lost his memory after a blast overseas. No one on the team had known much about his past until Reaper showed up a few weeks ago. Turned out the two had been in the same unit before joining special operations, and Merc had vouched for Reaper. But that didn't mean Mack trusted him as far as he could throw him. Not after what had been done to him.

Hoyt Crowe stepped out from behind his older brother Jared's shoulder and rapped his knuckles on the crate, drawing everyone's attention to his scarred face. "We're with you, Mack. We want that son-of-a-bitch dead just as badly as you do." There was a round of nods and agreements from the rest of the team.

"Yeah, let's get this bird in the air so we can kill that motherfucker before he hurts anyone else," said Ethan Slade, Mack's number-one tech guy.

There was no question that every single member of the team was gunning for Jack Mankel's head.

But Mack intended to be the one to pull the trigger. As commander of his team, he was responsible for his men's lives-a precious and awe-inspiring duty he'd failed to uphold. He'd nearly lost his team twice because of Mankel. One of his men, Shane Carter, had been left behind on a disastrous raid to rescue Mr. J. before the traitor's true nature came to light. Now Shane was dead.

Killing Mankel would be one step toward redemption.

"Listen up, it's a four-hour flight over the Congo before we get to his compound outside of Tanzania. We'll be cruising at 30,000 feet when we jump. Double-check your gear, and when you're through checking your own, check the next guy's. We can't afford to lose anyone because the damn pull string broke, got it?"

Mack waited for the round of agreement before continuing with his brief. "Here's the satellite image of the location," he said, removing it from his bag and slapping the photo on another crate. "I'll let Hunter fill you in on the details."

Hunter leaned in and pointed to the bunker in the center of the aerial photograph. "We've got confirmed spotting of Jack Mankel at this residence, along with Caroline Cotter. Gonna go ahead and tell you that someone's carrying her in each of the photographs."

What Hunter didn't have to say was that Caroline was probably unconscious, which meant she'd either been tortured to the point she could no longer walk or Mankel was keeping her drugged. Either way, it was highly unlikely the girl would be walking out on her own two feet.

Hunter continued, "Riser's got the field kit on him. He'll get her stable enough for carry out. It ain't gonna be easy. On the north, east, and west sides of the bunker, there are thousand-foot straight drop-offs covered in slick vines and all kinds of critters you don't want to hear about. Which means we will be inserting and evacuating from the south." 

Hunter pointed at the large lake butted up to the north side of Mankel's compound. Mack had never seen a setup better protected by natural barriers. Getting in there without being detected and shot would be a feat. Getting out without either being eaten alive by the piranhas in the lake or falling to their deaths from the sheer rock faces would be a miracle.