Prologue
Penn’s lungs seared from lack of oxygen.
His pulse slowed. He focused on each painful throb of his heart responding to deprivation. His limbs started to grow heavy as his body reserved its stores for primary functions like keeping his heart beating. Still, he pushed on.
He was approaching minute two under water and shooting for three. He’d make it easy—he’d done it countless times.
Moving past the two-minute mark, he continued to swim the passage used by the underwater rescue units for training excursions. He wasn’t part of any rescue unit, but he liked to keep in shape. Over the past year and a half spent in Europe, he’d gotten a bit lax in his training, so he figured it was about time to make a stop off the coast of Thailand and give himself a good challenge.
Ahead he spotted the light at the end of the underwater cave. By the time he reached it and pushed upward to the surface to gulp a mouthful of air, he’d hit the 3:02 mark on his diving watch his brother Nash had given him.
With a final burst of energy, Penn tunneled through the final stretch toward the surface. One more hard paddle and he emerged from the water, lips tipped to the sky as he sucked precious air into his lungs.
After the Texas Rangers kicked him out for not following protocol, he didn’t have a home with any law enforcement, armed forces or special ops teams…but he still had what it took.
He climbed the bank to the pile of belongings he dropped there. As oxygen flooded his system again, he felt warmed all over and tingly too. Stripping off his wetsuit reminded him that he might have never surfaced. He could have drowned down there. People did. The Thailand government reported dozens of dead adventurers who perished in this cave every year.
Penn was never worried—he wouldn’t have attempted the challenge if he wasn’t confident in his skills.
With his wetsuit hanging around his hips, he drew on his heavy pullover and sat on the ground, soaking up the warmth of the sun, and took a minute to recover. His phone buzzed, and he reached for his jeans cast off nearby.
As soon as he spotted the name on the screen, a big grin stole over his face. He brought the device to his ear. “Hey, bro.”
“Where the hell have you been? I called you twelve times.” Nash’s irritated tone projected through the speaker.
He studied his surroundings of water and the rock entrance he’d just emerged from. “I’m hangin’ out at the beach,” he responded.
“The beach. Jesus. Well, if you’d picked up your phone you’d know I’ve been trying to get in touch with you because something big’s happening.”
“Did you get your wife pregnant again? Because that’s not really news at this point, bro.”
“No, Nevaeh isn’t pregnant again. It’s hardly been two months since Opal was born. Which reminds me you haven’t paid us a visit to meet her. If you take this offer on hand, who knows when that will happen.”
Penn sat up straighter. “Offer?” He’d performed a few tasks to help the Ranger Ops down in Texas and expected his brother to ask for assistance again now.
“Homeland Security is forming another special forces unit. Your name was bandied around more than once, Penn.”
He started shaking his head before any words formed on his lips. “Not interested in anything long-term.”
“Not even heading your own team in PNW?”
For a moment, Penn felt he was in the depths of the murky darkness again, navigating through tight spaces while trying not to get caught on the jagged protrusions of the cave walls. The Pacific Northwest region Nash mentioned was one of the few places Penn was passionate about. He loved the challenges that came with the terrain, and how he could get lost in the wilds to escape people.
“You listenin’ now?” Nash drawled out.
“Are we talking Operation Freedom Flag?”
“You got it. They’re seeing a lot of issues on the borders between the US and Canada. Also, the 180th meridian.” The 180th meridian passed through the Aleutian Islands, making Alaska’s westernmost portion actually situated in the Eastern Hemisphere. And that meant Russia claimed an easy point of entry for trafficking of drugs, humans or weapons, all rousing the attention of the division of Homeland Security known as Operation Freedom Flag.
“It’s called OFFAT—Operation Freedom Flag Alaska Tundra.”
Penn’s ears perked up, and a blast of energy brought him to his feet. Looking at the Thailand shore, he only saw the raw beauty of their forty-ninth state which they spoke of. He’d spent a brief time in Alaska with a couple friends right out of high school, hiking and camping in the mountains, but he always hoped his work would take him that direction again.
“Xtreme Ops,” Nash concluded. “And you’re number one on the list for team captain, Penn. Now get your ass to Home-Sec HQ today and claim that spot. You’re getting one more chance not to fuck up the family name.”
Penn huffed a laugh at his brother’s harsh statement. “Whatever I’ve fucked up, you made up for.”
“Penn.” His voice sounded with warning.
“It’s gonna take me a while to get a flight out of Thailand, big brother.”
“What the fuck are you doing in Thailand? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to hear that you just risked your life in that fucking cave. I’ll let the head of OFFAT know that you’re coming. No stop-offs to get laid, either. Got it?”
“And here I had a little honey-skinned Thai beauty and her friend ready to wrap themselves around me.” He didn’t, but his lie made Nash groan, and anytime a little brother could get a rise out of his big brother, it was a good day.
“Don’t make me look like an incompetent ass, Penn.”
“On my way now.”
“Damn, you’re really going to take this opportunity?”
Now that Penn had the idea locked in his brain, he couldn’t think of letting it slip by. He grabbed his things off the ground, jammed his boots on his feet and started walking toward the small parking area where he’d left his rental.
Fighting traffickers, drug lords, Russian mafia, arms traders and any number of border patrol problems, all in the setting of a land that both awed and thrilled him, seemed like the most exciting opportunity he’d ever be handed.
“I’ll call you when I land in Virginia, Nash.”
“I’ll be waiting. And I’m fucking thrilled that you won’t be working solo anymore. That shit’s been scaring all of us since the day the Rangers gave you your walking papers. At least now you’ll have a team of men watching your back. I gotta run. Call me.”
“Will do. And Nash?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter One
“Welcome aboard, sir. I hope you enjoy your flight with Wild Alaska.”
Penn looked at the kid who couldn’t grow more than a patchy beard standing off to the side of the entrance to the puddle jumper aircraft. He didn’t even want to think about his hairless balls.
He hoped to hell this guy wasn’t his pilot, but he was glossing over the situation to himself. The young man wore the pilot’s uniform of starched white shirt and cap.