Brenna's POV

three weeks later...

"Are we sure it's there?" Trench asks me. I was zipping up my gear, the gear lended to me by Drummer. I'd practiced with it briefly, but upon practicing, I realized I didn't need it. I was still sharp. We still had some close-quarters combat training, for Mira and Zane mainly.

"Positive. Five kilometers north of the army base. It's where he keeps reappearing. It's a pattern. It's always in Kazakhstan," I tell him.

"If we can trace a pattern, so can Barney-"

"I know," I cut him off, pain lacing through me. It still hurt to hear about anyone from the Expendables.

"And you're sure you can do this?" he asks. I sigh, turning around. He wasn't thrilled about being led by a twenty-two year old girl, since my birthday was last week.

"Trench, I've got this. And besides, I'm not the leader here. Drummer is-"

"No, I'm not. I'm just helping. By saying I'm the leader means I've chosen a distinct side, which could get me in trouble. This is under the radar. No kid, this is all you. This is your response team. Own it," he nods at me, and I stiffen my shoulders.

"I never wanted to be a leader of anything," I mutter.

"Well, it runs in your veins," Yang jokes. I laugh and then sigh sadly. Yes, it did, unfortunately.

"Okay! Wheels up in ten, get your shit! If we found him, so have they! Let's go!" I bark out, and everyone scurries. Admittedly, it felt good to be in charge.


I was in the co-pilot seat of the plane Drummer was flying, as he taught me the various controls. It should be Barney doing this.

I push the thought out of my head immediately. I needed to detach from home. I had no idea what hell awaited me in Kazakhstan. We know it was a safe house for David. We know it was heavily guarded. But if I could just get him to listen to me, he may come with me. Unfortunately, whoever he is working for is likely there as well. We were going in blind, and we had no idea what to prepare for. So we were armed to the teeth.

"We'll have to do a recon first, just to be safe. And it'll have to be fast. If we wait too long, we'll give away our location to the target and to the Expendables," I tell Drummer. He nods, smirking.

"Yes boss," he mutters. I glare at him and he chuckles. Then his face grows sorrowful.

"Brenna… I'm sorry. For all of this. I won't be surprised if Barney actually tries to kill me for this-"

"I won't be surprised if he tries to kill me for this," I mutter, half joking. Drummer snorts.

"He won't harm a hair on your head, I know that and so do you," he mutters. I shake my head.

"He's broke my rib before," I mutter and Drummer actually laughs.

"True. But this is different. You've said that Barney is a mercenary first and a father second… but that's bullshit. Trust me," he says. I turn to him, shocked.

"Have you talked to him?" I ask, bewildered.

"Did. Once. He begged me to force you back home. And when he realized my hands were tied, at least to an extent, he just asked me to protect you," he says. Drummers hands weren't exactly tied, but he needed David either dead or alive to interrogate. When the agency went directly to the Expendables, Drummer knew Barney would rather kill him than bring him back. And alive was better, so Drummer had to step in under-radar. That, and I secretly think he cares for David like a son. They'd spent a lot of time together after David left about a year ago. They went on various jobs together, I think David even saved his life.

No matter what, this wasn't good. I could feel my sixth sense, my bad mojo, tingling up my spine. It seared goose bumps painfully up my arms, and it causes my hands to clench around the controls. Drummer notices.

"Something wrong?" he asks. I shake my head, jaw clenching tightly. He turns toward me more.

"What the matter, Ross?" he asks me. I shake my head.

"I get these bad feelings sometimes… I'm getting a really bad one right now. Really bad. Drummer… no matter what, this doesn't have a good ending. It's a no winning situation. I lose no matter what," I explain to him, keeping my eye on the horizon as he completely gives the plane over to me. "Uh… you really want me flying a plane right now?" I squeak. He laughs.

"I wanted to check on something in the back. And referring to your concern, at the end of the day, you've been given a shit life to begin with. You know that. Your life consists of shit decisions. Frankly, everyone does. You just have to work with the lesser of the two evils, or several evils, and hope for the best. That's all you can do," he advises. I sigh.

"Best case scenario is Barney hates me for the rest of my life and Thorn…" I trail off at the mention of my ex-fiancé. God it hurt to even think about him.

Barney I could manage. But I had to avoid Thorn at all costs. His voice, his face, his eyes. If there was anyone that could talk me out of this, it'd be him. And I couldn't be around that kind of weakness. On top of that, my heart was already thin ice. If I saw… Ethan… it would shatter. It killed me inside to do this to him.

"Ok, I'm going to the back to check on the gear."

"Wait! I can't fly the plane!" I panic. Drummer had a flight simulator for me back in training, just in case something bad happened to him or Trench and I had to fly the plane. But this was different. He laughs.

"You've been flying the plane by yourself for twenty minutes. You just didn't know," he winks and leaves the cockpit, and I stare at my hands in disbelief. I have…?

"This shit runs in your veins, kid. Just accept it."

"Welcome to Shit Paradise," Trench says gruffly as he walks down the planes loading ramp.

"Nice landing, Ross," Drummer says proudly. I roll my eyes at him.

"I hardly did the work," I mutter as we exit the plane. And Trench was right; this was a shithole. The country itself was beautiful, but this area was war-torn by private army disputes and ammunition and weaponry deals gone wrong. Combine that with the Kazakhstan army nearby, and we've got a bad day ahead of us.

When we get to our safehouse, we suit up and begin to recon the area quickly.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Mira asks me, a rifle at her toned shoulder.

"We split in groups of two to cover more land. This is not a combat mission, just recon. We're here to survey, get a body count, and hopefully some new intel. But we've gotta do this fast. My guess is we've got about six hours until Barney can track us down, and that means we've got less than twenty four hours to recover our target and get the hell out. I'm full anticipating an interception upon extraction so we gotta prepare for the worst. Here's the layout,"

"It's got a double wide ground feet with several vantage points in the hills. Keep low, keep your thermals on at all times, and never engage unless fired at. If you're pinned, hold down as best you can and wait for one of the closest teams to find you. Yang and Mira, I want you in the trees and vantage points-"

"Why us?" Mira complains, wanting to go with Zane.

"Because you're smaller," I tell her, and Yang smirks as if I've told an inside joke.

"Anyway, Trench and Zane will be on the ground with Drummer and I. We split down the middle and go left and right. Mira and Yang will have our overhead in case anything goes south," I explain. Thankfully, Mira and Zane were put on sniper training weeks ago. Hopefully they've retained it.

"Anything else, boss?" Trench jokes and everyone snickers. I roll my eyes.

"Nope, let's go," we stand swiftly and begin our first job together. I know Barney would be proud of how I've handled things… I just wish this could've been him and I.


"You know, the whole GITMO threat was a hoax… they never could've-"

"I know," I snort, interrupting Drummer as I look through my binoculars. This wasn't a safehouse, it was a goddamn fortress. David could be so deep in, it was making a twenty-four hour mission seem impossible.

"Shit," I hiss under my breath.

"If you knew, why did you come? You could've gone home-"

"This isn't the time," I interrupt again. Drummer sighs.

"I just need to know, Brenna. In case… things don't end well," he says evenly. I look at him, shocked.

"In other words, if I die, you want to make sure the blood isn't on your hands?" I ask. He looks at me and smiles in a sheepish way.

"Always with an attitude. Yes, okay? I want to make sure you're here for the right reasons, and not because I forced you to," he admits. I roll my eyes.

"I'm here because David doesn't deserve all this shit. I'm here because I'm tired of my life and my decisions never being my own. I'm here to stand between the bad and the worse, to defend the people I care about. I'm here because it's the right thing to do, Drummer, and if I die because of it then the blood isn't on your hands," I tell him and he takes a breath as if he's relieved.

"Did it bother you that much?"

"Yes. You're the youngest I've ever worked with, and you're someone's daughter. It makes a world's difference to me. This isn't a moral thing to do, and-"

"There he is!" I hiss as I see David walk out. He looked like shit. I hadn't seen him in almost a month and he's lost weight and large dark circles were under his eyes. They were drugging him. Rage like no other ignited every pore on my body, steaming out of me.

"He's drugged. Likely the same shit they gave to me. You were right," I hand the binoculars to Drummer for him to look. His shoulders slump when he sees him.

"Are you sure?" he asks.

"Positive. I would know," I sigh.

"Do you guys see him?" Mira asks over the COMS set.

"Yes. He looks like shit," Zane says from his location on the other side of the compound. Mira cusses in what I assume was Portuguese since I didn't understand her.

Drummer suddenly tenses, peering intently through the binoculars.

"What?" I demand.

"It can't be," he hisses.

"What?!" I demand once more, in a panicked voice. He slumps down, dropping the binoculars. I scramble to catch them and peer through them as well. There's now an older man about Barney's age standing next to David, with a hand firmly on his shoulder.

"What's the problem, Drummer? Who is that?" I demand.

"That's… that's Operations Lieutenant Alhauser…"

Alhauser…?

Fuck. David's father was alive.


"How is this possible?" I ask Drummer later on that day when we've reassembled at our safehouse.

"I have not a single fucking clue… shit. He must've been working with Church from the start," Drummer was looking and going over the blueprints for the compound we'd recovered.

"So… where does that leave David?" I ask.

"I have no clue. This sets us back. We need to figure out what the fuck is going on… but Barney is already on the way, which is confirmed," Drummer growls. My stomach drops, and I suddenly realize what I have to do.

"Then we need to leave," I tell them. They look at me crazily.

"Why? You're giving up?" Trench snorts. I shake my head, swallowing loudly.

"No. We need to trick Barney into thinking we have him. And we need to figure out what the hell is going on but we have no one on the inside…" I trail off and Drummers eyes go wide. He stand abruptly.

"No. Absolutely fucking not. Brenna, that won't even work. They'll just kill you. It's not even worth the risk-"

"She's right. This is easiest way and the best way to protect David and get the information we need," Mira chokes quietly, looking at me with eyes wide with fear. For me.

"Wait what? What's going on?" Zane demands. I sigh, closing my eyes.

"You guys need to get on the plane and leave. Tell Barney it's over, and we have him. I'm going to surrender by the compound and get taken so they bring me inside," I explain. Yang stands.

"This could work… they won't kill you because we could set up a diversion. Make it seem like we were trying to infiltrate the compound. They'll want answers from you. Who did this, why, who was after them. Drummer, this could work," he tells him. Drummer shakes his head.

"You realize they'll torture you, right? You'll be a POW, they will break you, Brenna-"

"It wouldn't be for the first time," I remind him somberly. His face changes, to shock briefly, and then resolution.

"I could take your place-"

"David won't trust you enough to talk to you. He has no clue why I would be here. Mira and Zane had been keeping tabs on him and reporting it to you, which is why David knew to run. He knows Mira and Zane are associated with you. It has to be me," I tell him. He sighs, nodding.

"Okay. Let's do this," he sighs.


"You know, I promised your father I'd keep you safe. I swore I would," Drummer grumps as we take position to stage an attack.

"I know. I'm sorry," I tell him.

"Just… survive? For my sake. I'd rather not get murdered by your lunatic mercenary of a father," he mutters and I chuckle under my breath. It's quiet for a moment. It's dark out now, only the frigid wind rustling through the trees make any noise.

"What should I say to him?" he asks suddenly.

"Tell him I went back to Langley with you-"

"Brenna, that won't work. You're gonna be gone for… a while. You know that. I don't think everyone else does, but between you and I, we both know this isn't gonna be a quick process. If you're missing for several months, I can't lie to Barney about your location for that long. He'll know. Especially when Thorn tries to find you and gets nothing. They'll ask for my help. And then what?" he demands. I sigh, turning to him.

"Tell them… I went off on my own. That it was my choice, not yours. Tell them I've got my own team now, and that I'm going to be gone for a while. But tell Barney and Thorn that no matter what happens… I'm okay," I choke when I get to the last sentence. Drummer nods.

"Okay kid. I will… and before all this shit goes down you should know, you are the bravest and most loyal person I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Your father would be incredibly proud," he slaps my shoulder. An explosion rocks the compound wall, signaling that Yang was ready for our staged assault. I look at Drummer, refusing to let the fear rule my head.

"No matter what happens to me. Save him," I tell Drummer. He nods, and he knows it's not just David to who I was referring.