Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I'm borrowing her characters, dressing them up in MARPAT, and giving them some guns. BilliCullen and Scooterstale are making sure they're ready for inspection.

June 13
30° 21' 1.5660"
34° 50' 48.7428"
Negev Desert, Israel

It was well before dawn when Bella emerged from one of the large tent-like barracks. Overhead, absent any clouds, humidity, or even a hint of human light pollution, the sky was a velvety pitch-black, lit only by the low-hung moon and a shotgun spray of glittering stars. Even up close, the hill-like hangars nearby and the jagged mountains beyond were little more than dark silhouettes.

It was quiet, too. In fact, the only sign that she wasn't completely alone was a pair of dim lights moving back and forth maybe a hundred or so yards away, somewhere in the middle of what she guessed was the dirt-colored tarmac.

"Welcome to zero dark thirty, Dr. Swan."

Bella jolted, and before she could stop herself, a wheezy, half-screamed, "Christ!" spilled out as her palm clapped to her chest, banging against one of the stiff SAPI plates. Momentum and shock carried her backward into what felt like a solid brick wall. A lightning quick hand instantly appeared, grabbed her by the back of her tactical vest, and kept her from tumbling further. She'd have screamed again, but at the soft, even-pitched, "Easy now," right beside her ear and the faintest hint of familiar aftershave, Bella instead blew out a loud, shaky breath of air. "You scared the crap out of me! Do you make a habit of sneaking up on people like that?"

Edward's lips twitched. "You could say that."

With a low chuckle, he glanced out across the darkened airfield before silently offering the wide-eyed scientist – who was now muttering under her breath and slinging a pair of smarting fingers – one of the two steaming cups he'd appropriated before walking over to wake her up. It took her a second to notice it was there hovering in the air between them, and then another to gingerly accept it.

Bella scrunched her nose and squinted up at the shadow beside her. She thought she caught a slight, amused upturn of his lips. "What is it?"

One brow shot up. "Coffee."

"Oh…" she mumbled, risking a sip only to retreat the second the almost-boiling liquid touched her tongue. What the captain called coffee was viscous, bitter, and strong enough to peel paint, so she settled for just warming her hands. At a good forty degrees cooler than the inferno they'd arrived to yesterday afternoon, a little heat against the early morning desert air was a welcome comfort. "You didn't have to, but thanks."

Shifting his focus from the tarmac, where the two sergeants were finishing up their final checks, back to Bella, Edward shrugged and gulped the last few ounces of his own cup. Grimacing, he flicked the empty container into one of the black metal barrels outside the tent. "Not much to thank me for. El'azar makes the shittiest coffee in all of Israel… Probably the world."

Caught off guard by the commander's unexpected humor – today of all days – Bella cracked a smile. Right about the time she opened her mouth to comment, a loud guffaw came from behind them. "I heard that, Seren!"

"Az mah, Rav Seren? Ze nachon," Edward yelled over his shoulder. "You do make the shittiest coffee." With a quick grin at the approaching major, he spat for emphasis. "Do you even drink it yourself or do you just use it to torture us unfortunate souls?"

El'azar grumbled something back in Hebrew, too fast and too low for Bella to follow, but whatever it was made the captain choke on a laugh. The Israeli barked something else – something not at all fit for mixed company if Bella translated it correctly – before doing a complete one-eighty. He turned to Bella with a low, sultry purr, "And a very good morning to you, beautiful, most deadly one."

Now grateful for the darkness since her cheeks instantly flamed at his flirtation, Bella quickly deflected, waving a haphazard hand. "Morning? Is that what you call this?"

Edward's shoulders shook at the woman's poorly disguised evasive action.

"But of course it is…"

Without thinking, Bella slugged back a shot of her coffee. As soon as the bitter liquid hit the back of her throat, her whole face screwed up, blanching at the aftertaste. "God, this really does taste like ass," she muttered.

"Ah, Neshama, Ani shelach…" El'azar sighed and dramatically pressed his palms to his chest. When Bella groaned and covered her eyes, he winked over to the now scowling captain. "You shall have Starbucks upon your return, I swear it."

Edward mouthed a silent, "Ad kan," and sliced the air. Of course, that just made the Israeli laugh that much harder. When the Marine leveled him a flat, uncompromising stare – one that would have made any other man squirm – El'azar threw up his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright," he chuckled. "Fine, I get it. She's yours then."

"Hishtagata?"

"Batu'ach?" El'azar smirked, cocking a brow. "Could have fooled me…"

Edward's jaw ticked and his shoulders squared. "Don't you have something to do?"

"Of course, I do," he scoffed. "When do I not? You know how it is… Never any rest for the weary."

In the distance, there was a sudden high-pitched whine of a helicopter winding up, and El'azar abruptly turned as serious as death itself as he instinctively scanned the horizon. Beyond the two sergeants and their awaiting Humvees, he could just make out the aggressive outline of the American lieutenant's helo, loaded up with enough firepower to level a small mountain.

"How long do you anticipate?"

"Not sure," Edward answered, like the major, now all business, previous joking laid aside. "We have to get back to that extraction site first." He scratched his chin. "That's close to a day overland, maybe longer if we have to take one of back routes, which we'll probably have to do since we lit up one of their checkpoints on the way out. From there?" He shrugged and stole a glance to the dark-haired scientist, who was now nervously twisting her hands around her half-empty cup. "Who knows. It all depends on who and what we find."

The Israeli nodded, his face pinched into a hard expression Edward knew well. "We're not permitted to accompany you at this time, but we will be here training for the next month. You know how to reach us, yes?"

"I do."

"You run into hell, Captain, you call. We will come." And then in typical fatalistic fashion, the major winked and added, "Nothing's better for training than live ammo anyway." Before Edward could respond, reaching into his pocket, El'azar drew out a tiny, black device, which he then pressed inside their scientist's palm. "Here, beautiful, you will take this."

When the captain didn't object or even comment, Bella frowned down at the unknown item and turned it over in her hand. It was circular and small, maybe the size of a silver dollar, and it had what felt like a metal clip on the back. "What's–"

Clearing his throat, El'azar quietly explained, "If at any time you find yourself alone… if for… whatever reason… you are separated from Edward or his team, you will activate this. Flip the hinged cap and depress the button."

"What does it do?" Her heart pounded a jagged rhythm.

"The moment it's activated, I will know it. We're closer than your Americans. We will come for you, no matter where you are. We will not let you die there alone at the hands of terrorist dogs."

The temperature plummeted at the harsh, matter-of-fact declaration, and the air sucked out of Bella's lungs. "What if I'm already dead?" she whispered, looking at the captain on instinct. His expression was unreadable, flat and emotionless.

The major spat. "Then, Yirtzah HaShem, we will avenge you just like we would our own."

Bella's throat bobbed as her fist closed around the device.

"Alright," Edward interjected as, without conscious direction, the tips of his fingers found the gentle slope of the scientist's hip, the curve hidden beneath the stiff tactical vest, but still very much there. "Don't need to scare her that much."

"Of course not. I'm certain there will be no need for it anyway." El'azar offered them both a small smile. "And… work calls, so I must leave you. Go… save the world."

Bella shook her head at both the sentiment and the craziness of the entire situation, carefully tucked the beacon into the front pocket of her camouflage blouse, and extended a shaky hand. "Todah veShalom, El'azar Dayan."

With a pointed, goading glance at Edward, the major sighed and made a show of kissing the back of Bella's hand. Twice. "Are you certain I can't have her, O Mighty Ghost?"

The captain rolled his eyes and snorted. "Let's go, Dr. Swan." The pressure of his fingertips against her hip increased slightly, but neither missed it. Nor acknowledged it.

"Kacha HaChayim…" As El'azar turned and began to walk away, almost instantly disappearing into the shadows, he paused, glanced over his shoulder, and called out. "Ah, Captain, I almost forgot. You heard your good buddy's hanging out in Damascus, yes?"

Edward stiffened. "Who are you talking about?"

"Your favorite little pack of Deltas."

"Fuck," Edward muttered, lifting his face to the velvet sky. "Fine. Thanks for the warning."

El'azar laughed and turned back toward the line of dirt-colored canopies, where the lights inside had begun slowly flickering to life. "Anytime, my friend. Anytime."

"Who was he talking about?"

Glancing down at the scientist, Edward scowled. "No one important."

Bella's brows climbed. "If you say so…"

Not taking that bait, Edward instead eyed the poor fit of her gear and said, "Here, turn around. I need to fix your holster before you wind up hurting yourself." When she spun without comment, he squatted, unclipped a couple of the buckles, cinched the webbed straps such that his sidearm now sat neatly against her slender thigh, and clipped it all back together. Then tsking under his breath, without bothering to ask, he adjusted the straps on her vest with the quick efficiency of a man who lived and breathed his armor. "That work better?"

"Yeah, I think so." Twisting at the waist, she was surprised that it actually did. "Thanks."

Edward clicked on a small flashlight and aimed the pale white LED beam toward the Humvees in the distance in indication before illuminating the ground at her feet. "Come on then, it's time to go. Need to be over the border before daylight."

As the two made their way across the flat dirt floor of the valley and then across the tarmac, Bella peered up at the captain, noting the same calm, collected alertness and bearing she'd observed on the plane. Handsome wasn't the right word for him, she thought. He was too hard for that, too severe and too serious. Hot was for pretty men in glossy calendars, not a seasoned Marine heading off to work. Sexy… maybe. But really, none of the normal descriptors fit the man beside her, she decided. The best Bella could come up with that was Captain Cullen was… compelling. More so than any other man she'd ever met.

"How long have you been awake anyway?" he asked out of nowhere.

Bella shook her head to clear away the nonsense. "A couple of hours."

One corner of the captain's mouth pulled up, softening the hard, stoic lines of his face. "Honestly didn't expect you to be up when I came over."

"I couldn't sleep." Her answer came quick, delivered in that same hushed whisper she'd used when she'd asked El'azar, "What if I'm already dead?"

For a long moment, neither spoke. When they hit asphalt, Bella shoved her hands in her pockets and quietly asked, "Are you worried, Captain?"

It took him a second to respond and when he did, she wasn't entirely sure she'd heard him right. "I'm always worried."

Bella chewed the inside of her cheek. "That doesn't really make me feel better, you know."

Stealing a quick glance, he smiled, but the upturn of his lips wasn't a happy one. Even in the dark, she could see that. "Sorry, but it's the truth." As if that were all the explanation needed, he gestured toward the waiting vehicles. "The second I don't worry about every single member on that team is the second I need to be removed from commanding it."

She hesitated. "Okay, that makes me feel a little better."

Edward stopped in his tracks, grabbing the woman by the elbow and spinning her around to face him. "Look, just do exactly what Emmett told you do on the ride over." He paused, looked down to where his hand rested, and then dropped it like a hot coal. "Just stay behind me… or any of the others… at all times, no matter what, and you'll be okay. You're not going to have to use that locator. That's just a precaution."

Something that he'd just said didn't sit quite right, but rather than go down that rabbit hole, Bella shook her head. "It's not me… that's not what I'm worried about…"

"Then what is it?"

"What if those people… that group of whatever they are… what if they decide to actually use XR-5 instead of just selling it?" She flinched, bit down too hard, and when she swallowed, she tasted blood. When she looked down the tarmac to the waiting vehicles, all the thoughts she'd been trying to suppress tumbled out. "War. Genocide. God only knows what they could do with it… Those… what if they're planning to use… my weapon to kill everyone I love? What if we can't find them? What if Riley…"

"Stop."

She blinked at the quiet command, frozen mid-word.

Softer, yet at the same time firm enough that the woman's back involuntarily straightened, Edward said, "Doctor, you can't worry about shit like that right now. There's no use in it." He ducked down low enough that she had no choice but to look him in the eye. "You just worry about keeping your head down. Clear?" He waited for her to nod before going on. "When we find that cell and your formula, then you can worry about that other shit, but not a second before."

"Okay…" she mumbled. "I understand." Blowing out a heavy breath, Bella closed her eyes, willing her heartbeat to slow. "Have you ever done anything like this before? This kind of operation?"

Abruptly, he looked away. "No, not just like this…" His fingers stole to his side, rubbing away a phantom ache. "But I've stared down into the abyss a time or two… I know what lives at the bottom."

June 13
En Route
Somewhere in the Middle East

"Jazz, hold up ahead."

Their Humvee slowed to a crawl, its tires popping over the loose gravel of the dried up riverbed, and inched its way toward a mile-high sheer rock face that signaled yet another sharp bend in the narrow canyon. The vehicle behind them followed suit, and when Bella glanced back, she saw the tall, blonde gunnery sergeant climb through the ringmount to man the M2.

Grabbing the radio, Edward looked up through the dusty windshield. "Tink? Where you at?"

Static pulsed through the line. "Ten klicks to your south. On my way back up to you."

He scanned the sliver of bright blue sky visible between the high rock walls before signaling the corporal. Without hesitating, Jasper grabbed his rifle – a customized M110 to match the marksmanship badge he rarely displayed – and slipped out of the vehicle, targeting the nearby wall for cover.

"What you see?" the captain barked as he followed the corporal's movements, his hand positioned on the door handle to exit at a moment's notice.

This was probably the twelfth time in so many hours that they'd followed this same protocol, yet each time they stopped, Bella's heart hammered and she automatically gripped the seat, not letting go until the younger man was back inside the relative safety of the Humvee.

The radio blared static again before Alice's soprano cut through. "Captain, you're gonna need to move out of that canyon and get up on the high road."

"Shit," Edward muttered as he punched the buttons on the instrument panel in front of him. The gray LED screen lit up, displaying a beige-on-brown topographical map with an embedded road system. "How far?"

"Hang a right in three at the BFR. Looks like a fuckin' goat trail from where I sit and it cuts back hard, but it'll get you to the top quick."

Outside the Humvee, low and tight against the wall and with his rifle poised and ready, Jasper slinked toward the corner. Against the mottled rock and hidden by the low brown shrubs, he was almost impossible to see. Once at the end, he dropped to a knee, quickly peeked around the edge, and then after a second, slowly crept around and disappeared.

The captain's forehead creased like it always did when the corporal went out of sight. "Who do you see?" he asked into the radio.

Alice came back quick. "Can't tell but they don't look friendly. Light artillery. A dozen or so armored vehicles, and it looks like they've got a security perimeter set up."

"Same as before?"

"Don't think so. None of those red scorpion fuckers from before. Just the usual, but who the fuck knows. Either way, I don't think they'll be happy to see us."

Edward eyes flew to the rearview mirror and then back to the corner. "Bear-man, you got that? We're hanging a right in three."

The staff sergeant's low baritone replied immediately. "Right behind you, Captain. Blondie's got the rear."

Two tense minutes later, Jasper appeared from around the corner, holding up his hand, palm in, and waved them forward. Edward nodded once and slid over to the driver's seat. "Dr. Swan," he said, sparing a quick look to the back seat. "Need you up here. You take the radio and watch that BFT screen."

Startled at the unexpected address, Bella's eyes widened, but the second the captain pointed beside him and repeated the request, she jumped up and gracelessly scrambled over the console into the passenger seat. Behind her, the rear door of the Humvee swung open, and Jasper hopped in, laid his rifle on the empty back seat, and immediately moved toward the turret.

"How'd it look?"

"All clear, sir," he replied as he popped open the hatch and darted up through the hole to copy Rosalie's position.

"How far are we?" Bella asked, eyeing the lit screen in front of her.

"Not very," Edward said as he threw the vehicle into gear. "Maybe an hour, less if we can keep moving. The last half mile, we'll go on foot."

The goat trail that Alice had warned about was exactly that. Barely discernible and hidden by a mass of low shrubs and desert grass, they almost missed it. Catching the break in the vegetation at the last possible second, Edward whipped the Humvee around, just missing a massive boulder and kicking back a fan of dust and pebbles. With a low curse, he punched the gas to start up the steep escarpment.

"I wouldn't look out the window, if I were you."

"Too late," Bella mumbled, transfixed by the canyon floor abruptly falling away. She guessed that the road was no more than a foot wider than their Humvee. When she looked back at sharp angle of Rosalie and Emmett's vehicle behind them, her guess was confirmed. Less than a foot wider, she realized as all the color drained from her face.

"Watch the BFT, Dr. Swan. The GPS. Focus on that. Tell me which way I need go once we get to the top."

She glanced over to the captain, whose forest green eyes, while steadily trained to the narrow path in front of them, somehow betrayed not a hint of stress. When the wheels suddenly spun, jerking them right, only slightly but far enough that at least some of their back tire rode on air, he simply frowned and shifted down a gear. "You alright, Jazz?" he called over his shoulder. When the corporal yelled back a quick affirmative, he repeated to her, "Where to? The moving arrow is us and that little flag is the target. Trace it back and give me road directions."

Forcing her lungs to take a breath and her eyes to the screen, Bella followed a winding pale line with her forefinger, sorting through the maze of contour lines, roads, and creek beds. "At the top, it looks like we'll intersect another road. It's one of the really light-colored ones, so I guess that it's a local one?"

"Yeah, that's right," Edward answered, flicking the wheel to avoid a jagged rock sticking out from the face. The Humvee lurched, but kept climbing. He hastily peeked in the rearview, checking his trailing sergeants. Unperturbed by the rough terrain and dizzying drop-off, Rosalie casually swung her Ma Deuce back and forth, scanning the canyon below and behind them. "Yellow or white?"

The scientist squinted. "White, I think. It's dotted, too."

"Good." He slowed as they approached a hairpin curve. "Jazz, swing 'er around!"

There was the soft whimper of metal on metal, and then a "Good to go!"

As the nose of the Humvee swung around the corner, it looked like they were driving on air. Impenetrable rock walls rose up on all four sides, all dappled browns, grays, and glittering fissures. To Bella, Edward continued, "Do you see any villages or outposts? Any little black or white dots along that road?"

Concentrating on the screen instead of the drop in her stomach, Bella traced the line, all the way to the small black flag in the far corner. "No, there's nothing there. You'll have to turn right, though… at an intersection ten kilometers from the flag, but it's another white dotted line."

That one, he knew.

"Done." As they approached a second hairpin, he spun the wheel and told her, "Now call up Alice. Ask her where she is."

Timidly, but happy to have something to focus on rather than the sickening pitches and spins of the tires, Bella picked up the radio, depressed the button on the mic, and repeated the captain's question.

A second passed and then a static-garbled, girlish laugh responded. "Hey there, B. He puttin' you to work already?"

"Something like that…" A faint smile turned up Bella's lips.

"Tell him I'm…" The lieutenant trailed off right as the loud, fast wop-wop-wop of the helo's rotors came from somewhere above, amplified and echoed off the canyon walls. "Right here. All clear topside! You're good to go!"

Four more hairpins, one of which was tight enough and narrow enough to make even Jasper curse, and they finally crested the canyon onto what looked like a vast, open desert plain. Flat, beaten down sand, with not a hint of plant life, stretched as far as the eye could see, disappearing into the wavy blur of the distant gray horizon. Above, the sky was a brilliant blue, interrupted only by a handful of white cottony tufts.

Without wasting any time, Edward grabbed the radio, barked a quick order to Emmett, and hit the gas, pushing the big block as fast as it would go. Emmett followed tight on their tail, and the two Humvees flew across the sand, kicking up a billowing cloud of sandy dust as they targeted the first intersection.

Gripping the bar on the door, Bella risked a glance over to the captain. Shades now flipped down, gloved hand tightly on the wheel, that picture of collected calm was now one of focused aggression. "Why are we–"

"I don't like being out in the open like this," Edward said, answering before the scientist could even finish voicing the question. Eyes constantly moving from mirror to mirror to windshield, he explained, "How far can you see?"

Bella gazed out the window at the endless plain. "I don't know… miles, I guess."

"Exactly. If you can see that far, so can everyone else, and I don't particularly like being seen."

Nodding, she studied the BFT screen again, watching the steady movement of their arrow. "Okay, your turn is coming up in… five kilometers. Right next to it, there's some kind of contour line that I think means a hill or something."

Surprised, Edward's brows climbed, lifting his sunglasses off the bridge of his nose. "Very good, Dr. Swan. You just keep watching that screen and make sure we stay on those white dotted lines."

Offering him a small smile, she wiped away the line of stress and sweat from her temple. "Yes, sir."

June 13
Undisclosed Location
Somewhere in the Middle East

Tucked behind a crumbling concrete wall, Bella stared at the captain's rapid hand gestures as he issued a barrage of nonverbal commands. Emmett and Jasper each nodded once, and then abruptly peeled off in separate directions, each low, close to the wall, and with a forefinger already positioned over their rifle trigger.

"Tink?" he whispered into his mic.

There was a second pause before Alice's voice came through the headset. "Still no one. You're good."

Slowly, Edward moved from a crouch to peer over the top of the concrete, looking for any signs of life in the abandoned, ramshackle tenement out here in the middle of nowhere. Just like before, it was eerily quiet, and the open windows were dark, covered by tattered, dirty curtains that fluttered in the hot breeze.

Of course, quiet and dark didn't mean a damned thing.

Dropping back down, he motioned to Rosalie who, instead of carrying her usual carbine, shouldered a matte black semi-automatic combat shotgun. She signed back and cinched her chin strap before quickly slipping around the wall. As soon as she was gone, Edward tapped Bella on the wrist, covered his mic with his palm, and mouthed, "You stay close behind me. Do whatever I do. Understand?"

Chewing her bottom lip, Bella nodded. When he turned to peep over the wall again, she focused on the straight line of his shoulders, took a deep, steadying breath, and wiped her wet, clammy palms on her pants.

Tense and alert, Edward watched as Emmett and Jasper each approached the building from either side, racing from cover to cover with quick, efficient movements honed by years spent doing exactly this. In seconds they were both there, their backs to the outside walls. Slowly, Jasper edged closer to one of the open windows, rifle at the ready. Extending a thin retractable mirror, he glimpsed inside before looking back to Edward and signaling a silent all clear. Emmett followed, issuing the same.

"Let's move," he whispered to Bella. "Keep your head down."

Eyes glued to the captain's back, her heart fully at the base of her throat, Bella followed him as he broke past the protective cover of their wall and darted over to a small stone and concrete section that looked like it had once been used as a part of a perimeter fence. Sparing only a quick glance behind him to make sure the scientist was there, carbine up and ready to fire, Edward crossed the courtyard to another section of the fence, and then finally ran in a low crouch to the tan plaster wall beside the front door to the building. Bella's back hit the wall with a quiet sigh of relief.

A second later, Rosalie appeared opposite them, a second after that, Emmett, and then Jasper. In well-practiced choreography, the four Marines formed a loose square with Rosalie and Edward at the front. A light tap on her shoulder made Bella flinch. "Stay here," the captain silently ordered before pulling his balaclava over his nose and looking over to Rosalie.

Almost as if in slow motion, holding one hand up, Edward issued a single word command into his mic, paused, and looked to each member of the team before finally dropping his hand and nodding to the waiting gunnery sergeant. The blonde's expression hardened, and as if to make up for those seconds of slow motion, everything unfolded in a lightning fast surge of MARPAT, black metal, and speed.

With a sudden, deafening bang, the lock shattered, and four Marines in full battle dress burst through the door. Instantly splitting into teams of two, looking down the barrels of their rifles, they searched every little nook and cranny of the building. In less than a minute, they swept the bottom floor, moving from room to room, looking for any signs of occupancy or life. Once cleared, Edward signaled the other three to move upstairs. Two minutes later, they were back down and lowering their weapons.

Bella started when the captain's head appeared around the door. Eyes wide, she whispered, "Anyone?"

Edward shook his head and almost smiled at the unconscious movement of her hand to the sidearm sitting on her thigh. "Come on. We need to search the place and see if we can find anything."

Inside, it looked like a bomb had gone off. The place was a mess, with ripped up papers, trash, and old, busted furniture littering virtually every inch of the concrete floor. Most of the lights were missing bulbs and there were gaping holes in some of the walls. But the stench… that was what truly grabbed Bella's attention and made her want to gag.

As soon as Bella started down a long, narrow hallway leading toward the back of the building, Edward shot in front of her and barred her way. "You don't need to go back there, Dr. Swan. We'll take care of it."

She blanched, instantly understanding why with every step that stench had worsened. "Riley… he was –"

"You stay up here," he repeated, this time more firmly, and he placed a surprisingly gentle hand on her forearm.

Salt stung her eyes and her ears rang from her teeth clamping down too hard. Swallowing, Bella craned her neck to look over the captain's wide shoulder. At the very end of the hall, filtered sunlight poured in from a high window, and in its path, dust swirled, giving the hall a dark, murky feel. "Where did they have him working?" she whispered.

For a moment, the commander didn't answer.

"Where, Captain?" she pressed, pushing slightly against his hand until his fingers tightened.

Over the woman's head, Edward caught Emmett and Rosalie both staring at him. Rubbing his face, he exhaled and said, "In the back."

"Then that's where I need to go look."

Edward grimaced.

Far calmer than she felt, Bella quietly told him, "If there's something back there to find, I'm the only one here who'll understand it. It's why I'm here."

After a second of consideration, the grimace deepened but he finally agreed. "I'll go with you."

That back room, Bella quickly learned, was something out of her worst nightmares. From the moment Riley had been kidnapped, this was what she'd feared the most. Little more than an eight by ten concrete cage, it was cramped and claustrophobic, and it reeked of human waste and death. Fans of blood spray decorated nearly every wall, and in the very center of the dirt floor, there was a dark puddle-like stain that needed no explanation.

"Stay on that side," Edward ordered, positioning himself between her and what looked like a two-foot round hole in the floor in the far corner. There was more blood on that side of the room and on the floor beside the well was a mass of sliced-up rough-cut rope.

Bile rose up Bella's esophagus and her palm clapped over her mouth.

"Pull your balaclava up and breathe through your mouth."

Bella complied immediately, and her shoulder slumped in relief as the churn in her gut settled enough that she didn't think she'd vomit. Not here and now at least. When she thought she could move again, she began to slowly sort through the short stacks of wrinkled papers on one of the tables against the wall.

Carefully scanning each document, Bella saw nothing that she didn't already know. Cursory reaction pathways, a couple of scrawled mass balances, and a long series of notes in handwriting she knew almost as well as her own, what was here was all early stuff. The way it was laid out, methodical and step-wise and completely unnecessary considering what had been in her former partner's head, it was almost as if Riley had been trying to stall his kidnappers by re-inventing and re-creating the science they'd come up with two years prior.

The second stack yielded nothing, and neither did the third, or the fourth. The only thing that really struck her was that his handwriting grew progressively sloppier and slanted, and some of the later papers were stained with dark red fingerprints that made her want to throw up all over again.

"Nothing," Bella muttered as she began to slowly pace back and forth. To the captain, she explained, "It's all stuff we already knew… stuff that's already been designed into the beta formulation that they stole to begin with."

"Did he just not know?"

Bella shook her head. "No, absolutely not. He knew what he was doing. He had ideas on where to go next. You don't understand… we were so close… I think he was buying time."

The young man's terrified, pain-riddled words, spoken as he'd been hauled out of the very same hole Edward now stood guard over, echoed in his ears.

"When I pulled him out," Edward started, gauging the woman's reaction. She stilled immediately, and her lungs rasped loud enough that he could hear her breathing from across the room. "He indicated that he'd been forced to give them more than that."

Her thumb flew to her mouth where she chewed on her nail in nervous agitation. "They must have taken it and left the rest," Bella mumbled, mostly to herself. Her dark eyes lapped the room, moving from wall to wall to wall, before finally settling on a cleared whiteboard on a rickety metal stand in the corner.

With the pale light streaming into the room from the hall window, Bella could just make out the white on white residual images that cheap erasers always left behind. "Shit," she breathed, abruptly dropping to her knee to grab a handful of fine beige dust. Before Edward could ask, she sprinted across the room, looked up at the board, and then blew the dust from her hand.

Most of it fell and settled back to the floor, but the finer particles clung to the board, turning it a pale cream instead of white. Bella repeated the action twice more, darkening the board until the contrast was enough that the last erased symbols suddenly were visible.

"Dr. Swan?"

Bella didn't answer. Instead, she raced through the residual images, following Riley's last bit of work while running through a series of quick calculations in her head. When she got to the end, her eyes seemingly cemented to the circled formula and diagram in the far corner, time stood still.

"Dr. Swan," Edward repeated, enunciating each syllable. "What do you see?"

"Fuck, he did it," she whispered, tearing off her helmet. It hit the floor with a dull thud.

"He did what? Figured out the formula?"

A shudder rolled down her spine as she slowly turned. "Everything, Captain. Riley figured out everything."

Edward stepped toward her. "What do you mean everything?"

"All of it." Her throat bobbed and her hands shook. "The formula, a temporary stabilization protocol… the delivery system."

At that Edward froze. "How are they planning to deliver it?"

"A warhead."

.

.

.

Notes: I'm taking creative license with regards to fuel consumption. In my world, helicopters can go for days…

Hebrew (transliterated):

Seren – Captain (military). Recall from last chapter, Rav Seren means "major".

Az mah – So / so what?

Ze nachon – It's true

Neshama, Ani shelach – Neshama means "soul" and is used kind of like "darling". Ani shelach means "I'm yours."

Ad kan – Enough / I've had it up to here

Hishtagata – Are you mad/crazy?

Batu'ach? – Are you sure / are you sure about that?

Yirtzah HaShem – God willing

Todah veShalom – Thank you and goodbye

Kacha HaChayim – That's the way it goes / that's life.

Glossary:

BFR – Big Fucking Rock

BFT – or Blue Force Tracking, is essentially a complex military-grade GPS / GIS system that provides commanders and forces information about roads, geographical data, battle data, and proximity to friendlies and enemy forces.

Carbine – in the chapter above specifically refers to the M4A1 carbine, which is a fully automatic variant of the M4 assault rifle and is used by various Special Operations Forces during Black Ops. It's a close quarters weapon, often used by counter terrorist groups and in urban warfare. It fires a 5.56x45mm NATO round.

Combat shotgun – or breaching shotgun, in the chapter above specifically refers to the Benelli M1014, which is commonly used by various Special Operations Forces. Combat shotguns typically have considerably shorter barrels than a normal hunting shotgun, are 12 gauge, and in some cases may sport magazines, which enable the user to fire more than the usual 5 shells before reloading. Because of the shotgun's scatter pattern, requiring less precise aim to hit a target, it's a useful weapon when breaching a potential enemy building or holding.

M2 – or 50 Cal, or Ma Deuce, or M2 Browning Machine Gun, is a .50 caliber heavy machine gun and is widely used by the United States military, as well as various other countries. It can be mounted to Humvees, aircraft, etc., or used on its own.

M110 – or the Knight's Armament Company M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System, or M110 SASS, is a semi-automatic sniper rifle that is chambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO round. The Marine Corps is currently in the process of replacing the M39 Enhanced Marksman Rifle (EMR), which replaced the M14 United States Marine Corps Designated Marksman Rifle, with the M110.

Ringmount – circular framework on which a machine gun can be mounted such that the gunner has 360° range of fire.

Zero dark thirty – or oh dark thirty, or oh dark hundred, refers to "sometime very early in the morning". Depends on who you ask if it's said with a "zero" or an "oh". Those less inclined to be awake in the early morning hours might prefer, "stupid dark thirty" or "oh god thirty" instead, lol.