Free True Valor by Dee Henderson

still serious threats that could bring down a plane.
    Bruce didn’t wear a maroon beret because the military thought it was a nice color. It spoke for all the blood PJs had spilled over the years doing this job. The motto they promised came from the heart. They went out that others might live.
    Lord, don’t let me need to rescue a pilot. Please keep Grace and Wolf safe. He could do what needed to be done. He could be brave. He just couldn’t always be there in time. He wanted no family to face devastating news tonight hearing a plane had gone down.
    CNN would be going live as soon as it became apparent a strike of this scale was being executed. Jill would be watching, locked on every word of news. Bruce wished she had been able to talk with Wolf today.
    Bruce had chosen the right profession. Nights like this confirmed it. No matter what the personal cost, he was the man on the front line to keep danger from touching those at home. He walked down to the flight line. Friends were risking their lives tonight. It was going to be a very long night.

Nine
     
* * *
     
    TWENTY-TWO MILES INSIDE SYRIA
    W EST OF THE T OWN OF A L H ASSAKEH
    Wolf felt the sweat under his flak jacket freeze as the air rushed in the open door of the helicopter. He had the forward gun trained at the racing sand and the occasional break of scrub bushes that struggled to hold on to what soil there was in the rocky terrain at the edge of the desert. In the night vision goggles, the plants stood out as obstacles in the smooth backdrop, spots of accumulated heat cooling in the night air.
    Most of Syria was desert, and while there was safety in the vast distances, there was also danger as sounds echoed and visibility stretched for miles.
    Ahead of them, the lead helicopter raced toward the pickup with its engines red-lined for all the speed that could be pulled from them, taking the most risk by leading the way.
    If the man had stood them up again, if he had set a trap . . . They were ready to hit hard in order to get out of the area. But if he did defect . . . It was a constant effort to avert war, Syria and Israel over the Golan Heights, Syria and Turkey over the simmering crisis of water as drought took hold in the region and dams along the Euphrates robbed Syria of critical water. Intelligence was everything in this conflict.
    Wolf glanced over at his partner. Cougar was scanning the frequencies listening for anything out of the ordinary on the Syrian defense network. “Anything?”
    Cougar gave a thumbs-up.
    “Thirty seconds.”
    Wolf shifted around as the warning came from the pilot. Bear in the lead helicopter would be taking the most risk, scoping out the area. Only then would they go in to bring the man out.
    The helicopter ahead flashed red infrared strobes and moments later it flared, dropped speed, and began to circle. “Clear!”
    Wolf braced his weight as the helicopter went nose down and spurted forward toward the pickup point. The lead gunship swerved left and took a defensive higher circle.
    “Setting down.”
    Sand rushed up as Wolf strained to see the man they had come to meet. A desert animal the size of a rabbit jumped and Wolf had to check the instinct to fire. He wanted to be the one racing out to grab the man, but that task had been given to Cougar and Pup. The arrangement had been precise. The man would be at the well, alone.
    There!
    Cougar and Pup jumped out and took off at a sprint.
    It was an agonizing minute.
    “Do you have him?” The terse request from the pilot in the chopper above broke the silence and put into words the growing unease with sitting exposed. Come on. Come on. Wolf willed his partner back.
    Pup appeared from the whirling sand. Then their guest. Then Cougar.
    Wolf snagged the man’s arm as Cougar literally threw him aboard. He tugged Pup aboard and then grabbed his partner. “We’ve got him. Go!”
    The helicopter went airborne and a wall of sand rose to swallow them. They turned on a track to the