Read Power: Special Tactical Units Division (In Wilde Country Book 3) for Free Online Page A

from doing what he’d been born to do until it suited the needs of others.
    “Well?” Blake said. “Are you up for this or not, Akecheta?”
    There was only one possible answer.
    And it was yes.

CHAPTER THREE
    Somewhere over the United States, just after 8 p.m. Eastern time:
    Four-star generals were magicians.
    They were good at pulling rabbits out of hats.
    San Escobal was in the Caribbean. That made south Florida the logical starting point.
    Small problem.
    The distance between Camp Condor and south Florida was almost three thousand miles.
    So the first rabbit out of the hat was fast transport.
    That turned out to be no problem at all.
    Tanner sat in a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet, a two-seater version of the newest, fastest jet that existed. The pilot would bring the jet down at Boca Chica Key in Key West, where an Hughes MH-6 Little Bird helicopter would be waiting.
    The other rabbits out of the hat were things he could have gotten on his own, but never with the speed that came of having them requested by a guy with four stars on his shoulder boards.
    Paracord. A canvas tarp. A magnesium fire starter. A satellite phone. A GPS. A flashlight. Individual packets of antibiotic ointment. Ditto for sterile wipes. Ibuprofen. Antibiotic capsules. Power bars. A cook pot. Cups. Canteens. Half a dozen Meals Ready to Eat. The MREs were bulky, but foraging off the land was time-consuming. Besides, once he secured the woman, he’d have to feed her something substantial. He had no way of knowing what condition she’d be in, other than to be certain that the ordeal she’d experienced, hard on any civilian, would have been especially hard on a spoiled city girl.
    He had his own weapons.
    A Hechkler & Koch MP7. STUD operatives had access to an almost endless variety of weapons, but he’d learned to trust the MP7 for its accuracy and firepower. His SIG-SAUER P226 pistol and the SOG-TAC knife that had been with him from the start, through his deployment as a SEAL and then as a STUD.
    Everything else would be waiting for him in a backpack on the chopper in the Keys.
    Wilde had argued that what he was taking wasn’t sufficient.
    “How about a tent? A backup pistol? A machete? Surely you’ll want flares. Anti-venom.”
    Tanner said yes to the flares and considered the machete. Whether you called the stuff in San Escobal a jungle or a rain forest, it could be tough to get through. A machete would undoubtedly be useful, but it would add to what was already a bigger load of stuff than he liked. He’d be moving fast, first to find the woman and then to get her out.
    STUDs learned to make-do with what was at hand.
    Still, he’d agreed to the machete. He knew that it might be the difference between moving through the heavy growth quickly or getting trapped in a morass of vines, branches and trees.
    As for taking someone else with him…
    Both he and Blake struck that down. Fast.
    He’d have satphone access to Chay, who would be his contact, but getting into San Escobal and getting the woman out was black ops, a lone-wolf mission…Call it what you wanted, it all came down to the same thing. The job called for getting in fast and getting out the same way.
    He would be on his own, and he liked it that way.
    Still, Wilde wasn’t convinced.
    “I damn well hope you’re up to this, Akecheta,” he’d said as Tanner had prepared to leave.
    Captain Blake had slapped Tanner on the back.
    “He is,” he’d told the general. “If anybody can pull this off, Johnny, it’s Tanner.”
    The pilot’s voice buzzed through his headphones.
    “Fifteen minutes to touchdown, Lieutenant.”
    “Roger that,” Tanner said, and took a long, steadying breath.
    Right on time. He’d have a few hours to pore over maps, check out the satellite photos he’d requested, even though little would be visible on the ground because of the lushness of the land itself.
    He’d made a tough decision about when to go in.
    Dropping out of a chopper at night was not