Edge of Reason (EDGE Security Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

nodded. “The commander said as much.”
    She pressed her lips together, something he was beginning to recognize as the first pricking of her temper. “Let me say this a different way, Lucky . You won’t be able to pick up women by telling them you’re in the military.”
    He scowled. Was she seriously going there? “Excuse me, ma’am. But my personal life is none of your concern.” He leaned back in his chair and put on a cocky smile. “I really won’t have a problem, though. I’ve never had to rely on it before. Most women jump me without me even having to say a word. In fact, one time, in an elevator right here at E.D.G.E.—”
    “You’ve made your point, Lafayette.”
    “Roger that, ma’am. Anything else?”
    Her lips stayed pressed tightly together. “What about your friends and family? Can you live with them thinking you’re no longer a vaunted SEAL?”
    “Wow,” he drawled sarcastically. “You really have a low estimation of my character.”
    “These are standard questions.”
    “Are they now?” Before she could say anything more, he answered her first question. “My friends know not to ask questions of my work.”
    “Meaning they’re all SEALs.”
    He gave a sharp nod, feeling somehow not up to par because he didn’t have friends in the civilian world. But who had time for that in their lifestyle?
    “And your family?”
    He grit his teeth. “If you’d bothered to read that file in front of you, you would have seen that I have no family.”
    She had the grace to look embarrassed. She closed the file. “I’m sorry,” she said. “There’s no excuse.”
    The softly spoken apology made up for whatever criticism she had directed at him. “It’s fine.”
    “Good. We’re on call for a mission in West Africa. Introduce yourself to the rest of Alpha team and get settled in today. IT will need to see you as well. Briefing at 0500 tomorrow.”  
    “Yes, ma’am.” He stood.  
    She leaned back in the chair and sighed. “We’re not so formal here, Lucky. Lose the ma’am.”
    “Yes, ma-” He raised his eyebrows, waiting.
    “The team calls me Valkyrie.”  
    He couldn’t help his grin widening. “I remember. It suits you.”

C HAPTER 3

    “A senator’s son has gone missing,” Blackwell told Cat and her team the next morning. “His father has asked us to find him and bring him home.”
    Blackwell tapped some buttons and the virtual monitor appeared on the plexi-wall behind him, made for that purpose. He stood and pulled on a special glove with nano-circuitry that allowed him to flick through the files of the computer as if he touched the virtual screen. Soon a map appeared. He made an expanding motion with his hand and the map zoomed in.
    Nigeria.
    “Senator Warren Hutchins’s son is a doctor who went to Nigeria with Doctors Without Borders. He’s been there for three months. Last week, he traveled to a small village south of Hadejia with another man, Dr. Samuel Botman.” With a flick of his fingers, Blackwell brought up two photos—one of a smiling man in his mid-twenties with long hair pulled back in a ponytail, and the other of an older gentleman with a graying close-clipped beard.  
    “Neither of them returned,” he continued. “I don’t need to remind any of you that Northeastern Nigeria is Boko Haram’s territory. I’ve had IT scour the Black Net for any new uploaded videos, but they’ve come up empty. If the Boko Haram have them then they’re not saying.”
    Doc leaned his large frame back in the chair. “Could these guys just be lost?”
    Blackwell sighed. “It’s a possibility, and the best one we’ve got at the moment. Either way, you’ll insert with a HAHO night jump from a C-130 Hercules at thirty thousand feet. You’ll have forty kilometers to navigate to get to the village. An intelligence asset will make contact south of the village. This is a fact-finding mission, but if you get an actual lead on the young doctor then grab him if you