Chapter 1
The first voice that came through Riley Hayes’ radio was laughing.
Not nervous laughter.
Not battlefield panic.
Real laughter.
Mean.
Confident.
Cruel.
“One helicopter against six fighters?”
The voice belonged to the lead enemy pilot circling above the desert canyon.
He clicked his mic again.
“This ends in thirty seconds.”
Inside the cockpit of the Apache, warning alarms screamed.
Red lights flashed across Riley’s visor.
Six fast-moving dots burned across her radar screen, closing in from the direction of the sun.
Below her, trapped on the canyon floor, American soldiers waved orange panels and blood-stained arms, begging for help.
Their vehicles were burning.
Their radio antenna was snapped.
Dust swallowed everything.
And Riley was the only aircraft close enough to reach them.
Her call sign was Reaper.
But on that morning, everyone on the channel treated her like a dead woman flying.
“Reaper, turn back now!” a commander shouted. “You are outnumbered and outmatched!”
Riley tightened her grip on the controls.
Then she looked down at the soldiers trapped beneath her.
May you like
“Negative,” she said. “I still have men down there.”
Read Part 2 to see why Riley refused a direct order to turn back.
