Chapter 4
Callaway slid behind a boulder, raised her rifle, and fired once.
The machine gun stopped for half a breath.
She fired again.
It stopped completely.
“Left element, crawl to the black rock!” she ordered.
No one moved.
They were waiting for Grayson.
But Grayson was flat against the dirt, breathing too fast to speak.
Callaway’s voice cut through the radio.
“Move now, or they walk fire down your spine.”
Private Ellis moved first.
Then two others followed.
Bullets chewed the dirt behind them, missing by inches.
Callaway shifted her aim.
A man with an RPG rose on the ridge.
She fired before anyone else saw him.
The launcher dropped into the darkness.
Colonel Holt came on the radio.
“Ghost Seven, status?”
Callaway scanned the ridge.
“Ambush confirmed. Main wadi compromised. Enemy has elevation and pre-sighted lanes. Lieutenant Grayson is pinned.”
Grayson snapped back to life.
“I am still in command.”
Another burst of gunfire shattered the rock above him.
He ducked so hard his helmet slammed the ground.
Holt’s voice turned colder.
“Not if you keep ignoring the only person who has seen this pattern before.”
The words landed.
This pattern.
Callaway froze for less than a second.
Long enough for memory to open.
A different mountain.
A different night.
A team that never made it home.
Men calling for help while command insisted the map was clean.
And one woman on a ridge with seven rounds left, guiding survivors through fire until sunrise.
That was where Ghost Seven came from.
Not a nickname.
A grave marker.
Seven people went into the valley.
Only she walked out.
The army buried the mission under classification.
The enemy buried their dead.
Callaway buried the names.
But she never forgot the pattern.
May you like
And tonight, the pattern had returned.
Read Part 5 to see what happened when Ghost Seven took control for ninety seconds.
