WARRIOR (CROSSFIRE SEALS, #5) by Gennita Low Page A

on a successful mission, ladies and gentlemen. Good job.”
    “Thank you, sir,” Hawk said.
    “Our Joint Mission was a success because we all did our parts. Miss Hutchens’ Intel about Yakob’s involvement with sales of parts of the fallen Stealth has proven correct. And our inside man’s tracking of Yakob’s whereabouts was also important. Without them, our operation wouldn’t have come about. Thank you, Miss Hutchens, thank you, Mr. Kingsley.”
    “My pleasure, Admiral,” Amber said, “but everything depended on Shahrukh’s being actually inside and pinpointing where the ceremony was being held. That made it easier since it saved the men valuable time. Your presence was mostly our good fortune, Shahrukh.”
    “Our operations crossed paths. It happens a lot these days,” someone up front said. It was the man they’d “captured” along with the Cob. “Number Nine contacted me and I managed to stay longer. What with so many attending the ceremony, no one suspected.”
    “I appreciate COS’ help. I hope your operation was just as successful?” Admiral Madison asked.
    Shahrukh nodded. “Yes. With your taking me in as prisoner, there won’t be any suspicions until I reappear again somewhere. By then, Number Nine should have taken care of some details.”
    Lucas had heard a bit about the COS commandos, of which there were nine, from conversations with Hawk and Jazz. Everything was hush-hush about them. Their orders were to not ask too many questions when other outfits were around, thus, curious as he was about the “crossed paths” component of the mountain search and seize mission, none of the SEALs nor he said anything. Their focus was on getting the Cob, anyhow. Now it was up to other people to question the prisoner and find out about the sold Stealth parts and the various terrorists organizations. Hopefully, the information would prove useful for their battle against the enemy.
    Jazz reported the bare-bones details of what went down. He had a bird’s eye view from the top of the wall before securing the front entrance for the SEALs’ quick exit. The boat crew Chief gave his. Lucas took notes for future reference.
    “Again, excellent job tonight. I’d like to hear questions from the rest of the men,” Admiral said.”
    “Why is everyone calling it a ceremony and not a wedding, sir?” Joker asked.
    “You should ask Cumber that question,” Hawk replied.
    Lucas looked up, surprised. “Me?”
    “You and the stooges crashed through that barn door in such a timely manner, just as the whole thing was getting started, so I thought you’d know the reason,” Hawk pointed out.
    “Yeah, especially since you and the stooges knew part of the ceremony was to first roll around in bird poop before crashing through the barn door. Hell, you guys looked like zombies.”
    “Smelled like zombies too.”
    “Still do.”
    The place roared. Lucas shook his head and gave his buddies a side ways glance. They were never going to hear the end of this one.
    “We are SEALs. We use all means,” he deadpanned. “But, no, Joker, can’t answer your question, but I suspected there was something odd going on, since you’d think they wouldn’t hold a wedding outside an animal house.”
    “It’s not a wedding,” a quiet voice, with a slight French accent, interjected. Everyone turned to Mrs. V-Z. “It’s a ceremony because a girl is being given away as part of an offering for some crime that had been committed towards Yakob’s family, usually as a way to replace a dead relative. It’s called swara . When Shahrukh reported back to Center about staying longer to help Admiral Madison out, he told T and the commandos about what was taking place and how he could be there without being noticed. T, of course, passed on the information to me.”
    Lucas had wondered about Vivi V-Z’s role in the operation, but it was clear now she wasn’t actually part of it at all. Vivi had a very, very soft spot for girls in trouble.