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

She was currently in charge of some UN-funded organization for young women who had been victimized by international criminals, such as those who had escaped the sex trafficking cartels.
    “That explains the young girl who climbed the rope,” Zone said. “She sure made it up the wall like a champ.”
    “What happened to her?” Turner asked.
    Zone shrugged. “Don’t know. I pulled her up. She thanked me in English and she took off down the other side of the rope. I’d say she knew where she was going.”
    “That’s my fault,” Shahrukh said. “Once she told me she could climb very well, I told her the very moment there was trouble in the yard, to look in the direction where Team Alpha would be coming down. I advised her to wait till the men had climbed down before running there and scaling the wall. She was not to wait and explain anything to you guys because you would be busy and she needed to be out of sight of her immediate family.”
    “Thank you for taking care of her for me, Shahrukh,” Vivi said.
    “Our missions also crossed paths,” Shahrukh said, with another small smile. “And T was persuasive, as usual.”
    All these crossed-missions were giving Lucas a headache. That was the problem with joint missions. Everyone was busy taking care of their own agenda. All these people Mad Dog had brought in were mysterious as hell, always in some deep covert operation. Their last one big joint venture had the aforementioned T and Vivi running their own thing while his SEAL team had to explode a bridge.
    A success, sure. But still, these women sure brought along a whole handful of other problems. For himself, he liked the KISS principle—keep it simple, stupid. As if reading his mind, Vivi V-Z looked in his direction, straight at him, a smile forming on her face.
    “You must have taken a page from my tactical book, Cucumber. I had goats. Now I hear you attacked with chickens.”
    “Correction, madam, the stooges were wearing the chickens,” Turner chimed in.
    There were more chuckles.
    “Lieutenant Commander Zeringue once told me, you do what you have to do,” Vivi said. Her eyebrows came up. “Sometimes, simple things get the job done.”
    Lucas frowned. Damn if these GEM operatives couldn’t read minds. Hawk had warned them they were trained in some kind of behavioral testing and manipulation or some such mumbo-jumbo. It even had a name—NOPAIN—but he hadn’t really paid much attention to remember what it was all about. He shuffled his feet and shrugged. Let’s see whether he could read minds too and guess Mrs. V-Z’s mission.
    “I hope saving the girl who ran off would be just as simple for you, ma’am,” he said.
    Vivi shook her head. “Unfortunately, my job is a little bit more complicated since it involves women in a patriarchal-ruled region of the world.” She sighed. “But you and the SEAL team gave me a good running start and for that, I thank you.”
    Bingo. He’s got mind-reading skills too.
    “Joint missions require clear communication,” Admiral Madison said. His blue eyes flashed some emotion as he continued, “Remember our fallen brothers. They died because every damn agency wasn’t sharing. Meanwhile, the rats stole our weaponry and secrets and sold them around the world. I’m here in DC still trying to untangle this damn mess. One thing is clear. I do not want a repeat of our men coming back in body bags because of greedy traitors. You have questions, go to your leader. They’ll communicate your concerns to me. We’ll try to double check all Intel through our joint missions. Are we clear?”
    “Hooyah!”
    Heard, understood, acknowledged. Everyone was solemn in the room as they remembered their fallen comrades. It had recently surfaced that traitor rats and sleeper agents had, for the last ten years, been infesting the CIA and FBI. It was going to take years to undo all the damage. The admiral had told them they were in the crossfire and all must be prepared at all