"Halt," Williams ordered, and they obeyed. "We'll take Sera from here," he barked, and a frown instantly tugged at Christen's brow, threatening to turn into a scowl.

"Not likely, Corporal," Doc snapped.

Although the rest of his team didn't remove the balaclavas hiding their features, Williams didn't wear one.

"We ran this base for twenty years, and when you come along, we get bombed. I don't call that coincidence," he barked.

"Not that we care what you think, but my people didn't cause this, and we're not trusting you with her. The intelligence you provided said there would be twenty-two cartel soldiers, and there were at least sixty," Doc stood her ground, and Williams raised his gun.

Christen could kill most of them before they did too much damage, but her priority was Sera and Doc. If she attacked, her friend might get hurt or die; she didn't want that.

The gun wavered.

"Our intel was solid."

Doc raised a brow. "Bullshit," she stated succinctly, "you were wrong, and your high-tech base got bombed. The word coming to mind is 'leak.'"

He lowered the weapon, but his people didn't.

"Two hundred of our people died."

Anger and betrayal burned like fire in his eyes at the depth of his loss.

"Well, Sir, if you had a leak, that person would still be alive, and since you are part of the prize, I'd say they didn't catch a ride out of here," Christen intervened, and he glanced at her, understanding dawning in his gaze.

***

Before anyone could react, one of William's men pointed his gun at Sera, but a round hole bloomed between his eyes before he could take proper aim. Blood spilled from it a moment later, and his knees buckled. Christen's gun lowered, and she dove out of the way as bullets pinged into the trees where she had just stood.

A second member of William's team took aim at Sera, and she took that one out before using a bit of her super speed to reach the treeline as a hail of bullets thunked into bark.

"Stop firing at VSA Strickland, you idiots!" Williams hollered.

Christen watched them from her hiding place, not breaking cover.

Doc clutched her shoulder, a soldier lay on the ground bleeding profusely from a leg wound, and some of the Colonel's team were curled up on the forest floor, protecting Sera with their bodies—a situation she didn't trust. It would be easy to slip a knife between the teenager's ribs.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Williams asked, pointing his gun at his own people. "Did you not see Hollister and Sanchez trying to kill Sera Rhodes?" There was no mistaking his mistrust.

They lowered their weapons and removed their masks, looking shocked, disorientated, and devastated.

Reading their vital signs, she trusted that none of the remaining men and women had anything to do with the two fallen soldiers or their plot, but she didn't budge.

Circumstances forced her to betray herself, and that was a terrible thing... for them.

"Is she alright?" Doc asked, checking her wound.

"I'm fine, Mam," Sera answered, emerging from between her protectors, looking disheveled, bruised, muddied, and endearingly young.

"Good girl," Doc said with relief, "and you lot did a good job," she said.

The soldiers nodded as she quickly checked their wounds, despite her own injury.

"Christen, you may return now," Doc said with a hard look at Williams, and he nodded, glancing at the bodies on the ground.

A dark scowl tugged at his forehead, his handsome but austere face set.

She emerged from the trees with extreme reluctance, seeing the questions and speculation in their eyes. Nothing human could have reacted with the speed she did or ran the way she did to draw their fire away from Doc and the others.

"Any holes in you?" Doc asked, helping Saunders with his hand.

Doc's wound seemed to be through and through, not doing much real damage, but the problem in this jungle, with its heat and humidity, was an infection.

A few drops of her blood would fix that, but there was no telling what that would do to her friend, and her bosses would not want her to find out.

"A few scrapes," she answered, mentally taking stock of herself.

All her wounds would heal in a couple of hours if she didn't put her watch back on.

"Thank you," Sera said, questions in her gaze but sincere gratitude in her expression.

The kid thanked her for more than saving her life just then, and she nodded. The others would not have been able to get the girl from the compound, and she hadn't realized that Sera had realized that. Smart girl. Perhaps too smart for her own good.

"What the hell are you?" Williams demanded darkly with his usual amount of tact.

"That's classified, Corporal. I suggest you erase what you saw from your mind because if you mention it to anybody, I think you might find yourself in a spot of bother," Doc suggested perceptively.

As Christen glanced at her, she realized Doc suspected or knew more than she let on, something Dana and the bosses had better never figure out.

"Get that bullet out of Mollin's leg, Christen, while I finish here. I hope you have a spare medkit," Doc barked at Williams, and he nodded.

She expected Mollins to shy from her, but the man was in too much pain, and she pinched a nerve in his neck. The scowl disappeared from his face as the pain eased, and she cut away his pant leg.

"It isn't as bad as it looked," she said, but getting the bullet out would have hurt like hell if she hadn't used that pain-blocking method.

She worked quickly and had him patched up in minutes, but he swore when she undid the pinch, and they had precious little pain medication.

"Can't you do the thing again?" he pleaded.

"Not unless you want to die," she apologized.

"Will he be able to walk? We need to move now. They did two sweeps of the area last night, and they might return," Williams warned.

"How had we not heard the fighter planes that must have dropped those bombs?" Christen asked.

The helicopters she could understand, but not the planes.

"They used two stealth class drones," the corporal revealed.

"The Mexicans? How is that possible?" Doc asked.

"I don't think the drones belonged to Mexico, but the helos and soldiers did," he enlightened them.

"So, what foreign country would work with them that can afford the technology when we have only just perfected it?" Doc asked, and he shrugged.

"Don't know, but I saw a demonstration earlier in the month, and Sonland was with me. She said she could swear it was the same thing," Williams reluctantly revealed.

"Our own people bombed us?" Doc asked, disbelief etched into her features as she turned on her haunches to look at him.

"Or the same traitors that bombed this place also stole the specs for the drone and manufactured it here to save on labor and paperwork," Christen suggested.

"I can walk, Sir. There's no way I'm dying of infection in some Mexican prison," Mollins said, his chin jutting with determination as she helped him stand, and another soldier assisted him in taking a few painful steps.

"Do you have a stretcher? We'd have to carry him if he wants to keep that leg," she suggested.

"No, but it would take only a few minutes to construct one from the materials we have," the soldier who accidentally shot Mollins suggested.

"Get it done," the corporal instructed, and three soldiers disappeared into the forest.

"I am sorry we shot at you," Williams apologized with speculation in his eyes.

"Understandable reaction," she granted.

"Idiots," Doc muttered, and Williams glared at her.

She would obviously not be so understanding. Her people hadn't reacted in the same way, and they had protected Sera, assessing the situation, not shooting first and asking questions later.

Christen saw the irony; they were treated like amateurs, but when push came to shove, they proved their training superior.