CHAPTER 87

Ramstein Air Base, Germany

October

FREDDY’S BODY HAD BEEN bagged and was surrounded by ice to keep it as cool as possible. Reece accompanied his friend’s remains on the C-17 that also carried the Secret Service’s vehicles from the president’s motorcade. The Air Force loadmasters had carefully and respectfully secured Freddy’s body bag to the aircraft’s metal cargo floor. Reece sat next to it.

When they’d landed in Germany to refuel and link up with the president and the rest of the Presidential Protection Detail, an agent approached Reece with an offer to ride in Air Force One at the president’s invitation. Reece politely declined; he wasn’t leaving his teammate’s side. The NCIS investigation in Afghanistan had robbed him of his duty to accompany the fallen members of his troop home, and he wasn’t about to let that happen again.

Reece had spoken to Vic Rodriguez on the sat phone and helped him coordinate the notification of Freddy’s family. When Joanie Strain’s bedroom light turned on in Beaufort, South Carolina, at 6: 13 a. m. the following morning, Rodriguez knocked quietly on the front door.

The knock sent her heart racing as she realized that the dreaded moment that every military wife fears had come, a nightmare from which she would never awake.

Joanie didn’t know Vic, so she didn’t recognize him when she cracked the door in a light robe, but she knew the master chief in dress blues from Freddy’s last military command who accompanied him. Her eyes moved from his ribbons to the Trident to his sad eyes; her knees buckled and she collapsed to the floor.

• • •

At Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Freddy was transferred to an aluminum metal casket and repacked with ice. Reece couldn’t help but think that the casket, with its metal handles and locking clasps, looked a lot like a large rifle case; Freddy would like that. To his credit, President Grimes had waited in Germany for the SEAL’s remains to be prepared, making an impromptu visit to the air base and hospital to boost morale and thank the men and women recovering from wounds sustained in combat before their transfer back to the United States. Six uniformed airmen loaded the flag-draped box back onto the C-17, the Secret Service agents forming an honor guard between the military cargo van and the aircraft’s ramp. Nearly all of them had served in the military, and many had lost friends and teammates in the process.

Reece felt the dread building in his body as the massive jet approached the homeland. He knew he would have to face Joanie and he wasn’t sure he could. What can I say to her? The only reason he’s dead is because they sent him to find me. If I’d turned down their offer, Freddy would still be alive. His own grief over the loss of his friend was overshadowed by overwhelming guilt. He had to be strong for her, though, as Freddy would have been for Lauren if their roles had been reversed. But Lauren was gone; everyone was gone.

As the aircraft landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Reece could see the crowd of people and vehicles arranged near one of the hangars: a hearse, a limousine, a crisp formation of men dressed in black. The C-17 taxied toward the hangar, and the pilot shut down the powerful Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines.

The aircrew quietly removed the straps securing the metal casket to the floor and stood aside. As the ramp lowered, Reece could see two lines of Freddy’s highly decorated former teammates, many of them with thick beards but still dressed immaculately in their blues, forming a cordon between the aircraft and the waiting hearse.

Joanie stood on the tarmac, her hands on Sam’s shoulders, their two other children at her side, her face a mask of stoic grief. Vic Rodriguez had escorted her throughout her tragic journey and was an arm’s length away. A couple who must have been her parents stood beside her along with an older couple whom Reece recognized as Freddy’s parents. Everyone looks so old.

Reece stood at attention at the head of the casket as a SEAL detail approached. Reece knew the master chief leading the grim progression and caught an almost imperceptible nod of recognition as the two men made eye contact. They had to be wondering what in the hell Reece was doing there; they’d sent a team to kill him at the Pentagon’s orders just months prior and had followed the ensuing fallout closely. The smart money had been on him being dead.

The press had been kept away at the family’s request and because every face in this crowd was from a unit that the Pentagon doesn’t publicly acknowledge. Freddy’s fight was over, but these men were still very much a part of it at the tip of the U. S. military’s powerful spear. Reece watched as the flag-draped casket was carried toward his family and, as the wind blew across the open tarmac, noticed that one of the SEALs carrying him wore a prosthetic lower leg. Where do we find guys like this?

After the casket was loaded and the honor guard dismissed, Reece approached Joanie, who was speaking to one of the senior enlisted SEALs. When she caught sight of Reece she moved to him and hugged him so tightly that it stunned him, her big blue eyes red and swollen from endless crying.

“I’m so sorry about Lauren and Lucy, Reece. ”

Her husband came home in a box and she still offers me condolences for my family.

“I. . . I’m sorry about Freddy. He died like he lived, a hero. ”

“Vic told me that you were with him, Reece. It means so much to me that you were there, that he didn’t die alone. I didn’t even know where he was. ”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save him, Joanie. It was instant; he wasn’t in any pain. ”

“I know. Vic told me. ” Reece felt the almost imperceptible nod of her head against his chest through the tears.

“When he left the Teams, I was so relieved. He said this job would be safer, and that I wouldn’t have to worry. ”

“It should have been, Joanie. I’m so sorry. It’s my fault, Joanie. It should have been me. ”

Joanie’s head snapped back. “Don’t you ever think that, James Reece. Not ever. Do you understand me? ”

“Pardon the interruption, ma’am, but the president wishes to see you, ” said a Navy O-5 standing nearby.

Joanie Strain stood up straight and took a deep breath. She wiped her tears with a tissue and looked her husband’s friend directly in the eye. “Thank you for bringing him home to me, Reece. ”

“I’ll find who did this, Joanie. I’ll find everyone responsible. I promise. ”

“I know, ” she said, then nodded and turned away.

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