20

ABOARD THE USS PELELIU, IN THE YELLOW SEA

Rankin raced into the gym his men were using as a ready room.

“Saddle up! We got a mission, let’s go,” he shouted through the doorway. “Let’s do it. Get aboard the choppers. Come on, let’s go.”

The men snapped to immediately, grabbing their gear and trotting in the direction of the flight deck.

“We getting Ferguson?” asked Michael Barren, the Special Forces’ first sergeant.

“No. We’re going to neutralize an air base. The Marines are going to back us up.”

“An air base?”

“I’ll lay it out in the helicopter. Come on.”