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right?” she asked him.
    Toby ’s mouth went dry. He acknowledged her supposition with a shrug.
    “ That’s why I’m going to ask him to devise our training schedule for the next two CPXs. I want all of us, including our civilian soldiers, capable of capturing high-value targets without spilling a drop of blood or destroying personal property.”
    An excited hush filled the room. Toby ’s mind spun as he grasped what it was she was saying.
    She paced before them carrying her coffee mug and. “I’ve decided that the only way to stamp out corruption is to confront the perpetrators with our disgruntlement and to make them fear reprisal if they don’t change their ways. So we abduct them. We transport them to some secret location and we give them the bottom line. Once we’re satisfied that we’ve been heard, we let them go. If their behavior doesn’t change, we re-capture them and reiterate our demands.”
    She was flipping crazy. Toby glanced at the others ’ pleased expressions. Correction, all of them were crazy.
    “ I repeat. We will not draw blood or destroy property,” she said severely. Her eyes shone like silver plates. “ We are not the aggressors. We are the voice of the people who abhor injustice and demand righteousness.” She thumped her coffee mug down on the desktop.
    “ Hear, hear!” Morrison and Lee said at the same time.
    “ Sergeant Burke.”
    Toby prayed his incredulity wasn ’t stamped all over his face. “Ma’am?”
    “ Can I count on you to teach us what we need to know?”
    Oh, he knew what they needed to know. As an agent with ATF ’s Special Response Teams, he grabbed targets on a regular basis, but they were arms smugglers and drug dealers, not just people who failed to live up to his expectations. “Maybe I need to understand the mission better.” His Taskforce lead would want details.
    “ I just explained the mission.” Her brisk words held a thread of annoyance.
    “ True, but there’s a lot to consider. I’d need to assess the enemy composition and disposition. How many in number are there; will they have weapons? What’s the terrain like?”
    “ I’ll supply you with that information in good time.”    
    Back off . Tell her what she wants to hear . But he couldn’t shut himself up. “What’s to keep your targets from going straight to the authorities and filing a complaint?” he demanded. She did realize abduction was illegal, right?
    To his surprise, Dylan relaxed. She sent him the look of a woman with a perfect poker hand. “The Sheriff of Harpers Ferry is a member of our militia,” she informed him with a touch of condescension.
    Really? The Taskforce would be interested to hear that.
    “And so is the Sheriff of Martinsburg. I’m not ignorant, Sergeant Burke. I don’t take risks without thinking them through.”
    Toby felt his face heat. Gesturing that she ’d won her argument, he locked his jaw so as not to say anything else that might arouse her suspicions or make her irate. Just listen , he told himself.
    “ Who are we grabbing first?”
    Sergeant Morrison gave voice to Toby ’s most pressing question. Toby’s money was on Hendrix, the doctor that had made Morrison sick.
    Dylan ’s lovely lips pursed. “I’ll let you know that once I think we’re ready. We have a lot to learn before we can execute the event I have in mind.”
    Her gaze slid back to Toby. “So, what do you say, Sergeant Burke? Are you with us or not?”
    Was that an ultimatum, or was he just imagining that it was? With every soldier in the room awaiting his reply, Toby signified that he was game. “You’re the boss.” Working for the Taskforce, he had immunity, so what did it matter to him what she did, except that it put a tight feeling in his chest to picture a phalanx of Feds hauling her and her band of merry men off in handcuffs.
     
    ***
     
    Toby used the light of his phone to illuminate the packed up memories as he sifted through the boxes in the attic, hunting