My father-in-law and his eight sons b/ea/t my pregnant wife until she lost our baby… then laughed outside her ICU door, mocking me as a “worthless, broke soldier.” They had no idea I wasn’t just any soldier-I was the commander of a black-ops hit squad. As my phone buzzed with a message reading “Target confirmed,” I looked at them and whispered…

lit belly of a military aircraft, that metaphorical mud felt intensely, violently real.

The heavy, encrypted satellite device strapped to my tactical webbing suddenly vibrated against my ribs, an unnatural jolt out of rhythm with the plane’s violent shaking. The digital display illuminated with an ominous, restricted red warning, but my brain instantly continue reading …