Prologue It was hot as hell. The temperature was already in the 90s and steadily rising, the sun, a big yellow ball in the middle of a cloudless sky, radiating waves of heat. Sweat stained the front of Thomas Becker’s camo T-shirt. Not even the gust of wind hitting the chopper could cool him down, and the four other men inside seemed to be experiencing the same discomfort. “Man, I hate South America,” Carson Scott remarked, raising his voice to be heard over the sound of wind and rotors. “It’ll get cooler when we’re in the jungle,” John Garrett said with a shrug, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Carson sighed. “I hate the jungle too. Monkeys freak me out.” Next to him, Ryan Evans, the youngest and rowdiest member of Team Fifteen, hooted. “Does Holly know what a wimp you are?” “Naah, I bet he tells her a bunch of stories when he gets back from overseas,” Matt O’Connor chimed in. “Painting himself as the hero in each one.” “Oh, I’m definitely Holly’s hero,” Carson shot back, wiggling his eyebrows. “She’s always the damsel in distress when we role-play. Except for that one time, when I got to be a weary, injured traveler and she was the virgin nurse who tenderly nurtured me back to health.”