The air suddenly became suffocating as the hairs on the back of my neck twitched. Something wasn't right but I just couldn't figure out why my internal gut alarm was blaring. Scanning the village through my scope I could spot my men in position but again my intuition was telling me to get everyone the hell out of there.

Maybe it was the eerie silence that hovered throughout the buildings or the lack of movement from within them. Our mission was to sit back and observe the terrorists, not to engage. Intel was much more valuable than killing off the scum that wanted to take us down.

The Intel that would shed some light on the soldier that was betraying not only their fellow brothers but their country as well by selling confidential military information. Information that up until now was responsible for several lives of good men. Men who met their death by the ultimate betrayal, by one of their own.

In the last eight months, this was the first bit of Intel that we received that had a chance of leading us to the bastard and our orders were clear. Get in, spot the mole and get out. Never to engage. As much as I wanted to but a bullet through the bastards eyes, him spending his remaining years locked up, living with his disloyalty eating away at him settled well with me.

But as day began to fade away, I had a bad feeling at what was hiding in the night. After ten years of proudly serving my country, my survivor instinct kept me alive many times, I never overlooked it and tonight it was hard to ignore the ominous feeling that was seeping around me.

"Cooper, what's your status."

"In position Major. All quiet."

Santos, Maguire, Stanford and Council all came back with the same reply. All was silent in a village swarming with insurgents, not a soul to be found. Where the hell was everyone? A village should have people right? So where the fuck was everyone hiding?

"Keep your ears and eyes open. Something's off."

My men have been under my command long enough that they stopped questioning my "feelings". That is after those said feelings saved all of our asses several times.

"Major, movement at two o'clock." Santos voice echoed in my ear.

Turning my rifle, my scope focused on...

"What the fuck are the SEALS doing here?" I replied back not expecting any answers. The Colonel never mentioned the frogmen were showing up and why would they. This was a recon mission, there was no reason for the SEALS to be involved.

As I watched shadows move from building to alleyway, the SEALs eventually took position near my men.

"Major, its SEAL team 11. Richards says that this was a last minute recon job, he is not sure why they are here or for what. Andersen never gave them the details."

Shit. What the fuck was going on? Sure it wasn't uncommon for us to be working with the SEALs, but I was never left in the dark about it. This wasn't good on many levels and this situation screamed of a trap. Now that night was fully upon us, and no lights shined throughout the village, I could no longer jeopardize my men.

"Evacuate. Meet at the rendezvous spot and let's get the hell out of..."

It took me a split second to confirm that my command was too late. Things went from uncertain to FUBAR in the span to two breaths. Building after building exploded, concrete raining down, littering the streets with debris as all hell broke loose.

Shouting out commands, silence hummed over the airwaves as I tried to focus on what was going on down below me. Utter mass chaos.

Dammit where the hell were my men and why was no one answering? The smoke from the explosions made spotting them impossible and I could barely see a damn thing. Turning my frequency to another channel I radioed base.

"Eagle Base this is Major Barnes. Need back up. SEAL team 11 present. Village is blowing up around me. Do you copy?"

"Dammit Major what the hell is going on down there?" The Colonel voice rang out.

"My men are MIA. Radio is silent. I have got buildings exploding, IEDs most likely, set before we got in position. SEALS just showed up with no clue why. Our mole knew we were coming."

The last part was my theory, there was no way in hell these guys knew we were coming and this prepared for us. There were just too many coincidences that didn't sit right with me. As the building next to me shook I grabbed my weapon, running down the concrete stairs that let me to the alleyway. Around me thick smoke made it impossible to see. Grabbing my goggles to protect me eyes from floating debris, I made my way towards the street.

I needed to find my men. And the fucking mole.

Call after call went unanswered as the radio remained silent. Shit that wasn't good. The Colonel finally barged in on my channel to listen as I reiterated everything that was going on as I stalked through the streets. Help was on its way but they were still ten minutes out. From the looks of things, I didn't have ten minutes.

Ducking under a window, I flipped my night vision on to see if I could spot anyone as I made my way to where Santos was stationed. What awaited me turned my blood cold immediately. Both he and Richards laid dead, shot in the back of the head. Dammit what the hell was going on? Execution style killings were not these barstard's MO.

Moving on after relaying the information to the Colonel, I found that Cooper, Maguire and Council all met the same death...bullet to the back of the head. From the looks of it, no one saw it coming, no signs of struggle, their weapons not engaged. At my last checkpoint I deemed Stanford lucky as the building he was in crushed him and killed him instantly. What a fucked up world I lived in when I considered that type of death the preferable one.

Shaking off my emotional thoughts, I continued on as the Colonel screamed in my ear to get the fuck out of there. Apparently I was too valuable to the Army to be taken out and from the looks of things that was what was going on. But I wasn't a coward and there was no way in hell I was going to let this asshole get away with this shit, especially since I found two more SEALS had met the same fate as most of my team.

Fuck this bastard was starting to piss me off.

From the lack of sounds, I assumed their little bomb party was over and once the ringing in my ears faded I could hear voices just around the corner from me. Luckily I stopped to rest otherwise I would have walked right in on them. Two were speaking in Arabic, a language I was now fluent in, discussing their success. But it was the third voice that had my body freezing in shock.

Looking around the burning car that blocked my line of sight, I confirmed my original assumption. As I whispered my findings to the Colonel, I could hear the helicopters in the distance, but I was right, they were ten minutes too late. All my men were dead, but at least I had the bastard in my sights.

Aiming my weapon, two shots later and the last man stood alone briefly looking down at the dead bodies at his feet. As his attention on them I came out from hiding with my gun raised. Fury and anger swept through me faster than a tsunami, there wasn't anything a soldier hated more than a traitor.

"So you are still alive then? Such a shame." He smugly asked as I came out of hiding twenty yards away.

"And you are a fucking traitor. How could you Ian? Your own fucking country, your brothers...me?"

"Money and power. A shitload of both. I was tired of taking orders and never getting anywhere, this war is a fucking joke and we all know it. Plus these guys paid a pretty penny for a chance at taking down our military's best sniper."

"Where the hell did your honor go? Your integrity? You are a goddamn Navy SEAL, the best of the best and you turn it all over for fucking MONEY! Is this really worth dying as a traitor for? Christ Ian you poor family..."

"SHUT UP! My family will never know! No one will!" The man was delusional.

"Too late Ian. Command already knows. It's over, you're over..." I watched as his face shifted from anger to regret, back to anger as I steadied my weapon. I didn't want to take him out but I was prepared to do what was needed. A threat was a threat and Ian was one of the deadliest.

There was one thing I did know about Ian, he hated to loose. And as his brain processed the situation he found himself in, he knew that there was no way out. He was smart, one of the best SEALs in the Navy, he knew the consequences of getting caught.

"That's what you think..." He muttered.

I was so focused on the man that I ignored everything else...including the switch in his hand. As my eyes made contact with his smiling face, the earth around me exploded, tossing my body in the air where it finally made contact with a wall before dropping to the ground. Pain engulfed me.

Although I could hear the Colonel yelling in my ear, I couldn't make out the words. Like the dust filled the air, fog filled my brain. The only thing present was pain. So far dying sucked, I always figured it would be a lot more – instantaneous?

"MAJOR!" The voice called out through the wreckage, mustering up what I could I yelled out a reply. Never in my life was I happier to see a medic then I was right now. Three more soldiers surrounded me as two others helped the medic do his job. As they worked I gave the locations of my men and the SEALs that I did locate, I refused to leave anyone behind in this shit hole.

As they loaded me in the helicopter I had a small hope that I might survive this...physically at least.