Page 1 of Statler

PROLOGUE

Statler looked around the room. Warmth and pride swelled his chest over the missions they’d accomplished in the years they’d been together.

His team.

Blue, Dizzy, Hazard, Sherbert, Tonka, and Pipes.

They were his six brothers and one sister; all forged in fire.

They’d served together in the military, and they were the best of the best.

When the Army Corp of Engineers had sent them into combat zones to ready and secure dangerous, uninhabitable sites for American troops, Stat had toiled next to these people in the harshest of conditions, putting his life in their hands, as they had with him.

He’d missed the hell out of them when he’d left the Army, but he had a sister to take care of after learning of some heinous things she’d undergone while he’d been serving Uncle Sam.

It was a heart-wrenching decision, but his buddies had all understood.

What followed, however, had defied all odds.

One by one, each of Stat’s squad members had separated from the Army, and they had joined him in his newly minted construction firm, eventually becoming a fully-fledged team again.

That had been eight years ago, and they’d never looked back.

They’d unintentionally changed their directive pretty quickly, however, but not one of them had any regrets.

Even though what they truly did was hidden from the public.

These days, Stat and his squad were risking life and limb, using their building skills as a cover to conceal their true purpose.

Black-ops.

Along with swinging hammers, Stat’s team was an off-the-books and unofficially-sanctioned group who targeted and eliminated domestic terrorists, human traffickers, arms dealers, and any other scum of the earth in whose direction they were pointed.

This was accomplished under orders of a secret branch of the government for whom they covertly performed.

At the top of their particular heap was General Dark; the man who had approached Statler with an opportunity that he and his crew hadn’t been able to turn down. Above the General was someone who knew of their existence and was the one who gave the green light to their ops, but otherwise remained uninvolved for plausible deniability if things went south.

There was a West Coast team performing the same things that Stat’s people did, and they’d conferred a time or two, which had been…fun.

They were a professional, yet irreverent bunch.

Working behind the scenes for both the east and west coast factions, was a small contingent of trained personnel who, for the General, provided intel and cover regarding the jobs to which the crews were assigned.

That was the extent of people in-the-know.

Not even Statler’s sister, Petula, was aware that the crew conducted anything other than the business they purported to do. And that was saying something, since Petula had lived with Statler since he’d separated from the Army eleven years previous.

Back then, of course, as per his plan, Stat had simply been establishing himself in the commercial building industry; starting a company and making a name for himself. But one by one, as his ex-squad members had hung up their combat boots, work became a joy, rather than a task.

They’d been doing okay for themselves for a couple years, when…

Enter, Dark.

The man had approached Statler, first.

At the local coffee shop on a routine run for caffeine.

Stat had immediately noticed the guy that morning. He certainly stood out.