The seven-year-old girl’s scream echoed throughout the parking lot. Ryan Parker, a retired Navy SEAL, was in the parking lot with his daughter when he saw three men dragging a woman toward a pickup truck. Every instinct told him to back away. He was with his daughter. But when one of the attackers pulled out a knife, Ryan made a decision. Sixty seconds later, all three men were on the ground, unconscious. The next morning, a Navy admiral knocked on his door. The woman Ryan had saved was the admiral’s daughter, and the three men were part of something much bigger than a random attack.
Oceanside, California, is a coastal city 20 miles north of San Diego. It is home to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and a large community of active duty military personnel and veterans. The city had a dual personality.
There were tourist beaches on one side and working-class neighborhoods on the other. It maintained a thin veneer of security that sometimes cracked even in broad daylight. It was 4:30 pm on a Tuesday in October.
The California sun was still shining, hanging low on the western horizon, casting long golden shadows across the parking lot. The Oceanside Gateway Mall was moderately busy. The rush of commuters was just beginning to arrive, mingling with parents finishing up their pre-dinner errands.
The asphalt radiated the day’s accumulated heat, and the air carried the faint scent of the nearby ocean mingled with car exhaust and the hot pavement. Ryan Parker emerged from the Target store carrying two shopping bags and holding the hand of his seven-year-old daughter, Lily. Ryan was 39 years old, with the build of a middleweight fighter: 5 feet 11 inches, 180 pounds, all lean muscle and old scars.
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