Everyone turned to Reyland’s radio as it suddenly began to sputter out static. There were several frantic clicks followed by a short loud beep.
“Emerson? What is it?” Reyland called into the Motorola.
“Holy shit! Reyland!” Emerson called out in a loud, suddenly very clear panicked voice.
“What!” Reyland said.
“The email I was waiting for,” he yelled. “Holy shit! I knew it!”
“What?” Reyland said.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Emerson yelled.
“WHAT!” Reyland screamed back into his handheld.
“This guy, Gannon. The report just came in on him. I had Rayne cross-reference his fingerprints with the covert database, and it popped. It popped. We got a hit! You’re not going to believe this.”
“What are you trying to say?” Reyland called on the radio.
“Reyland, stop interrupting him!” Ruiz yelled from across the hole, sounding suddenly nervous. “How many times I gotta tell you? Every time two people key a mic at the same time, it kills the signal. Keep the line open!”
“Come in, Emerson. Over,” Reyland said into the radio.
There was another crackle and then Emerson said clearly:
“I have the report on Gannon. Listen, he was NYPD, but before that, he was DEVGRU, Reyland. Top echelon. Task Force Blue.”
Ruby’s mouth dropped open as she sat there.
Being navy, she knew that DEVGRU was short for the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.
The special operations organization previously known as SEAL Team Six.
She thought about Gannon. His diving skills. The way he had handled the SWAT team in New York. His preternatural calm.
Gannon was a SEAL! she thought, wide-eyed.
“He’s a SEAL?” Reyland said.
“Yes. Listen to this record. Navy SEAL Buds training, 1995, at age twenty-one one of the youngest ever to go through. SEAL Special Sniper School, San Diego, California. SEAL Covert No Contact Urban Environment Recon Course at Fort Gordon in Georgia.”
Ruby beamed at the growing dread on Reyland’s face.
“He’s also done covert ops, boss. Ninety-six, he was Special Actions Division in Africa. In ninety-eight, he was South America with the same group. In twenty-oh-one, he was deployed to Afghanistan with the CIA first expeditionary force in search of Osama bin Laden.”
“Shit, shit, shit!” Ruiz said.
“After that he switched to the DIA. Iraq and Afghanistan ops. Year after year after year. Eight tours, Reyland. Eight! This guy’s killed more people than fentanyl. He must have joined the NYPD after cycling out of the SEALs.”
Ruiz looked down at the water in panic.
“I knew it,” he said. “This guy is a seasoned hunter-killer recon cowboy, and my guys don’t know!”
“Emerson, listen to me. Are you sure about this? Are you sure?” Reyland said into the radio as he sat up straight.
They all listened. There was the scratch of empty signal. The sound of the wind.
“Emerson, come in. Over,” Reyland said.
Reyland crackled the thumb piece again but there was just more fuzz.
“Emerson, come in. Over,” Reyland said again.
They listened, but there was still nothing but the sound of crickets from the darkness and the soft rustle of wind in the fronds of the palms.