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Josh and Jack walked Mrs. Girard to the lobby and got her settled on a very comfortable couch with a bottle of water.
Josh pulled Jack aside. “I’m going to make some calls and see if our human trafficking teams can dig something up on Preston. Mind if I take the Jeep?”
“No.” Jack dug the keys from his pocket. “Mom drove, so I’ll drive her back home.” As he handed them to Josh, he added, “I’m still going with you tonight to take out the tangos. Until we get a ransom demand, there’s nothing I can do at home. Unless you find out something.”
“I’ll let you know right away. Meet you at Ed’s office in...” Josh looked at his watch. Shit. When did it get to be four-thirty? “We need to be there in an hour to gear up.”
“I’ll be there,” Jack confirmed. “So will Too Tall, Mikey, and Cool Hand.”
“Thanks, Jack. I hate putting you guys in danger,” Josh admitted. “Our damn State Department and theirs couldn’t agree on the color of the sky if they needed to, say nothing about allowing my tactical team into the country.”
“See what you can find out about Preston’s kidnapping.” Jack nodded toward his mother. “I need to get back to her.”
“And you let me know about Lilly the minute you hear anything,” Josh demanded.
Jack stared at him a long minute. “So, you and my sister. We’ll talk about that later.”
“No. we won’t.” Josh turned and headed to the Jeep, satellite phone out and dialing his ops center.
By the time Josh reached the Girard compound, he’d put everything in motion with the approval of the Secretary of Homeland Security. Every U.S. asset available in Mexico was looking for five terrorists and a seven-year-old boy, all most likely still on the Yucatán peninsula.
He was met at the gate by a heavily armed guard in black utilities. It felt like old times, right down to the jungle setting.
He checked in with Levi at the makeshift command center in the library where he’d met just the night before with Jack, Stacie, Jeff, and Ed. Josh was surprised when the PMI agent wandered in with a cup of coffee.
“Looks like we meet here again. That coffee looks good.” Josh’s gaze swept the room for the requisite constantly filled coffee pot.
“Mateo has some brewing in the kitchen,” Ed offered. “And he’s making food.”
“Excellent.” Josh could use a jolt of caffeine. And some food. It was going to be a busy night. “Do I have time to eat before we leave for your headquarters?”
“My team is bringing everything you need here,” Ed explained. “I don’t want to leave until it’s absolutely necessary, just in case something breaks in Preston’s kidnapping.”
“Anything new on that situation?” Josh was relieved that he could stay right there for the next few hours. He was more concerned about Preston than the terrorists. He could always catch those fuckers in Miami when the ship docked. Hell, he could even take them by putting Stacie and Jeff on board with some back up but Plan B had more than a few problems. Unlike a Navy ship, a cruise liner didn’t have a brig. Plan C was to have his tactical team waiting on the dock in Miami. The original Plan A would be best because if they killed all of them in Cancun, no one in the U.S.A. would care about a group of Muslims who were killed in Mexico. Hell, the incident wouldn’t even make local news if done right.
Josh’s phone rang, and he saw it was Jeff. “Talk to me.” He walked outside onto the balcony away from the Mexican agents but close enough to hear if anything happened in the kidnap case.
“I’ve run heat sigs on every safe house we know about in Cozumel and either the tangos aren’t here yet or they’re being kept someplace else.” Jeff sounded frustrated. “Damn it, Madman, the coyotes always move the merchandise in the night before. I got nothing here.”
“Keep watching,” Josh ordered. “They have to move them to the ship tonight according to Shit Sack Zak.” A noise from the library stole his attention. He stuck his head in only to find Mateo delivering food. “Have you heard that Lilly’s son Preston was kidnapped?”
“Yeah. Stacie told me. That sucks for the Girards.” Jeff was half right. It sucked for Josh, too.
“Did you identify any kids?” Josh asked.
“Just the normal ones at each house.”
“Have you ID’d any of the safe houses in Cancun?” The traffickers had to stage the people somewhere before taking them by boat to the island of Cozumel.
“No, sir.” Jeff’s regret filled those two words.
Beep. Beep.
“Got a call coming in from Central Ops. Stay in touch.” Josh ended the call when he accepted the second one. “Madden here.”
“Sir, we have a possible lead that came through human trafficking.” At the controller’s words Josh felt hope for the first time in hours. “A contact in Cancun said a special package arrived this afternoon and was prepared to be shipped out tonight. Sir, that seems to meet your criteria.”
“Excellent work.”
“Thank you, sir. Sending you the coordinates. Ops out.”
Josh went into the library where he overheard Levi calmly order the transfer of one point two million dollars into an account. The budgets Josh handled were about ten times that amount but this was personal worth the man was moving.
Lilly was rich. Much richer than he’d ever be. What would she want with a man like him? He couldn’t give her the lifestyle she was accustomed to, like the one her ex had provided her and the boys. Josh wasn’t some important surgeon with a mega salary. He was a government employee with a manageable income and a decent retirement.
He was suddenly glad he hadn’t told her how he felt. She’d been slumming with him. For the sex. Well, he’d be happy to continue with the sex until after the wedding. He’d get over Lilly. He’d have to.
“News?” Ed’s accented English halted thoughts of the woman he wanted to his core, but couldn’t have.
“Maybe. Do you have equipment that can read heat signatures?” Josh asked.
“It’s on its way here.”
Josh needed to know its estimated time of arrival. “ETA?”
“About thirty minutes.” Ed’s black eyebrows lifted. “What you got?”
“A special package waiting for a nighttime delivery.” Josh’s grin said the rest.
“Good.” Ed led Josh back out onto the balcony. “Nothing is happening here, and I have a bad feeling about this whole thing with Preston. Something’s not right. I feel it in my gut. But nothing I can do about it. The team leader says waiting for hours without contact is normal. It could go on for days before they get a ransom demand.” He glanced to where three PMI agents milled around as though they had nothing better to do than relax in this beautiful home and drink expensive coffee. Ed lowered his voice, “If they ever hear.”
No. That wasn’t a possibility. Josh would find Preston, and he would personally kill the bastards if anyone had hurt his boy.
Ten minutes later Luke Thorstad landed his black helicopter in the Girard’s front yard and walked into the house with familiarity and determination. Terrance Larkin showed up with Craig Michaelson just before the PMI truck arrived with weapons and gear. Stacie wandered out from her room as the big truck rolled up the rear door.
“You all remember Stacie Vandercoy. She worked undercover with Jeff in Iraq. She now works for me.” That was all the men needed to know. She was an asset to his team and they would soon see why.
“Is Jeff sitting this one out?” Terrance asked.
“He’s watching the safe houses on Cozumel.” Stacie expertly checked the M4 she’d selected as her weapon.
Jack screamed down the driveway and parked his mother’s Mercedes sedan in the garage before running back to the armored truck to join the rest of the team. “Mom stayed with Lilly. I’m going to check upstairs for a minute then I’ll be right back.” When Jack returned, he stripped his clothes off and changed into the uniform of the day.
“Hey, Madman, since we now—” Mikey started to say.
“He’s no longer Madman, he’s now Aquaman,” Jack corrected.
“Well, that goes with my question,” Mikey continued. “Since we now have a woman on our team, and we’re not in the Navy anymore, we can’t be SEALs. So what do you call your teams? The Vigilantes?”
“The Avengers would be more appropriate,” Terrance declared.
“Sorry, men, Aquaman wasn’t part of the Avengers,” Jack informed the group. “He was on the Justice League.”
“Good,” Stacie protested. “I don’t want to be Wasp. I’d rather be Wonder Woman. Josh, I mean Aquaman, can I get those cool bracelets that deflect bullets?”
“No,” Josh replied. “But Ed has provided you with a black flack jacket and this wonderful matching black helmet with a face mask.” He was happy to find them on the silly subject rather than fighting the anticipation of the mission in silence. During his years in the Teams, he’d heard it all, from which fast food restaurant made the best hamburger to which city had next year’s Super Bowl winner.
“So what you’re telling me is that all the time I spent on my make-up was for nothing?” Stacie joked. “Actually, I don’t wear make-up.” She strapped on the protective vest. “Hey, Aquaman, do I at least get the invisible jet?”
“I’ll let you ride in my black helicopter, and if I turn off the lights at night it looks invisible.” Luke adjusted the eight-inch knife on his right leg. “I must be Superman since I can fly. Where’s my red cape?”
“I’m the fastest person here, so I get to be Flash,” Terrance announced and dramatically looked around the area. “Where did I leave my magical ring that holds my red suit? Oh, and that treadmill thing that acts like a time machine?”
“So what does that leave me?” Mikey asked. “I led a deprived childhood—”
“And a depraved adulthood,” Terrance cut in.
“TMI for my virginal ears,” Stacie interjected.
Terrance burst out laughing. “Stacie, you lived with Jeff for six months in the desert. I can’t believe he left any part of your of your body virginal. That man gets laid more often than real rock stars.”
Stacie glared at him. “I’ll have you know we maintained a very professional relationship.”
Changing the subject before the bantering became even more crude, Josh announced, “Let’s see, there’s Green Lantern who was the leader of an intergalactic police force that fought evil across the Universe. He had a ring that granted him a variety of superpowers.”
“Hey, I was a SEAL who fought evil across every continent on this planet. I could be the Green Lantern.”
Mikey shook his head. “Not sure I like that handle. What else is there?”
“Batman.” Josh and Stacie said at the same time.
Jack jumped in, “I get Batman. He’s too cool to be you, asshole. Besides, see, I’m all dressed in black.” Nobody pointed out they were all dressed in black by that point.
“Fuck.” Mikey relented. “I guess I’m the Green Lantern.”
“I like the Justice League moniker.” Jack exchanged the helmet for one without a scar where a bullet grooved through the Kevlar. “We need to exact some justice today.”
Laden with familiar tactical gear, Josh felt ready to take on the tangoes with his former SEALs and one highly skilled woman at his side. “Maybe I’m getting old, but that’s too many names to keep straight. We’re going to KISS this one. For tonight, Keep It Simple Stupid is the rule. We’re using our real first names,” Josh announced.
“Saddle up, boys and girl,” Jack pointed to the black SUV convoy that pulled in.
Josh clicked into mission mode. Take out the terrorists. Hopefully, by the time they finished this op, they’d be on a raid and retrieval for Preston, serving justice to the fuck heads who thought it was a good idea to kidnap his son.