~ * ~ * ~ * ~
I walked into the conference room and saw everyone was seated ready for the meeting to start up.
“Good morning all,” I said cheerfully. “Did Brydon and Dan get to the airport in one piece?” I asked my two pilots.
“LT, now we promised you yesterday that you could count on us. We flew them as gentle as could be. It took all of the fun right out of flying,” Brady grumbled.
“I have to say LT that Brady took off so gentle he hardly even kicked up a dust cloud with the rotor blades,” Patch put in.
I nodded my head at the two of them happy everything had gone right. One of the cooks came into the room with a cart full of bagels and urns of coffee and set everything in the middle of the table and left. I refilled my mug and grabbed a bagel before starting the meeting.
“We have a lot to do today guys everyone will be busy. Chief, tomorrow we have a Fast Frigate coming here with our missile system. Get together with Chief York and get working on the preparations needed to mount it. Get a barge brought over here from Montego Bay with a crane on it to do the heavy lifting. Also have him round up the four sailors he’ll need to help him run the system once it’s installed.”
“I’ll take care of it,” the chief said around a mouthful of bagel. “We’ll work on getting ready for the other two Gatling guns we have coming too,” the chief answered.
I nodded my head in agreement. “Brady, you, Patch, Sam and Brian will have your hands full mounting the FLIR and Gatling gun on the Sea Hawk. Stay with it until you’ve got it done. It will probably take a few days to get it installed and to test the systems out,” I reasoned.
“I can’t wait until it is all operational. That FLIR will be amazing. You’ll be able to see in the darkness like it was broad daylight. It’s going to be a huge tactical advantage for us,” Brady told the others without his Texas twang.
“Bill, I need you to get your radio equipment set up. Then get the computer equipment installed for Brian. He’ll be busy for a while on the Sea Hawk. Scott and Dave give him a hand with the job. Make sure your satellite dishes and antenna arrays are adjusted to where they need to be.”
“Sure whatever you need us to help with Bill,” Dave said looking across the table at his teammate.
“Danny, you have a ship refitting to watch over so you’ll be on the Sea Eagle until further notice.”
“That’s what I figured Rick. We still have a lot to do. There are staterooms to turn into berthing compartments. The mess hall needs to be able to seat more people and we have all the armament going onto her,” Danny answered.
“That should keep you plenty busy,” I agreed. “Karen, we had a lot of medical supplies come in yesterday. Can you unpack them and catalog them so we know what we have and what we still need to get?” I asked.
“I can do that, no problem,” Karen said. Karen is a registered nurse and was Danny’s grandfather’s caregiver until he died.
“Chris, you and I have business to take care of. We need to contact some people I know and see if we can get them to come to our island to talk business.”
“Sure, anyone in particular we need to get a hold of?” Chris asked over the rim of his coffee cup.
“I need to try to find an old friend of mine. He’s a retired recon Marine by the name of Ken Labby.”
“Why do we need to get him to come to the island?” Chris asked me while spreading cream cheese on his bagel.
“We need a security force in place to watch over our interests here on the island when we’re away on a mission. We also need to have men we can count on to be onboard the Sea Eagle while we’re ashore to provide added security against attack.”
“That’s good thinking Rick. With everyone on the mission we’d be vulnerable. Anyone could take a free shot at us.”
“That’s why I need to call in Red Dog. That’s one Marine we can count on to get the job done.”
“How did he get the name Red Dog,” Chris asked as I heard the others laugh knowingly.
“He has flaming red hair and his last name is Labby, like the dog. So his fellow Marines started calling him Red Dog and it stuck,” I said giving my own old Black Lab, Bart part of my bagel.
“Is he the only one we need to find?” My brother asked while handing Bart part of his bagel.
“No I have a gun dealer I need to call too. We want to keep him looking for the kinds of things we need, things that are not normally for sale to the general public. We need him to find Gatling gun ammo and grenades among other things.”
“Something tells me it will be a big shopping list. What kind of prices will we be able to get from him and is there more than one guy we can call so we get some competition going between them to get the prices down a little bit.”
“The harder it is to get something the more we’ll pay for it Chris. As for getting more than one bid, I think that’s a good idea. That’s why you’re taking care of the business part of the operation and not me. If no one has anything else to bring up let’s get working we have a mission to get ready for.”