Black Ops Brotherhood: Tightrope Part 32

"I'll try to be as invisible as possible, captain."

"I appreciate that. I didn't realize we had drawn so much attention. The only thing I ask is that you and I discuss anything you need to change about this deployment before you do it. I don't want to look like a clueless a.s.s in front of my crew."

Lance understood his position aboard this ship. As a mission commander, he could veto any action the captain took if the mission required it. In short, he could take over command of the ship, and there wouldn't be anything this man could do about it.

"There may not be time for a discussion, captain. But I give you my word I'll keep you in the loop."

The captain looked away, clearly unhappy with the answer, but Lance had told him the truth. If he needed to turn this ship around in the dead of night without warning, he'd have to tell the captain after he gave the order. Depending on the circ.u.mstances, he might not be able to tell him why. Still, he understood the fleet wasn't like his special Navy. He'd have to dust off his customs and curtsies, and remember there was a much more stringent chain of command he had to deal with now.

"I mean no disrespect, captain. I hope you understand the position I'm in. I certainly respect the s.h.i.tty position they put you in."

The captain grunted and said, "Just keep me in the loop. I have a boss, too."

"Let's just hope there's smooth sailing and a clean deployment."

"Somehow with you aboard, I doubt it'll be that easy."

Chapter 26.

The Bisbee Grand Hotel Old Bisbee, Arizona November 5, 2010/1815 Zulu Rio arrived at the hotel later than she expected. She'd offered to help with registration and packet pickup for the race taking place in a couple of days. So far, they had at least four hundred partic.i.p.ants signed up. It was taking everyone who would benefit from this event to help them get it kicked off. Danny, as always, took complete control in the middle of all the chaos. He'd stressed and worried over little things before the real action started, but once it kicked into high gear, he seemed to be able to handle it without a hitch.

Running into Anna, Amy, and Irene before she'd found Danny, they introduced her to another one of the SEAL wives, Isabel Richards, and Shaq's lover, Justin. Rio couldn't wait to hear the story of how Shaq and Justin had met. She found Danny talking with another man at one of the tables. The big man held a baby dressed in pink who kicked and waved her arms as he spoke. She slid in next to Danny and put her arm around him.

"You made it after all," he said, giving her a quick peck, and she noticed the man studying her.

"Okay, we'll probably head back to the hotel for a few so Leila can take a nap," he said.

Rio knew that the hotel where the SEALs were all planning on staying wasn't ready for them yet, and she couldn't help but stare at the precious little girl he held.

"She can stay at my house, if you want. I live a couple of houses down," Rio offered as she handed Danny the bottle of water she'd been holding. "I think the hotel where you all are staying is still getting ready for you."

Something drew her to this man. He was tall, blond, and had the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. He was an attractive man, but his looks weren't what fascinated her about him. She sensed they had a bond of some sort, and it was difficult to explain. She looked away and adjusted Danny's collar. The baby squealed in delight when Shaq walked up to them.

"That's my baby girl!" Shaq, said, taking her away from her daddy, kissing her, and baby talking to her.

Justin walked up beside him and cooed at her. It amazed Rio that Shaq was so baby whipped and recalled watching Steve interact with Danny's niece, whom he now called his little d.u.c.h.ess. These men were such a dichotomy; one minute they were bada.s.ses saving the world, and the next minute, they were brought to their knees by a little girl. She realized not many people got to see so many sides of such complex men. She had never felt so much a part of people's lives as she did now. For a long time, it had seemed as if she were on the outside looking in. Now she was surrounded by people who made her feel safe and accepted, all because of Danny. He was sly, but she loved him that much more because he'd coaxed her out of her sh.e.l.l and into the world she'd been missing. She glanced back at the man Danny had been talking to, and he extended his hand to her.

"Alex Richards."

Instantly she understood their connection. This was the man who'd introduced Danny to BDSM. There was no question in her mind where Alex Richards fell in the D/s scheme because dominance emanated from him. She took his hand and smiled.

"Rio Jensen. I've heard so much about you. It's good to finally meet you."

"I'll take you up on that offer, if you don't mind. We need to get her down before she gets fussy."

"Not at all, in fact I'll give you a key, and you can come and go as you like," she said, turning to Danny. "I'll be back in a few. Do you need anything from the house?"

"Nope, go on. I'll be leaving in a few minutes, too."

Alex and Isabel Richards followed her back to her house. When they arrived, Schotzie introduced herself to the Richards who eyed her with a little concern. Rio allayed their fears and got them set up in the spare bedroom where Leila was put down for her nap. The ever-vigilant Schotzie laid herself at the threshold of the room guarding it from any intrusion. Isabel had been yawning, and as they sat talking, she explained to Rio that she'd done a double shift at the hospital where she worked as a trauma surgeon. Alex encouraged his wife to take a nap with their daughter, and she reluctantly agreed. Satisfied that the baby would be taken care of, Schotzie moved back to her bed near the kitchen when Isabel closed the door to the room.

"How long have you known Dan?" Alex asked as they sat at the table making small talk.

"We grew up together."

"He only mentioned a friend of his that he went to college with who was a Marine. Were you high school sweethearts?"

Rio giggled.

"No, he had a different girlfriend in high school. The Marine was my older brother, and they've been best friends since first grade. Danny and I were just friends in high school."

"Danny? I've got to remember that," Alex said, chuckling. "I think I remember Rock and Gavin talking about you at a meeting we had. Gavin respects you, and that's quite an accomplishment. That man doesn't give his trust easily."

"I've learned a lot from Gavin, and I'm glad he saw enough in me to take a chance."

The door opened, and Danny walked inside. He placed a couple of bags on the table in front of Alex and continued to the fridge. He returned to the table with a bottle of tea and pointed to the packages.

"Your race numbers and T-shirts. You forgot your packets."

"Well, thank you, Danny."

"Unless you plan on cuddling with me like she does, you don't get to call me that," Danny said.

Alex laughed. "My bed's already full. Congratulations. Izzy told me you two were engaged and getting married at the end of the year."

"Are you sure about this?" Gavin asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I tracked the chain of evidence back here, and I have the doc.u.ments with the signature. There's no reason why he should've signed for it and then it pa.s.sed back and forth."

"I f.u.c.king knew it! The day you went missing, I knew someone was dirty here," Gavin said, looking away in disgust. "Have you told anyone about this?"

"Not about this. You're the first one."

"Don't say anything to anyone. This might get you killed," he warned.

After the weekend race, Rio had let Gavin in on what she'd found when she'd dug through the evidence returned from Bakri's lawyers. There were three handwritten receipts she hadn't seen before they sent the evidence to Bakri's lawyers.

Exhaling, she said, "I know. I'm not telling anyone, not even Danny."

"n.o.body, not even the people you think you can trust on your team. I'm telling you this from experience. I need to figure out how to get a warrant for the arrest without them finding out. I may need to go back to Texas to do it."

"We don't have enough for a warrant, and the op is scheduled in a couple of days. If we do this we need to do it all at one time, and it'll take longer than that to get more on this."

"You're right, we have to prove intent, just because they shouldn't have doesn't mean they couldn't have signed for the evidence."

"I've got an idea. Give me a few more days, and I think I can get something else," she said.

"You need to be careful, d.a.m.n careful. You hear me?"

The members of the federal task force that Gavin ran had to scrub anything cla.s.sified, and she'd been part of the team who'd gone through the returned doc.u.ments. Normally, the doc.u.ments would've been returned to respective agencies, but Gavin had asked the Department of Justice to return all of it to him because he was running the task force working the case. No one must've thought any different, and all of the evidence provided to Bakri's lawyers had been returned to Gavin. Now they needed to decide what to do with what they knew. She turned around when she saw him glance at the door. Captain O'Malley walked into the office.

"Rock, we have a problem," Gavin said.

"Oh?"

"We have someone dirty in the CBP."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah," Gavin said.

"Have they been in the loop for this op?" Rock directed the question to Rio.

"Not that I'm aware of," Rio replied.

"I'm moving up the timetable. We go tonight."

"What?" Rio asked.

"We can't risk them waiting for us or getting prepared. We'll strike now. If they get wind of this op and they may already have it, our guys will get ambushed. Take all of the CBP, with the exception of her off this op, and I'll go get with Dan and Shaq. Now, Bada.s.s," Rock said as he left.

"We can't take everybody off, or they'll know something's up," Rio said.

"I've got a way to do it without them knowing. Come on, I'll tell you on the way."

Dan glanced at Shaq and wondered what the h.e.l.l had just happened. In a few hours instead of a few days they'd conducted an op that had been in the planning for months. He and his dive buddy had painstakingly planned the mission, and over the next few days they'd planned on double checking and rechecking again. Now, their captain was telling them they'd be going tonight.

"If I may, sir, can you tell us why the urgency?" Shaq asked.

"I'm trying to keep you alive and the mission as secret as possible. We may have a leak."

"Say what? Who?" Dan asked.

"I don't know yet. You two need to get moving and kick this thing into high gear. Have you been running readiness exercises?"

"Yes, for the last couple of weeks. We did two with everyone else and six with the two teams who might be a go," Dan said.

"Did you tell them which team would go?" Rock asked.

"No, we haven't said anything yet."

"Good, have both teams muster. Which team did you pick?"

"Bravo team," Shaq said.

"Don't tell them which one is going until they're all here and we go. Understood?" the captain asked, looking at Dan.

"Aye, captain," Dan said.

The chaos of bringing together the teams that would be performing and supporting the mission seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. Dan and Shaq soon found themselves free falling toward their objective. There were several techniques for insertion into enemy territory for this mission, and they couldn't risk the people on the ground knowing that they were flying overhead. The nature of this op would be compromised by the loud noise of parachutes opening and helos close by.

For this mission, they'd need to do a HAHO jump, which would be done at a high alt.i.tude, and they'd open their parachutes as soon as they exited the aircraft. They'd be jumping far away and drifting for over forty miles to their meeting point.

Dan looked at his GPS for the coordinates as he drifted and looked at the landscape to ensure he was on the correct path. They'd had fairly good weather, and the calm wind that would allow easy navigation with the parachute as he maneuvered himself toward their meeting area. He watched for Friday who took point as the lowest jumper and the guide they were following. So far, they were dead-on, and their insertion into Mexico had gone perfectly.

The team met up at their designated coordinates and stuffed their parachutes in their rucksacks. They wouldn't leave anything behind to give away what had happened. He made everyone do weapons and gear checks while he and Shaq did a quick review of what their objectives were for this particular operation. After one more review of what everyone would be doing, they started the five-mile trek to the old silver mine. Within two hours they arrived at the site and waited to watch for activity.

"Where the h.e.l.l is Friday? Slow-a.s.s b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Shaq said, looking behind him.

"I'm right here, and you try to keep up with fifty pounds of explosives on top of what the h.e.l.l I was already carrying," Friday said.

"I'm sorry, Steve. Did you need help carrying your load? I'm carrying the other fifty, remember?" Shaq asked.

"f.u.c.k you, Shaq," Steve said.

"Country, Rick, did you two find a spot to cover us from?" Dan asked.

"Got it all handled, LT," Rick said.

"Go now, let me know when you're there. Head to the tunnel in forty-five minutes. Got that?" Dan asked.

"Roger that," Rick said as the two SEALs ran into the darkness.

Within a few minutes, the SEALs that would provide cover let Dan know they were in place and that everything looked clear from their vantage point. Petty Officer Connelly "Country" Pentamore was the best sniper in the group and arguably in the entire SEAL command. Rick Brown was a sniper as well, but on this trip he'd act as Country's spotter and would be keeping an eye out for any unexpected visitors. The SEALs approached the compound with caution because there were guards at the mine. It didn't seem like there was any activity on the surface, but they knew from intel that had been obtained from the Montenegro compound there were nine people working inside, six scientists and three special operations types acting as guards.

It would be the SEALs' job to not only take out the compound but kill everyone inside. The scientists might have seemed innocent, but intel revealed that Montenegro wanted to replicate the weapons he had. Dan, Shaq, and Friday would be responsible for taking out all the security, and the rest of the team would be responsible for planting the charges.

The first half of their mission went according to plan, and they were able to dispose of the exterior guards and plant the charges on the outside. Dan looked at his watch and saw they were ahead of schedule by six minutes. He studied the security system at the entrance and found it fairly simple for such a complex facility. There was a trick. If they put the wrong code in, it would still open and signal an alarm to the guards inside as well as to a facility not far from here. Someone in the Montenegro compound who seemed to have the keys to the kingdom had provided this information. They were also advised of when the guards and staff would be at the lowest numbers. Dan entered the code and the doors swung open.

They swept through the facility, killing everything that moved and destroying equipment as they went. By the time they reached the back where the Corps was scheduled to knock through so they could get back, Dan heard an urgent message, and he and Shaq looked at each other.

"What the f.u.c.k! Did you put in the right codes?"

"Yes! I put in the one I got from the intel."

"Are you sure? Because we've got f.u.c.king company we don't need. Rick and Country won't be able to get through that and out of here."