by Margaret Kay
“So, you probably won’t get back here until around five a.m.?”
“At least,” Sherman agreed.
“Wouldn’t it be smarter to leave right away, so you can run at a higher speed in the daylight and only slow down when the sun sets? You’d be able to plant the cameras faster and get back here earlier.”
“We don’t want to encounter very much bayou traffic. The fewer people who see us, the better.”
“Can’t you blend in during daylight and don your tactical gear when you near the plant?”
Sherman smiled. She had well thought out arguments. “Do you really think my unit will blend in, in the bayou?”
Brielle giggled. “I suppose not.” Most bayou people knew everyone on sight who belonged, and this group did not fit that category.
“And we don’t want to be nosing around outside that plant too early in the evening. We do this kind of thing often. We know what works.”
“You know, if the BioDynamix folks are using the bayou to transport product, the regulars in the area would have seen them. There’s got to be a way for me to reach out to them, to check the comings and goings from the back of that plant. I can’t believe I didn’t think about that before now.”
Sherman nodded. “That’s a good idea. I’ll run it by Cooper and Lambchop after the briefing.”
“Why is Landon called Lambchop?”
Sherman chuckled. “It goes back to when he was a new SEAL and his teammates were picking his callsign. That’s how it works, your team decides on your callsign. You know the Shari Lewis hand puppet, Lambchop?”
Brielle smiled and nodded.
“I never worked with him in the Teams. He was with the Pacific Fleet. Sloan and I were assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, but rumor has it that Lambchop excelled at everything he did, cruised right through BUDS, Hell Week was a cakewalk for him. He was a SEAL’s SEAL from day one. One of his instructors liked to try to get under his skin and break his mental concentration by calling him marshmallow, cream puff, and a variety of kid’s cartoon or stuffed animal names. The only one that ever made the man crack a smile was Lambchop, so that stuck as his callsign.”
Brielle chuckled that sultry laugh that Sherman loved. “And what about Mother?”
“He’s everyone’s Mother Hen.”
“He did get me the pillow and blanket right away. He’s a nice guy. Is he one of the married guys?”
Sherman laughed. “Mother,” he paused as he shook his head. “No, he’s too busy taking care of everyone else on the team to be bothered with taking care of himself. I’m not sure he could do this job if he had a woman. His desire to take care of her might overshadow him doing his job.”
“Do you really believe it’s an either-or situation?”
“It could be for him. I guess it depends on the man and the woman. I was worried when Sloan and Kaylee got together that she’d be too demanding of Sloan’s time, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. She understands the job we do, the importance, and how much of our time it consumes. She knows it's who Sloan is, not just the job he does.”
Brielle thought about that for a long minute while she chewed another large forkful of food. She nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. I’d think any woman who is with one of you would have to be self-sufficient because of the amount of time you spend working, and she has to be understanding and accepting of last-minute changes in plans if you suddenly get sent someplace, like Madison and Cooper, coming down here with only a few hours’ notice.”
“I think if a woman truly understands the importance of the job, the rest comes with it. It’s not a life for everyone.”
Brielle’s gaze was thoughtful. “I’ll admit, this is all unlike anything I’ve experienced in my life. Without seeing what you do firsthand, I’m not sure any woman would be able to fully understand it.”
Sherman wouldn’t tell her that the wives had all seen it firsthand. That wasn’t her business at this point. If she remained with him when this was over, and met them, then he’d tell her. Remain with him? Whoa! Where had that thought come from? Her remaining with him would most likely mean living with him. Was that what he wanted?
“I meant to ask you, about the unisex bathroom, how does that work?”
“Madison claimed one of the stalls for you two, so you don’t have to worry about the seat being left up or peed on. We’re all comfortable using the bathroom together, there are doors on the stalls, and no one will peak through the cracks, not that you can see much through them. Using the sinks beside the opposite sex, not an issue.”
“What about showering?”
“There are private changing spaces outside of each shower stall with shower curtains and no nudity outside of the curtains will happen. Just make sure you have clothes to change into when you go in.”
“Wow, you all must be really close if you’re that comfortable with both males and females occupying a bathroom together.”
“I trust my teammates. No one will violate your privacy. It’s really just like using any other public bathroom, or gym shower facility.”
Except that males and females would be using it together. She was skeptical. It showed on her face.
“Let me prove it to you. We probably should try to catch a few Z’s ourselves. Let’s go hit the head together before we lay down.”
They dumped their paper plates in the trash, put the food away in the refrigerator, and then walked to the bathroom together. Lambchop was at the sink, washing his hands when they entered. Brielle glanced at him and then looked away. Yeah, she wasn’t too sure how comfortable she could be with this.
“First stall on the right is yours,” Sherman reminded her. Then he took the stall beside hers.
Brielle shut the door and locked it. Her eyes scrutinized the cracks to judge for herself how much someone peeking in would be able to see. Too much, she decided. Then her eyes went to Brian’s boots in the stall beside her. He faced the toilet. Before she had her pants unbuttoned and dropped, she heard him peeing. She dropped her jeans and took a seat, but was unable to go. It wasn’t until Brian flushed the toilet that she was able to. Then she heard him at the sink, washing his hands. Yes, this was way outside of her comfort zone.
“I’ll be in the room,” he called and then left.
She finished up, thankfully alone in the room, and then washed her hands. She checked out the shower stalls. Brian was right. There were private changing rooms in front of each shower. Then she returned to the room she and Brian had claimed as theirs.
“I have my alarm set for nineteen hundred. That’ll give us two hours of sleep.”
“Will that be enough sleep for you?” Brielle asked. “You’ll be up most the night.”
Sherman’s lips quirked into a smirk. If only she knew how used to operating on little sleep, the entire team was. “Yeah, don’t worry about me.” The temperature in the room was comfortable. He wouldn’t need a blanket. He grabbed the pillow from the second bed and tossed it onto the one she’d claimed. He pointed to the bed. “Lay on your side and leave room for me.”
A big smiled came to Brielle’s face that he just loved to see. Man, she had a beautiful smile that lit her whole face. He watched her crawl onto the bed, that lovely ass of hers in the air before she settled into her position. He dropped himself beside her, willing his arousal to subside. He snuggled in close. The two of them together barely fit on the bed. But that didn’t stop him from drifting off into a deep sleep right away. He’d slept in many more uncomfortable places before.
Brielle drifted but didn’t really sleep for long. It felt good to lie with Brian and snuggle. Their conversation in the galley about a woman being with a man who did the job he did, replayed through her mind. If this story opened doors to her as she hoped it would, she might have a similar job, leaving with little notice to chase assignments all over the globe. Any man in her life would have to be understanding of that, too. She was pretty sure Brian would be. As a matter of fact, he’d probably be the most understandi
ng of any man that she would ever be with. This thought brought a smile to her face.
The alarm went off. Sherman silenced it within seconds. He came to his feet and grabbed the bag with his tactical gear. He unpacked his black fatigues, including his bullet-proof vest. He mounted the mission camera to the vest. He turned his back to Brielle as he changed clothes.
Brielle watched Brian disrobe. She was once again given a great view of the large tattoo across his upper back. She studied it closely. The big American flag struck her differently this time, now knowing what Brian’s job really was. He was a true patriot, an American hero, and this flag professed who and what he was, just as the trident insignia proudly proclaimed that he was a SEAL, the best of the best. Her heart swelled with pride and admiration for the man he was.
After his pants were on, he turned to face her, pulling his shirt over his head. “Enjoying the view?” He asked in a cocky tone with a smile to match it on his lips.
Brielle smiled as well. “You better believe I am.”
Sherman chuckled. He secured two handguns onto his pants, one holstered at his waist, the other holstered halfway down his thigh. Then he pulled his bullet-proof vest on. He grabbed the black patch to cover the white ATF letters and secured it to the front of the vest. He handed a second patch to her. “Here, cover the letters on the back for me.”
She took it and pressed it to the back of the vest. It adhered with Velcro. It was sobering, seeing him dressed in his tactical gear, two guns holstered in sight, a bullet-proof vest on. When he turned back to face her, he took her into his arms. He pressed a kiss to her lips.
“This should be pretty routine tonight. I don’t expect we’ll engage with anyone from that plant. You don’t have to wait up for us. After we plant the cameras and pull back out, I want you to go to bed. I’ll try not to wake you when I come in.”
“Stay safe,” she muttered. “I do really care a lot about you. You know that, don’t you?”
Sherman kissed her again. “I know. And you know I feel the same way about you.” He embraced her a final time and then nodded to the door. “We better go. I want to swing by the galley and get a cup of coffee.”
“Me too.”
Danny and Gary were in the galley with coffee cups in their hands when they entered. They too were dressed in their tactical gear, complete with bullet-proof vests and sidearms. Brielle couldn’t help but stare at them. Her eyes swept back to Brian as he handed her a cup of coffee. “Thanks.” Then she watched him fill a cup for himself.
“I hope it’s cooled off some outside,” Mother remarked.
The sleeves of his shirt were pushed up his forearms. Brielle saw script letters tattooed on the underside of each arm. She couldn’t make out what they said. She’d seen tattoos on most of these men. She didn’t have any, but she suddenly thought about getting one when this was over, something that spoke to her Creole or Indian roots.
Sherman pulled his phone from its compartment in one of the many pockets of his cargo pants. He pulled up the weather app. “It’s currently sixty-seven, going to a low of sixty-two, with an eighty percent chance of rain by twenty-two hundred.”
Both Sloan and Mother smiled. Good, the rain would cover any sounds they may make.
Sherman nodded to the door. “We need to get to the briefing.”
Burke, Landon and Cooper were already in the lounge when they entered. They each had coffee cups in their hands. Burke and Landon were dressed in the black tactical gear and armed as well; Brielle noticed. She also noticed several of the rifle cases were open, the weapons laying on the table the ammo was on, next to open ammo cases.
“Okay, let’s get started,” Cooper said. “Sherman, the show is yours.”
Sherman grabbed his computer tablet from the table. Brielle noticed there were several more computers lining the table than there were earlier. He brought up the map of the bayou that they had looked at earlier. He zoomed in on the mouth of the bayou in the port area.
“The five of us will go up the bayou in two flat bottom boats and use the outboard motors. We enter the Bayou Lafourche here. The channel is wide and deep, but we still need to look out for wildlife in the water. We’ll need to all the way up the bayou, so we won’t exceed five knots. We’ll use front facing lights to watch for anything in our path until we near the BioDynamix plant. I expect it will take us about four hours to reach it.”
“How much boat traffic do you anticipate crossing our path during the trip upstream?” Lambchop asked.
“There shouldn’t be too much this time of night,” Brielle said. “Most of the bayou tours are done by sundown. Most fisherman are in by then too. As you get deeper into the bayou, you may come across some local traffic, folks who live on the bayou, but once the rain starts, you shouldn’t encounter anyone. They all hunker down when the rain starts at night.”
“When we reach this bend,” Sherman pointed it out on the map. “Then we cut the engines and use paddles the remainder of the way. We’ll cut our lights and go on NVGs at that point as well. We’ll step onto the land here,” he said as he pointed to the spot that he and Brielle had previously decided was a good location.
“Excuse me, Brian,” Brielle spoke up. “Now that rain is due, it would actually be better if you land here.” She pointed out a place about one hundred feet further than he’d designated. “It’s not as cloaked from view from the BioDynamix facility as the spot we picked earlier, but the bank is more solid here. That area we picked earlier degraded during the rains last spring and it will be mighty slick in the rain.”
Sherman smiled at her. “And that is why we have a bayou guide to help us. We land where Brielle said, and we make our way to these three points to mount our cameras.” He pointed those three locations out. “We mount two cameras at each location. One pointed directly at our target facility, this one to the north pointed upstream, this one at the south end pointed downstream, and the one in the middle pointed behind the cameras. We’ll try to mount them on hollowed out stumps drilling the camera head into the bark. That way, we can tuck the battery packs into the cavity.”
“The Undertaker and Handsome will remain in the boats to recon the area as the others mount the cameras,” Cooper ordered. “You may have to take a gator or a snake out if it gets too close to our men.”
“No, you absolutely do not need to do that,” Brielle argued in outrage. “Most encounters between snake and man or gator and man are accidental. They aren’t looking to do us any harm. Remember, you’re the intruders in their world, not the other way around. If you give them a wide berth, they normally leave you alone.”
“I’ll give them a very wide berth, but I’d prefer not to be bitten,” Mother said. “So, please watch my six, gentlemen.”
The men laughed. Brielle did not.
“Really, encounters are rare,” Sherman said. “They want to avoid you as much as you want to avoid them.” He opened a saved tab on his tablet. “Here are the nasty ones to avoid.” He showed them several pictures of different poisonous snakes and spiders. “All these are venomous and live somewhere in the bayou. Some swim, many hang in the trees and they’ll drop onto you in your boat if you get too close to the tree line that hangs over the water.”
“The gators are most active at night, to feed. You’ll see their glowing eyes first. You’ll want to avoid them as much as possible,” Brielle interjected.
“I’ll avoid them entirely,” Mother guaranteed, garnering him laughs from his teammates.
“Any questions?” Cooper asked.
No one had any.
“We need a callsign for Brielle for the evening. How does her initials, BJ sound?” Cooper asked.
“No fucking way,” Sherman protested. “No one refers to Brielle as a sex act.”
Several of the men laughed.
Cooper’s lips tugged into a grin. “Sorry, didn’t think that one out.”
“Cleopatra,” Lambchop said. “It fits.”
Brielle smiled. “I like that bette
r.”
“Okay, Cleopatra it is,” Cooper said. “I’ll notify Ops. That’s it. Go on comms, load your weapons, and take off,” Cooper ordered. “Be safe, gentlemen.”
Brielle watched as they all placed earplugs into their ears, their comms. Then they loaded their assault rifles with magazines. They also secured spare magazines to their uniforms and within pockets of their cargo pants. It was startling to see. It was not unlike how it was in the movies, but the fact didn’t escape her that this was real, was dangerous.
Once they were all stocked with ammo, Lambchop’s eyes swept his teammates. “Let’s do our prayer here before we head out.”
Brielle watched as the men came in close to each other. Each man bowed his head. She noticed that Cooper did as well.
“Dear Heavenly Father, protect us, your sons, on this mission. Let us not encounter anyone we must do battle with and let no civilians cross our path. Keep your creatures who make the bayou their home far from us as well, as we do not want to cause them any harm. We pray this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
