by Margaret Kay
“Amen,” the others repeated.
Brielle was surprised by his prayer, especially that he acknowledged the animals who live in the bayou. She smiled at him with appreciation when he flashed her a grin. For such a large, menacing man, he had a gentleness.
Then she watched them file out of the room, their hands loaded down with weapons and the bags containing their night vision goggles and the cameras. Her eyes settled back on Cooper, suddenly feeling restless. “So now we just wait, huh?”
“We have some set up to do and I’ll show you how to operate some of the equipment we’ll use to monitor the team.” He led her over to the table and motioned for her to have a seat. He sat beside her. He opened a case on the table and took out two sets of communication earplugs like the team wore. Theirs had a lip mic in addition to an earpiece. He turned them on and handed her one. “Listening mode is on, but you have to toggle this switch to talk. We’ll leave that mode off for now. The team’s comms are in both modes and will remain that way for the duration of the mission. Everything gets recorded, both visually and auditory. So, make sure if you address anyone, it’s by their callsign only. We don’t ever use real names.”
Brielle nodded.
Cooper logged into the laptop that sat in the middle of the four others, the one with the large monitor. The silver case it came out of sat on the table behind it. Brielle recognized the case. They’d brought it with them from Illinois. He went through several menus and then the screen split and the visual feed from the cameras worn on the vests of the five men displayed. He tapped a few more keys and three of the feeds jumped to the screens of three of the other tablets sitting beside the large one which retained two of the displays. Only then did Brielle notice that the callsign name of the man wearing the camera displayed at the bottom of his feed.
“We see what they see, but we have the benefit of seeing what everyone sees at the same time. Gives us a bigger picture of what’s going on than each individual man sees. Gives us an advantage,” Cooper said.
Brielle nodded. She watched as the men walked the short distance to the Coast Guard dock at the rear of the building. They climbed down the ladder to the boat entry platform and boarded the two bayou boats that waited there for them. She heard their conversation through the comms.
“Damn, these things are smaller than I anticipated,” Mother complained as the boat he was in got filled with Lambchop and Burke, as well as all their gear.
Lambchop was at the bow. He turned the front search light on. “We shouldn’t encounter any waves to speak of once we enter the bayou.”
“Yeah, it’ll be like we are skating across ice,” Sherman said.
“We have space in this boat if you want to throw some equipment over,” Sloan volunteered. He too stood at the bow and turned the front search light on.
Lambchop handed several bags over to Sloan. That freed up quite a bit of space in their boat. The engines on the boats were started. Brielle was surprised how quiet they were. She watched through the feeds the boats pull away from the dock and motor out into the channel.
Then Cooper logged into the fourth computer. He pulled up a map. It showed the facility they were at and eight dots. Five of them were moving in a cluster, the men in the boats. He clicked a few more keys and the three stationary dots disappeared. He saw the questioning look she was giving him. “Trackers, we all have them.” He watched her glance over him. “Injected in our shoulders.”
“Why?”
“We always need to know exactly where our people are during a mission and if God forbid anyone is ever captured, we need to know where they are brought so we can rescue or recover them.”
At first, she didn’t understand the difference between rescue and recover. Then the realization dawned on her. You rescue those who were alive and recover those who are dead. This again reminded her how dangerous their job was.
“Besides the team, you may hear other voices during the mission. HQ is dialed in as well. Yvette, our lead analyst is in Ops tonight as is Garcia. She goes by Control and Garcia’s callsign is Razor. And remember, we’ve given you the callsign of Cleopatra for the evening.”
“Yeah, I like that a lot better than BJ.”
Cooper chuckled. “Sorry about that.”
Now Brielle laughed. “It’s okay. I’ve been called worse.”
“When this is over, I’m sure those people out at the BioDynamix plant and Sheriff Henderson will all be calling you a lot worse.”
“As long as they’re all behind bars I won’t really care what they’re calling me.”
When the boats reached the mouth of the bayou, Sherman slowed his boat. “This here is the Bayou Lafourche. It runs one-hundred-six miles north. Respect it and the life that makes this place home, gentlemen. We’ll stay to the right of the channel, within the channel markers.”
Sherman quickly ran through his pre-mission ritual. He removed his dog tags from his shirt, kissed them three times and then tucked them away. He checked each weapon, and then he kissed his dog tags one last time, followed by making the sign of the cross in classic Catholic fashion, spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch. Sloan of course watched him, amused by the Cajun’s superstitious ritual before every mission. Only when he was through did he increase the speed of his boat and pilot it into the bayou. The other boat followed.
At the Coast Guard facility Brielle watched the feed from the Undertaker’s camera. “What was that Brian just did?”
Cooper laughed. “The Birdman, as do many, has a specific pre-mission ritual. That’s what that was. He says kissing his dog tags ensures no one will use them to identify his body. He checks his weapons over to be sure they are locked and loaded, and of course he makes the sign of the cross as he says a final prayer for a successful mission.”
“I’m surprised you wear dog tags. I thought black ops personnel didn’t want anyone knowing who they were.”
Cooper’s lips quirked into a smirk. “Who said we were black ops?”
“Come on. I’m not stupid. You’re neither regular military nor are you regular federal authorities. That leaves only black ops.”
“We’re a hybrid organization. That’s all you need to know about us.”
“I signed the NDA. It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone anything.”
Cooper nodded, a serious expression on his face. “That you did.”
Her questioning gaze remained focused on him.
“We don’t wear our military dog tags on specific, sensitive missions. Otherwise, when we go out, we do.”
She appreciated that he answered her question.
As the boats made their way up the bayou, surrounded by trees on both sides rising up from the water and on the banks, the sounds of the bullfrogs, birds, and other creatures increased. In front of the boats, the lights showed insects of all sizes flying around in front of them, hundreds of them. The water below them looked green and murky. Tree stumps of all sizes poked from the water or were seen just below the surface, another hazard in the water to avoid.
“Whoa, look at that,” Mother said, pointing to the left. “That gator is huge.” It laid on the bank, sideways.
“That’s a good ten-footer,” Sherman replied. “Keep an eye out in front of the boat. Steer around any in the water. They won’t move and we don’t want to hit them.”
They proceeded further, and they took a narrow side channel. It would meet back up with the main channel further up the bayou. This route would keep them better hidden from view. The animal sounds were deafening. Grunts and other loud calls joined the cacophony. It sounded otherworldly. And it was pitch black out, not that much sky would be visible through the dense canopy.
“Wild pigs,” Sherman said. “They’re nocturnal, of course most of the animals in the bayou except for the birds are.”
At the control center at the Coast Guard facility, Brielle glanced at the monitor tracking the team. They were about halfway to the BioDynamix facility. “Looks like they are on schedule.”
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br /> Cooper tapped a few keys on the keyboard. The view zoomed out, showing the mouth of the bayou all the way up to the BioDynamix facility. The team was a little more than halfway. “When we’re live on our mics only refer to it as our target. No names.”
“Okay,” she said. She knew she had a lot to learn about what to say and do. She was very grateful to be allowed to be present and participate at all.
Cooper clicked his mic on. “You’re making good time. You’re over halfway.”
“Roger that, Coop,” Lambchop’s voice came through their comms. “Handheld GPS confirms.”
“Radar shows the rain moving in. You can expect it to start within the hour,” Cooper advised.
“Good, it should disperse some of these bugs. They’re thick and everywhere.” He brought his arm up in front of the camera. It was covered with bugs.
“It will,” Brielle said to Cooper.
“Cleopatra confirms the rain will help.”
Ten minutes later, the rain came down. It didn’t start as sprinkles. It came down in sheets of big drops. The bugs instantly cleared and the sound of the rain pounding the leaves and the surface of the water drowned out the animal sounds. If it stayed this loud, they wouldn’t have to cut their engines until much closer to the facility.
Doc entered the room, coffee cup in hand. He pulled a third chair over and sat on the other side of Cooper. “Did I miss anything?”
“No, the team is still en route. They’ve made excellent time. They should hit their LZ in about forty minutes.” Cooper pointed to the monitors. “It started raining an hour ago.”
Doc shook his head. “Let’s hope it’s still raining when they make their LZ.”
“Yep,” Cooper agreed.
“Why is that better?” Brielle asked.
“The rain covers noise and it’ll make the foliage move, helping to conceal the team’s presence,” Doc answered.
The rain still came down in a deluge. The building was in sight before they cut the engines on the boats. They paddled the short distance to the bank. “Cleopatra, do you still advise a landing at your designated coordinates?” Sherman asked.
Cooper helped Brielle turn her comms to transmit. “You’re live.”
She pulled the mic up under her lips. “Affirmative, Birdman. But step as far inland as you can as you disembark. The edge will be fragile with this much rain washing over it.”
“Roger that.”
She watched the camera feeds. The boat with the three men in it went in close to the bank. Landon stepped off first. Danny handed him the bags in their boat. They all wore a single lensed, pair of goggles over their eyes and under their ballcaps, the NVGs. Then Danny stepped off. Brian’s boat moved in close as soon as the other moved away. Brian handed the bags off to Danny and Landon. The two other men gave him a hand up as he stepped onto the bank which was all that kept him on his feet. The ground was saturated and slippery.
The men each took a pack with cameras and disappeared into the thick foliage. Lambchop remained there on the south side, closest to where they’d stepped off the boats. He quickly found the stump of an old hollowed out cypress tree that was chest high. He mounted the cameras, dropping the battery packs into the hollowed-out tree. He secured the cameras in place by drilling into the wood. The drill sound was not heard over the loud downpour of rain.
Mother cautiously made his way through the brush until he was directly across from the BioDynamix building, which could barely be seen through the heavy downpour. He found the perfect stump. It rose out of the water, leaning back over the land, topping out at nose height. He got ready to drill into the cypress to secure the camera that would face the building.
“Mother, freeze!” Brielle practically shouted, getting everyone’s attention. “Now step back. That knot in the tree two inches up from where you were about to drill is a Carolina Wolf Spider’s nest. You’d have them coming out at you like the insects in the light before the rain started if you disturbed their nest.”
“Damn, thanks Cleopatra,” Mother said. “I saw a couple snakes slithering out of this other stump.” He pointed to a stump to the left.
“I saw them too. They’re not poisonous and they wouldn’t be hanging out with any venomous snakes. Go ahead and use that stump,” Brielle advised.
Sherman, of course, heard the exchange. He couldn’t help but smile. Brielle may have felt intimidated by his teammates, but she spoke up when it mattered. She fit in and understood what they did. He felt a pride wash through him. Yes, Brielle could be one of them, one of the women like Kaylee, Sienna, or Elizabeth, the other wives, who were a special breed of women to be with a man who did this job. Their conversation from earlier came back to him.
He had questioned his motives regarding her, but he knew now, that he wanted her in his life, whatever that could look like. Now, he’d just have to convince her, and he’d have to figure out how to be in a relationship. He knew it wasn’t his strongpoint and the whole idea of a committed relationship and sex with only one person, were foreign concepts to him. But he’d told her he wanted to see where a relationship between them could go, while adhering to her terms, and he meant it.
As he mounted his two cameras, he thought about that. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could lay with her and not make love to her. That would be one thing he’d have to work on, getting her to trust him enough to have sex with him.
Just then, a light came on at the back-dock area at the BioDynamix building. “Got activity at the target building.” He hunkered down and didn’t move a muscle. And he watched the movement at the target building.
Cooper and Doc immediately began clicking keys, zooming cameras in and scrutinizing footage. “Nothing is approaching from up or downstream,” Doc said.
Brielle sat still, watching them.
“Got a single man out back, standing in the protected overhang of the building,” Cooper said. “Well, his torso and head are protected. His feet and legs are getting drenched.” He clicked his keyboard, sharpening the image. “Hell, I’ve got an ID on him. Will fill you in later off comms. Not sure what the fuck he’s doing out there.”
“Looks like having a smoke,” Sherman broadcast. He could clearly see the man light up and the smoke billow around his stationary form. He too identified the man as Mike Spencer, the head of security that he and Cooper had met during their visit to the BioDynamix plant. A few seconds later a second person stepped through the back door. “He’s got a smoke buddy.” He focused on the second person, a Chinese male.
“We see him,” Cooper replied.
“We need to get ears over there,” Sherman spoke. “If that’s the normal smoke break location I’m sure a lot is discussed out there that we will want to hear.”
“That will be a bit more difficult,” Lambchop chimed in.
“I agree, we need to try to pull that off,” Cooper said. “We’ll talk about it during our debrief.”
“With this rain, there ain’t no way those guys will see us moving around over here,” Sherman said. “Let’s finish mounting these things and get out of here.”
Lambchop was done, without incident. Sherman finished up and made his way back towards Mother. Mother was having a few problems. The snakes from within the stump he was attempting to secure the camera to, kept slithering out and interfering with his efforts.
Sherman came up beside him. “There must be a hell of a nest in there.”
Sherman looked around. He pointed out a tree stump that would work. He checked it over carefully. No spider nest, no snake activity. He got busy drilling on the backside of the large stump as Mother worked on the front. They finished up and headed back to the bank where Lambchop waited. Unfortunately, neither of the boats moved in. The head of an alligator was in the water right off the bank, blocking the boat from coming in to pick them up.
The light at the BioDynamix building turned off. Smoke break was over. Sherman focused through his NVGs. No one remained outside. He sure would like to get a listening
device planted over there. To be so close and not be able to do so, was a bitch and a half.
The gator circled and approached the boat that the Undertaker was in. Handsome brought his boat up to the bank. Sherman helped Lambchop and Mother step aboard. There was a lot of water on the floor of the boat. Immediately, the men began bailing as Handsome piloted the boat away.
“Go around him and bring the boat in,” Sherman told the Undertaker.
“Go around him? He isn’t exactly cooperating,” Sloan complained.
“Take it out into the channel a few feet. He’ll follow and then you can circle back around.”
