by L. Ann Marie
Prez comes in and he’s pissed. “I knew the fuckin’ Brother was lying.”
He did? Why didn’t he say something? “Why’d you let it go?”
“There is always a chance to turn them around. That Club lost members, but it’s still part of the Brotherhood. We showed them that Brotherhood. No one will think twice about us defending it. Since they’re coming to us that makes it even sweeter.” Josiah hands him his headset and Brantley hands me mine. “Taylor get with HS. You ride. I want every one of them sent back in a bag.”
I look at Taylor. “You’re lead on Team Two.” He nods and walks out. The Teams will be getting ready downstairs. Brantley will get them orders on the screen there. While I’m waiting I watch Prez.
“Air One to Prince.”
“Your destination is the NH Club. Refuel in Maine, I’ll have the airfield ready for you.”
“Halo you’re Air support for HS.” He waits and smiles. “Copy Halo, but HS needs the practice.” Josiah laughs.
My people come in from Security and take the back stations, their boards go up and I can see where everyone is. Every one of them have worked here before. I like them being professional and they always answer right away when you ask them something.
Our boards go white. “What the fuck?” We still have sound but no feed.
“Prince. Hold. We lost video. I need eyes and all we have are you and Halo.” He looks at me. “VP get HS out now. This isn’t just bikers. No one gets out. Get Sheila as a lead for Three and Eliza on Four.” Fuck she just got her robotic. “Team One western grids. Team Two southern. Team Three eastern and Team Four north. Get Driscoll on the town centers.”
“Roger Prez.”
“Get me Team One check in Brantley. Chevy you’re on Three and Four.” I walk to the Security door. “Bull, I need Driscoll on the town centers. HS and Air are on the outside grids.” He rogers me and I get back to my station.
I get a roger from Chevy and see Prez’s words. “Blackhawk to MC NH. Level it.” Fuck he’s not playing. He tells them our feeds are down then hangs up his phone and starts talking to his pilots.
I turn back and watch my check in rolling on the hologram board. “Team One roll on my one. Three, two, one. Ghost the orders stand, you’re on western grids and only bags leaving.”
Jessie: “Roger VP.”
Me: “Brantley get me Team Two check in.”
Brantley: “Team Two, Sniper is your lead. You’re on southern grids. I need check in.”
Taylor: “Sniper in.” His Team all checks in.
“Security. I need paper. Get rolls and grid it to the tracking program. On the side wall. We need to keep track of where the fuck everyone is,” Prez says.
Me: “Roll on my one Team Two. Three, two, one. Your orders stand, southern grids no one gets out.”
Taylor: “Roger VP.”
Paper starts moving and the wall is covered quickly. Bull draws the grids with a broom handle and Dalia draws a map behind labeling inside the grid. Someone else is getting us numbers. Nice and fuckin’ smart. Bull tells Dalia to stay and help mark for Chevy and he’ll work with me. Someone gets them headsets and we’re off.
Prez gets us the bikes ten out and Jared calls in that they split. Prez has him mow down the bikes moving north and tells me to have One ready. They take them down with two getting out. Team Four has them. Prez is running Cleanup with Air until trucks are coming from the south. Bull hands off and takes Cleanup while Prez gets Prince on the trucks. All we have is video from the choppers and trucks is a fuckin’ understatement. He has Dakota level them. Team Two takes out bikes and two pickups.
Eagle Feather calls in with support. Prez takes it and we have three views watching from above.
Brantley has Connecticut on the line and we get bikes clearing from the other side. We have no tracking or recognition and they offer mobile help. Fuckin’ nice.
Team One and Two run their own Ops so I help with Three and Four. Chevy is having trouble without the boards. When I start helping he watches the colors on the wall. I see when he gets it and he’s giving them destinations to shoot to with Prez guiding by chopper video.
Brantley gets the call from Connecticut; they’re outside.
Me: “Team One and Two we have mobile feeds running outside, Brantley is your Ops Lead for five.”
I get roger’d and watch Brantley direct Jessie to a truck. I walk out and see a big RV. A Brother waves me in and I see the towns. “Fuckin’ nice.”
“How the fuck are you running Ops like this without the feeds? They’re all moving right where they need to be?” Dell asks.
“Prez had them paper a wall and ran the grids on it. There are split teams running the grids and the choppers are video. The rest are watching what comes in from the Teams calling in.”
He looks at the other Brother shaking his head. “Works well. Even without the feeds you’re not missing anything. The PD caught two that strayed.”
“They’re on town centers. They won’t let anything through.”
He nods, but doesn’t look like he believes me. His next question tells me I’m right. “You have no feeds?”
“No. Can we move three IT and leads in here?” I ask before my team needs something Brantley can’t do.
“Yeah, whatever you need.”
“Come on in and I’ll show you.” I jog back using my thumb to get in. He follows me to Ops. “Prez they have a Mobile Ops Center. Full feeds, but no sound.”
Prez smiles. “Thanks Brother. We can jump in there?”
“Anything you need,” the Brother says, watching the women at the wall filling in people and cleanup needs.
“Leads and controls get on the laptops and move to the Mobile Ops. Bull keep them on the wall and stay here with cleanup in case the mobile shuts down. I’ll need that wall kept current. You have people working on getting feeds back?”
“Yeah Prez. Geek and Kevin are on it too.” He guides Cleanup away from a shootout with Sheila’s team.
“I’m outside if you need me,” Prez tells him. Bull looks at him still talking to his truck, but nods.
I follow Prez to the RV and we clear the towns. It is so much easier with feeds, but we learned today it’s possible without them. Josiah gets a feed from Blackhawk. We stand behind him and watch. He levels everything.
“Fuck. He took everything down,” Dell says.
“Blackhawk level the garage and firing range. Josiah is sending coordinates. Nothing left standing. He has twenty in ‘Club in need’, as our good will gesture, and forty in parts. Today he made a run on us.”
We hear Cloud saying every ‘fuck’ he knows then he rogers Prez. Brantley and Jason laugh. Prez tells them to get to Ops and they scramble to get out. He keeps the choppers up and HS patrolling, but nothing is coming in. As he’s talking to Dell about the setup Geek calls with our feeds back up. Something with the fuckin’ satellite again. Prez tells Geek he wants a meet and tells him to call Connecticut about the Mobile Ops.
“I have Air still up and HS out. I need to get back. You helped save our town Brothers. Let your Pres know I appreciate the help. If you’re ever in need call on us Brother.”
Dell laughs. “You didn’t need us, but I’m glad we got you visual. Can we tell our trainer about this? He could use this for our Security when it goes down. That’s why we have this. It’s always fuckin’ down.”
Prez looks at him for a minute. “I’ll call in and tell him what we did, but we may want to look at why you’re going down. I need to get to Air Ops, but I’ll get with him tomorrow.” He has Josiah go inside. “Thanks for your help Brothers.” He man hugs them both and walks out.
I’m smiling at their reaction. “Yep, he’s always like that.”
“He leveled everything they owned,” Dell says.
I nod. “He did. They won’t come back at us. Prez isn’t into games. I avoid pissing him off.”
Dell laughs. “Thanks Brothers.” I man hug them and head back in. My girl did awesome as a
lead, but I need to check on my two teams and Driscoll.
Back inside everything is slowing down. Bull is still using the wall for cleanup. He says it’s ‘cool to go old school’ making us laugh. When HS comes in, Driscoll has patrols running all the grids. I guess Prez is happy with that. He calls Security Officers into the meeting room and has Brantley shut the feed down.
“We need that mobile setup, but we need to get the feeds set to a modem like they did. We can switch it when this shit happens like the generators. There needs to be a way to stop this from happening. It worked today and everyone ran without the feeds, but what happens when we have no sound? Brantley, Geek is coming down tomorrow. Find a way for that to happen then get us set up here and at the PD.”
“On it Prez.”
“Driscoll did what we did, he used a big board, but ran the grids on call-ins. It’s good to know we can still function without video,” Bull says.
Prez nods. “It is, but we have so much fuckin’ technology we shouldn’t have to. I’m glad it worked out, but it puts people at risk when we can’t guide them. They shouldn’t have to guide us while trying to stay alive out there.” Everyone agrees.
“Taylor, did everything work for you with HS?”
“Yeah Prez. We have good people running. It’s good to see where the training leads. The whole team worked as one getting us clear and making sure they covered the rest of the team. For me it was real good.”
Prez nods. “As it was running, I noticed that with all the teams. They watch each other’s back. Whatever you’re doing to promote that works. Keep doing that.” Taylor smiles nodding.
“Were there any problem areas?” No one says anything. So I do. “With Jessie and Taylor on I’m fuckin’ bored.” They laugh. “They run their own Ops. They don’t need a lead, but a control. With Brantley there I’m not needed. I could have taken over for Chevy with Jason.”
He nods and everyone waits. “Next Ops save Chevy for cleanup or for when we’re clear. You run Eliza and Sheila. I like Taylor running Two. He’s good and works like Jessie. With two Ops leads running we have a little breathing room. We need to get another person training on Ops lead.”
“Eliza and Sheila. They’d be good because they get the bigger picture. Brantley is another. He can do the job; he just needs to be quicker with the orders. As lead he’d be comfortable telling us what to do,” Jessie says. Brantley is smiling like a pussy.
Prez nods. “Bull you interested in HS Ops lead?”
He takes a minute to answer. “I want to tell you I’ll do anything you ask, but I’m more comfortable with the wall than the feeds with the pace you’re running. Trying to follow the jumping feeds doesn’t work for me.”
Prez nods. “It isn’t for everyone. I just didn’t want to cut you out if you wanted to learn. Taylor get schedules for Sheila and Eliza and get them training for Ops. Even if they’re backup. Brantley will be available whenever you need him to be.” He looks at Brantley. “Work out your schedule with Jason and Josiah to cover for that.”
“Roger Prez.”
“The Brothers will be at the Club in half an hour. Is there anything more I need here?”
“The wall was fuckin’ brilliant. We should paint it white and have the grids on it already,” Brantley says. We all agree.
Prez nods. “I was thinking that as they were trying to draw it up.” He smiles at Bull. “Thanks for getting it done fast. There’s something to be said for old school.”
Bull laughs.
“Good fuckin’ job Brothers. Let’s get to the Club so our Brothers can make it home tonight.”
Everyone leaves smiling. He looks at me and doesn’t move so I stay. When the door closes he stops smiling. “There’s something to the feeds going down and not the sound. Audio runs through the satellite too. That’s all the Bluetooth is, audio. Why the fuck are we losing one without the other?”
I think back going over scenarios. “A playbook on how we work?”
“That was my first thought too. We need more than just the feeds set separate. Geek is here tomorrow. Meet with him. Get everything you can from him so we have a backup for everything. It’s good that we’re switching Teams up. You always run One and Two. I get the feeling that we’ll be tested once more before the big hit comes at us. I want to be prepared and I want to change our normal. Predictable will end up hurting us.”
I nod. “I will. We didn’t get a warning for this. Do they not know or are they not talking?”
He shrugs. “My first concern is running it. Since I didn’t get a warning it doesn’t matter on the why. We need to be prepared for everything regardless. We can’t depend on them telling us how to move. We need to have the plan and change it for their information.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
He walks to the door and I follow. “You okay with Eliza running lead or Ops?”
“Yeah. I was worried about her riding with the robotic being new to her, but she would have said if it was a problem. Since she didn’t I was good with it. For Ops I think she’ll do fine here. Like Jessie said, she gets the bigger picture.”
He laughs. “You’re so fuckin’ easy with this shit. Anyone else would be chaining their wives up.”
I look at him. “She got away from that. Who the fuck am I to tell her what job she should do or how to do it. She’s fuckin’ good and worked to keep herself safe. She did all that before she met me. She deserves to do whatever the fuck makes her happy. I’m just glad she lets me come along for the ride.” I smile at him, but I’m serious.
He laughs. “You are a lucky bastard. You should buy me a drink.”
I laugh throwing my leg over. “I will, but it’s because you thought of papering the fuckin’ wall. Brantley was right–fuckin’ brilliant.” He laughs and pulls to the exit. When I’m on the side of him he rides to the Club.
Everyone cheers. I find my girl and give her a kiss. Sheila breaks us up, telling me I have two weeks left. Fuckin’ woman. I let Eliza go and Jessie’s laughing. I peg him a finger and find a beer for Prez because I am a lucky bastard. He laughs when I hand it to him. When Dakota and Jared come in, Prez nods to Dakota getting a war cry that shuts everyone up. Eliza laughs. She always laughs. I stand beside her and listen to Prez. How the fuck he gets the counts is a mystery. He lists what they lost and lets us know one Brother was hit with a piece of metal, but he’s here. Everyone is happy and he tells us to have fun.
He comes right to Eliza. “You did good today at lead. How’d the robotic work?”
She’s smiling. “Perfect. Jax left the hand clutch, but I didn’t need it. He said he’d take it off tomorrow.”
Prez nods. “You were comfortable at lead. That’s where I want you when there’s trouble.”
She’s surprised but nods. “Wherever you need me. It was pretty easy even without the feeds.” My girl knows how to do Brotherhood. Fuck, I love her.
“Taylor will pull you in for training at Ops lead with Sheila during your training days for the PD. It’s not for the job just as a backup if we need it.” He touches her shoulder like he does to the Brothers.
She smiles big at him. “Thanks Prez.” I guess she likes that.
He goes to Sheila then Driscoll and Bull. I watch him go around the room. “You need to thank your people like he’s doing.”
She smiles up at me. “I did before you got here. Sheila told me.” I nod. “How come you’re not?”
I bend to her ear. “There is too much on my glasses.”
She nods. “I thought so after the last Op.” She digs in her knee pocket and pulls my earpiece box. I laugh and take the glasses off.
She puts them on and looks at me. “Holy shit! That’s just nuts.”
I nod getting the pieces in and start making the rounds. Brantley is excited. I thank everyone else then drag my wife out. The earpieces don’t work now that I know the difference with seeing the words. I don’t tell her, but she hands me my glasses as soon as we walk out. I put them on and look back at
the door.
Dakota is coming down the stairs. “It is a little too much tonight. Everyone is excited about doing well without the feeds.” Fuck I hope Jessie was shielding him.
“He was, but the excitement is hard to avoid. I thanked my crew, but they were very excited too.”
I nod smiling. He’s reeling. He answers your questions without you asking them or he’ll talk in your head when he’s got too much energy. I put my hand on his arm. He thanks me in my head. Heat travels through me then he moves away. “We’re headed home Brother. Ride with us.”
He nods. “I will leave right behind you. I think Eliza should ride beside you. I will be three seconds away.”
I laugh. He would ride with me and Eliza behind if we run formation. “Whatever the fuck you want Brother.”
Eliza just watches and smiles. I kiss her and walk her to her bike. She doesn’t have her bike but a security bike. “My Jeep is in back. I want to ride though.” I nod. As a lead she’s allowed to take the bike home.
We get to the compound and I’m relieved. I wonder what that’s all about and Dakota pulls alongside me. He stops at our house. “With all that happened today it is good to be on alert. Sleep easy and know it is with us safe.”
“Thanks Brother.”
He throws respect and rides to his house. The Brother always makes me smile.
Chapter Eighteen
One week
Eliza
I am so excited. We have the kids today so Jessie and Dakota can take Jess on some mystery date. I love watching them. Jess is so excited she almost forgot their bag. Darren ran over for it and comes back laughing. “They’re taking her cliff diving in wet suits. They’re crazy; the water has to be forty.”
“Can’t be any crazier than hanging from a cliff by your toes.” I smile at him. Jess has wanted to do this forever. She’ll know the water temp. She knows everything.
The boys are so good all we have to do is feed them on time and they do the rest. They’re already walking so we take them to the park and let them play in the sand box. “What does Aquyà mean?” I ask as we’re watching them dig as if there is treasure in the sand.
