Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (12 page)

“
I'll say. Three
hours 45, that's a new record for me, by at least – oh, maybe
eight minutes.”

“
That's what we
were going for,” Pam said.

“
I love new
records,” JJ added. “I even set a couple new ones
myself.”

“
Ten in ten?”
Pam asked.

“
Right. And six
in five.”

“
I lost count,”
Pam said.

“
Oh, you were
right there with me,” JJ said.

“
And you were no
slacker, Jake,” Pam said.

“
Like I said, a
new record,” he replied. “I thank you both; it was
wonderful.”

“
For me, too,”
JJ said. “We'll have to do it all again sometime.”

“
Yes, we will.
It was great to reconnect with you after all those years, sis.”

“
Hey, Pam,
government, private sector, you know.”

“
I know, but I
should have reached out more, especially after Mom and Dad died.”

“
I could have
done the same; please don't worry about it, okay?”

“
I'll try,”
Pam said, brushing a small tear from under her eye.

JJ leaned over and took
Pam in her arms, then waved Jake over to join them.

“
This was the
nicest and best farewell party I've ever had. Thank you both. And
thank you both for these past weeks; it's been super.”

“
Except for that
attack yesterday morning,” Jake said.

“
Even that. It
was like being back in the field; I had a flashback or two.”
She kissed them both on the cheek and stood up, brushing tears from
her own eyes. “Guess I'd better go start packing.”

“
Oh, the stew- –
what? You haven't packed yet?”

“
Gotcha.”

“
Good one, JJ,”
Pam said.

“
Yup, you got
me,” Jake said, laughing. “Got me good.”

“
And you got me
good last night,” JJ said, “several times.”

“
Ten in ten,”
Pam added.

JJ sighed. “I'm
really gonna miss you, both of you.”

“
And we're gonna
miss you, too,” Jake said, his arm still around Pam's
shoulders.

“
Absolutely,”
Pam added.

“
But you have an
open invitation to come back whenever you can or want to, okay?”
Jake said.

“
Whenever,
really,” Pam added.

“
Oh, thank you
both; I'd like that. Thank you.”

“
And maybe, just
maybe we could even give you two a chance to work together again,”
Jake said.

“
Oh, I'm not sure
I – I'm pretty rusty.”

“
I don't know;
you weren't at all rusty last night. I should have guessed you'd be
as – uh – flexible and dynamic as Pam, but it was still a
surprise, a very nice surprise.”

“
Oh, no, I meant
with the weapons and hand-to-hand and all the other stuff, not that.”

“
Oh,” Jake
said. “Well, we could take care of that in two or three weeks,
at most, I'd bet.”

JJ glanced over at Pam.
“We did make a pretty good team back then, didn't we?”

Pam nodded. “Yeah,
sis, we sure did.”

JJ looked back at Jake.
“Thanks, Jake; I'll think about it.”

“
No promises, JJ,
but if it works out, maybe, okay?”

“
You got it,
Jake.”

“
Oh, Jake,
listen; I think I hear a helo,” Pam said.

Jake looked at his
watch. “Even earlier.

“
Oh, JJ, if you
want, just for your memories, once we get the faces blurred out, we
can email you the video from last night.”

“
You videoed it?”

“
Yup. We video
everything.”

“
Was anybody
watching?”

“
Nope; that was
all internal, in the suite, no crew.”

JJ breathed a sigh of
what Jake had previously breathed a sigh of and said, “Okay; I
might want to relive that some night back in the States.”

“
Your eyes only,
okay?”

“
Oh, Jake, if I
do watch that, I'll have a lot more than my eyes involved.”

Jake and Pam glanced at
each other and smiled. “She's baack.”

“
Got that right,
Jake.”

As the helicopter hove
into view, the three of them hugged.

- 33 -

November
13, 2012
4:24
a.m. local time

80 feet above the
Aegean Sea

The helo took off in a
very light mist, with Craig at the controls and Becky next to him.
The doctor sat in the back, his hands once again flex-tied, between
two large members of the cleanup crews. The 3D printer and its
associated equipment and supplies sat securely tied down in the
middle of the passenger bay. The rest of the crew sat on benches or
on the floor, all safely strapped in.

“
Faster, Craig,
faster. We've got to find Cam.”

“
I'm going as
fast as this baby can go, Becks. We'll find her.”

“
Fiona, any luck
yet?”

“
Sorry, Becks,
nothing.”

“
Shit. C'mon,
Craig.”

“
Easy, Becks.
We'll find her. I'm on the same bearing she woulda taken back to the
launch.”

“
Shit, shit,
shit! Fiona, keep trying.”

“
I have been,
Becks; still nothing.”

“
How about her
chip? Can you get a reading on that?”

“
I've been trying
that, too. Nothing.”

“
But that's
impossible. Have you checked your settings?”

“
Yup, Becks; it's
set to her chip and it's working fine. Just no signal coming in.”

“
Check mine, just
to be sure. 4639807.”

“
Got it. Yeah,
you're coming in fine. And you're heading in the right direction.
Not the equipment, okay? And … nope, still nothing from Cam.”

“
8974395, right?”

“
Right. Still
nothing.”

“
Shit.”

“
I've just put
the drone back up, on a rear azimuth, but I can't keep it up for long
with this incoming weather.”

“
Okay, copy that.

“
Craig, any more
speed?”

“
'Fraid not,
Becks; I'm at full throttle. And that storm is moving in faster now.
Look at the radar.”

“
Double shit!”

Ten minutes later, as
the rain and wind picked up, Becky shouted, “Hold up, Craig.
Look! Two o'clock, 200 yards.”

“
Where? What?”

“
There,”
Becky said, pointing. “It's one of the jet skis.”

“
Ah, got it.”
Craig veered the helo and hovered. Becky undid her seatbelt and
headed back to the passenger bay.

“
Where do you
think you're going?”

“
I'm going down
there. Get the winch out!”

“
We don't have
time, Becks; that storm is moving fast and we'll go down if we stick
around.”

“
But Cam is down
there somewhere!”

“
Maybe not;
there's only one jet ski down there. She may have had to abandon
it.”

“
Maybe. But if
she did, she should already have gotten to the launch.”

“
No such luck,
Becks; she's not here. And still nothing from her chip.”

“
Shit, Fiona.

“
Craig, I don't
give a shit. Lower me down there, NOW! That's an order.”

“
Okay, okay. But
you've only got two minutes, max.”

“
Then get me down
there fast!”

Fifty seconds later,
Becky splashed down next to the jet ski, swam over to its bow and saw
a rope tied to the tow ring, running down into the increasingly
choppy water. She tugged on it, but it wouldn't budge. She
disconnected from the winch line and hooked it into the rear tow
ring. She then climbed aboard, tied herself on and held on tight.

“
Bring it up,
Craig.”

“
What?”

“
Bring it up …
now. That's an order.”

“
But” –

“
NOW!”

“
Okay, okay.
Bringing you up.”

A moment later, as
Becky reached the floor of the passenger bay, she climbed aboard and
then looked out and down.

“
Oh, fuck! The
other one is hanging below. Shit, shit, shit.”

“
Becks, we've got
to go now!” A bolt of lightning far behind them startled
everyone on the helo. “NOW! Buckle in.”

“
Shit, shit,
shit,” Becky said, wiping either tears or rain from her face.
“Got a GPS reading, at least?”

“
Of course.
We'll come back and search after the storm passes.”

“
Shit. Okay.”

The helo, with its dual
cargo hanging below, rose up and raced the storm and the drone toward
the launch.

- 34 -

November
13, 2012
7:27
a.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

On
t
he
Red Sea

The helicopter
approached, its cargo net bulging with a dozen 55-gallon drums,
hovered over the aft helipad until the yacht crew had unloaded and
stowed the drums, and then settled down on the pad. The side door
slid open, revealing a large wooden crate and six men, four in
unmarked drab uniforms, two in khakis and polo shirts, with hoods
over their heads.

“
Ah, at last,”
Jake said, smiling.

“
What's that?”
Pam asked.

“
A new toy; let
it be a surprise once it's installed, okay?”

“
Okay, Jake, if
you insist.”

Six men from the yacht
crew picked up the crate and took it below. One of the uniformed men
gently escorted the hooded men off the craft and below, following the
crate; two more followed, carrying two duffel bags, two backpacks and
two suitcases.

The fourth walked over
to Jake, Pam and JJ, nodded at Jake and said, “Sir, we'll be
ready to leave as soon as the equipment is unloaded and the techs get
started installing it; should be less than ten minutes. We'll return
for them once it's up and running; should be two or three days.”

“
Very good.
Second cell in the brig, correct?”

“
That's where I
was told it was to go, sir, yes.”