Page 53 of Out of Peril

Bravo and Delta teams had been fully assembled for a meeting.

Tarron walked in with Archie hot on his heels.

“Apologies everyone. False alarm,” Archie said.

“We had a blip on Walker's tracker and thought we may have a location, but after closer testing it does appear to be nothing more than a glitch,” Tarron explained.

“Where was the blip?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Possibly somewhere near New Orleans, but it happened so fast that we can't really pinpoint an exact location.”

“New Orleans is even just a guess,” Archie said, giving a side eye glare Tarron's way. “The blip occurred in southern Louisiana. Just a blip. Sorry to have caused you all to come in over nothing.”

It was clear that this had been Tarron's idea to assemble the teams and not Archie's.

Delta team huddled together to talk. Michael finally nodded.

“I'd like to send a few guys down to Louisiana just in case. Linc and Tucker have volunteered. If another more definitive blip occurs then we'll have boots on the ground ready to move in.”

“That won't be necessary,” Silas said. “Right now it's no more than a shot in the dark.”

“With all due respect, that shot in the dark may be the only lead we get. We have allies in the area. What will hurt to let my guys go down and talk to them?”

“Look, I know you all just want to do something. But right now there is nothing to do. Just sit tight and I promise the second we have a lead on his location, we'll include Delta in on the mission.”

The two team leaders stared each other down, before Michael gathered his things and called his team out of the room.

I wasn't sure if he was going to go over Silas's head to Patrick or even Kyle and have them override him on this, or if he was truly backing down for the moment.

One thing was certain, tensions were high between the two units and I couldn't fault Delta one bit for being pissed. We'd told them we had his back and we'd failed them all on our watch.

*****

Present day.

As we were celebrating the relief of Tarron's announcement of finding Walker, Colin peeked his head in.

“What's going on?” Colin asked.

“We've picked up Walker's tracker. I was right dammit. He's in New Orleans, or rather just outside it. Silas is on the phone now confirming with the panthers,” Tarron said.

“What the hell is he doing in panther territory?” Linc asked as Michael rallied his team into the conference room as soon as word got out.

“Kian, this is Silas. I have Bravo and Delta teams with me. I repeat, do you have eyes on Walker?”

“No, sir. But I think we know where she's keeping him. He came into our territory a short while ago to let us know that he was okay and asked that we contact you with his location. Then the beast swooped in and grabbed him. She flew off with him. But we had a run in with her earlier this week. As long as she's still there we know where to find him.”

“Where?”

“One of the NOLA wolves' manors. It just across our border and after a similar monster ran the wolves out of there a few years back, the place has been abandoned and largely considered neutral territory.”

“We've got him,” Tarron said. “This is it.”

“I have Foxtrot on standby at the airport. We leave in twenty,” Michael surprised us all by saying. “Despite our differences on this, we'd appreciate the help in recovery. But Delta is rolling out now. Since we didn't get our guys down there sooner when I asked, we're already behind the ball and losing valuable time. Delta, roll out and report to the airfield immediately.”

He didn't even wait for Silas's response as the rest of us look to him, awaiting orders even though he'd already told us we were rolling out.

He finally nodded. “Let's finish this and get Walker back.”

---