Page 88 of Surge

“And I’ll have your career.”

He shouldered into the ruck and jogged toward the helo, noting they didn’t have a support team.

“Bear?”

Garrett grinned. “Yeah.”

The pilot struck out a hand. “Frank.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “This way and we’ll get you in the air.”

“Where’s the rest of the team?”

Frank smirked. “Copilot is all we have,” he said, indicating toward the gear. “Chapel sent some weaponry and gear but sends his apologies. They got spun up on an op to save an HVT.”

So, we’re on our own, Garrett thought as he hiked into the bird and planted himself in a seat, grabbed the onboard headphones. Once they were airborne, he decided to make use of the local asset. “Frank,” he said over the din of the engines and rotors. “What can you tell us about Choca Cantika?”

“Cantika Coffee Farm is on the Mount Bromo volcano slope,” Frank said, sounding like a tour guide. “The farm is about ninety-five klicks out,” he added, sounding much more serious.

Holding up a data pad, headphones on, Caldwell shone it at Garrett. “It’s not far from the bullet train station in Surabaya.”

“True—you can smell them roasting it every night from that platform.”

That coffee farm had to be it . . . Garrett looked out of the helo at the sky darkening over hot, humid Indonesia. The thought of preschool shoes decorated with butterfly shapes filled with lethal chemicals. Those chemicals being consumed across the States. Ice dumped into his gut. Maybe he’d never have Cantika coffee again. But . . .

Caldwell shifted in his seat. “Just checked shipping manifests for Cantika. Next shipment is going out first thing in the morning. Factoring in timing for delivery, unloading . . . processing . . . they could be gone by morning.”

Chest tightening, Garrett shook his head. “With no assets to support us, no way we can raid a whole factory.”

“Agreed,” the spook said.

“We have to stop that train.” Okay, time to work out a plan. Garrett rubbed his hands together. “Bullet train is going roughly three hundred fifty klicks an hour. Can we catch them, Frank?”

Frank messed with the controls for a second. “Train will slow as it approaches Surabaya, but we’re flying two hundred.” He tapped at his screen, and Garrett strained to see what Frank was showing them . . . the speed dial and the map. He clicked his tongue. “We’re ten mikes from the train.”

Garrett reached up and clapped his shoulder.

“Then in six minutes,” Caldwell said, “we bomb the train, explode the chemicals off the planet. Success!”

* * *

NEAR SURABAYA, INDONESIA

The train was slowing. They had to be coming up on a train station.

Delaney knew that while Garrett was en route, he wasn’there. Hakim was on board, and if they stopped, they could get these containers to the farm and make their deadly chemical. That didn’t even take into consideration that Hakim was here.Hakim!

She needed a plan.

Plan A: Send Surge to each car ahead of her, then take on Hakim when they found him. But that wasn’t solid, because if she sent Surge, she had exactly zero ways to defend herself against the others.

Plan B: Leave Surge here to protect the LD3s full of Sachaai chemical vials while she sought Hakim herself. Still left her with no way to defend herself. As well as she had learned the technique from Garrett’s lesson in martial arts, she knew she wasn’t up to a three-on-one.

Plan C: Drag the LD3s to the caboose and dump them overboard. Huh. Could she? She stood up and pulled at the LD3 on top of the stack as hard as she could. She couldn’t even budge it. They were way too heavy. Yeah. Plan C was terrible too.

Plan D . . .

She didn’t have a Plan D.

Plans A and B had the same problem—she’d had quick self-defense classes that didn’t amount to anything against three armed terrorists. Even with Surge. And while he could solve the Hakim problem, that would leave her to solve the Rashid and Tariq problems. Not to mention it wouldn’t tell her how to stop the chemical attack.

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