Page 78 of Bound By Valor

She exaggeratedly shivered, “Yeah, I’m avoiding looking at the hulk, don’t worry.”

Zarek strode towards me and that’s when I saw asmall label between his fingers. He placed it on my chest on the left and I saw that it said ‘Doc’ on it. I scanned the room and saw everyone had a call sign label on their chest.

I smiled behind my mask but I was sure he could see my eyes twinkling as he hugged me and kissed me with two layers of masks between us.

“You look sexy as hell, Doc,” he said and I laughed.

“You can barely see me.”

He joined me and laughed softly.

“All right, team,” Sebastian called out, “Grab your earpieces from this box. Get armed and load up in the X6s. Kabir, Zarek, Delara and I will carry the charge backpacks. Dylan, you get the backup charges.”

The team nodded and I picked one of the tiny boxes. As I opened it, I saw it had an even tinier device in it. It was as big as a kidney bean. I put the earpiece in and it pinged immediately, before going hear-through mode.

“This is Ghost, radio check, over.” Zarek’s voice sounded in the earpiece.

“Ghost, this is Gunner, Lima Charlie, over.”Logan.

“Gunner, this is Falcon, Lima Charlie, over.”Amelia.

“Falcon, this is Cipher, Lima Charlie, over.”Kabir.

“Cipher, this is Specter, Lima Charlie, over.”Zane.

“Specter, this is Ranger, Lima Charlie, over.”Sebastian.

“Ranger, this is Titan, Lima Charlie, over.”Dylan.

“Titan, this is Shadow, Lima Charlie, over.”Delara.

“Shadow, this is Doc, Lima Charlie, over,” I ended the radio check and the team nodded, armingthemselves.

After a few seconds of silence and everybody eyeing each other, Sebastian’s voice echoed in the Mobilization Bay.

“Roll out, people!”

We poured into the X6s. I stuck with Amelia and Zane while others settled into their cars. The engines roared and when the garage doors opened tall and wide, the cars screeched out and joined the traffic.

A sense of irrefutable dread burned through me. I took deep breaths and closed my eyes to get my shit together. I was not going to let the nerves get the best of me. Not today.

Zane pushed a button on the dash, “This is Specter. Channel 415 entry point ETA is in 34 minutes.”

“Copy,” Logan’s voice came through.

“Copy,” Dylan joined.

When we reached the location that was a mile trek away from Warehouse 67, we saw multiple NYPD’s cop cars swarming the manhole near an alley.

“Don’t mind the blue, I called them,” Sebastian’s voice came through the car’s comms.

All of us, except for Zane, streamed out of the cars and gathered around near the cops. Zane reversed his car and drove off to the nearest private helipad where our rescue bird was waiting.

“Thank you, Officer Lee,” Sebastian shook hands with one of the officers on scene, “We could really use your help.”

“Too many favors, Blackthorn. You owe me a drink,” Lee laughed, “Or maybe ten.”

“Looking mighty sharp, Mr. Blackthorn,” a female officer joined their conversation. Sebastian went a bitstiff.

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