Page 15 of Vapor
“She’s part of the team here. She’s been out for a few months now and married my crew chief.”
His smile is real and I think of Mucimi who would be happy to see this. People living and caring touches something in him that helps with the not easy days. “Good for her. I’ll look for her next time we’re up this way.” He’s a good guy reconnecting with Sarah.
Pulling a seat out I sit and Justice sits by me. “Mucimi is upset over the kids. He feels what they go through. Thanks for showing him how to see it different. I don’t know what you said but he told me you get it.”
My breath blows out. “Thanks. His not easy days are way different than mine. His girl is meeting my navigator today.”
“Sarah?”
I nod, surprised he’d know her name or know that she’s a navigator.
“I don’t try to read anyone it just happens. She’s the opposite of Aurora and feels emotion deeply.”
I nod watching men come through the door. “She does but her perspective is different than mine. I wouldn’t think of letting the kids decorate the bunkhouses as a form of therapy showing them they can control their future.”
Decker laughs. “Is she going to strip it every time the kids move on?”
I look at him choosing my words. “I’d help if she is. The point being she sees something I never would. I didn’t grow up with siblings, had a dad and mom that died young. I don’t have experience on family bonds and wouldn’t know how to fix that when it’s broke. She was labeled too emotional to promote. What the military considered a weakness, I see as knowledge that I don’t have. I don’t care if she spouts that with glassy eyes. It’s knowledge I never got.”
“Knowledge is power and the smart girls use it to keep the macho men under control.”
I smile at the blonde girl that just showed in a chair.
“Aylen Knight. I’m sending it to CJ. She’s excited to come down again and Cloud wants to meet you.” She’s the advocacy club that has therapists lined up for the kids.
Cloud, I’ve heard the name. It comes to me quick, the SEAL sharpshooter pilot that ran as satellite for his team. Old school tactics that Night Hawks mirrored. “Blackhawk.” I turn to Putam. “You’re all from the east coast?” The world I’ve always seen as huge is shrinking.
He nods with a smile and happy glint in his eye. “Cloud is my grandfather.”
I should have known. “I need to tackle the list in the front of the Bible obviously. I’ve been on the business side of it.” Julius said the genealogy can wait.
“The front can wait. Are you business oriented, or do you need admin that is?” Cort asks coming through the door with a giant I haven’t met, Jinx and Jones.
I give nothing away for reaction to Jones but throw chin getting chuckles. Men are odd but I’m used to the odd.
“She can run a base, it was her goal,” Jones answers for me.
The giant I don’t know asks again. “Do you want a second for admin?”
“If paper will stop me from working, I want the admin. From what I read, I can do both because you have the programs that allow me to work from anywhere. That being said, I’d feel more comfortable with someone who understands and is able to make decisions without my input during an emergency. Having admin and Badass experience would get a candidate closer to the second job for paper and organization.” I’m not sure if I should say if we decide that way. It should be assumed, I hope.
Cort and the man show respect with chin. “I’m Raid, I do businesses and enforce whatever Cort thinks up. I like this one. Banks will get funding for the kids but you’re not adding to my plate. I’ll get you admin help and already have the Bits on glasses for you so getting work in remote areas won’t be a problem. Our satellites will follow you everywhere because they’re everywhere.” He is doing the Club in a Club or for this job as a dry run?
I smile at that. “Does that mean my VP can be a Night Stalker? I ask because we already need another team but we don’t know Badass. If you have elite aerial it would work well. They’d get our military and can teach us Badass.”
Raid looks devastated. “I thought she was just rescuing kids?” His look to Cort is met with a big smile.
The table erupts in raucous laughter telling me Raid maybe a giant but he’s ribbed regularly so he’s a fair giant.
Putam touches my arm, getting my attention. “He’s ranked under Cort’s number one position for Protector without ability so he's dangerous and a little crazy like the rest, but that’s never at the expense of his Brothers unless they turn.”
“Thanks, I don’t know why they would turn but I never understood that mind frame.”
Cort stops talking to Raid. “You have the jobs for another team?”
“We do. The first job intel is traveling. We took it on the low so we could see how out of country would work. Advertising wasn’t on our plate.”
He nods. “Adroit gets those but Church and Bruce are booked for fuckin’ ever and started punting jobs back to Badass. Rescue out of country for groups is not a specialty we’ve done without bleeding for it. The Alpha-Bit Ops were costly but we found a way to get FBI invested that helped us find more. The Badass and Indians in the country of Georgia was split between the three territories and was still astronomical. You do more with less and your whole crew are versed in international law, land, air and sea.” He smiles looking proud.
