Page 1 of Call Sign: Thunder
Chapter One
ZACH
"God dammit. Not now." As this wasn't the first time this type of interruption happened, he'd swear his commanding officer had him under surveillance, waiting until he was about to get lucky before calling him. The incessant buzzing of his obnoxious ring tone made it impossible to finish his current mission; picking up the hot chick grinding against him on the dance floor. Damn, what was her name again?
"Zach... seriously. Can't you get rid of whoever that is?” The curvy brunette had obviously heard his phone over the pounding music and despite her hands still roaming seductively over his body, her grating whine doused the mood.
He pulled away from her to walk the few steps to the edge of the dance floor as he pulled his cell phone out and hit ANSWER just before the call went to voicemail.
Throwing his palm over his other ear so he could hear over the music, he gave his boss shit. “Seriously. We’re supposed to be on R&R until Monday. Couldn't this wait till then?”
"Get your ass back to base. We have a situation."
Zach was distracted by the sexy woman still swaying to the music seductively on the dance floor, waiting for him to return to her and pick up where he left off.
"Garrett. You there?"
Captain Zachary Garrett's cock stirred in his tight jeans. He’d been looking forward to getting laid tonight. "Yeah, but I need an hour."
"You have ten minutes. This is not a drill."
The call dropped.
"Shit." He shoved his phone into his back pocket and headed out to the dance floor again. Leaning down, he spoke against her ear. “Sorry, but I have to go.”
"What? No way!” she complained, grabbing the front of his black t-shirt as if she could stop him from leaving.
"Sorry, baby, but duty calls."
"But we're not even close to being done,” she whined, letting her hand slip lower to cup his package boldly through his jeans.
Removing her hand, he replied. “Maybe you aren't, but I am."
With an annoyed humph, the brunette complained. “You're a real jerk, you know that? Some night this turned out to be. My girls tried to warn me off about you. I wish I'd listened."
He suspected he should give a shit, but he just couldn't bother. There was only one thing in his life that he was truly passionate about. He may give Major McIntyre shit about recalling him to duty, but if he were honest with himself, he'd rather be in the air anyway.
Zach leaned down to place a final platonic kiss on the woman's forehead, knowing he wouldn't be seeing her again. Considering he couldn't remember her name, perhaps it was for the best.
"Night, baby."
* * *
Fifteen minutes later,he pulled the jeep up to Marine headquarters on the small military base where he was currently stationed. He doubted most of the American public knew the U.S.A. had a base tucked away in Honduras in order to launch missions into the Caribbean and South America.
The plain building was lit up like a Christmas tree despite it being after midnight. He nodded at the armed guard holding the door open for him.
He knew the minute he walked into the situation room he was the last to arrive. Ten impatient pairs of eyes turned his way. His friend David 'Rock' Waters spoke for the group. "Nice of you to join us, Garrett. You must be having to go pretty far off base to find women who aren't into your “love 'em and leave 'em” bullshit."
Zach grabbed a too-ripe banana from the out-of-place bowl of fruit before sliding into the last seat at the front of the U-shaped table formation. He grinned as he peeled the fruit, taking a big bite before answering, "Hey, there's a waiting list to get on my dance card. I'm trying to work my way through the list before I get shipped off to the next Shang-ri-la."
The room full of alpha-men gave him good-natured shit until their commanding officer cleared his throat, reminding them they were here for something a bit more serious than razzing Zach about his notorious reputation as a playboy.
"Now that we have our flight commander here, let's get to work." Adrenalin flowed through Zach's veins as his chest swelled with pride. He may have a reputation as a horn-dog when he was off duty, but he had worked equally hard to build his notorious badass reputation as a pilot. He had mastered more types of helicopters than anyone else on base and had the certifications to prove it. There may be no shortage of marine pilots, but Captain Zachary 'Thunder' Garrett was the one every platoon wanted on the most dangerous missions.
For the next half hour, Major McIntyre shared the classified intel he had received from Washington. Less than twenty-four hours ago, Miguel Sanchez-Blanco's faction of the notorious Blanco crime family had acquired a shipment of Russian warheads along with a huge cache of semi-automatic rifles. The mission to shut down the sale had failed, allowing the plane carrying the dangerous military grade weapons to leave Europe. The plane had been tracked all the way back to Bogota, Colombia, where they had lost satellite coverage.
"Latest intelligence from the recon team on the ground has the shipment arriving at the underground fortress Miguel and his brothers have set up in the heart of their compound. We've been working on contingency plans for raiding the compound for weeks. It's time to put the plans into motion. Thunder is gonna fly us in under radar and get us close enough to hoof it in the last two miles. We'll run the mission as we've practiced, retrieving the weapons if possible, destroying them if not." He was using a long wood rod as a pointer to mark locations on the overblown map of Colombia stuck to the wall. "We'll have thirty minutes to get in and out before they can get reinforcements in from their other locations. We'll head north on foot and rendezvous with Garrett again in the small meadow about five klicks north of the joint compound."
