Page 62 of Call Sign: Thunder
Zach pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I’ll be out in just a minute. If I’m gonna be gone a few days, I need to call into my superior officer and let him know I’m not going AWOL on him.”
It was Bing who answered him. “That’s fine, but your cell won’t work down here. We have jammers going to make sure no signals come in or go out without being part of our Enterprise Virtual Network or EVN. You’ll have to use the phone on The King’s desk. Hit sixty-nine and you’ll get connected to Lou. She’ll get you an outside line.”
“Sixty-nine?” Zach asked.
“Yeah,” Bing chuckled. “I picked a number easy for us all to remember.”
“Children,” Ryder said, shaking his head. “I’m dealing with a pack of children.” Turning back to Zach he added, “You’ve got five minutes to make your call. Meet me out on the main floor in five or we’ll start without you.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter Twenty-four
ALLIE
“How much longer is this going to take?”
The rude woman’s voice grated on Allison, only making things worse.
“We’ve been having trouble with our computer. I’m waiting for the register to reboot and then I’ll be able to check you out,” Allie said with as much positivity as she could muster, which wasn’t much.
Not for the first time, she contemplated quitting. Now three months in, the newness of her first job had officially worn off, leaving aggravation in its wake.
The line of women waiting to check out had grown three deep with another woman on the floor calling out, “Can I get some help over here?”
Allie wanted to scream that she was just one person. Her boss had chosen today to take a long lunch and her co-worker had called in sick… again. That left her holding down the fort alone.
Finally, the register was back on line and she worked as hard as she could to clear the line, trying her best to ignore the passive-aggressive comments from the ultra-rich patrons who had nothing better to do than go out and spend loads of money in the middle of a Thursday afternoon.
She didn’t miss the irony that just a few months earlier, she could have been one of those women. In fact, it annoyed her that on frustrating days like today, the thought of quitting and rejoining the customers as a kept woman was never far from her mind. The only thing stopping her was the knowledge that it would be her father keeping her bank account full, and that was no longer acceptable.
“Sorry I was gone so long. Everything okay?” Laura asked finally returning to the shop.
“Thank goodness you’re here. I really need to pee. Bad news — Carrie called off again. Good news — that lady came back and bought the last of those ugly sweaters you’ve been trying to get rid of.”
“Damn that girl. Is she just trying to get fired,” Laura complained. “I never would have been gone that long if I’d known you were here alone. Go. Take a break. Let me cover for a bit.”
She didn’t need to tell Allie twice. She’d worn shoes that were killing her feet and she really did need to pee.
She’d just sat down on the toilet when her cell phone started ringing. Disappointed that it wasn’t Zach’s number, she let the call go to voicemail since it came up as NO CALLER ID.
But when the phone rang again one minute later — from the same number — she got nervous. What if something bad had happened to Zach. In a rush, she answered.
“Hello. This is Allie.”
“Hi, baby.”
“Yay! I’m so glad to hear your voice. I almost didn’t answer. You’re coming up on some weird number.”
“Yeah, about that. I’m going to be out of pocket here for the next day or two. I know I said I’d call tonight, but I doubt I’ll be able to now.”
Allie fought the urge to cry. Knowing she would get to talk with Zach later was one of the few things that had been getting her through the day.
“That sucks,” she said, trying not to pout like a baby. “I hope you’re not going out on a dangerous mission.”
“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m sure everything will be fine. I just didn’t want you to worry if you couldn’t get a hold of me.”
While she was grateful that they were able to talk and text as much as they were, the memories of just how dangerous Zach’s job was, was never far from her mind. She’d seen him in action and the thought of him getting injured while on duty was always present.
