Page 65 of Call Sign: Thunder
He was unbuckling his belt to escape the silence when Doc… Gretchen… spoke. “I’m sorry you got caught up in my little tiff with Ryder. He infuriates me, but I know he would lay down his life for anyone on his team. Knowing that always helps me calm down after one of our altercations.”
He didn’t really know how to respond to that, so he opened his chips and ate to avoid saying something stupid, allowing Doc to ramble on.
“Despite my disagreement with him on this one topic, if you take this job, know you can trust him. He doesn’t do this for the money, and despite his call sign, he doesn’t suffer from a God complex like so many others would in his position.”
After having a front row seat to their previous argument, her words of approval held a lot of weight with Zach.
“So why does he do the job?” he asked.
Doc hesitated before answering. “You should probably ask him that question, but I’ve decided he has the deepest sense of duty and service of anyone I’ve worked with in this shadow business. His moral compass may not always align with what the bureaucrats he has to deal with would like, but that only makes me like him more.”
Her opinion squared with his own observations.
“So what’s the deal with Wrath? Should I be concerned about going out on a mission with him?” Curiosity got the better of him as he posed his question.
“It’s not my story to tell.”
“That’s not what I asked,” he added.
Their eyes met. It seemed as if she were choosing her words carefully. “Wrath is a very dangerous man… but know this, you are privileged to have him on your team because I believe he could single-handedly kill an army of enemies to protect one of his team members.”
Despite her earlier warnings, Zach heard nothing but admiration in Doc’s voice as she spoke about this mysterious Wrath. It made him that much more anxious to meet the man waiting for them at the other end of the flight.
Zach pushed to his feet. “I’m gonna take Ryder’s advice and grab a nap.”
“Sleep well.”
Chapter Twenty-five
ZACH
The sun was low in the Western sky as the Condor came in on approach to the private airstrip at The Ranch a few hours later.
Zach had spent a few minutes visiting Crash and his co-pilot, Burn, in the cockpit just before their landing, learning the duo had worked with Ryder in his previous life in government service. No specific agency was mentioned, but the brief harrowing story they shared of flying a bleeding Ryder out of Moscow while under fire was a decent hint that The King was either ex-CIA or ex-NSA. They also let it slip that their boss spoke seven languages fluently — an impressive feat all by itself.
With each tidbit Zach absorbed about the people he might one day work with, he grew more excited. The last few months, as his feelings for Allie had grown more serious, he’d been coming to terms with the fact that she’d never be happy being married to an enlisted man. He’d pretty much resolved himself to being forced to retire so he could get some respectable nine to five job that would end up making him want to poke his eyes out with a sharp stick.
He’d assumed that any job the senator would recommend him for would be such a boring career, but was relieved to find he’d been wrong. It wasn’t that Allison’s father objected to what he did for a living — rather that he didn’t get paid enough to give his daughter the life she was accustomed to. A job with Ryder and team could solve that problem.
Zach inspected the area as they came in for their landing. The southern Texas landscape stretched out flat in every direction until they were only a few dozen feet off the ground when the barren, sandy-brown scenery gave way to green pastures and wooded sections of land surrounding a large fingered lake. It was an oasis in a near desert.
A herd of majestic horses scattered in a fenced paddock not far from the runway, no doubt spooked by the plane’s sudden appearance breaking up their otherwise serene existence. In the distance, Zach saw an even bigger herd of cattle, munching on the green pasture next to a half dozen cabins lining the far side of the lake.
The plane hadn’t even stopped rolling when Ryder was on his feet, ready to pop the door open the second they came to a halt. Zach rushed to grab his portfolio, the only personal belonging he had with him for the unexpected trip.
The oppressive May heat slammed into him the second his shoe hit the stairs. He was looking forward to the change of clothes Ryder had promised would be waiting for him since the idea of flying a mission in his only business suit in this heat was not appealing.
They’d been standing on the runway less than a minute when a topless jeep came driving down the runway like a bat out of hell, screeching to a halt a few feet from where Crash had pulled the Condor to a stop.
Zach didn’t need an introduction to confirm it was the mysterious Wrath behind the wheel. It wasn’t his long grey-hair or his weathered skin covered in tattoos that gave him away. It was the man’s feral anger as he glared daggers in Doc’s direction.
“What the fuck is she doing here?” Wrath growled, never taking his eyes off the only woman in the group.
Doc smiled indulgently before adding, “Nice to see you too, Axel. I told you, you couldn’t just ignore me.”
Well, this should be fun.
Zach was grateful for the roll-bar to hang onto as an angry Axel took the curves in the private road cutting through the picturesque property fast enough to fling any one of his three passengers out the back. The only saving grace was the loud wind whipping around their harrowing ride made conversation impossible, giving Zach the opportunity to glance around.
