Page 71 of Call Sign: Thunder
“Get ready,Thunder. The King and his court are almost home.”
Zach had been on edge, waiting for one of his team to break radio silence. He looked down at the watch Allie’s father had given him for Christmas. The stopwatch portion was working perfectly to mark the mission milestones. It told him they were running about ten minutes ahead of schedule.
He’d spent the ninety minutes they’d been gone on high alert. He was ready to start the engine the second he saw his team break through the tree-line at a fast jog. The King was in lead, Torch covered their six, and Axel was in the middle — a frail looking man slung over his shoulder.
“Welcome home,” he said as he fired up the engine of the helicopter just as the men piled in the open side door. He didn’t need to look back. He knew Ryder would give the order when they were safely onboard.
“Let’s get out of here!” The King’s order came.
He didn’t need to tell Zach twice. With great care, he slowly lifted the bird, weaving through the small opening. Once they were clear, he spun the helo around toward The Ranch.
“Hang on, back there. I’m gonna haul ass until we get out into international airspace.”
Just as he made his announcement, he heard the ping of bullets hitting the fuselage from below.
“Looks like you guys pissed somebody off back there,” he said, glad that so far none of his dashboard instruments were showing any indication of problems.
“We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t,” Wrath answered.
Within minutes Zach had them out of range of any ground firepower and unless their intel had been totally wrong, Cuba didn’t have airpower to scramble. It only took a few more minutes to cross the imaginary line into international airspace and Zach finally allowed himself to relax, knowing the rest of their trip should be uneventful.
He listened as the men in the back tended to the medical needs of the journalist they’d rescued. As The King debriefed the man, it became clear to everyone on board that the ‘journalist’ was more likely an undercover government agent. While he refused to give up his agency, Zach listened as the agent shared classified intel he’d risked his life to uncover.
It made Zach proud as he listened to Ryder making a call on his secured satellite phone, providing the top secret information to some nameless bigwig in Washington. What they would do with the information the agent had uncovered, he didn’t know, but it felt good to be helping the good guys just the same.
The eastern sky behind him was just starting to lighten up when The Ranch came into view. If all went according to plan, his head would be hitting a pillow just about the time the sun came up. He hoped he could get a few hours of shuteye before he and Ryder would head back to DC.
* * *
Eight hours later,the Condor was starting its decent into the metropolitan DC area. Despite only getting a few hours of sleep, Zach was wide awake as he excitedly worked through the final negotiations to become a full-time specialist on Ryder’s Black Sky Ops team.
“So, you’re saying I could get sent on missions literally anywhere in the world?” he asked, not sure if he’d understood Ryder correctly.
“Technically… yes, but we do have teams in Europe and Asia that cover those areas as their home base. But occasionally we need to move personnel around — either to help with bigger jobs, or to cover for agents that are either injured or taking some personal time off.”
“How often does that happen? Injuries, I mean.” Zach felt like that was a question he should probably ask.
“Thankfully, not very often, but like being active duty, what we do is dangerous. Since we often have less backup, probably even more so. If taking risks is a problem, you might want to rethink saying yes.”
If it were still just himself, he wouldn’t give the danger another thought, but it wasn’t just himself he needed to worry about anymore.
“I’m just trying to make the right decision, not just for myself, but for Allison too. She’s probably not going to love knowing I’m going into danger every day.”
Ryder nodded. “I get that. In fact, it’s why I don’t plan on telling my wife I went out with you guys last night. I hate keeping things from her, but I know she sleeps better if she thinks all I’m doing as I travel between offices is herding cats.”
“You’re married?” Zach’s voice cracked he was so surprised.
Instead of answering, Ryder looked out the window for a few long seconds. When he finally looked back at Zach, he had a sly smile on his face.
“I know, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to find someone who could put up with me either, but yeah… I’m married to the most amazing woman to ever walk this earth.”
Watching a hard man like Ryder Helm go soft talking about a woman made Zach feel better about how emotional he’d become when it came to making sure Allison was safe and happy. Which brought him to a sticking point in their negotiations.
“So I get that I’ll be assigned to the America’s team for most of my missions, but how flexible are the options for where I’ll call my home base? Allison grew up in Virginia. As you know, her father is in DC. We haven’t discussed it yet, but I’m guessing she’s going to want to spend a fair amount of time in the Washington area.”
“I won’t lie. I’ll need you ready to deploy from The Ranch most of the time. It’s where almost all of my America’s team calls their home base.”
“But… with The Bunker here in DC, could I at least try to spend some of my planned downtime here in DC with the understanding that I may need to hightail it back to Texas? I’m not sure how important this point will be with her, but she’s young and outgoing. You already told me almost everyone is single so there won’t be a lot of friend material for her out at The Ranch, and with it being so remote… I just want to make sure she’s as happy as I am with this move.”
