Page 1 of Call Sign: King
Chapter One
RYDER
“Alright, gentlemen. Let’s get this whack-a-mole crossed off our list. I have a date tonight I don’t want to be late for,” Tank said much too cheerily.
“You have a booty call tonight. Call it what it is,” MacGyver groused loud enough to be heard over the helicopter engine.
“You’re just jealous. I can’t help it you’ve chosen to live the life of a monk,” Tank replied, pulling his facemask down to shield his sly smile.
“I’m no monk. I just prefer to know a woman’s first name before I fuck her.”
The entire team, crammed into the back of the Huey, chuckled until Reaper chastised his men. “Kill the locker room talk, boys. Don’t forget about Arrow.”
Ryder Helms watched the rookie member of their team, Abigail ‘Arrow’ Powell with interest. He’d been anxious to see how his newest sniper would handle being thrown into the middle of the all-men crew.
“Don’t censor yourself on my account,” she answered, pulling her own gear on as she added. “I’ve been known to hook up with a hot stranger a time or two myself, although to be fair, that was before I gave up tequila.”
Even Ryder chuckled at her casual comeback, relieved that his gut had been right. Despite her proven talent, more than one of the members of his elite team had voiced concerns about adding a female to their squad, worried it would throw their close camaraderie out of balance. So far, those worries had been unfounded.
“Five minutes until the drop zone,” Thunder announced from the flight deck. “Just heard from Saigon. The B-team is already on the ground.”
The last thing he wanted to do was distract the team before their mission, but Ryder couldn’t let the pilot’s comment stand.
“There is no A or B team. I told you assholes, come up with names for the squads if you want, but A and B are out,” he said with authority.
“Fine. Let’s go with good and bad,” Tank countered.
“I prefer experts and apprentices,” MacGyver added, grinning at the round of laughter from his crew members.
Ryder shut down the laughter. “How about employed and unemployed? The next asshole to disparage any member of Black Sky Ops will join the latter group, effective immediately.”
Ryder felt a slap on his back from the man sitting next to him.
“Lighten up, King. It’s all just fun and games,” Gabriel ‘Reaper’ Gonzales countered, clearly more comfortable bantering with the boss since he was the team leader and had been one of Ryder’s first hires three years ago.
“Don’t make me regret expanding the North American BSO operation. I’ll lighten up when we get both teams safely back to The Ranch. In case you forgot, what we do is dangerous, which means once we lift off the ground and are enroute, all rivalries disappear, and we become one team.”
Christ, even to his own ears, he was starting to sound like a fucking cheerleader instead of the dangerous undercover agent he used to be. Life had been a lot easier when he’d been one of the assets instead of the boss.
The jarring thud as Thunder sat their bird down on the bumpy terrain of southern Mexico brought Ryder’s attention back to the mission. As this was their third visit to this particular state in the last six months, he had to agree with Tank’s earlier assessment. Destroying illegal drug operations responsible for the deadly opioid crisis had become their own fucked-up game of whack-a-mole. They may destroy one producer’s operation today, but another would spring up to replace it soon enough. There was just too much money to be made to put an end to the drug dealers’ game for good.
He took comfort in knowing they were saving a few American lives each time they threw up a roadblock for the bad guys, but until he convinced his connections to start authorizing assassinations instead of warehouse destruction, they’d be back again.
Ryder’s pulse spiked as he jumped down to the jungle floor. It felt good to be part of an active mission instead of sitting in boring meetings or filling out complex spreadsheets for his bean counters back in D.C. He didn’t get out with the team often. In fact, just thinking about the danger he was potentially putting himself in brought not only the expected excitement, but more importantly, a pang of guilt.
If it were just himself he had to worry about, he’d be out on every mission. But having the perfect woman waiting for him to get home safely changed everything. Giving up the danger of active duty was a tiny price to pay.
Get your head out of your ass, Helms, and pay attention.
Ryder reveled in every moment of their sixty-minute operation, from crawling along the jungle floor to jumping over the makeshift wall the drug dealers had erected around the dilapidated shanty their amateur scientists were using as shelter for their operations. He took pride in watching the team he’d handpicked and assembled working together as the professionals they were.
“I think we’re making progress, boys,” Reaper said, breaking radio silence as the last member of his team returned to their meet-up location after they’d finished planting their explosives without being detected.
“How’s that?” Tank asked. “This piece-of-shit hut is worse than the last one.”
“Exactly. The snakes know we’re coming, and they don’t want to waste time and money building anything sure to be blown to smithereens.”
“I’d rather the fuckers just give up,” MacGyver complained.
