Chapter 27 #2
With the kind of missions Obi-Wan had run, Vince assured himself, this would be a piece of cake.
They didn’t yet know who’d gone overboard, and even though Vince was praying it wasn’t Lace, his gut was telling him it was.
The five minutes of travel time seemed like an eternity to Vince, but his brothers kept him together and they were all out of the van, fully loaded with their equipment as soon as Buck, on two wheels, pulled to within twenty-feet of the helo.
Obi-Wan was already in the pilot seat, and Zita was on the ground, beckoning them on. The luxury seats from the craft that they’d previously used, were piled up beside her.
Awesome. She’d efficiently transformed the helo from a sight-seeing ride to a rescue ship.
“Go, go, go,” she yelled. “You’re ready for wheel’s up.”
They all loaded in, taking places on the floor while Zita leaned in and handed them all their comms. There was a sense of deja-vu for Vince, and he was sure his brothers and Jett were experiencing the same thing. How many missions had they gone on that had begun like this?
Too many to count.
By the time the extra-wide door closed behind them, Vince had regained his sense of calm calculatedness, forcing back his emotions to be dealt with at another time.
After the rescue.
Obi-Wan increased the rotor speed then pulled up on the collective, bringing them airborne before Vince had even finished settling his butt.
“This is your mission, Vince,” Obi-Wan said in his ear and everyone else’s. “How do you want to play it?”
Vince hadn’t been in charge of anything since the ill-fated mission that had been his last. He tried not to think of that right now.
Trask must have known where his mind was attempting to go, because he laid a hand on Vince’s knee and gave him a purposeful nod that said…
Yes. You can do this.
Right. He damned well could.
“Obi-Wan. Coordinate with the local Coast Guard.” Vince ordered brusquely. He gave him the frequency the nearby station used. “They have a cutter, the Bunyan. It was forty-five minutes out approximately nine minutes ago.”
Obi-Wan’s voice came back steady and strong. “According to the location I’ve been given, if I push it, which I will, we can be there in just under thirty minutes. That means we’ll get there first.”
“Good.”
Did Vince wish they’d get there faster? Of course. But he knew Obi-Wan would give it everything he could.
“Come up with a grid-search plan with the Bunyan,” Vince directed, “and bring us in above the Water Wrester,” Vince told him.
“Roger that,” Obi-Wan returned. “I’ll let you know when we’re approaching our target.”
They all used the next few minutes to get into their gear, preparing for a drop into the water that Vince hoped would be necessary, because that meant spotting survivors.
After that was accomplished, all Vince could do was wait. And pray.
Twenty-four minutes later—Vince hadn’t been able to stop looking at his diving watch as they sped over the waves—Obi-Wan came back on.
“I have the Water Wrestler, in sight.”
“Take us in low, Obi-Wan.” Vince put on his best Commander’s voice. “Spence, are you armed?”
“Always,” his brother told him. “In a waterproof bag.”
“Good. I need you to drop into the water, climb onto that boat and get any info that might be helpful, any way you can.”
It was left upspoken that if he needed to threaten with his weapon, that option was on the table.
“While you’re doing that,” Vince clipped, “we’ll start our grid search. You can let us know what you find.”
Spence gave him a crisp salute as Vince opened the door.
Within seconds, Spencer was outside the helicopter; his feet braced on the skid.
Obi-Wan swooped in low, holding position twenty-five feet above and fifteen feet starboard of the idling vessel.
“Clear,” Obi-Wan barked.
Spence didn’t waste a second. He stepped off the strut and seconds later, plunged into the water.
In less than a minute he reached the boat.
The crew helped him aboard once he surfaced and as soon as Spence had his feet firmly planted on the deck, Belle was off.
Obi-Wan, at Vince’s order, wasn’t hanging around. They were already on the move, following a pre-determined search pattern, scanning the waves below.
Half of them were using their special, stabilizing binoculars, while the rest were doing visual, or naked eye surveillance.
Vince was depending on his eyesight alone.
For the first few minutes, they saw nothing.
Until movement caught all their attention.
“What…?” Trask piped up.
“Cutter,” Obi-Wan supplied dryly, dashing Vince’s surge of hope. “I’ve been in touch. They know where they need to search.”
“Spence to helo.”
Vince’s brother’s voice came over the comms at that moment, and if Vince wasn’t mistaken, he sounded, pissed.
“Go, Spence,” Vince returned.
“It’s Lace and the Captain who went over.
But get this. The captain tried to throw Lace in because she found out about a black-market scheme he’d been running.
The asshole was just about ready to get rid of her, when at the last minute, Lace grabbed him around his waist, and they went over, together. ”
Ice formed in Vince’s veins.
Lace had almost been killed.
The captain was a fucking dead man.
“Anything else?” he ground out.
“Yeah. One of the crew members managed to toss a life-ring into Lace’s hands, so at least she’s got flotation.”
Vince metaphorically smacked his forehead.
Why did he already know that Lace would have shared the fucking thing with the captain? In which case, the deceitful prick might have decided to finish her off.
But he couldn’t think like that.
This was a rescue mission, not a recovery.
“Copy, Spence,” Vince managed. “We haven’t spotted them yet, but we’ve only covered a few miles. Make sure none of the crew disappears onto an inflatable. They’ll all need to be taken in by the police and questioned.”
“Already got them sitting pretty on the deck, bro. They’re not going anywhere.”
“Good work, Spence. Vince out.”
It was slow going after that. They didn’t want to miss anything. And as much as Vince wanted to speed things up, a fast approach wasn’t optimum.
Obi-Wan eventually patched Vince in to the cutter, and Vince put his mind toward coordination, each letting the other know when they completed a search-vector.
“We need to go farther afield,” Vince finally told them and Obi-Wan after nearly a half hour of looking.
Time was not being kind, and the waves below weren’t cooperating.
They’d grown larger and larger with a rogue wind that had kicked up from somewhere out of the south, and the troughs the gusts were creating made scouting a lot tougher.
“Roger that,” the captain of the cutter responded. “Expanding search field to four nautical miles.”
Their previous area had encompassed two, and that had been hard enough.
Come on, come on, Vince hissed under his breath. I know you’re out there.
The wind was becoming more of a problem with every tick of the clock, but Obi-Wan was steady on the collective.
“Don’t worry about us.” the Night Stalker spoke out.
It was like he’d been reading Vince’s mind.
“Belle is rated to operate in much higher winds that this, and checking the forecast, we won’t reach anything close to her limit, today.”
“Thanks for that,” Vince replied, his gaze skimming the waves, waiting for dips to appear so he didn’t miss anything in a trough.
He wasn’t going to get sloppy, if—
Wait.
Vince blinked.
Could that be…?
“Obi-Wan,” he snapped. “I’m seeing something at your two o-clock.”
All eyes and binoculars went to the spot Vince identified as Obi-Wan powered in.
“It’s her,” Jett confirmed with an exultant cry.
“Letting the Coast Guard know,” Obi-Wan stated, still focused and composed.
Jett continued. “I see… Yup. We have two targets afloat, approximately twenty-five feet apart.”
“Two?” Vince puzzled, craning to get a better look. “How is that possible. The crew said they only threw over one PFD, and if the pair aren’t together…? Nobody can swim that long in these rough seas,” he mused.
“Well, I see two.” Jett replied, then suddenly let out a laugh.
The tension in the helo had eased somewhat, with visual confirmation of life.
“Damn. Your woman is really something, Vince,” Jett chortled. “If I’m not mistaken, she has her jeans around her neck.”
“Her…? Holy shit. Her jeans?” Buck marveled. “She’s freaking brilliant. I’ve never had to attempt that move any place but in a pool. I’ll bet it wasn’t easy.”
Easy or not, Vince couldn’t be more thankful that Lace had that skill in her arsenal. It had clearly saved her life, because…
Vince growled.
That meant the captain had the life ring.
Had the asshole taken it from Lace, hoping she’d drown?
Vince couldn’t wait to get his hands on the douchebag to find out.
“Hey.” Trask poked him as they moved in closer.
Vince might have lost focus for a moment, having eyes only for the bare head of the woman he loved, bobbing in the drink.
“Yeah?” he questioned, shaking himself out of it.
Trask handed him the binoculars. “I can’t quite believe what I’m seeing, but it looks like they’ve got a flotilla of leatherbacks keeping them company.”
Vince put the glasses to his eyes, and sure enough, he saw them too.
“I count, three,” Jett confirmed. “Two near Lace, and one near the captain.”
Vince shook his head. If that didn’t beat all. He was aware that at times, dolphins, and even whales had been known to assist swimmers, but turtles? That was a new one on him.
He took a closer look.
“They’re not exactly helping them stay afloat, they’re just kind of…hanging out.”
“Maybe they think Lace and the Captain are food,” Buck speculated.
“Or possible mates,” Jett added humorously. “Those are the only two reasons leatherbacks run in packs.”
“Whatever the circumstances,” Vince said thankfully, “I bet they helped keep Lace calm.”
By this time, they were nearly in position above and to the right of Lace. Vince could see nothing but the huge, tired smile encompassing her face.