CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“You sure you have enough energy to be here?” grinned Mitchell.
“Shut the fuck up,” smirked his brother.
“Dude, I could hear you all the way from here,” he laughed. “I’m glad, Brooks. I like her. If I were going to choose a sister-in-law, she would definitely be it. But you better marry that girl soon.”
“Why? We’ve got time,” he said.
“I know you, Brooks. You forgot a condom, didn’t you?”
Brooks stared at his brother and realized he was right. He’d gotten caught up in the moment and completely forgot. They’d made love at least five times. In his family, that was a certainty for babies. Multiple babies.
“Shit.”
“Yep, that’s what I thought. Let’s get this done and you need to go and get a ring and marry that girl.”
“She’ll want her family here,” he said shaking his head. “It’s just her parents but she’ll want them here.”
“We’ll take care of it, son,” smiled his father.
“What do we have from the team in Bolivia?” he asked.
“We’re one-hundred percent sure that the wife got away. The lidar data shows tunnels, underground caverns, and what appears to be large storage facilities. And before you ask, we didn’t detect large weapons storage,” said AJ.
“Alright, so we’re certain she got away. Did she do it alone?” asked Brooks.
“That’s what we can’t be sure of. There was so much happening when the palace was attacked.
A lot of the debris and grenades were causing us to lose camera footage.
But you can clearly see she heads down the stairs, then it’s disrupted, then we see the door open and close and the top of what we believe, is her head.
“From there, we were able to tap into the underground tunnels and their cameras. She’s running with a large satchel in her arms. We don’t see anyone with her. We lose track of her for approximately three minutes and seven seconds. Then she appears here, in the jungle.”
“There was an exit somewhere,” frowned Mitchell. AJ nodded.
“Yes, somewhere three minutes from where she entered. But the jungle is so thick, we lost her, or I should say the footage lost her. She could still be out there or she could have run to something or someone who was waiting for her.”
“We need to find that woman,” said Brooks.
“They’re working on it. They’re down there now searching for her.” Tanner showed the drones racing around the area, looking for anything or anyone that might lead them to the president’s wife.
“Then I guess we wait, don’t we?” frowned Brooks.
“I know this is hard for you,” said Ham. “But we have to be patient and make sure we have her before we move in. Just relax Brooks. See if you can get your girl to agree to marry your ass.”
The men all chuckled and then Hiro turned to look at everyone. His expression said it all.
“I’ve got Bora on video call.” Brooks nodded as the men took their seats, facing the camera.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the disappearing SEAL and his fucking twin,” grinned Bora.
“If it isn’t the Marine who murdered his own men,” said Brooks with a straight face.
“Difficult times cause for difficult measures,” he said calmly.
“You know, it took me a while to figure it all out. You were there on the beach and heard me talking. Then, that fucking reporter saw me kill Dunbar. Man, how I searched for her.” He laughed a maniacal laugh and Brooks face could not remain passive.
“You won’t ever get near her.”
“No, I don’t suppose I will. See, I guess all these years of busting my head and my balls for Uncle Sam has me a little slow. It took me a while, chasing leads, asking questions, even tapped into the footage from the Hotel Del. Then I saw it. Two heroes comforting the crying little bitch.”
He laughed again and Brooks and Mitchell just stared at the screen.
“But where oh where did our recently retired heroes disappear to? That one really had me stumped until I remembered something from ages ago. Another Marine that pointed you two identical dick-wads out to me and said, ‘now they’re from a family you don’t want to fuck with’.
“So, of course that had me curious and I started digging. Luke ‘Angel’ Jordan, Marc Jordan, Wesley Jordan, Patrick Jordan, Christopher Jordan, Quinn Jordan, River Jordan, Finnegan Jordan, and then you two assholes. A whole fucking family of SEALs, connected to the most dangerous men our country has ever trained. How lucky am I?”
“I’d say you’re very unlucky,” said Christopher standing next to his brother and uncles.
“Yes. Very unlucky,” he frowned. “See, I know you bastards are connected to REAPER and Voodoo, now Shadow Warriors. I know all about it. Hell, we all thought it was just bullshit, but it’s not, is it?”
“What do you want, Bora?” asked Brooks.
“I want you to back off and leave this alone. I’ve left the country and I’m going to do what I want to do in Bolivia. Leave me the fuck alone.”
“We can’t do that,” said Ham. “You’re going to create more chaos in a region already thriving on it. We can’t let you work with the cartels and we definitely can’t let you take over Bolivia.”
“I see,” nodded Bora. “So, you did find out a few things.”
“Where is the first lady?” asked Mitchell. Bora gave a slow, malicious grin and then laughed.
“She doesn’t exist any longer. There’s no need for you to come here.
I’m trying to be nice, boys. Don’t come down here, don’t fuck with me.
I’ve got an agreement with the cartels and they are more than happy to kill the men responsible for their lost shipments.
At least some of you are responsible. But let’s face it.
They don’t really care if it’s you or just someone you know. ”
“I wish we could do that for you Bora but you’ll have to figure out a different retirement plan. This isn’t one we can support.”
Bora shook his head, standing and pacing back and forth in front of the camera. It appeared he was inside a tent, the canvas wall behind him suggesting that anyway.
“You come down here, I’ll hunt the girl down and do some very, very naughty things to her,” he smiled.
Mitchell gripped his brother’s arm, trying to prevent him from saying something stupid.
“Why are you doing this? You’ve seen what these cartels are doing. You know that those drugs are headed to kids. Fucking kids!” yelled Gator. “You know that they pump them full of that shit and then sell them. You swore an oath!”
“I did. Past tense. Now, I’m going to reap some of the benefits of the very thing I fought against and lost. It didn’t matter, don’t you see.
We took down one drug lord, another three popped up.
We saved a hundred kids, two-hundred were taken.
Fifty women recovered, never to be the same again, and three-hundred were taken.
“I’m sick of the revolving door. The never-ending bullshit that we fight against only to go home and have nothing. Credit card debt, a mortgage I can’t pay any longer, two ex-wives. I’m done. Now, it’s my turn to have what I want.”
“You selfish, self-righteous bastard,” said Mitchell.
“Say what you want, but I will be a wealthy man with all the pleasures you could possibly want. This was your warning gentlemen. Stay away from Boliva. Stay away from me. If I see your fucking identical faces, I will shoot all of you.
“Oh. And by the way. Whoever does your cyber-security is fucking amazing. I still haven’t been able to trace this number,” he laughed. “Tell them I’ll triple their pay.”
Three heads ducked in front of the camera, Hiro, AJ, and Tanner, all giving Bora the middle finger. Brooks laughed.
“I believe that’s your answer.”