Chapter 2
Chapter two
“What kind of wedding takes a week to pull off?” Darwin’s friend and fellow SEAL, Simon McGrath, asked from the far side of the dimly lit clearing. “I mean, I went to one that lasted for four hours, and it felt like a lifetime.”
Trace Powers, another Teammate, let out a soft snort of amusement from where he leaned against a tree about ten feet away.
“I’m pretty sure the actual ceremony is at the end of the week.
The rest of the time will be social stuff, like parties and games.
It’s about making the wedding as fun for the guests as it is for the bride and groom. ”
Lennox Thompson, Dean Hanley, and Colt Hughes, all of them in full tactical gear with night vision goggles and their weapons, looked at Trace in shock. Darwin was right there with them.
“Why does it seem like you know more about this wedding I’m going to than I do?” Darwin asked. “Katrina said the same thing when she explained why I needed to bring a whole suitcase full of clothes.”
“My sister is a wedding planner, so she’s always telling me about the new trends.” Trace shrugged. “These destination weddings are supposedly all the rage right now with the rich, jet-set crowd.”
Darwin frowned as he considered that. “I don’t know if Katrina would be working as a nanny if she came from a wealthy family.”
“You sure about that?” Lennox asked. “Didn’t you say they’re hosting this wedding at their vineyard in Escondido? If there were ever two words that go hand-in-hand with rich, it’s vineyard and Escondido.”
Darwin cringed as he had a vision of meeting Katrina’s very well-off family dressed in his off-the-rack suit, which most definitely wasn’t silk, and dress shoes, which most definitely weren’t Italian leather. That probably wasn’t going to earn him any points with them.
“How much longer do you think we’ll need to sit around here in the dark before this test kicks off?” Dean asked, interrupting his thoughts.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Darwin said. “They’ll call us over the radio as soon as they’re ready for us to start.”
“But what exactly are we supposed to do?” Dean asked, confusion and frustration clear in his voice as they sat there together in the dark. “I don’t have a lot of experience with Special Access Programs like this, but I’m surprised they didn’t provide any details on what they expect from us.”
Unlike Darwin and the other guys, who were Petty Officers First Class, Dean was a Lieutenant, so he didn’t get to go on missions as much as they did. That didn’t mean the question wasn’t legit, because it was.
“Trust me, you’re not the only one,” Lennox said with a laugh.
“I’ve been read into a dozen programs, and none of them have left me as confused as this Project Genesis thing.
Those non-disclosure forms we signed earlier might lock us into never revealing a word about it, but I’m not even sure what I shouldn’t talk about since I have no idea what’s going on. ”
Darwin and his buddies had gotten to San Nicolas Island and the Point Mugu Sea Range, then been shuffled straight from the airfield to a secure facility where they’d been ordered to lock up their cell phones, GPS watches, and anything else that could transmit or store digital data.
An hour later, a security officer had come in and read them into a Special Access Program code named Project Genesis.
Unfortunately, as Lennox mentioned, there’d been very little information provided in the briefing package.
Based on the few parts Darwin understood, he was fairly confident Project Genesis was some combination of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system.
Other than some vague reference to their SEAL Team being used to test Genesis, Darwin wasn’t sure what they wanted from them.
Fortunately, as a SEAL, he was used to functioning off little to no information.
It was just the way need-to-know worked sometimes.
“Do you think Kirk and the other guys are involved in something like this?” Simon asked. “Something so classified they wouldn’t tell anyone else about it, I mean?”
No one said anything. Darwin wasn’t sure if it was because the question was so surprising, or because most of them thought the answer was almost certainly no.
Kirk Palmer was Simon’s best friend. He and three other SEALs from their platoon, Jagger Shepard, Austin Burke, and Cruz Torres, left about three months ago for some kind of specialized training that had been all very hush-hush.
Since then, no one, including anyone in headquarters, had heard a single word from––or about––the four absent SEALs.
If the rumors were true, even Commander Hunt, the head of SEAL Team 5, was worried.
Unfortunately, the only thing they’d heard from the higher brass was that Kirk and the other three guys weren’t currently SEAL Team 5’s concern.
Needless to say, that didn’t make anyone feel better, but they were especially hard on Simon.
The two men hadn’t parted on good terms, because Simon had been pissed Kirk had been accepted into the training program while Simon hadn’t.
It was a stupid reason to fracture a friendship, but that’s what the two men had done.
Darwin had no doubt Simon regretted every harsh word he’d said to his buddy.
“If Kirk and the other guys were sent off somewhere to test a new weapon system, I doubt they would have needed that complicated selection process we all went through,” Darwin finally said.
“I mean, the psych-eval was bad enough, but the blood test crap was over the top. No, they’re definitely off somewhere doing some bizarre out-of-the-box training that pushes the envelope of what we’re used to. I’m sure we’ll hear from them soon.”
Simon didn’t say anything, but Darwin could see his friend’s shoulders relax in the darkness.
“Alpha Team,” a deep voice suddenly crackled through Darwin’s earbud. “The test begins now. Move to waypoint seven-tack-one by any route you choose. Stealth is to take priority over speed. You’ll receive further instructions once you’ve reached the objective.”
Darwin would have liked to ask a few questions––such as why the hell these people wanted them to wander around the island or if they should expect to run into some kind of opposition––but bit his tongue.
Noting none of the guys appeared any more thrilled than he was, he pulled up the waypoint location on his forearm-mounted GPS navigator.
Then he flipped down his night vision goggles and started moving toward the heavier sections of scrub brush to the north, his fellow SEALs silently spreading out until there was at least ten meters between each of them as they followed his lead.
He had no idea why, but if these people wanted them to be stealthy, then that’s what they’d be. Shadows moving through the shadows.
As they crossed the rough ground, rocky in some places, heavy with thickets in others, Darwin recalled everything he knew about San Nicolas Island, which honestly wasn’t much.
He’d only been out here one other time for a nighttime parachute drop onto the airfield.
It had been pitch black during the descent, and he’d left immediately after hitting the ground, so he’d never gotten more than a vague sense of the island’s layout.
He did know the island was part of the Point Mugu Sea Range and about sixty miles off the coast of Long Beach. It was off limits to the public because of all the various missiles and free-fall weapons tested there.
They’d just moved into a thicker section of scrub brush when Darwin heard a soft humming noise. Throwing up a closed fist to let his Teammates know to halt, he immediately dropped to a knee to tuck himself under the leaves, knowing the guys were doing the same.
He scanned the skyline with his NVGs but didn’t see anything. Holding his breath, he turned his head slowly, trying to pick up the sound again, but couldn’t hear a thing. It made him wonder if he’d heard anything to begin with. Maybe it was the wind.
“I heard it too.” Simon’s voice was soft in his earbud like he’d been reading Darwin’s mind. “A light humming sound.”
“Me too,” Lennox murmured from somewhere out in the darkness. “I think it’s a safe bet we’re dealing with a new kind of surveillance system. Probably a drone. They obviously want us to try and slip past it.”
“If it’s a drone, it’s gotta be the quietest one ever,” Darwin said softly as he continued to scan the darkened sky, looking for any trace of the unmanned vehicle. “Or flying at really high altitude.”
“A surveillance drone this silent would definitely be of interest to the Navy,” Dean confirmed. “But how are we supposed to avoid the thing if we don’t know where it is?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the idea,” Darwin murmured. “I think the only option is to use the concealment provided by scrub brush and get as close to waypoint seven-tack-one as we can before we break cover. It will add a couple kilometers to the trip, but it’s the only thing I can think of.”
Everyone murmured their agreement over the radio before he and his buddies spread out through the brush, moving in the general direction of the waypoint.
As he moved, Darwin kept an ear out for the soft humming sound.
He picked it up a few times, but if it wasn’t for the other guys saying they’d heard it too, he would have assumed he was hearing things.
When they were finally forced to break cover and move across open ground, he and his Team did it one at a time while the others provided overwatch. That way, one of them might just spot the drone. Assuming there really was a drone out there somewhere.
“Alpha Team,” the now familiar voice crackled through Darwin’s earbud. “Break into three groups and converge on the rally point tango-two-two via separate routes.”