Epilogue
?
Trent, Oakley, Julius, and Kane stood in the airport, awaiting the next leg of their flight home.
Trent chuckled. “So Rubin and now Hayden have already found partners. Yes, Hayden had extenuating circumstances, as they had already had a previous relationship,” he noted.
“As for Tricia and Rubin, that relationship came out of the blue and really surprised me.”
Oakley suggested, “Maybe you’re the next in line.” The others chuckled at that.
“No, I’m not next,” Trent snapped. “That’s not happening.” Just then his phone rang. He looked down and saw a new number. He still picked up the phone.
“This is Mason,” the caller greeted him.
“We’re on our way home, sir.”
“ETA?”
“About two hours.”
“Good. You are two hours from home, but we have a situation right now,” he shared. “We must deal with it quickly.”
“What can we do?”
“A young boy and his nanny have gone missing,” Mason explained. “They are from Florida, and unfortunately a suspected sighting of them was shared. They are on a boat, with the nanny tied up and her young charge tucked up close to her.”
“A sighting?”
“A small plane went by,” he replied. “And, yes, you have been redirected to Florida, so check your updated itinerary. I’m sending them now.”
“And the files?”
“Sending you files as well,” he said, followed by a few moments of silence. “Should be hitting your inbox any minute. Obviously this one is priority.”
“And who are they?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mason snapped, his tone curt. “However, yes, the family is high up in the government. Most important is the fact that both the nanny and her charge are in danger, and we need to get them out of there.”
Trent noted, “I’m surprised the Coast Guard isn’t on it.”
“They would be, except that they’re dealing with a big illegal shipment of drugs at the moment,” Mason added. “They have somebody heading over in that direction to meet you. We have been informed that firepower is being used. We need those two back, … safe and sound.”
Trent shook his head at that, but Mason wasn’t done.
“So, that’s your job. Forget about the mess with the college women.
We’ve handed that over to our counterparts in the EU.
If they need us again, they’ll contact us.
Right now this boy and his nanny are your priority. ” With that, he ended the call.
Trent looked around at the three other men gathered here and muttered, “This will be a doozy.”
“Do we have equipment for this?” Oakley asked.
Trent shrugged. “I would expect so, but we haven’t necessarily been told what we have access to yet. We started with a bang, what? … Not even two weeks ago? And we haven’t had a chance to even let up a little, which is how it normally happens,” he muttered.
Oakley nodded. “And it just goes to show that, at the end of the day, they really do have a need for this department.”
Trent frowned. “But it really sucks that we’re going from catastrophe to catastrophe.”
Julius added, “And what the hell, … in the water, open waters at that? What will be their endgame?”
Kane suggested, “They can always get rid of the extra weight by tossing them overboard, disposing of the bodies.” He shook his head as he stared at the rest of the team. “No survivors, no witnesses.”
Trent muttered, “And always there could be another nefarious reason for this, or they’re just hoping to use this situation to gain leverage to get out of there.
A whole lot of details are missing on this one, like how the hell did they get out in the water?
How the hell was the Coast Guard so busy with something else so major that they couldn’t be pulled away to help? ”
Oakley grunted. “Unless the kidnappers are the reason that the Coast Guard is so busy?” Oakley suggested. “We’ve seen that before. This could just be the distraction, or it’s their safety net to ensure they get out into international waters.”
Julius pointed out, “So, it’s our job to stop them from getting to that international line.” He nodded. “What are we—four, five, six hours away from the Florida coastline?”
Kane pointed out, “If we’re talking about international waters, they could already be out there. It’s only two hundred nautical miles from shore.”
“And that’s why we’re being called in,” Trent concluded, staring at the men. “Because the international water line won’t stop us.”