Chapter 24 #2
“I’ll take care of the checklist,” Ashlin offered Kayla. “You’re going to have lots of questions to answer.”
Their team leader smiled back at her. “No, I’m not. But I’ll go out there and be backup for Clint. We’ll grab your gear.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
Even though she was in the cockpit, she still heard the team outside.
“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” The voice sounded like Dog, but she couldn’t be sure.
“Where the fuck are we? This definitely doesn’t look like the D.C. hanger we took off from. The air smells like a desert.” Shadow. Yep, that was definitely Lukas Murillo’s surly voice.
“Clint, obviously, we’re not in D.C.. Has the mission changed?” She’d know Boomer’s voice anywhere.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Clint announced loudly. “Get your gear and head to transportation. Get some sleep. Briefing at fourteen hundred hours.”
“Same rules as always apply; no talking, no pictures,” Kayla reminded everybody. “We’ll let you know the location of the briefing after we check out our quarters.”
By the time Ashlin finished the post-flight checklist and locked their jet, Clint and Kayla were the only ones who remained in the hangar.
All three glanced around and found it empty before Kayla spoke.
“Katlin called me just before we took off. None of the computer geniuses has pinpointed which house the phone call was made from. It was bounced around the neighborhood as well as the world. Our quarters here are being surveilled. All communication in and out, it doesn’t matter whether it’s from a burner, our cell phones, or even a landline, is being traced.
Computers as well. Section 7 will call me if they find anything at all.
” She looked around at the secure hangar. “We need to go.”
Ashlin scanned the building one last time and followed her leader outside, with Clint bringing up the rear.
Boomer stood in the cool night air next to the twenty-passenger van texting on his phone.
“Texting at this hour?” Clint asked one of his senior NCOs.
Boomer smiled at him. “The young man who I had dinner with the day I met you is back in Washington, talking to the CIA again. When I thought we were headed there, I had arranged to meet up with him again. Now that we’re somewhere in a desert, definitely not in D.C.
, I had to cancel those plans. I was just scheduling the text to arrive at eight o’clock Eastern Daylight Time. I’ll follow you onto the bus.”
“No, go ahead.” Clint insisted. He then gestured for Ashlin to follow Boomer.
She slid next to the window in the nearly empty back of the bus, knowing Clint would sit beside her. He threw himself into the seat at her side as they started to move. He crossed his powerful arms and said nothing, but stared into the back of the seat in front of him.
Was he upset with her? What could she have possibly done to piss him off?
Ashlin thought through the last twenty-four hours and couldn’t think of a single thing she’d done to upset him.
She’d never had a man in her life for this long…
except her father. She was in foreign territory here.
When she and her teammates had a falling out, the most important thing was communication.
Ashlin turned in her seat to face him. “What did I do to piss you off?”
Clint shook his head as if to clear his brain. “What’s the matter?”
“That’s what I’m asking you? You haven’t said a single word to me since you flopped into this seat.”
He let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry, I’ve never had a woman in my life full-time who I wasn’t blood related to.
” He pulled her to him and gave her a gentle kiss.
While he held her close, he whispered into her ear, “Did you think it was suspicious that Boomer was texting his friend from Afghanistan as soon as he got to a place where he could?”
She gave it a full minute of thought before she replied, “His explanation was reasonable. He certainly didn’t hide it. But he is the newest man on your team. Maybe the computer geeks will find something soon.”
“I hate to jump to conclusions. I need facts.”
Ashlin put her head on his shoulder. “Any idea where we’re staying tonight?”
“Definitely not on base. Van told me that this airbase doesn’t even have enough dorms for the enlisted men who work here. There’s a little bit of housing for senior-enlisted families, but certainly not enough to put all fourteen of us up for the night,” he explained.
As though Kayla had been listening to their conversation, she stood up in front of the bus as it pulled through the heavily guarded gate.
“We have a bed and breakfast with fifteen suites booked for the next couple of days. The owners aren’t going to be there.
We’ll use the dining room as our conference area.
” She glanced toward the floor before she raised her gaze to meet the team.
“I’m told this place was built in the nineteen forties as a fly-in resort.
Rich people who had their own planes would fly here and spend the weekend.
The airstrip was washed out in a flash flood in the early seventies.
At one point, it was even a brothel, then it dropped into disrepair.
It was recently renovated, and now it’s a popular B&B for honeymoons.
All I know is that every bedroom has different décor.
No, you cannot look through them and pick a room.
It’s too fucking late. All the keys are sitting at the welcome desk in a bucket. Grab a key and go to your room.”