Bracing for the Storm

by Matt Lincoln

  I put my phone down and shifted my focus to the television for a few minutes, scrolling through the different shows available, unable to make up my mind. After a few minutes of aimless scrolling, my phone chimed.

  Linda, that’s good to know. I am setting things up from my end, will be emailing you soon. -J

  Reading his message further established that this was something that we were actually doing, and I felt a swell of appreciation for Jake. In a matter of days, we would be taking action against this cartel, and they hopefully would never see it coming.

  I went to bed earlier than usual, since I wanted to be well-rested when we got underway. My growing anticipation woke me up before my alarm the next morning, but I felt great. I threw on my uniform and brewed a fresh cup of coffee before grabbing my bag and heading down to the garage. Before I drove off, I made sure the top was secured on my Jeep. Our first port call would not be in Puerto Rico, so my Jeep would be sitting on base for a nice chunk of time before I got back to it, and I wanted to be sure it was protected from the elements.

  My commute to work was pretty easy if you ignored the gaping potholes and unpredictable traffic patterns. Once I got into the heart of San Juan and saw the colors of the buildings and the throngs of happy people wandering the streets, the potholes were quickly forgotten, and by the time I pulled up to the gate to enter the Coast Guard base, I was in a great mood.

  “What are you so happy about?” the gate guard teased as he strolled out of the booth. I saw this man every morning when I came into work, and he always seemed to be in a good mood, despite dealing with everyone’s pre-coffee grumpiness daily.

  “Is it weird that I’m excited to be getting underway today?” I joked as I held out my ID.

  “A bit,” he smirked as he checked it, “unless you’re going somewhere exciting.”

  I shook my head aggressively. “Well, I mean, our first port call is St. Thomas, so that’s cool.” I knew that wasn’t the reason why I was so excited, but he didn’t need to know that.

  “Well, see, there you go! St. Thomas is gorgeous. Enjoy!” The guard took a couple of steps back into his booth and hit the button to raise the arm that would allow me on base while simultaneously waving to me with his free hand.

  “See ya!” I shouted as I rolled onto base.

  I took the few turns to the main parking lot and took a moment to appreciate the setup. When I was on the larger cutter in Virginia, we had to park a bit of a way away from the piers and walk. This was especially annoying when we had large bags or were transferring larger items on or off the ship. Here, the base was so small that we were all able to park right by the piers. I chose the aisle that lined up perfectly with Pier Bravo, where my cutter was docked, and reached back to swing my duffel bag over the tops of the seats and into my lap before hopping out into the warm Puerto Rico sun. When I approached the brow, Murphy was there to greet me.

  “Great timing, XO, Slade should be here momentarily,” he announced cheerfully.

  “Okay,” I said hesitantly as I held onto the handrails and walked across the brow and onto the cutter. “Why does that equate to great timing on my end?”

  Murphy leaned in and whispered conspiratorially in my ear. “Because she has coffee.”

  “Oh!” I laughed as I dropped my bag on the deck. “That explains it. I love that she’s as big a coffee nut as I am. It’s a handy thing to have in common with someone.”

  “You can say that again.” He smirked. “So, are you ready for St. Thomas?”

  “Oh,” I stuttered, remembering that most of the crew would be excited about this stop. “Yes! I definitely am, I hear it’s gorgeous.”

  Murphy looked past me, and his eyes lit up. “There’s Slade’s truck. See, I told you that you had perfect timing.” He waggled his eyebrows at me as a playful grin expanded across his face. “Get ready to be awake.”

  Murphy laughed at himself as he approached the brow. “How’s my favorite GM2 this morning?” he shouted down the pier.

  I could almost hear Slade roll her eyes, she did it that dramatically. “Yes, Murph, I got you some.” She chuckled to herself as she juggled both drink carriers over the brow. I was impressed with how prepared she was. Naturally, Slade had stuff to bring on board, too, but she had packed it all in a large backpack, which gave her two free hands for the coffee run.

  Because Murphy had stood at the brow, he was able to meet her as she stepped on board, and he took a drink carrier from her. “What’s what?” he asked helpfully, and she pointed with her free hand.

  “This extra-large one is for you,” she indicated, “and this one here is for XO. This other one is mine, so you’re going to have to follow me until I hand out a few more.”

  “No problem,” Murphy replied with a grin as he pulled my coffee out of the carrier and handed it over to me. “Enjoy!” he cheered, and then he followed Slade inside.

  With my coffee in one hand and my bag in the other, I made my way down to my stateroom to unpack and get settled. It wasn’t long before I was up on the bridge with CO Watson and BMC Sanchez.

  “Sanchez, why is it always you that’s on watch when I get up here lately?” I joked as I came up out of the ladderwell.

  “Lucky me, right?” Sanchez joked. “It’s alright though, I like being up here. Rubbin’ elbows with the cool kids.” He nodded at Watson, who chuckled to himself.

  “First time I was ever referred to as one of the cool kids,” Watson joked. He looked down at my hands. “I see you’ve run into Slade.”

  I looked down at the warm coffee cup in my hands and chuckled. “I sure have, and I’m very grateful for it.”

  “As am I,” Watson said as he lifted his cup as if to toast her. He took a deep sip. “I’m glad you’re up here, though, in all seriousness. I want to run something by you.”

  “Sure,” I said, walking up to where the two men were seated.

  “I know you are joining the Boarding Team this patrol,” he began, pausing to take another sizable sip of coffee, “and that’s great. I do, however, want to make a proposal.”

  I cringed internally. I sincerely hoped Watson didn’t want to pull me off the team in the name of training and/or education. As much as I wanted to learn, I had been looking forward to joining the team too much to let it go easily.

  “Don’t worry, I still want you on the team,” he continued as I breathed a sigh of relief, “but I also want you to be making some more major decisions upfront before the team goes out.”

  I stared at him for a beat, confused. “What are you asking, sir?”

  Watson smiled warmly. “We are getting limited intel, and we do have a lot of downtime this patrol. I want to take advantage of this new training initiative. Now that you’ve seen how to handle certain events from up here on the bridge, I’d like you to be the decision-maker on multiple fronts. I want you to determine the size and scope of whatever we come across, how we should handle it, and ultimately, have a say in the final result.”

  He raised a finger. “But first and foremost, I want you to decide where we should drop anchor to patrol. As I mentioned, we do have a lot of downtime this patrol. It allows me the liberty to turn over the controls for a while, so to speak. Let’s see if you can net us any results.”

  I stared at Watson blankly. This was too good to be true and a very convenient coincidence. With the liberty to make the call on where to patrol, I would be able to utilize Jake’s intel perfectly. It was almost as if it were meant to be.

  “That sounds perfect!” I exclaimed a bit too loud. “Thank you so much!”

  “I’m glad you’re excited for it,” Watson replied warmly. “We will start tomorrow morning. You tell me where you want to go, and we will head out there and see what the day brings us.”

  This was fantastic news. Even better was the news I found when I headed back down to my stateroom. There, on my computer screen, in black and white, were coordinates. Below that was a date, tomorrow’s date, and I suddenly knew tomorrow was going
to be epic.

  The rest of the day went by painfully slow. The only thing that broke it up was when Jackson came to my office in the late afternoon, expressing concern over how he had reacted when we had hit the mothership last patrol. I told him to sit down.

  “Listen,” I began, “you reacted poorly, simple as that. When things don’t go as planned, that is when you need to have your head in the game, that is when your team members are counting on you the most, and that is when you need to step up and take care of things. You’re lucky it didn’t end badly.”

  Jackson nodded sullenly.

  “I know that CO already spoke to you about this,” I continued. “You’ve already been counseled, so why are you here?”

  “I feel like I let my team down,” Jackson admitted, his head down to stare at his shoelaces. “I’m worried it might happen again.”

  “We are short-staffed, Jackson.” I couldn’t believe he chose this moment to speak up about his concerns. “We were in port for three weeks, so why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

  Jackson shrugged his shoulders but didn’t reply or look me in the eyes.

  “I can’t pull you now, not while we are underway. We need to work toward your replacement.” I sighed. “Best I can tell you is suck it up for now, and we can work on this after patrol, that is, if you still feel you shouldn’t be on the team.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied in a soft voice.

  I looked at him questioningly. “We can still count on you to have our backs out there, right?”

  “Yes, ma’am, of course, ma’am,” Jackson replied, a bit more confidence seeping into his voice.

  “Good,” I replied, although not entirely satisfied with his response. “I want to talk again after the next bust, alright?”

  “Okay, yes, ma’am,” he agreed.

  I nodded in confirmation as I waved him out.

  The conversation concerned me, and I made a note in my calendar to check in with him tomorrow. I only hoped he could keep it together out there for the rest of us.

  The anticipation of what the next day might bring had me tossing and turning all night. I was nervous about CO Watson figuring out that I had a secret source of intel, and if he did, I wondered what he would think about it. He could champion it, or he could report me and possibly jeopardize my career. I opted to not think about that as I got myself ready the next morning.

  I walked onto the mess deck with a fresh face to find Murphy and Slade already eating.

  “I put a fresh pot of our favorite on! It’s still warm!” Slade yelled around a mouthful of eggs.

  Murphy swallowed hard before chiming in. “Be careful, it’s a huge kick in the you-know-what! You’ll feel your skin come alive after one sip!”

  “Your skin is already alive, idiot,” I heard Slade mumble to him as I got my food and poured my own cup of fuel.

  “Yeah, I… I know that,” Murphy retorted. “It’s just, you know, a figure of speech.”

  “Yeah, a stupid figure of speech. Did you make that up yourself?” Slade rolled her eyes.

  They continued bickering as I sat down across from them and got myself settled. I took a large sip of coffee.

  “Wow, it really does make your skin come alive,” I said sarcastically. Slade roared with laughter while Murphy crossed his arms over his chest and pouted a bit.

  “It sounded cool,” he defended.

  “It totally didn’t,” Slade retorted, and the bickering resumed.

  My eggs were perfectly cheesy this morning, and the bacon perfectly cooked. I took my time enjoying the different flavors while watching out the porthole at the impossibly blue water glistening under the Caribbean sun. I got lost in the view for a moment until Slade drew me back in.

  “Hey, XO,” she called out. I looked over at her and saw CO Watson standing over our table.

  “Oh, hey, sir,” I greeted, my forkful of eggs hanging momentarily forgotten in midair.

  “Good morning,” he replied, “I’ll meet you up on the bridge when you are ready.”

  “Yes, sir,” I replied as he turned and headed up the ladderwell.

  “What was that all about?” Murphy inquired as I picked up the pace and finished my meal.

  “I am supposed to be up on the bridge with him this morning,” I explained in between forkfuls. “What I did not realize is that I was expected up there so early.” My plate now empty, I cleaned up my area and grabbed my coffee mug.

  “Wish me luck, guys,” I called over my shoulder as I headed over to the ladderwell.

  “Hey, good luck, and if you get yelled at, we had nothing to do with it!” Murphy called out.

  “What he said!” Slade chuckled, and their laughter faded as I reached the top.

  20

  Linda

  “Hey, sir,” I replied as casually as I could as I entered the bridge.

  Watson was all business this morning. “We need to set a course before Sector calls in and asks what our plan is. I need to have an answer.”

  “Okay, I gave it some thought,” I said as I strolled toward his chair. “I know where I want us to go.”

  “Oh, perfect!” he replied, looking at me expectantly.

  I pulled a slip of paper out of my pocket. “These are the coordinates,” I said as he unfolded the sheet. I had jotted it down last night after I had seen Jake’s email.

  “Interesting choice,” he mused as he set the course. “Why did you choose that?”

  I looked over at the screen and saw where the pin was dropped on the coordinates I had just given him. This wasn’t where we had been sent the last two times. It was a bit further west, closer to Colombia than Puerto Rico, and not someplace we would usually think to check out.

  “I don’t know, exactly,” I said slowly, trying to buy myself time to come up with a good story. “I just had a good feeling about it. We’ve been patrolling more on the east side, and although we’ve had good luck, we haven’t given this area too much attention, and I am thinking the cartel may want to change their game up after getting intercepted so many times on the east side.”

  “Impressive,” Watson replied. “It’s not the way we would usually think, but it is sound logic. Alright, let’s go. It’s actually not far from where we are now.”

  I felt the engines come to life below me as we made our way toward Jake’s coordinates. It was too easy to get the boat to these coordinates, and it left me feeling leary about what we might find once we got there.

  Once the boat was set on its course, Watson settled us in and sat back. “And now we wait,” he said calmly as he grabbed his thermos and cracked it open. He poured himself a hot mugful of coffee and stretched out in his chair. I looked over at the empty OOD chair next to him.

  “Who’s supposed to be up here?” I asked casually.

  “Driscoll was up here,” Watson replied with his eyes closed against the morning sun. “He had asked if he could grab breakfast, and I told him it was fine, so long as he brought me back a plate.”

  I thought back to the mess deck, and I had honestly not paid attention to anyone other than myself, Slade, and Murphy. It was very possible he had been down there, and I missed it.

  “Have a seat.” Watson waved his arm aimlessly toward the chair. I took him up on the offer, and we sat and watched the horizon together as the cutter headed toward our destination.

  It wasn’t long before Ensign Driscoll made his way back up to the bridge with a plate of bacon and eggs and toast.

  “Ahh, you made it,” Watson declared. “Thank you so much. I hope you don’t mind, I offered XO your seat.”

  “Not at all, sir,” Driscoll replied as he handed the plate over to Watson.

  “Oh, damn, I didn’t even think to get myself some toast,” I thought out loud.

  “I’ll grab you some!” Driscoll exclaimed, and he spun around and headed back down to the mess deck.

  “No, you don’t need to do that!” I called out. “I didn’t mean for you to…”

  Dr
iscoll hadn’t slowed down, and my protests went unheard. I looked over at Watson, who had a grin on his face.

  “So, I guess you’re getting toast,” he teased before diving into his full plate of food.

  “I guess so,” I chuckled. Driscoll was back up to the bridge very quickly with a couple of slices of toast for me, and I graciously accepted the plate.

  “Thank you, you didn’t have to do that,” I told him, but he shrugged it off.

  “It’s no big deal, I was already up.” Driscoll pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and smacked it against his open palm a few times. “I’m going to step outside if you don’t mind.”

  “You’re good,” Watson replied, “Just don’t disappear.”

  “Yes, sir,” Driscoll replied, and he stepped outside and began pulling a cigarette out of the pack.

  I turned back to my plate of toast and happily took a bite. I must have had a grin on my face because Watson had a bemused expression on his when I looked up at him.

  “What?” I chuckled after swallowing my bite of toast.

  “If you’re so damn happy to have it, how did you forget to grab it the first time?” Watson teased.

  “I guess I was too focused on the coffee,” I pondered. “It’s usually where my focus is in the mornings. Helps me think straight.” I laughed as I thought back to the bickering between Slade and Murphy. “Slade does have good taste in coffee, I have to say. This stuff works! I am fully functioning after a single sip!” I picked up my mug and took another sip for good measure. “I have to remember to thank Slade for bringing enough to share.”

  “I’d have to agree with that,” Watson replied. “It does the trick.”

  We finished our food quickly, and Driscoll returned and took our plates away, bringing them back down to the mess deck and returning in record time. We made small talk as the cutter made its way to our destination, and when we finally arrived, I was a bit dismayed at the lack of activity before us. I checked my watch. We were an hour early. I probably shouldn’t have cut it so close, but now I knew for next time.