Bracing for the Storm

by Matt Lincoln

  “Alright, we are here,” Watson announced as he scanned the horizon. “Driscoll, keep an eye on the radar. Who has the next watch?”

  “BM1 Perez, sir,” Driscoll replied. He looked at his watch and then back up at us. “He should be here any moment now.”

  “Good,” Watson replied. “We’ll have fresh eyes on this.” He turned to look at me. “Let’s see what pops up. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

  “Hopefully,” I said cheerfully. I knew that it wouldn’t be luck that would send this whole boat into action soon, and the adrenaline began coursing through my body as I watched the radar out of the corner of my eyes.

  Perez waltzed onto the bridge with a pep in his step. “Hey, y’all!” he chirped as he sauntered up to us. I hopped up and offered him the seat.

  “Thanks!” he said as he settled in and looked around. “What’s going on?”

  “We just landed at these coordinates,” I informed him. “Keep an eye on the radar. We are hoping to catch some cartel activity. I have a good feeling about this. That Colombian cartel with the rabbit emblem was on my mind when I sent us here.”

  “You just got here?” Perez asked pointedly as he shifted through the different radar settings.

  “Yeah, why do you ask?” I turned to him questioningly.

  “Err, because of this,” he said, pulling up the screen he wanted and pointing at the image that popped up.

  “Whoa,” I exhaled. “That looks to be the size of a go fast.”

  “Sure does,” Perez confirmed. “Pretty far out, but headed right for us.”

  “Damn, Reyes, you nailed it,” Watson declared. I looked up to find him standing over us and watching the radar screen with his arms crossed over his chest, an impressed look on his face. “Do you have an inside source we don’t know about? Hard to believe this is beginner’s luck.” My breath caught for a moment until he laughed at his own joke. “Seriously, though, Reyes, this is great. And because of this, you get to make the pipe.”

  Watson stepped back and gestured toward his now empty seat, and I walked over and pressed the button, opening up my voice to the entire ship.

  “Now, set the go-fast bill,” I announced loud and clear as the adrenaline pumped in my ears. I released the button and turned quickly to face Watson expectantly.

  “So, now do I… ?”

  “Yes, go, go, go!” Watson yelled, and I raced down to the lower deck to meet my team and get geared up. This was a wild change of pace from the last patrol, and I was ready for it. The rush of excitement pushed me along as I met the crew at the armory.

  Slade was skidding over to us as I arrived, and she stepped inside and started handing us our gear.

  “This is why I love my coffee!” she shouted as she handed us all gun belts and body armor. She pointed toward the helmets as she headed towards the pistols and rifles. “Grab you some!” Slade pulled out five pistols, one for each of us, and placed them down next to a signout sheet. She assigned one to each of us, and we loaded up our gun belts while she turned to grab the rifles and shotguns that we would need.

  We were suited up in record time, and we quickly made our way up to the bridge. ET2 Rogers was already up there at the QMOW station, ready to plot our course to assist us in our maneuvers.

  “Alright,” Watson announced. “Everyone, listen to XO, she’s serving double duty today. This is her baby, she’s the reason we are here.” Watson’s chest was puffed out with pride, like a father who just watched his kid score the winning touchdown. It sent a huge smile across my face as I turned to address my team.

  “Okay, guys, I picked these coordinates based on a gut feeling, and there’s a go-fast headed right toward us. We have no idea who they are or what is going on, so we need to be prepared for anything. We have no intel other than this, and we are operating in broad daylight, so we will very quickly lose our element of surprise. We need to be on our game today. You all with me?”

  “Hell, yes!” Slade cheered, and the rest of the crew hollered and shouted behind her with enthusiasm. Yeah, I was confident with this group behind me.

  “Let’s do this!” I shouted, and we all made our way down to the lower deck, where the small boat awaited us.

  The rest of the crew helped us get situated and strapped in as the cutter turned, and then the small boat dropped down into the water, and we headed out in the direction of the go fast. I turned to look behind me and saw the cutter straighten out behind us.

  Murphy was still PMC, so he had the intercom and the radio at the ready as we sped through the water, seawater spraying up at us as we went. I grabbed the edge of the boat for extra security as we ripped through the waves, heading straight toward our unsuspecting target.

  Rogers’ voice came through the intercom. “Keep straight. You’re heading right toward them.”

  “Roger,” Murphy shouted over the roar of the water.

  I saw a blip bobbing up and down in the distance, and it was quickly growing as we got closer. We sped toward it, and I watched as our target suddenly realized what was happening.

  The go-fast made a sharp turn and sent a cascade of seawater toward our boat. We cut our approach short, leaning into a sharp turn as we sped after them. The aft end of their boat grew closer as we closed the gap, but they picked up speed, and we continued our pursuit.

  “This is the United States Coast Guard! Stop your boat!” Murphy yelled, but that did not seem to have any effect. Murphy repeated the command in Spanish to the same results, and we continued our high-speed pursuit.

  Our target kept cutting into sharp turns, using the direction of their wake to attempt to disorient us as they went, but we were close on their tail. We were so close, in fact, that I felt I could hop onto their boat if I had a decent running start. Unfortunately, neither this boat nor the state of the sea would allow me to do that, so I had to just hang tight for the moment.

  At one point, one of the crew members on the go-fast looked right at us and then dove down to grab something. Before I even knew to question it, he came up with a package.

  “Oh, crap, they’re tossing contraband!” I yelled, and Murphy echoed my concern with the bridge.

  “We’ll try to grab it,” Watson’s voice crackled through. I only hoped the cutter would be able to get here before it got destroyed.

  The crew member on the go fast dropped down again, popping back up with another package.

  “Another one tossed!” Murphy yelled into the intercom.

  The go-fast zipped around a corner, forcing us to make an abrupt shift in direction, which tossed us all off-balance but did little to slow us down.

  Slade turned to me. “I think it’s time to scare them a bit!” she yelled.

  Murphy nodded and relayed the activity up to the bridge as Slade aimed and pulled the trigger on her shotgun, sending flash-bang rounds arching over to detonate in front of the go fast. I was positive it was enough to temporarily blind and disorient the crew onboard the go fast, but it did not slow them down.

  “Quick, shoot out their engines before they do anything to prevent it!” I shouted at Slade.

  Slade looked over at Murphy, and he nodded again, once more relaying our intentions to the bridge. She took point and grabbed a rifle, aiming it at the engine. It took two shots, but that did the job. The engine blown out, the go-fast sputtered to a stop. I looked up at the crew on the now-dead boat, and they all had looks of panic on their faces.

  As if on cue, we all drew our pistols and aimed them at the crew.

  “Hands in the air! Hands in the air!” Slade stepped forward with the commands, and we all flanked her, facing the other crew. They slowly raised their hands up and stood frozen on the spot.

  I heard Murphy behind me on the intercom. “They are dead in the water, sir.”

  “Good job, we are on the way, await further instructions.” Watson’s voice echoed through the speaker.

  Now, we had to wait. This was the part that was the least amount of fun, as we typically had to hang out
for a couple of hours before we could get permission from the country of origin to do anything, but regardless of how long it took, one thing stood out in the forefront of my mind: Thank you, Jake. We did it!

  21

  Jake

  Seeing the email come through that evening made my day. This plan was really working, and it was all due to Linda not giving up when she set her mind to something. I hoped that she was getting the recognition she deserved for sending her boat right to where the action was.

  I, on the other hand, had a lot more work to do. Xavier had hacked into the Días cartel’s internal network and could see pretty much all of their activity. Their shipments and routes were discussed via email, on what was supposed to be a secure server, and now, all of that was laid bare before us. All we had to do was monitor it constantly for updates and changes as we went along. It seemed easy enough, but it wasn’t a permanent hack. Once they found out information was getting leaked, email communications would be the first thing that would get shut down, and then we would be in the dark again. I needed to move this along quickly before my team was discovered, and we were put at a severe disadvantage.

  I was impressed with their cybersecurity, though. Their setup was not easy to hack, not legally anyway, so they were very well-protected from law enforcement this way. The only thing they hadn’t accounted for was my team and me.

  I walked next door and knocked on Xavier’s hotel room door. Rosa cracked the door open, and her deep brown eyes brightened when she saw that it was me. She swung the door open, and I stepped inside to find Xavier sitting in the cushioned chair in the corner, buried in his laptop. All I saw above the laptop was his messy mop of curly brown hair.

  “I have great news,” I announced as I walked in and sat at the foot of one of the beds.

  Xavier’s head popped up. He pushed his wire-framed glasses up the bridge of his nose and looked at me expectantly.

  “Linda’s team was successful with their bust,” I continued, propping myself up on the bed with the palms of my hands. “She said it was a great haul, and the other guys weren’t expecting them. Her CO praised her highly, and she feels confident that she will be given more freedom to make these kinds of calls over the next couple of weeks.”

  “That’s excellent news,” Xavier said smoothly, “because we have another one.” He pulled a slip of paper seemingly out of nowhere and handed it to me.

  Sure enough, there was a set of coordinates carefully written down on it. Xavier’s small, clean writing seemed almost too perfect, which tied in well with his slightly neurotic personality. I looked behind me at the two beds. The one I was sitting on was sloppily made, and the nightstand behind it had a few items tossed randomly on top of it, including a tube of lipstick and a few pairs of tangled earrings. The other bed, however, was perfectly-made and looked unslept-in. That nightstand had a cell phone, a watch, and a wallet, all lined up perfectly next to each other.

  Yep, that was definitely Xavier’s bed.

  I looked back down at the slip of paper in my hand. “Time?” I asked as I looked back up at Xavier.

  “Fifteen hundred. Day after tomorrow.” Xavier’s eyes did not leave his laptop screen.

  “Thanks.” I wanted to get this out to Linda as soon as possible. It was already getting dark here, and three in the afternoon meant the next chance to intercept a shipment was less than forty-eight hours away. “I’ll be right back.”

  Rosa began signing as I stood up. I chuckled. With Xavier’s head buried in his computer, he had completely missed what she’d said, but I could sympathize with her. Having a roommate that was constantly on some type of electronic device had to be lonely.

  “Yeah, come on. We’ll raid my minibar.”

  Thank God, she signed, and we headed back to my room together.

  I immediately grabbed my laptop and sent Linda a new email. I kept it short and sweet, just the coordinates, date, and time. I didn’t want anything unnecessary in there to tie her to me. I shut the laptop and looked over at Rosa.

  Where’s Doc? she signed.

  “He said he needed a walk,” I shrugged as I reclined back in the swivel office chair by the desk. “I think my multiple injuries have been stressing him out.”

  Yeah, you’re a nightmare lately, she signed with a disdainful look on her face. For all of your SEAL training, you’d think you’d be able to handle it better.

  “Shut up,” I jested as I rolled my eyes. “Plus, hey, don’t you think, after all that we’ve been through, I deserve to be able to take a break? This is exhausting, and working through injuries is no picnic. I’m entitled to complain a little.”

  A little? Rosa narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Alright, alright,” I mumbled. “Point taken. Hey, you hungry? I’d like something in my stomach before we raid this minibar.”

  Sounds perfect, she signed.

  I reached for the room service menu and tossed it over to her, watching her catch it with ease. The further into this mission we got, the fewer amenities we would be afforded, so we may as well milk it now. Xavier’s boat was tucked safely away and could sleep four if we needed to leave quickly, but for now, I wanted to enjoy the luxuries of this hotel while we still had the opportunity. She flipped through it, making a quick decision, and then got up, tossed me the menu, and cracked open the minibar.

  Let’s start this party, she signed after she’d made her selection. Doc will have to catch up when he gets back.

  “Sounds good to me,” I replied with a grin, and I knew we wouldn’t be getting much more work done today.

  22

  Linda

  I wasn’t expecting things to go this quickly, but luckily, I was in a good position to handle it. My computer screen was glowing with the open email tab, a glaring reminder of what we were doing.

  The email had only two lines, one with a set of coordinates and the other with a date and time. This was happening tomorrow afternoon, which didn’t give me much time. If I could catch these guys twice in one leg of our patrol, that would give me serious kudos with Command. I simply needed to work my way into controlling the bridge tomorrow.

  It was pretty risky of this cartel to send their shipments out in broad daylight. I had to assume they thought they had us figured out by now, since we’d been doing all our interceptions on the east side, and they had yet to figure out that we would be tracking them more west now. Watson himself said he would never have thought to go west, so it was easy to imagine the cartel thinking the same thing. It wouldn’t be long before they caught on and either tried a different route or started using the cover of darkness more regularly.

  I headed up to the bridge with a Clif bar in my hand to talk to Watson. I found Slade up there standing duty with him. The two of them were deep in discussion when I arrived.

  “Hey, guys,” I said cheerfully as I walked in. “Am I interrupting anything?”

  Watson looked at Slade expectantly, and I took it that she was the one who should have been fielding that question. I turned to look at her. “I can come back later.”

  “No, no, it’s alright,” Slade replied. “I was just venting. Come on in.”

  “Everything alright?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied. “It’s my brother. He is super stressed right now since he’s taken this new job position. He and his wife had to move because of it, so they’re adjusting to their new normal.”

  “Oh,” I replied. “Yeah, I guess we can all relate to that.”

  “Yeah,” Slade mumbled, looking down at her hands in her lap, “but you know how some people adjust way easier than others? Like, take Jackson’s wife, for example. She is not happy to be here at all, and she’s making his life miserable because of it.”

  “I did not know that,” I replied, a bit stunned at this new piece of information. I wondered if that tied into his stress on our boardings. It could be a problem if that were the case.

  “Yeah, basically, this wasn’t their first choice for where to
go, and it’s her first move with him, so she has no idea how to adjust yet,” Slade kept on. “She’s unhappy, and instead of giving it a shot, she’s taking it out on him.” She sighed. “Well, my brother is experiencing the same thing. Except, unlike us, it’s new for him too. Also, unlike us, this isn’t a lifestyle where they will just get used to it. She is miserable, and they will be there for however long he keeps that position at work. His options are basically to tell her to suck it up or quit and move back, which would be a huge financial hit for them.”

  “Geez, that sounds like a lot to handle,” I replied, taking a bite of my Clif bar.

  Slade shrugged her shoulders. “It’s hard to give advice in this situation. He wants to side with his wife and move back home, and me telling him she needs to be more flexible isn’t helpful, apparently. So, now he is mad at me for being on his side? I don’t know. Anyway, enough about that.” Slade perked up and looked up at me with a grin that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “What’s up with you?”

  “Ahh, nothing,” I blurted out, unsure how to shift gears from that conversation. “I was coming up to see if there was anything I could help with.”

  “Yes, actually,” Watson said, straightening up in his chair and looking at me. “I need you to decide where you want to go next. We can make moves tonight and check it out in the morning tomorrow. Tomorrow evening, we will be making our way to St. Thomas, but I have a nice twenty four hour window of opportunity for you to continue your training if you’d like.”

  “Yes, absolutely! I’ll come up here after chow.” This was exactly what I’d been hoping to hear.

  “Good.” Watson nodded, and I turned and headed back off the bridge.

  I didn’t want to just blurt out coordinates. If I disappeared for a while and then came back with coordinates, Watson could assume I had done some research, and he wouldn’t question my source too much. That was what I was hoping for, at least.

  In the meantime, I would head down to the mess deck and get some food. My timing was pretty perfect, as the meal was just about ready, and no one had ventured over here yet, so I was able to grab the first available plate. They were serving skirt steaks and mashed potatoes tonight, and I loaded my plate up, happy to have a warm meal before setting out for the evening.