Bracing for the Storm

by Matt Lincoln

  When I sat down at the table, Murphy and Perez slid into the booth with me.

  “So, I heard you chose the coordinates for the last bust,” Murphy whispered conspiratorially. “You did good, let’s keep doing that!”

  Perez laughed. “Like she did it on purpose, Murph?”

  “No, not on purpose,” Murphy replied sharply, “but, you know, beginner’s luck and all that. Which I totally believe in, by the way.” Murphy pointed at me during that last part, as if to assure me of his belief. “I think XO should keep making the calls until she exhausts it.”

  “Exhausts what?” Perez asked, exasperated. “Exhausts her luck? We don’t want bad luck!”

  “Not bad luck,” Murphy corrected, “just no luck.”

  “Ain't no luck and bad luck the same thing?” Perez pushed.

  “Not at all!” Murphy looked insulted. “No luck means we sit there and count clouds all day. Bad luck is, well, you know… bad. Like, things go sideways.”

  I listened to all the back and forth while I ate my meal.

  “What do you think, XO?” Perez asked. “Do you believe in beginner’s luck?”

  “Nah,” I replied as casually as I could. “I think it was just a fluke.”

  “Just a fluke?” Murphy exclaimed. “Oh, come on. It couldn’t have worked better if you planned it, and you know it.”

  “Well, I agree,” I replied as I picked up my soda can off my tray, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fluke. Ever go to open a door as someone happens to be walking through? Come across a parking space in a crowded lot just as someone is leaving? Grab the last item in a store and see someone looking for it as you walk away? What do you call all of that? A fluke.” I took a long sip of my soda and watched Murphy struggle to come up with a reply.

  “Still, though,” he said finally. “You really lucked out last time. I hear you’re making the call again tonight. I hope we get the same results!”

  “Yeah, but you know, not until morning.” Perez smirked.

  “Speak for yourself,” Murphy replied as he jabbed his fork toward Perez. “I’m on watch all night. If it doesn’t happen until morning, I get no sleep.”

  Perez laughed. “Well, boo-hoo for you.” He turned to look at me. “Seriously, though, I hope Murph’s right. It’d be cool to do two busts in one leg of patrol, even if it messes with our sleep schedules.”

  “Hear, hear!” Murphy said as he raised his soda can. Perez and I toasted him, the aluminum cans clinking dully across the table.

  Slade came up to us at that moment. “Yo, CS1 made cookies!”

  “Oh, hell yeah,” I said as I took a gulp of soda. “They must not have been out yet when I got down here.”

  “I got you,” she said as she made her way toward the kitchen. She returned a few moments later with a full plate of steak and potatoes for herself and a few cookies for me. She slid into the booth and handed the cookies over.

  “Thanks,” I said as I unwrapped them and broke off a piece.

  We made small talk as we all worked our way through our meals, and before long, it was time for me to head up to the bridge to inform Watson of my decision. I slipped out of the booth and grabbed a water bottle on the way.

  “Good luck!” Murphy shouted behind me.

  I chuckled to myself. Murphy had no idea how much the deck was stacked here. When I got up to the bridge, Watson swung around in his chair and looked relieved to see me.

  “Oh good, you’re here,” he said, his eyes trying to communicate something he couldn’t say out loud.

  I looked at him, puzzled, and his eyes darted quickly to the OOD chair, where Jackson was sitting. I smirked and wondered what had happened between the two of them that left Watson so uncomfortable.

  “Hey, Jackson,” I said cheerfully. Watson sighed and turned his chair forward again.

  “Hey, XO,” Jackson replied with a big grin. “I’m trying to convince CO here to give country music a shot. He is, apparently, not a fan.”

  I burst into laughter. Here, I thought something serious was going on, and they had just been in a heated debate about country music.

  “I am not,” Watson replied resolutely. “I also promise that no amount of discussion or coercion is going to change my mind.”

  “Aww, come on, not all country music is bad,” I replied with a smirk. “I mean some of it is, but have you given it a decent chance?”

  Watson rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’ve given it more than a fair chance, I’ll have you know.”

  Jackson leaned toward me and muttered conspiratorially. “His wife is a big country music fan.”

  “Really?” I sang. “Do tell me more!”

  “You mean other than long, torturous car rides? There’s not much to tell.” Watson rolled his eyes and turned to the controls, but the small smirk on his face told me he wasn’t as annoyed as he had initially led on.

  “So, Reyes, where are we headed?” Watson continued.

  I sauntered up to stand next to him and produced a slip of paper with Jake’s coordinates on it. Watson took it and typed it in, pulling the image up on his screen.

  “Interesting,” he mused. “Close to where we were the other day, just a bit more east. What’s your strategy?”

  “Umm,” I stuttered. “Well, I figured if the drug smugglers were over in this area before, they might try again, but they also know we’re lurking around, so I’m trying to keep them on their toes by changing it up just a little.”

  “Hmm,” Watson muttered thoughtfully. “Alright, let’s give it a whirl!”

  Watson set up the controls and set the course for Jake’s coordinates. I watched as he worked and took mental notes as he went through the process. If Watson was doing all of this in the name of training the next leaders, I wanted to absorb as much as possible. We were cruising along, well on our way in no time. Jackson was munching on some sunflower seeds, Watson was sipping a mug of coffee, and I had my bottle of water, and we hung out like this for the duration of the trip. When we arrived at the coordinates, the sun hadn’t risen yet.

  “Perfect,” Watson said as he collected his mug and got up from his chair. “I’m heading down to take a nap. I’ll be back in a few hours. We need to leave here by eighteen hundred, so that’s your time frame to find something.”

  Watson nodded and walked off the bridge. I stepped up and scanned the horizon, excited to have control of the bridge. Jackson yawned.

  “When is your watch over?” I asked. The yawn indicated that he’d been up here a while.

  “Now-ish,” he replied lazily. “I’m just waiting for my replacement.”

  “Judging by the expression on your face, I’d venture a guess the sooner they show up, the better,” I teased.

  Jackson’s heavily-lidded eyes looked agreeable to that, and luckily for him, a few minutes later, Rogers climbed up onto the bridge to save him.

  “Cool,” Jackson mumbled as he tipped himself off of the chair and headed off the bridge.

  “Damn,” Rogers said, watching Jackson leave. “Kid looks exhausted. What did I miss?”

  “Nothing yet, we just got here,” I replied casually. “But fingers crossed that I get lucky twice in a row.”

  “I’m for it!” He smirked as he took the OOD seat that Jackson had just left.

  Rogers and I spent the next few hours making small talk and watching the radar screens. It was a relaxing morning, and I enjoyed the bit of downtime. I knew nothing would pop up for a while yet, so when Watson came back up to the bridge after his nap, I slipped away to take one of my own.

  I awoke with a jolt to a pipe being made throughout the cutter.

  “Now, set the go-fast bill.” Watson’s voice echoed clearly through the enclosed space, and when I stepped out of my stateroom, there was a flurry of activity as everyone took their place. I looked down at my watch. Fifteen minutes until three. This was exactly what I’d been waiting for.

  I headed up to the bridge first to find Watson clutching his trusty coffee mug
and pacing back and forth.

  “Hey, sir,” I said brightly, and Watson turned to face me.

  “Reyes, you’ve done it again,” he said with a smile. “I don’t know what your secret is, but I love it. Go get suited up. Looks like it’s about twenty minutes out.”

  “Yes, sir!” I shouted before spinning around and heading downstairs to find Slade. As I predicted, my whole team was already there.

  “There’s our favorite XO!” Murphy shouted with a grin.

  “You ready for this?” Slade smirked as she fished out the appropriate firepower for our adventure.

  “Oh, yes,” I replied cheerfully as I collected my gun belt and my helmet.

  Perez and Jackson were the first ones ready, and they helped us get everything together quickly. Once we were all geared up, we headed up to the bridge to get briefed on the current situation. Watson, Rodriguez, and Rogers were standing there, ready to go when we arrived.

  “Alright, team, we have another go-fast.” Watson paced back and forth as he addressed us. “They are heading right toward this area again, so it should be a similar pursuit as the last one. Stay sharp out there, guys!”

  “Yeah!” Slade cheered as we made our way off the bridge and down to the small boat. We were cutting through the water on it in record time, and I took the brief moment of calm to enjoy the spray of the ocean under the afternoon sun.

  The pursuit began similarly to the last one. Our target headed straight toward us, and as soon as they saw us coming, they swerved to the left, forcing Perez to make an abrupt right to stay on their tail.

  “This is the United States Coast Guard! Stop your boat!” Murphy yelled into the intercom as we watched the boat completely disregard us and push forward. At this point, I didn’t expect them to stop, and they didn’t disappoint me.

  The go-fast boat continued to change direction abruptly, but our small boat allowed Perez to keep cutting over maintain a close distance each step of the way. Slade fired a few flash bag rounds in front of the other boat to disorient them, but once again, it didn’t slow them down. While she was setting up her rifle, however, the go-fast crew wised up and covered the engine with their hands. Without a clear shot, shooting out the engine to leave them dead in the water was no longer an option. Then, without warning, their boat spun around and started speeding away in the exact opposite direction we had been heading.

  “Hang on!” I heard through the wind as I grasped for the nearest stable surface on the boat to hold me steady. Perez cut a sharp u-turn. I looked straight down into the water as the boat pitched to the side, grateful to be strapped into the boat, and we peeled off in the direction of the go-fast.

  That’s when a crack echoed through the air, and I ducked as something whizzed past my head.

  “We are under fire!” Murphy yelled into the intercom as we weaved outside of their wake. We continued our pursuit as I swung my rifle around and took aim, and I knew Slade and Jackson were following my lead. As soon as our boat was steady enough, I took aim and began to fire back at them. The roar of the engine and the sea spraying behind us swallowed the sounds of the cracks in the air as we all continued to return fire.

  One of the perps dropped down after another volley, and I had to assume that one of us had hit him. There was an angry glint in the eyes of the two other men standing there, and one of them quickly raised his rifle and took another series of shots.

  “Agh!” I heard a thump on the deck after Jackson’s scream behind me, and I knew he was hit. I saw red and aimed again, this time hitting my intended target, the gunman who’d just shot my teammate. The hit threw his arm back and causing him to lose his grip on his weapon.

  “Stop your boat! Drop your weapons!” Murphy was yelling into the radio and the intercom in both English and Spanish, hoping to end the gunfight.

  Though they didn’t heed his warning, with two men down on the other boat, their engine was suddenly exposed. Seeing my opportunity, I aimed instead at their engine and quickly shot it out.

  “Yeah, girl!” Slade shouted gleefully from behind me. I knew killing the engines was normally Slade’s job, but I didn’t think she minded me taking the initiative this time.

  With nowhere left to go, the remaining men dropped their weapons and held their arms up. As Perez pulled us up alongside their dead boat, I saw that the man that I had shot had a grazed shoulder. The other did not look responsive.

  “Damn,” I muttered. I maintained my stance with my rifle pointed at them before taking a quick glance to check on Jackson. He was clutching his leg, writhing in pain. Murphy had just finished hanging up both the intercom and radio, and he immediately ripped off the blouse of his uniform to use as a tourniquet for Jackson’s leg.

  “I already called for backup!” Murphy yelled as he tended to Jackson’s wound. “Hang on, buddy! Help is coming!”

  Slade remained focused on the go fast, her rifle keeping steady aim on the entire crew.

  “You got this?” I uttered under my breath.

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  With that, I swung my rifle behind me and hopped off our small boat to the go-fast to assess the injuries.

  “Don’t even think about moving,” Slade warned.

  I quickly zip-tied the two crew members that had been left uninjured and moved all of their firearms out of their reach. I then dropped down to inspect the damage. The one guy was definitely gone, but the other one had a grazed shoulder. I tended to that injury while we awaited backup. Because of the injuries, a helicopter showed up in record time. As they dropped down to assist, I returned to the small boat and resumed my stance beside Slade. They retrieved Jackson and the other two men and left us to wait for orders from Sector.

  The next hour or so was remarkably quiet and uneventful, although the loss of a life weighed heavily on my heart. I knew that it had to happen, but someone had still died today. I swallowed the lump in my throat and put my feelings aside in an attempt to stay focused on our task.

  The intercom crackled, and Watson’s voice cut through the silence.

  “We are good to go, bring it on board.”

  Slade and I retrieved the two crew members off of the go-fast, leaving them with Murphy while we climbed aboard and collected the contraband, along with any navigational tools or devices that may be used as evidence. The cutter pulled up beside us, and we made quick work of getting everyone and everything on board.

  When I finally got my boots back on the deck of the cutter, Watson approached me with a huge grin on his face.

  “Twice in one leg of a patrol!” He slapped me on the back and walked with me up to the bridge. “You’re officially my good luck charm. You’ll be choosing our destinations all the time now.”

  “Really?” I had anticipated some praise for taking point on these interceptions at some point, but now that I had it, it seemed so sudden. “Thank you so much!”

  “In other news,” he continued, “now that we have all of this on board, we need to pull back in to San Juan to meet the DEA and drop it all off. Because of the timing, we are switching our port calls around. You guys will all have a couple of days at home, which will be a nice reward.”

  “That is great news!” I chimed. I was looking forward to another day of exploring and adventure.

  By the time we pulled into San Juan, word had spread across the base, and the Sector CO had requested to meet Watson and me in his office. I quickly collected my belongings and headed across the brow onto the pier. Once Watson joined me, we headed across the parking lot to the Sector CO’s office, both stopping at our cars to drop our bags off on the way.

  The Sector CO was in a decidedly square white building next to the water, facing the piers across the parking lot. It had three neat rows of small windows, each with its own set of black shutters. Down on the bottom floor, large white pillars stood along the front facade, and a few shallow steps took us up to the black front door. When we walked inside, the cool white tile floors led us down a hall with narrow doorways t
o a staircase that would take us up to his office on the third floor.

  The office door was open, and we found CO Richard Morris standing at his window behind his oversized wooden desk. When Watson knocked on the door jam, CO turned around, and a huge grin spread across his face as he took in who we were.

  “Sit, sit!” he exclaimed as we stepped over the threshold.

  “Hi, sir,” I greeted as I took one of the two cushioned chairs in front of his desk. Watson sat beside me, and CO Morris sat behind his desk, hands clasped before him and propped on his desk. He pitched forward in his seat and looked as if he might explode with excitement.

  “So, XO, I hear you’re doing great under CO Watson’s guidance.” Morris was beaming like a proud parent.

  “I am, sir, and I’m very grateful to CO Watson for the opportunity he has provided me.” I looked over at Watson and grinned. It was true, if it weren’t for CO Watson handing over the reins in the name of this training initiative, we wouldn’t be able to take advantage of Jake’s intel. Of course, Watson didn’t know that particular detail, but it didn’t mean he didn’t deserve the praise, too.

  “Yes, CO Watson has taken our new training initiative and really run with it.” CO Morris nodded vigorously. “I am proud to have you two in our fleet and setting an example for future leaders. In fact, I am going to use you two as an example for the rest of the cutters. I would like to further this training initiative, and if you two can make it work seamlessly like this, imagine what we could do with everyone on board.”

  Watson and I exchanged grins. Although I was proud to be acknowledged for seizing this opportunity, I knew the other cutters wouldn’t be able to achieve what we were in the midst of achieving. Still, for now, that was a great thing. It made me look like a stellar Coastie, and it made my CO look like a great boss and trainer. I wanted to embrace this moment because an underlying ripple of what-ifs floated through my mind. So many things could go wrong, but for now, I dampened that all down and enjoyed being in the present.