Bracing for the Storm

by Matt Lincoln

  “Yes!” Perez shouted over his shoulder. “Get ready, it’s about to get serious!”

  The two silhouettes were grabbing more of our so-called square groupers and hauling them overboard, while the third continued to navigate the boat through the rough seas.

  “Tough day to be in a dinghy!” I shouted as I shifted my stance forward.

  The two silhouettes stopped hauling contraband overboard, and they were both standing upright, appearing to be having a conversation. One of them reached down and pulled out something long and thin.

  “Duck!” Perez yelled as cracks filled the air around us, cutting through the rain and whizzing past us into the water.

  “Crap, crap, crap,” I heard Perez shout as Slade, Taylor, and I started firing back.

  “We are under fire, we are under fire!” Murphy yelled into the intercom as he ducked down for cover. Perez was struggling to steer our boat as he crouched down for maximum coverage. Bullets continued to whizz past us as the waves deadened the sounds of the shots. Each sound fell flat against my ears as I took careful aim to take them out.

  We slammed into the choppy waves as we pressed forward, Perez doing everything he could to keep our boat steady so that we could return fire, but it didn’t help much. Each time I aimed toward our target, we would hit a wave that would send my shot elsewhere. I was grateful that we were all strapped in. That way, I could confidently focus on my shooting without feeling terrified of being flung overboard. Suddenly, the dinghy cut to the left, exposing our entire port side to their relentless firepower.

  Slade let out a string of expletives as we crouched down and laid down return fire. The bullets kept whizzing past us as we scrambled to readjust. I heard a crash beside me, and I glanced over quickly to see Murphy stumbling backward, slamming against the side of the boat. Suddenly, from behind me, I heard more cracks splitting the air as our cutter loomed over us. I glanced back as I was changing my magazine out for more ammo, and saw our crew members behind the twin .50 caliber machine guns, letting them rip rounds through the rain toward our target. One silhouette on the dinghy dropped to the ground, and then smoke began to emanate from the aft end of their small metal boat, causing them to lose speed. This gave us time to maneuver ourselves to face them.

  The remaining two silhouettes looked at each other before one dropped the rifle, and the other one relinquished the controls, and they both put their arms up in the air in surrender. We all kept our weapons trained on them. I took a deep, steadying breath as I awaited orders.

  I didn’t hear anything through the intercom at first, although the wind and rain did not help matters. After a few moments, I began to pick something up.

  “Hello? Murphy? Anyone? Come in. Are you all okay?”

  Watson’s voice sounded insistent and worried. I turned to see what Murphy was up to, and instead, I found him in a heap on the floor.

  “Oh, no.” I looked over at Slade and Taylor, who had both seen the same thing I did. “You two maintain your positions, I’ve got Murph.”

  They both nodded and turned their full attention to the two targets on the dinghy while I climbed over to Murphy.

  “Hey, Murph, you okay?” I grabbed him by the shoulders to look into his eyes. He looked back at me, grabbed my wrists with his hands, and then took a single deep breath. He began fumbling with his body armor, and that’s when I noticed the damage.

  “You got hit,” I said in a hushed tone.

  “Knocked the wind out of me,” he whispered, his voice weak.

  “Thank God for this, huh?” I placed my hand over his chest where the body armor had been hit, sparing his life.

  “No kidding.” Murphy sat up and scrambled around for the intercom. “CO, this is Murphy. We are all alive and kicking. Well, we are all alive. I’m not sure about the kicking.”

  “That’s great news,” Watson said clearly. “Hang tight, let’s get some help out here for you guys.”

  “What about the square groupers?” Murphy mumbled, sinking back down to the ground.

  “It was the perfect fishing weather,” Watson replied. “We caught a bunch. You guys did great.”

  Murphy smiled and closed his eyes. The rain was still coming down, but it wasn’t as foreboding now that we were on this side of the drug bust.

  “We did do great,” I said as I stood over Murphy and assessed the condition of the rest of my team members and of the boat itself. “And I am not just saying that because I’m on the team myself.”

  They were able to get us relieved and back on the cutter quickly, which was a relief. Murphy needed medical attention, but he would be alright, thanks to the body armor. I headed up to the bridge to meet Watson while the rest of the crew handled the evidence and the aftermath of the shootout. Rogers was up there also, tidying up his QMOW station.

  “Rogers, would you excuse us for a moment?” Watson was standing behind his chair, and the grave look on his face showed his age.

  I waited to be sure Rogers was gone before turning back to Watson. “What’s going on?” I asked, unsure what I had just walked into.

  Watson walked around and sat in his chair. “Sit,” he offered, holding his hand out toward the OOD chair beside him. He waited there for my response.

  I walked up and sat in the chair, turning to face him. “What’s up?”

  Watson cleared his throat and rubbed his hand across his chin in frustration. “Your coordinates.” He exhaled and dropped his hand to the ground. “Did you get them from an email?”

  He knew. He freaking knew.

  “Sir?” I asked, afraid to admit the truth.

  “I saw a set of coordinates in your email,” he began before throwing his hands up in defense. “I wasn’t snooping! It was just bad timing when I came up the ladderwell. I had my suspicions, but when I recognized the coordinates you gave me for our next location, I knew something unusual was going on.”

  I stared back at him, unsure what to say in response.

  “I knew it wasn’t beginner’s luck,” he continued. “I wasn’t sure what it was until today. The problem is, people are getting hurt. First, Jackson, and now Murphy.” Watson leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees, studying me intently. His voice dropped to almost a whisper. “If we are going to continue to do this, I’m going to need to know everything that you know. We need to protect our team.”

  I sat back and let out a breath that I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.

  “Truth is,” I uttered softly, “I don’t know much more than you. I get coordinates, dates, and times. That’s it.”

  Watson cocked his head to one side, and a thoughtful expression crossed his face. “Your source… Is there any way to get more information?”

  “What kind of information?” I could see it now, Jake’s anger toward me getting too involved. He wouldn’t be able to argue with Watson’s logic, though. The more information we had, the safer we would be.

  “Details.” Watson sat back and crossed his arms. I heard footsteps and turned to see Slade come up the ladderwell. She stopped when she saw us both mid-conversation.

  “Get out,” Watson said simply.

  “I’m on watch,” she argued.

  “Go down to the mess deck and grab a snack. Watch television. Check on Murphy. Do anything else, but be up here, please.” Watson raised an eyebrow but otherwise didn’t move a muscle as he spoke.

  “Uhh, yes, sir,” Slade replied, spinning around and going down the way she came.

  Watson turned his head back to me, lowered his chin to his chest, and lowered his voice a bit. “Details,” he continued as if we hadn’t just been interrupted. “What kind of boat, how much is being transported, that kind of thing. We’re a team now. I need this information so that we can better handle the intel.”

  “Okay, sir,” I replied with a sigh. I was not looking forward to that conversation with Jake. “I will get as much information as I can on the next two sets.”

  “Next two sets of what?” Watson as
ked, both eyebrows lifting slightly in surprise.

  “I have two more sets of coordinates,” I admitted. “It all came through in the same email. I’m going to have to make a phone call, though.”

  “Don’t use the boat,” he replied thoughtfully. “We are close enough to land, you should have cellphone service. Go get your phone, bring it up here for better reception, and make your call. I’ll keep the bridge empty.”

  “Alright.” I popped up out of the chair and scurried down to my stateroom to get my phone. I sped back up to the bridge and scrolled through until I found Jake’s name.

  The phone rang a few times, but then I heard a familiar voice on the other end that immediately brought me a bit of calm within the chaos.

  27

  Jake

  “Hello,” I answered the phone casually as I looked over Xavier’s shoulder at his laptop screen. I silently but excitedly slapped him on the shoulder with the back of my hand. This was exactly what we needed.

  “Hey, Jake.” Linda’s voice came through clearly and put a warm smile on my face.

  Xavier looked over his shoulder at me and smirked. I knew he was proud of his work, especially since it was showing us exactly what we wanted and needed to see.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Linda as I smirked back and Xavier and clapped him on the shoulder before straightening up and walking across the deck of his yacht. “I thought you were still underway.”

  “I am,” she responded, “but something has come up.”

  “Come up? Did something go wrong?” My heartbeat quickened as I awaited her response.

  “No, no…” she began before pausing. “Well, I mean, Murphy got shot.”

  “What?” My voice unintentionally raised a couple of octaves. “What happened?”

  “There was a small firefight. Murphy got caught in the crossfire. He’s okay, though,” she continued quickly. “It hit his body armor, so he’ll be out of commission while his ribs heal, but he’s alive.”

  “Jesus,” I muttered, my free hand automatically weaving its way through my hair as I began to pace the room.

  “Also,” she began hesitantly, “my CO knows that I have a source.”

  “I’m sorry, repeat that?” My voice took on an angry quality that I did not like to take with Linda, but she wasn’t exactly a wealth of good news today.

  “Yeah, it’s fine, though, but he has questions about the intel I am receiving, and he wants more information.”

  “You want me to give you more information, and you want to share that with your Commanding Officer? What, are you nuts?” I snapped, continuing to pace angrily. “I’m not exactly being above board on this!”

  “It’s not like that, though,” she argued, but her voice faded out before she could continue.

  “Oh, yeah?” I pressed. “What’s it like, then?” I was angry, but not above hearing her out.

  “He wants to help,” she said quietly. “His career benefits as much as mine does by this being successful. It’s his training initiative that gave me the opportunity to take control of where we went and when. We both need this to work.”

  I stopped pacing, my free hand finding my hip. I was silent, deep in thought. Linda seized the opportunity to add to her argument.

  “He’s not asking who you are or what you’re doing, Jake. He just wants to make sure that our team remains safe. First, it was Jackson, and now, it’s Murphy. We need more information in order to properly prepare for these busts.”

  “So, you’re in danger now instead of staying safe. This is exactly why I didn’t want you getting involved!”

  I saw Rosa signing furiously from her seat across from Xavier. Don’t get personal! You promised!

  I waved her off. She was right, but now was not the time.

  “First of all,” Linda retorted from the other end of the line, “I can handle my damn self. I’m not the one who got hurt. Second of all, you need to calm down. I’m literally telling you how you can make me safer. So, can you help me or not?”

  I paused. She was right. Rosa was also right. I was making this way too personal. At least Doc wasn’t in the room to hear this, or I’d be getting yelled at by him too.

  “Okay,” I conceded. “What do you need to know?”

  “Type of boat, number of people on board, size of the haul, things like that,” she listed these things quickly, and I knew by the tone of her voice that these items had been deemed important by both her and her CO before she had picked up her phone to call me.

  “I can get you all of that.” I walked over to my laptop. Logging into my email, I pulled up the next set of coordinates I had sent her.

  “This next set is for tomorrow. It’s another go-fast,” I replied as I looked through all of the intel that I had up on the computer screen. “Three guys, a large enough haul that they need to be stopped. Machine guns.”

  “Crap,” I heard her say suddenly on the other end of the phone.

  “What’s wrong?” I pressed, shutting my laptop and walking over to where Rosa sat, sitting down next to her and ignoring her dirty looks.

  “They didn’t have machine guns before.”

  “Wait. What do you mean they didn’t have machine guns before?” That got both Rosa and Xavier’s attention.

  “It seems like every bust we do with these guys escalates in violence. Now they’ll have machine guns? I’m really glad I called you now.”

  My heart jumped up to my throat. She was putting herself into more and more dangerous situations.

  “You’re doing great,” I spoke honestly. “We knew this situation would get worse before it would get better.” I walked back to look over Xavier’s shoulder again. “What you’re doing right now is putting them into a tailspin. They are amping up their protective and security measures out at sea because they are feeling threatened… and that means they are being pretty lax about their security measures back home.”

  Xavier snorted. Pretty lax was a very polite way of saying we were able to hack into their security system. Not only had Xavier gotten us inside the house’s network, but he was also now able to make changes to the security system. He could shut off alarms, turn lights on and off, even mess with the thermostat.

  In fact, I was currently watching a closed-door meeting with all the head honchos in the Días cartel. We could hear them, too. Well, Xavier could hear them. He had his headphones on, but I knew he would give us the Cliff notes later on, once he had collected as much information as he could. All I knew, for now, was that they were frustrated with the interceptions between their home port and the final destination, and they needed to find a solution for that.

  “Look,” I said to Linda with a sigh. “Do I like that you’re putting yourself in danger? Absolutely not. Do I think I can stop you? Absolutely not. I only ask that you please, please be careful. Hang on just a little longer, and then you can go on with business as usual. And let me know if there is anything you need from us.”

  “Alright, Jake,” she replied slowly, as if deep in thought. “I’ll do everything I can.

  “Let me know how the next bust goes,” I asked as I hung up the phone. I felt Rosa’s eyes burning through me as I did so.

  “What?” I asked the redhead softly.

  Machine guns? Are you going to drop everything to go rescue her, or are we safe from all of that?

  “She can handle a couple of machine guns,” I replied as casually as I could, mostly for my own benefit. “But these jobs are getting more and more intense out there, and two team members are already seriously hurt. I worry about waiting too long and putting people in unnecessary danger.”

  I agree, Rosa signed, a compassionate look in her deep brown eyes. We need to handle this as quickly as possible to avoid unnecessary risks.

  I looked over at Xavier, who had returned to tuning out the world around him as he focused on what the cartel meeting was discussing. I decided against calling for his attention. Whatever the cartel was discussing, it was important to our missi
on to find that out, and Xavier was by far the best person for the job.

  28

  Jake

  It wasn’t until the next afternoon that I found out exactly what Xavier had heard. The four of us were sitting in a corner booth in a small restaurant on the outskirts of Bogotá. I had my Bandeja Paisa in front of me, a platter of rice and beans, beef, pork, plantains, avocado, arepas, and a fried egg. Rosa sat across from me, looking at me with one eyebrow raised.

  Are you seriously going to eat all of that? She signed.

  I looked down at her Mondongo soup. “You seriously going to eat that?” I jabbed a finger in the direction of her bowl. “It’s tripe. You eat tripe?”

  It’s delicious, she signed in defense of her dish. You don’t know what you’re missing.

  “I do,” I replied in disgust, “and I am okay with continuing to miss it.”

  Xavier put his fork down and looked over at us. “I hate small talk,” he said smoothly. “I am only saying this once, so pay attention.”

  Rosa and I immediately switched gears. What we had on our plates was definitely not important compared to whatever information we knew Xavier would have for us.

  “The Días cartel is nervous,” he began. “They wanted to know how and why their shipments are being intercepted at an alarming rate. One of the guys said it seems to be one Coast Guard cutter that keeps intercepting them at different spots. They can’t figure out how the same cutter keeps finding them.”

  Xavier let out a slow breath before continuing. “So, because of that, Santiago is convinced they have a mole. He also wants to attack the Coast Guard cutter in question. He knows attacking the Coast Guard is incredibly risky, so he wants to send all of his manpower there. It would leave their fortress vulnerable for the night, but it is worth it to free up the waterways.”

  “Starting a war with the Coast Guard?” Doc asked. “That sounds idiotic. They’ll just send more after them.”

  “Agreed,” I said, swallowing my mouthful of rice. “How would that work? The guy doesn’t seem to be thinking of the long game.”