Hollywood sat at the conference table, staring at the door.
He’d been uncomfortable about the whole mess between JT and Hannah and had genuinely considered walking away if she wasn’t going to be part of the team.
He’d been involved in several operations where she’d been their ‘eyes in the sky’, and he’d really noticed the difference when she wasn’t around to have their backs, especially during the last few months with the Marines, when he’d been back on routine ops. Having Hannah as back-up had been like having the most secure safety blanket wrapped around your shoulders. She seemed almost capable of seeing through walls and around corners, and you really missed her when she wasn’t there.
Plus, as an added bonus, she’d been around military guys for more than a decade, so she understood their world almost as well as he did.
He glanced down at his tablet and flicked the power button to shut the screen off. There was nothing on that gadget that he hadn’t read a hundred times and committed to memory. For some reason, this operation meant a whole lot to him, and he felt a deep commitment to the task of rescuing all those women.
Ok, so he was well-known with his buddies for being popular with the ladies. But what most of his former team-mates didn’t appreciate, was that he was known among the ladies for being quite a gentleman.
He didn’t make any pretence that he was interested in women for a long-term relationship, but thankfully there were enough women in the world of a similar mind, that he didn’t end up in a situation where he was stuck getting rid of a clinging female.
Moreover, Hollywood was known, among the women, at least, for being a considerate and extremely thorough lover. He’d long ago concluded that for him, a great deal of the pleasure with sex was knowing that you’d given the woman at least a couple of screaming orgasms, that left her with a smile of satisfaction on her face.
Something else that most of his team wouldn’t have realised was that apart from the women Hollywood looked at as potential pleasure partners, he also had a fondness for women generally, brought on in no small part from having been raised by the best single mom on the planet.
It was a standing joke that Hollywood hadn’t left home ‘officially’ until his late thirties.
That wasn’t entirely true, though, as he’d actually bought his mom’s house from her more than ten years before, so it would free her up from having to hold down two jobs to pay her mortgage. Technically, that meant that it was his mom who lived with him.
What the guys also didn’t know, was that during every free weekend he’d had home from the Marines, he’d actually converted the big barn on their land into a second house, with huge rooms and high ceilings, big leather and oak furniture, and a bespoke kitchen and bathrooms.
One of these days he was going to have to invite his buddies back to his place for the weekend to show off his real home, so he could spend at least an hour pissing himself laughing as they picked themselves up from the floor when the shock wore off.
They might think they knew everything about their former team-mate, but he reckoned he was still capable of surprising them all.
“No Hannah, yet?” JT stepped into the conference room.
“Not yet.” Hollywood muttered, still pissed with the former Captain of Alpha Company. “Are you sure she’s still part of the team?”
JT must have caught the annoyance in Hollywood’s tone, because he turned to face him.
“Actually, I’m certain she’s not part of the team.” JT conceded. “Because, let’s face it… she’s way more than that. Hannah’s the heart of the team. And as of today, she’s also the team leader, so I reckon that definitely makes her more than ‘part’ of the team, don’t you think?”
Hollywood stared at JT, noting that while the guy was barely hiding a grin, his cheeks were also slightly pink. Embarrassment, maybe, at the way he’d treated Hannah previously?
“Sorry I’m late.” Hannah’s voice seemed to come through JT’s body, as her hands gripped his upper arms and she carefully moved him to one side, leaving room so people could step around him to get through the door.
Hollywood watched Logan walk in behind Hannah and looked for any signs of animosity between the two. Thankfully, whatever had passed between them during their conversation at the park had obviously cleared the air, as neither of them looked to be uncomfortable around the other.
Hannah took the seat to the right of the chair at the head of the table, the same one she’d taken for every meeting since they’d first arrived.
“You’re in my seat.” JT waited patiently behind her, as Hannah looked up at him in confusion. “That’s yours.”
Hollywood watched JT nod to the seat at the head of the table, and Hannah blushed as she stood up and moved all her clutter to the top spot.
“Ok, well…” She began, obviously a little embarrassed by all the attention on her. “I’m happy to confirm that the whole team has gotten the green light to go, and you’ll be flying out early tomorrow morning.”
Hollywood glanced around the table, not missing the fact that Logan was staring at his tablet, ignoring the stares from his team-mates. Obviously, he’d convinced Hannah that he was combat ready.
“We’ve had a message from the traffickers’ official contact, and it looks like Federov has lost one of his truck drivers. Without him, they won’t be able to carry the full cargo, so they want to know if any of you is licensed to drive a truck.” She glanced up. “Anybody?”
“What size lorry?” Evan asked. “You need different licenses depending on the size of the vehicle. I can drive smaller ones, but nothing over three and a half tons.”
“You’d need a HGV Class1 license for anything over that weight.” JT confirmed. “You’re talking ‘heavy goods vehicles’ or ‘articulated lorries’ when you get above that size.”
“Actually, you need a C+E license in the UK these days.” Hollywood spoke up, a half smile on his face. “HGV-1 licenses are the old qualification. C+E licenses came in around twenty years ago, for anyone driving the biggest of the LGV’s as they’re now officially known.”
He enjoyed the look of surprise on JT’s face at being contradicted.
“And an American would know that, how?” Hannah frowned at him.
“This American was stuck in the UK on a posting for about six months, maybe three or four years ago, with next to nothing to do apart from training exercises with a special ops team that was always out on operations.” Hollywood shrugged. “I had so much time on my hands I took a few courses to keep me busy. Driving was one of them. I can drive an LGV if I have to, although, I haven’t driven one regularly for a couple of years.”
“You’re telling me you have a valid C+E license?” Hannah was smiling widely. “Let me rephrase that… Please, tell me you have a valid C+E license.”
Hollywood grinned.
“I have a valid C+E license.” He nodded.
“Man, I could almost kiss you!” Hannah flopped back in her seat, her relief evident. “But I won’t, because Danny would be honour-bound to punch you if I did.”
Hollywood chuckled.
“Wouldn’t want that, no, ma’am!” He grinned.
“Ok, then there’s just a final few things to run through.” Hannah nodded. “As they now need a driver, I’ve confirmed that you will be split into three teams, one pair with each of the trucks. No surprise that I’m keeping you in your natural pairs, Yuri and Kris, H and Kellen, Logan and Evan. And so that there is a clear chain of command for this operation, the lead in each pair will be Yuri, Hollywood, and Evan. That’s not to say it will necessarily stay that way for future operations, as it’s down to each one of you to impress me if you want to stay on the team. But for this first outing, that’s my decision.”
Hollywood glanced at Kellen who grinned back at him.
“Please tell me I don’t have to call Hollywood ‘Sir’?” Kellen implored Hannah. “He’ll never get over himself.”
Hannah chuckled.
“I don’t think ‘Sir’ is really necessary for this operation, do you?” She grinned. “I can think of a few names that would be more appropriate, but I’ll leave you to sort that out between you. I’m sure you can think of a few of your own.”
Hollywood flipped Kellen off, but he was secretly pleased to be having a measure of responsibility.
“What time is our flight?” Yuri asked. “Are we flying direct to Ankara?”
“No, we’re flying you out to Bucharest on one of Tuck’s planes. From there you’ll take a scheduled flight to Ankara.” JT confirmed. “We didn’t want them to see you all flying straight in from Heathrow. We’ll have cars pick you up at four o’clock tomorrow morning, to take you to a rendezvous point, where a chopper will take you to the airfield.”
“And at the other end?” Yuri was obviously the most organised of the Russian brothers, as he jotted down some notes.
“You’ll be collected from the airport and taken to meet with our official contacts.” Hannah confirmed. “From the moment you touch down, take it as a given that you’re being watched and listened to by one of Federov’s men. He’s deeply suspicious, and trusts nobody, not even his sister.”
“How are you supposed to communicate with us, if we’re being monitored?” Evan asked.
Hannah walked to the window and picked up a box that had been sitting unnoticed on the ledge.
She placed it on the conference table, lifted the lid and started pulling out smaller boxes.
Firstly, she pulled out mobile phones. They weren’t any make he’d ever heard of, but presumably they’d have all the typical bells and whistles.
“These have the highest encryption levels of any phones you’ll find, and while they might look like Chinese knock-offs, they’re supplied by one of the best manufacturers in the business and have security features like you won’t believe.” Hannah smiled. “They also have exclusive apps which I created myself, including a specially designed GPS app that gives details of military and agency safe-houses, shit like that. You’ll never find phones like these for sale on Amazon or ebay!”
While his team-mates looked at their new phones, Hollywood leaned forward to get a better look in the box, to see what else Hannah had brought for them. Watches?
Hannah noticed his interest, and slid a box to each of them, watching each man opened the packaging immediately, eager to see what he was getting.
All six of the watches were different, a few of them gold coloured, and a few were silver or with stainless-steel straps. The one thing they all had in common was that they all looked… well, ‘inexpensive’ was probably the polite word.
“The shop was sold out of Rolex, huh?” Kellen grinned.
“Those are back-ups in case anything happens to your phones. You could buy half a dozen Rolex watches for what one of those cost.” Hannah smiled. “They have all the functions of your average high-spec cell-phone. Plus, they have full GPS capability and send a signal back every thirty seconds, so we can monitor your position, even when you’re below sea level.”
She pulled a watch out of the nearest unclaimed box.
“I know these look like cheap knock-offs you’d buy from any market on the Spanish Costas, but that’s deliberate. The buttons, which you would normally assume would do nothing, actually have a function once you’ve activated them, making each watch one of the most effective pieces of kit you’ll ever come across. Video capability, transmitting and receiving, isolated audio as well, and full internet access anywhere on the globe. They have a one hundred and twenty-eight gig memory, and some of the quickest download speeds you’ll ever come across.” Hannah explained. “Should you need to go through customs and have to put them through the x-ray machine, they have a completely enclosed second casing which renders the inner workings invisible, so that all the x-ray picks up are the workings of the watch. They’re also waterproof to a hundred metres. And that’s a tested fact, not an idle boast on the side of the box.”
Hollywood watched Hannah demonstrate how to activate the buttons, and then go through the various functions just using the four buttons on the sides. When she twisted one and pulled out what looked to be a miniature screen pen, there was a rumble of appreciation from the team.
“The screens are obviously way too small for you to type with your fingers, so this is the best alternative.” She grinned.
After half an hour of playing, testing, making random calls and sending messages to each other and Hannah, Hollywood felt satisfied that they had an almost fool-proof way of communicating with each other if anything happened to their cell-phones.
“Ok, well, all of these features are great n’all.” Kellen drawled, holding up his watch. “But do they actually keep good time?”
“Not so as you’d notice, no.” Hannah snorted. “Well, there’s no point in making them desirable to thieves, is there?”
Hollywood chuckled.
“So, do you have any other last-minute surprises for us?” He looked at Hannah in expectation. She was always full of surprises.
“Umm, yeah, I do have just one more thing as it happens.” She nodded. “In case we need to find you and you’ve lost your phones and watches, we’re giving you all implanted trackers.”
“Won’t they be detectable using those wand things?” Evan asked.
“They contain a very low amount of anything detectable, and providing you implant them somewhere out of the ordinary, they’re virtually never picked up.” Hannah smiled.
“Somewhere out of the ordinary.” Hollywood repeated, not liking the sound of that one little bit. “Where exactly have you got in mind?”
“Your ball-sac.” JT saved Hannah from answering. “They’re tiny transmitters and can be inserted with just a bit of local anaesthetic. You won’t even know they’re there. Plus, there’s a far better chance they won’t be discovered down there. Partly because the location will be blocked by your zipper. And partly because most of those security guys are unlikely to spend too much time concentrating their search on your groin. They live in a very macho, homophobic world, and wouldn’t want to be thought of as being too interested in another guy’s equipment.”
Hollywood watched a few of the team pale considerably.
“Do we each get a pretty nurse to insert them? And to hold our hands afterwards to make us feel better?” He grinned.
“Nope.” JT chuckled. “You get Eric from our R&D department. He comes highly qualified with plenty of experience, and his own supply of fresh latex gloves. So, if any of you are allergic to latex, you’d better speak up before he gets his hands on your essentials.”
“Great.” Kellen groaned. “I spent a dozen years in the military trying to make sure nobody blew off the family jewels. And here I’m supposed to give them over to a guy called Eric to mess around with? It’s not right, man.”
“Would it give you any reassurance if I promised you there’s nothing explosive in the devices?” JT asked.
“Not as much as if you told me you’d had one implanted already.” Kellen grunted. “That would make me feel like less of a guinea pig.”
Hannah looked at JT and shrugged.
“The guy has a point.” She smiled sweetly. “I’d offer to have one implanted myself, but I obviously don’t have the right equipment to make a difference. Whereas, you on the other hand…”
JT rolled his eyes at her unsubtle hint.
“Ok, guys. If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll go first.” He smiled. “Just don’t tell Alice, Ok? She’s been complaining that she never has a way to track me down when I’m on the golf course.”
Hannah clapped her hands together.
“Ok, you lot. Go and get yourself probed.” She grinned. “We’ll have a final briefing at six o’clock this evening, before you head off for an early night.”
Hollywood stood slowly, noticing that none of the team seemed to be rushing to be second in line behind JT.
He wondered whether he was the only one whose balls had shrivelled to half their normal size.