Kellen had been a team-mate of Alex Morales for four years, and he’d listened to the kid talking about his step-dad and their extended family endlessly.
He’d taken all of the stories with a pinch of salt, putting a lot of the action/adventure stuff down to Alex’s over-active imagination, right up until the point that he’d met the family in Colombia, six months before.
Since then, it would be fair to say, he’d been converted, and was a true believer in the powers and ability of the Alpha-Stalwart family.
When he’d heard Danny refer to his new team as being part of the ‘Alpha-Stalwart-Guardian’ family, Kellen had experienced a strange feeling of belonging, the likes of which he hadn’t known since the earliest days of his service in the Marines.
He’d always believed the bond with his team-mates would grow over time, and with the core of men who had served beside him throughout the years, it really had. But it had never reached the level of brotherhood that could be found with the Alpha Company men, probably because over the eight deployments he’d had in the previous twelve years, he’d lost so many friends to IED’s and snipers. Those that hadn’t been killed had been sent home to try and build new futures with life-changing injuries.
Only a few of those who survived wanted to be reminded of the lives they’d once had, or the circumstances that had led to their disabilities.
It was a sad state of affairs, and Kellen and his team-mates had done all they could to keep the friendships alive, but there were times when you had to let people go so they could start their lives again. Sometimes they came back to their Marine family, sometimes they didn’t, but you had to respect their decisions.
Listening to Hannah talk to them now, Kellen felt a real sense that he had begun to bond with the four new guys, despite the fact they’d met only a week before. They all seemed like capable, stand-up guys you’d trust to have your back.
Of course, the degree of bonding probably stemmed from the fact that they were about to go into a difficult and dangerous situation, with only each other to lean on if things turned ugly. That helped connect souls faster than any super-glue.
He watched Hollywood staring at Hannah, listening carefully with one hundred percent concentration to every word the woman said.
If his Marine team-mates could see them now, they wouldn’t believe their eyes. Hollywood was never in a room with a beautiful woman for more than five minutes before turning on the charm. Although he drew the line at hitting on married women, it still wouldn’t have stopped him flirting a little. It was just part of who Hollywood was. A charmer with a wicked sense of humour, and a natural gift for winding people up.
Kellen had watched Hollywood turn those chocolate brown eyes on a woman, time after time, and with only a very rare exception, he never failed to seal the deal.
With Hannah Simons, it was as though Hollywood had subconsciously decided not to even try and turn on the charm.
Of course, you had to take into consideration the fact that apart from being drop-dead gorgeous, albeit in a tiny package, Hannah was completely devoted to her husband, Danny, and all but blind to anyone else. Hollywood might as well have been a gargoyle with warts on his face for all she seemed to have noticed him, so possibly he’d taken that into account as well.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kellen could see the two Russians, and imagined that they would probably get their fair share of female company. Kris was the funnier of the two, with a quick humour and great sense of fun. Their bald heads and typically muscled chests made them look like true Russian Mafia, although the younger brother found the description hilarious. Even the more serious Yuri was always quick to smile, especially at his brother’s antics.
Evan was another joker, more often than not at his own expense. The Welshman and Logan had served together for as long as Kellen had served with Hollywood, but where Hollywood was older and supposedly wiser than Kellen by eight years, Evan and Logan were separated by just four days, and only a month younger than Kellen himself.
Three ‘youngsters’ just past their thirtieth birthday, and three ‘old-timers’ closer to their fortieth. Kellen almost smiled. He reckoned they were a good mixture.
“So, when you disembark in Ankara, there will be vehicles waiting to take you straight to wherever the women are being held.” Hannah explained. “You’ll help with the loading before you head out. You won’t have too long to hang around as the trucks will need to arrive at their new stopover point by midnight.”
Shit! What?
Kellen had been so far into his own thoughts that he’d missed the first part of what Hannah had been saying, and he had no idea when they were supposed to be shipping out.
He glanced around to see Hollywood smirking at him. Yeah, that asshole knew he hadn’t been paying attention.
“So, Hannah…” Hollywood smiled at her. “Whose choice was it to leave on Monday? Theirs or ours?”
Kellen could have kissed his friend for the rescue.
“We’ve got to play by their rules, and that includes the timetable.” Hannah confirmed. “We’ve just about stretched our luck as far as we can by insisting that we have our men accompany the trucks. Our excuse was that we don’t want to be left with egg on our faces should something go wrong with the delivery. They might be the worst sort of criminals, but the Russians understand that reputation, honour, and appearance are vitally important in the circles these people mix in. That’s the only reason they’ve agreed to humour us.”
“Will we have direct access to the informant?” Yuri asked. “Or will our communications go through you?”
“I’ll work on persuading them to deal directly with you, even if it’s still only by text or e-mail.” Hannah admitted. “But you have to appreciate how dangerous the situation is for them. If you were to find out their identity, it would make it harder to keep it a secret. And if their betrayal were to be discovered by the organisation, can you imagine what the Russians would do to them? Being hung, drawn and quartered would be a tea party by comparison.”
Kellen had seen torture victims in his years posted overseas, but the worst types of punishments were always reserved for the traitors.
“If I manage to make any progress before you fly out, obviously you’ll be the first to know.” Hannah confirmed. “For now, I’m just trying to make sure the communications devices are encrypted beyond their capability to hack, and that we have tracking devices in play that will be virtually undetectable.”
“Is that even possible?” Logan asked.
“Probably. Yes… hopefully.” Hannah blushed. “I mean they exist, unofficially, and I’m negotiating to get hold of them, but it’s slow going, and I need to sweet-talk the right people.”
“Who are you negotiating with?” Yuri frowned. “Hopefully, not the Russians!”
Hannah grinned and chuckled.
“No way! If it was the Russians who had this technology, I have a friend in the Kremlin who could have gotten me a dozen or more of these devices a couple of days ago.”
“Then who…?” Logan began.
“Just a friend of a friend…” Hannah said mysteriously. “Someone who’ll owe me a big favour if I can pull off what they want in return.”
Kellen leaned forward, wondering what the hell the woman was involved in.
“What are you bargaining with that will get you access to such hi-tech equipment? What do you have that is so important?” He asked.
Hannah blushed.
“My mom.” She admitted. “The Chinese want her to go out there and do a concert for a friend of the President.”
“You’ve gotta be shitting me.” Hollywood laughed. “You’re exchanging communications devices for your mom to do a concert for some Chinese big-cheese?”
“Hell, no.” Hannah chuckled. “By the time we agree a date, I’ll have got a helluva lot more out of them than that. Which is why everything’s so tricky to arrange, and the timing couldn’t have been shittier. I need to get them to agree to all my demands before my mom signs up to perform, and yet I need the comms and tracking equipment by Sunday before you ship out.”
“Does your mom often do concerts for gadgets?” Evan asked.
“She’s done a couple, although we’re quite careful who we do business with.” Hannah admitted. “But they usually come with a big chunk of money which goes directly to one of her charities. So, while she gains nothing personally from the deals, a lot of her favourite causes benefit. Win-win really.”
“And I thought Gregor had a lot of contacts.” Yuri shook his head.
“Honey, Gregor is just one of dozens of billionaires in the world.” Hannah smiled cheekily. “What y’all will come to appreciate, is that there’s only one Hannah Simons.”
Kellen stared at the little pixie in admiration.
He was already starting to believe she was right.