“Pleased to meet you, Captain. You’re doing a great thing here.” Tucker had finally met him, shaking the man’s hand firmly. He wore a dark-blue uniform and had cropped white hair. He looked to be in his sixties, smiling back at Tucker.

“It’s just another job to me,” he said in a comfortably American accent. The guy sounded like he was from Boston.

“Don’t let Jasper hear that,” Tucker said. “He claims complacency breeds mishaps and misfortune.”

“Is that what he’d call it? I call it getting home safely. There’s a certain touch you need to man one of these. An easy touch. Can’t think too much about it or what you’re carrying.”

Tucker grinned. “I doubt Jasper can do any of that.”

“You have to stay cool at all times,” the Captain said. “Tell him that. It’s okay to have a routine.”

Tucker weighed the dangers of ocean travel and espionage activities, and how much psychic energy each required. It was no surprise that the captain, almost twice Tucker’s age, looked just as youthful. The army, and DARC Ops, was a breeding ground for prematurely aged and injured bodies. And like with his best friend back home, Matthias, the possibility of a newly acquired PTSD injury lurked around every corner.

Of course Tucker wouldn’t give it up for the world. But he was still new and hungry. Perhaps that would change.

He looked at Tansy when he entered the room, how he greeted the captain and then sat by the window. Tucker kept watching, analyzing for any cracks in the exterior. Any signs that he’d had enough of the job.

There were none. Tansy sat a little too slouched back, a little too cool—typical Tansy—sipping on his customary iced coffee. He looked over at Tucker. “You got the night shift with us?”

“I do.”

“You’ll need some of this, then.” Tansy pointed to his coffee.

“No, I’ve got my own trick for that.” Tucker was glad he wasn’t asked to be specific about it. There was no way he was admitting that things with Macy had him tiptoeing across a knife’s edge for the last three days, that things had his nervous system buzzing like a frayed live wires.

“Tucker?”

His concentration broke, and thankfully so. He turned to see his friend sipping from his coffee.

“I said, do you like cigars?”

“No, why?”

Tansy shrugged and said, “Want to watch me smoke one, then?”

“Not really, but I could use some fresh air. Upwind of you and that cigar.”

They got up out of their seats, almost reaching the door before the captain got Tansy’s attention.

“I almost forgot to thank you,” the captain said. “For the Cuban on my desk.”

“Hey, you’re the one doing the big favors around here.”

Outside, Tansy explained how they’d gotten the US government to donate a big chunk of change to the ship and its crew. It was a risk, and the captain wouldn’t tell his company about it. So Uncle Sam made sure he had all the money and fine cigars he could want.

Though tobacco, in any form, wasn’t very appealing to Tucker. He didn’t smoke, but he still enjoyed the smell of a good cigar at times. Tonight it was mixed with the warm ocean breeze. That, mixed with the fact that they would all be on home soil in a few days, made it all the better.

“I think I could get used to this,” Tansy said, staring out across the Atlantic.

“Smuggling uranium?”

“The cigar. And the surf. Do you surf?”

“No. But I boogie board.”

Tansy laughed. “You what?”

“Is that what they call it? Boogie board? When you lie flat on your stomach on it?”

He was still laughing. “Do they even make those anymore? You’re referring to the, like, the short surfboard thing, right?”

“Yeah. What else could I be referring to?”

“They make a tablet called a boogie board. That was actually the first thing I thought of when you said it. Either way, it’s ridiculous.”

“Okay,” Tucker said. “So I don’t smoke cigars, and I surf on a tablet. Does that make me some kind of loser?”

Before Tansy could offer what would surely be a wise-ass remark, their discussion was broken up by the sound of heavy boot steps chugging up the metal stairs below them. Peering over the railing, Tucker saw the top of Jasper’s head, his red locks blowing in the wind.

“I knew it,” grumbled Tansy as he stared at his cigar with contempt. “As soon as I lit this up, I knew it would get ruined.”

“What makes you think it’ll—”

“We’ve got company,” Jasper said as reached the top step. “Something big.”

“What do you mean, big?” Tansy asked.

Jasper ignored the question, instead looking up through the windows of the bridge. He grabbed his radio and said into it, “You see that cutter?”

The three of them waited in silence for the answer, Jasper holding his radio, and Tansy taking another long puff from his cigar like it would be his last. When no answer came from the captain, all three men instantly took off running toward the nest, Tansy dumping his cigar overboard along the way.

In the captain’s room, the crew was already scrambling around.

“You get the message?” Jasper asked no one in particular, but calling it out at the general mess of people running about.

The captain’s face emerged from the frenzy with stone cold beady eyes. “I guess it’s your turn to finally do some work,” he said, before turning back to his dials.

Another man, much younger, came up to them with a tablet. “So it looks like we’ve got a military-class vessel. It’s headed off starboard.”

“What country?” the captain asked. “South African?”

“We don’t know. No one is talking to us on the radio.”

“Where are we?” Jasper asked. He was met with a strange look. He rephrased: “Are we still in South-African waters?”

“Yes, but not for much longer.”

“Should we hurry up?” Tucker said.

The captain looked at him, almost scowling. “Hurry up?”

“To get to international waters?” Tucker turned to Jasper. “Where is the vessel coming from? The Coast or the sea?”

“Starboard,” Jasper said. “That’s the sea.”

“It’s not South African,” one of the deck hands said.

“Should I get Macy?” Tucker said.

“Where is she?”

“In her container.”

“Good,” Jasper said. “Let’s have her stay there for now until we figure this out.”

“Gentlemen,” the captain said. “I’m not about to do any evasive maneuvers here. There’s a vessel coming our way, so be it. There’s only so much I can do. We’re not some little dinghy, we’re a cargo ship with a hundred thousand tons aboard.”

“Correct,” Jasper said. “Just act normally.”

The captain laughed and turned to his men. “Hear that, boys? Just act normally.”

“Aye, aye,” they laughed in response.

Tucker was glad they were feeling loose about it. He, on the other hand, couldn’t stop worrying about Macy and what this approaching vessel wanted. He’d almost completely forgotten about the uranium payload or anyone who’d want it. All he could imagine anyone ever wanting was Macy.

And for a time, Tucker once had her.

But she slipped away. A fish out of his hand and back into the sea.

“Tucker,” Jasper said, seeming to stare right into his brain—into his thoughts of Macy, seeing them and all of his vulnerabilities exposed. “You with us or what?”

“What do you need?” Tucker said. He blinked his eyes, refreshing his mind and focusing on the current situation.

“I need you to be present for this.”

“Present.”

“And I need you to run to each nest and make sure they’re equipped and good to go.”

Tucker hustled out of the room, running to the first nest—a sniper’s nest. They had six of them located around the ship at various defensive angles, set up with perfect vantage points for the sea, all aiming down, for shooting from cover at possible sea pirates—or worse.

He inspected each nest, the sandbags piled up around them for shooting protection. In the middle of each was a light machine gun resting on a tripod, and next to that, boxes of ammunition. There were also first-aid kits, water, and a radio. Tucker’s job was to make sure each nest was stocked and ready to go, before stopping at the last nest: his. There he’d prepare himself for what could possibly become a high-seas firefight.

He radioed back to Jasper with the “all clear”, and then hunkered down in his nest, his back leaning against the soft wall of the same sandbags he’d previously loaded into the truck. They were still hot from the sun, but the warmth was pleasant now, in the darkness. He imagined Macy in her container, likely getting cold. He would have much rather been there to warm her, even if it was just a quick snuggle. God, what he wouldn’t give for even just a damned snuggle. Maybe, before the cutter arrived, he could run out to the cargo deck and check in on her.

“Jasper,” he said into the radio, growing more impatient by the minute. “Got an update for me?”

“Negative,” came the response.

Tucker thought more of walking off, leaving his post, his nest, and checking out Macy’s container. She might have to stay hidden for awhile. At the very least he could bring her some sheets and a radio.

His thoughts were interrupted by a string of radio chatter, barely intelligible, but the many voices coming in and verifying their positions at the nests. They had all been assembled and ready to take on whatever was headed their way.

Maybe he could call her cell. Would it even work through all that metal?

His radio came to life again: “Hey, boys, stand by for some information.” It was Tansy this time, most likely calling from his computer lab deep in the bowels of the ship. Wherever he went, anywhere in the world, his mobile hack lab went with him—all information available at the touch of a button. He’d bailed the team out many times, being the eyes and ears from a basement hidden away. The brains of the operation. What new information could he have now? And why the fuck couldn’t he just say it?

The voice came again: “Bird nests, at ease.”

Tucker was getting seriously over Tansy’s standard vagueness. He radioed back, asking for an explanation.

What he got in response was not an explanation, but a request to revisit the hack room. And there, a minute later, under the ship’s harsh lighting, the worry on the hacker’s face was clear. Beads of sweat dotted along Tansy’s forehead.

“Jesus,” Tucker said “You look rattled. What the hell’s going on?”

Tansy took a deep breath. “I thought we were about to get boarded.”

“South Africans?”

He finally wiped his brow. “No. It’s friendlies.”

“Who?”

“Americans.” He swiveled around with a grim smile. “I think we’re in the clear.”

Americans. It was Americans that wanted Macy dead.

How the hell did they even know she was there?

“Hold off on the champagne,” Tucker said. “Or cigars. Let’s wait till we actually know who they are.”

“We’re in international waters,” Tansy said. “It’s an American ship.”

“But they still haven’t answered our comms. Right? That’s highly unusual. And a little unsettling.”

A radio next to Tucker crackled to life, full of the captain’s voice. “They want to board us.”

“Well, there’s your comms,” Tansy said.

“I don’t like it,” Tucker replied. “First they ignore us completely, and now they say they want to board.”

“It’s an Americans ship, though.”

“Do we really know that? I don’t remember that as part of Jackson’s plan.”

“It’s not,” Jasper said from behind him, entering the hack room and looking out of breath.

“So then what the hell is it?”

For the first time, no one had any answers, including the captain after being asked for the third time to give his insights on just who the hell he’d been talking to from the US ship. Including questions about accent and intentions.

There was a moment in that room, in the deafening silence of it, that Tucker could feel everything finally coming together. It was in that space, the quiet of his two friends and the unknown, where he worked on his strategy. He could even do this without Macy.

But the idea came from her. From her phone.

“Tansy,” he said. “Were you able to check Macy’s phone for . . . a tracking device?”

“It’s not a tracking device. But I know what you mean.”

“So, have you?”

“I haven’t had time to look at outside access. I noted there were breaches, if you’ve read the report.”

“I haven’t had time to read the report.”

“I’ll give you the Cliffs Notes,” Jasper said. “It’s quite possible that people, her assassins, were using her phone to track her down. It’s been hacked in the past. It’s not completely compromised, but it’s not secure, either. I tried warning her about that. She wasn’t particularly receptive to my opinion on her communications at the time.”

The captain’s voice came over the radio again. “They’re asking again for permission to board and inspect. I’m going to have to give it to them.”

Tansy scrunched his face. “Since when can they just board and inspect in foreign waters like this?”

Tucker turned to him. “How fast can you work on this?”

“Work on what? You want to know if . . . if she’s being tracked?”

“I’m wondering,” Tucker said. “If you can track the trackers.”

“Again, you’re not saying it right.”

“Who cares.”

“But I know what you mean.”

“Well, can you?” Jasper said.

He had to know. If the personnel on the boat were in contact with Macy’s phone, if they were using the same means her assassins had to track her . . . an official US government convoy wouldn’t be actively tracking her right now. Would they? Of course they fucking would. He knew most of the story of what had happened to the four men—Jackson, Jasper, Matt, and Tansy—before he’d joined DARC. It wasn’t pretty.

“Okay,” Jasper said, patting Tansy’s shoulder as the hacker spun back around to his laptops. “Let’s let him get to work. I’ll head up to see the captain. Tucker, get back to your bird’s nest.”

Tucker nodded and moved swiftly to the door, stopping by his room to grab an extra radio and blanket. Carrying them outside, he jogged past his nest and headed for Macy’s container. He took the stairs two at a time, jumping down each and then racing through the middle aisle of containers, the colors dim in the darkness, rushing past him, the wind at his face, the thoughts in his mind urgently hoping that she would still be in there and be alright.

When Tucker arrived to her storage container, he was out of breath. Not from the run, but from what he saw there. The door was shut.

She had to be in there, right? Tucker just hoped to God she was. He hated to think of her wandering around somewhere on the ship, mere minutes before a possible boarding and inspection. The American agents—if that’s truly who they were—would be looking for the uranium, to make sure it was secured properly. And to make sure of the identities of those who were doing the storing. Macy wasn’t one of them. She might also be on a different kind of list.

He swung the door open and called her name, the echo of his voice bouncing off the rear metal wall. He could tell just from the sound that it was empty. Another voice echoed through the room, but it wasn’t from Macy. Through his radio, Jasper said, “Stand down, bird nests. Repeat, stand down. We’ve got friendlies boarding. Prepare for inspection.”

A shiver ran down Tucker’s spine as he thought of an inspection with Macy loose. Macy being inspected, and most likely worse. He reached to his holster and drew out his handgun, the flashlight equipped, illuminating an empty container. He looked at the bed for minute, to make sure. The Naugahyde top looked wrinkled, but nothing else. When he clicked off the light, it was hard to see anything, even outside the container where there had been dim orange deck lights. It was as if the spot of light he’d just seen had burned into his retina, with him now seeing that same damn spot wherever he looked. He was looking outside, down the aisle, when through the blind spot came a set of hands, pushing at him, shoving him backward into the container, his feet stumbling back over the lip and onto the metal. He couldn’t see who it was, but the hands were small and soft. A familiar energy plowing into him and pushing him back. And then a familiar laugh, a nervous giggle he’d known for years.

The hands were at his waist now, Tucker instinctively flinching away.

“Sorry,” Macy said. “Did I scare you?”

It was too dark too see her. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean? I heard we’re being inspected, so . . .” Her hands slowly glided away and off him. “Did you come here to join me?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were safe.” Now it was his turn to reach for her, his hand finding hers in the dark.

Macy held his hand. “Are you going to stay?” She squeezed his palm.

“I’m a little surprised you want me to.”

“Who said I did?”

“Your hand,” he said, squeezing hers back. “The same hands that pushed me in here.”

“So? How about it?” She let go of him and walked away, back into the darkness. Tucker heard her sit on the bed. “Want to keep me company while the inspectors come snooping around?”

“I would,” Tucker said, hating the words as he said it. “But the ship’s getting boarded. I might have some other duties to take care of.” He’d like nothing more than to hide in here with her for the rest of his life, but keeping her safe meant he had to be elsewhere.

“That’s too bad.”

He went to move, to return to the nest, but his feet wouldn’t cooperate. He felt an incredible urge to stay. She needed protecting, after all. Wasn’t that also a part of his mission? He could do that best if he was right next to her. Surely Jasper had enough men to handle the bird’s nests and the inspectors. And they were just inspectors . . . right? Tansy would know something by now if they weren’t.

While he was weighing the pros and cons of staying exactly where he was, he heard a set of footsteps coming closer, clanging on the metal as it reached the container.

“Who’s that?” Macy whispered. “An inspector?”

“No, they haven’t even boarded yet.”

Tucker tried listening to the sound of keys, something jingling. By the sound, and by the walk, he could usually tell who it was. But this time, the sounds were all foreign. Even the voice, one he’d never heard before, which asked, “Macy? You in here?”

“Yeah,” she said, sounding startled. “Why?”

The next sound was even more strange, a creaking sound that grew louder until a loud clang of metal sounded, the trap door swinging shut and locking into place. It happened quickly and before either of them could say a word.

Tucker rushed into it, pounding his fists against the wall until he felt Macy’s hands on his back.

“Okay,” she said. “That’s it, then. They locked us in.” She almost sounded happy about it.

Tucker, meanwhile, was busy racking his brains, trying to work out what the hell was going on. Were his men really in that much of a rush to hide her from the inspectors?

He pounded again, before stopping, thinking of his radio. He grabbed it and moved it to his face but then felt the invisible hands again, Macy, holding him back. “No,” she said. “You’ll broadcast to everyone. The inspectors.”

“I’ll use code words,” he said, despite the fact that they hadn’t come up with her code words yet. He’d make it up on the fly—the boys would understand. He clicked on the radio. “This is Tucker. The bird is caught in the cave.”

“The what?” Macy said, laughing.

“The bird in the cave? Should I have said bat?”

“You should just stay quiet and let them do your job. We already did ours.”

“We did?”

“Well, I have. What do you have left to do?”

It took Tucker only a minute to realize what she meant. To figure it out.

He’d done a lot for his team, risking his life, saving Jasper’s life. Maybe even saving Macy, though she was having no trouble saving it herself. So what else had he done for her?

He brought her to Johannesburg in a private jet. And now he’d put her into a box, securing her in a safe like a rare work of art. A beautiful painting to be appreciated. The only thing left now was the appreciating.

Tucker walked toward the sound of her sweet voice, feeling her warm body pressing up against him. He found her face with his hands, feeling first at her soft neck, and then up around her jaw. And behind, holding her head close, Tucker leaning closer until his mouth met hers in the dark.