Twelve

 

 

Morgan set his phone down on the table, “I need an extraction team, the best one you’ve got, in the next ten minutes.”

Without flinching or missing a beat, Trent pulled out his phone and began typing as he said, “Rendezvous point?”

“Hang on, let me look at a map,” Morgan said as he searched on his phone for Grapevine Manor.  He brought up the map for it.  “There’s a closed wine tasting bar about a mile away on the back side of the vineyard.  Let’s meet there,” Morgan said as he texted the address to Trent.

“Chopper?” Trent said as he typed.

Morgan looked up at him, “You can get one that fast?”

Trent opened his mouth to say something snarky, something along the lines of I can do a lot of things that you don’t know about because you didn’t stick around.  But he knew now wasn’t the time.

“Yeah, I can,” he said.

“Can you have it on standby?”

Trent nodded his head, “Yep.  Okay, I’ve got a four-man extraction team and a six-man assault team.  Plus the three of us.  That good?”

 

Morgan gaped at him for a second.  Ten bumped him with his elbow, “Morg?”

Morgan blinked, “Yeah, that’s……thanks Trent.  I mean that.  Thank you.”

Trent put his hands on the table and began to stand up, “Thank me after we’ve got your man.  I’m lead on this, you okay with that?”

Morgan bristled on the inside at having to take orders from Dragon but on the outside, he dipped his chin and mumbled, “Yep.  I’m good.”

“Let’s move out.  We’ll take my vehicle.”

“Fine,” Morgan mumbled as he and Ten walked behind Trent.

Morgan pulled out his phone to text Aleksy the change of plans and to send him the address of the rendezvous point.

I’ll meet you there, he texted back.

“You okay?” Morgan said as he looked at Ten.

“Yeah.  Why wouldn’t I be?” Ten said, appearing stoic and strong.

Morgan sighed.  He’d seen Ten fight whatever this thing was that he was feeling towards Bas for the better part of a year.  He’d watched as the man grew harder and harder, became more distant and cold.  The harder he fought the more of himself that he seemed to lose.  Morgan knew the man couldn’t keep going like this.  He also knew that when Ten broke, it was going to be epic, devastating, consuming.  And heaven help anyone who was near him when it happened.

“You’re on point for Bas,” he said to Ten.  “Trent, you’re on point for Murphy and the little girl, okay?”

Trent glance at them over his shoulder, “I’m good with that.  I still can’t believe that Murphy would do something like this,” he said with a sigh as he pushed open the door to the outside.

“I know.  But none of us are parents.  A father will go to any lengths to protect their child.”

“True, true.  This is us,” Trent said as he stepped up to a sleek, black SUV.  It looked somewhat normal from the outside but once they opened the doors and Morgan looked inside, “Jesus Christ,” he said with a gasp as he took in all the added technology throughout the vehicle.  A laptop mounted on the dash, cameras mounted and pointing out every window, a steel cage separating the backseat from the very back and more bells and whistles than Morgan had ever seen on one place. He whistled, “This is some set-up, Dragon.”

“You don’t know the half of it, Doyle.  Bulletproof glass and doors and other things that you’re not cleared to know about.”

Morgan hefted his body into the passenger seat as he said, “Fuck you, Dragon.  I have Top Secret clearance and you know it.”

Trent smirked from the driver’s seat, “Some of the prototypes in here require more than that.”

“Holy shit,” Morgan whispered, “Color me impressed, Trent.”

Trent smiled as he fired up the engine, “You always did like my…..toys….Morgan,” he said with a chuckle.

Morgan blushed, he actually blushed, “Shut up, Dragon.”

“Not gonna happen, boo bear.”

Ten snorted a laugh from the backseat.

Morgan glared at him, “Not one word, Pinkerton.”

Trent’s eyes snapped up to the rearview mirror, “Wait.  Pinkerton?  Tenley Pinkerton?”

Ten’s eyes narrowed, “Yeah, why?”

“I,” Trent began and then he glanced quickly at Morgan, “Uh, I have something for you when this is all over.”

“What?” Ten whispered, his heart tightening in his chest.

Trent’s hand gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, “Look, now’s not the time or the place.  Let me just say that I knew Sawyer.  We were on half a dozen or so ops together.  He was my friend.  And after, well, after he passed, I got a package from him.  It had a letter for me, one for Morgan and one for you.”

“And you held onto them why?” Morgan growled.

“Maybe because you cut off all contact with me, douchebag.  And I didn’t know where Ten was,” Trent snapped.

“You could’ve found him if you did a little research,” Morgan growled again.

“Yeah, well, I’ve been busy.”

Morgan opened his mouth to say something else but shut it when Ten quietly said, “Drop it Morgan.”

Morgan turned to look at him, “What?  Why?”

Ten took a deep breath and sighed it back out, “Not now, Morg, okay?  We need to concentrate on Bas and this Op, not the past.  Trent knows how to find me now.  He’ll get the letter to me, won’t you, Trent?”

Trent met Ten’s eyes in the mirror and he dipped his chin in a nod.

Ten turned to look out the window at the blurry trees as they passed by.

Five minutes later, Trent turned into the cracked, weed strewn parking lot of the abandoned vinery, pulled up next to a large box van and shut off his truck.

As Trent hopped out, so did the driver of the box van.  Morgan watched as the man walked around to the back, slapped his hand on the door twice and then the door was opened from the inside.

“Fuck,” Ten whispered from the backseat when he saw all the electronic equipment inside along with all of the heavily armed, huge men.

Morgan stared at the men too as he said, “I know it’s hard going into a situation like this when you don’t know any of them men you’re working with.  All we can do is trust that Dragon will keep his men in line and that they will have your back while you do the job you need to do.”

“Where am I taking Bas once I have him?” Ten said.

Morgan’s eyes swept back to Ten.  He didn’t miss the fact that Ten had said, once I have him, not if I get him.  He really admired the man’s confidence.  “Take him to your place,” he said.

Ten’s eyebrow shot up.  Morgan knew that Ten’s place was a small one room cabin on ten acres of forested land twenty miles from anywhere.  “What if he needs medical attention?”

“You’re trained.”

“Yeah, in field combat work!” Ten snapped.

“And your point?” Morgan said.

“Jesus Christ, Morgan.  I’m not a fucking doctor!  And I haven’t put that training to use since, since, since……” Ten squeezed his eyes shut.   Morgan knew very well the last time Ten had put his field combat work to use.  It was when he had held his dead lover in his arms and tried desperately, helplessly, to hold the wound closed on his neck, even though he knew in his heart that he was too late, that nothing could be done, that Sawyer was gone.  “You really are a son of a bitch,” he whispered to Morgan as he tried to get his emotions back under control, to put them back in the lockbox where he had kept them since that day.

“Ten,” Morgan started to say but he stopped when Ten sent a glare his way.

“Don’t Morgan, just fucking don’t,” he growled and then he opened his door and stood up.

“Are we a go or what, Dragon?”

Trent’s head slowly turned towards Ten, his eyebrow raised and fucking hell, the man wasn’t bigger than Ten but he was intimidating as fuck.  The look he was giving Ten was almost enough to make him shrink back in fear….almost.

“What’s got your panties in a bunch?  You got a date?”

I’ve got to get my man

Those words floated through Ten’s mind and almost left his tongue, would have left his tongue, if he hadn’t snapped his mouth closed and bit the fucker.

Ouch.  That hurt.

“I, uh, I’m just worried about the little girl.”

Trent’s eyes narrowed.  He knew bullshit when he heard it.  But instead of calling Ten out on his BS, he turned away as he mumbled, “Two minutes, Pinkerton.”

Ten flinched at hearing his last name.  He usually did.  Oh, he was proud of being part of such a historic family – he just didn’t like the questions and accolades that came with it.

Apparently, the men surrounding Trent were all completely professional, though.  Because not one of them said a damn thing.  They were all completely focused on their upcoming task.

After about a minute, Trent walked back over to Morgan and Ten, “Okay.  I’d prefer to go in the middle of the night but I understand the need for urgency.  Still, I’ve got a guy set to shut off cable and landlines.  And we’ve got a cell signal lock that we’ll activate once we breach the perimeter,” he said as he held open his hand.  In it were two listening devices.  As Ten and Morgan both placed them inside their ears, Trent continued.  “These are all set to our channel.  The code name on this Op is Dragon Wings.  Everyone here is Dragon, I’m Dragon one, Dragon two is you Morgan, Ten, you’re Dragon three, and the rest of the guys are all Dragons with numbers.”

“Do you need pics of Bas and Liam?” Morgan said.

“Naw, I pulled their driver’s license photos.  Everyone has them on their secure devices.  And the little girl will be easy because I’m guessing she’s the only child in the place,” his eyes locked with theirs, “You two ready?”

Morgan and Ten both nodded.

“Okay, let’s suit up.”