CHAPTER 21
“Weber.”
The summons from his commander had Will turning in the desk chair where he’d been reviewing satellite thermal images of movement in known insurgent hot spots in their region.
Will stood. “Sir?”
“I just got a message from Meade. They need you back there ASAP.”
Will’s eyes widened. “Immediately?”
Looking amused at his confusion, Groenning cocked up a brow. “That’s what ASAP means, Weber.”
“Yes, sir. Do they know I’m OCONUS?” He wasn’t in the continental United States. He was in freaking Afghanistan, for God’s sake.
This wasn’t like when he was already in Maryland on leave and could drive over on an hour’s notice. It wasn’t even as if he was on base in Virginia.
“They know. They didn’t seem to care.”
He was going to have to arrange transport back to the states. That should be real fun.
“It’s going to take me a while to get back there.” Days, and that was barring any possible delays.
If there was an emergency at Fort Meade, any number of things could happen between now and the time he could finally get there. He needed to get on a secure line and call them. Maybe he could help remotely from where he was.
“Actually, they arranged for you to fly back on one of the planes in the Presidential fleet. Air Force Two, to be exact. The Vice President has been here visiting bases. He’s going to swing by and pick you up.” Groenning snorted. “Must be nice to be so valuable, huh, Weber?”
After hearing what lengths they’d gone to to get him to Maryland Will was convinced it was less indicative of his value and more about how dire the situation at Meade was.
Jesus. It must be big. They must have gotten a ping on the booby-trap they’d installed. Someone must be trying to use the Trojan Horse.
It’s what they’d planned on. What they’d hoped for. And dammit, he wanted to be there for it and by all indications he would be soon.
Adrenaline started to pump, surging into his blood stream as he asked, “When and where do I meet my transport?”
The answer had Will scurrying to get his shit packed and be ready in time.
The Vice President and him, on Air Force Two.
Although he was sure there would be press and aides and secret service and a bunch of other people on the flight too, it was still pretty freaking surreal.
He was just trying to wrap his head around it, and pack up his gear at the same time, when his teammates descended upon him.
“It’s fucking true?” Tompkins sputtered when he saw Will with his duffle in hand.
“That I got called back? Yeah.”
“Pfft. He makes it sound so casual.” Fitzy shook his head.
“Right?” Boomer scowled. “I wanna go on Air Force Two. You suck. I’m gonna call you Wanker from now on instead of Wonka.”
Will laughed. “As if that would be worse?”
“So anyway, down to business since our time with you is short, oh computer god. We picked your girls,” Tompkins began.
“My what?” Will stopped zipping his duffle bag in mid-motion, confused.
“On your app—which needs a name by the way.” Fitz raised a brow.
Will shook his head. “I know. I’ll get to it.”
“Good job, by the way. The app who has not been named kicks ass,” Fitzy added.
“It sure does. I got me two dates already lined up for when we get back.” Boomer grinned.
Apparently they were all enjoying his dating app, even if they were in Afghanistan.
“Anyway, we narrowed it down to three choices for you,” Tompkins continued.
Three. Not a terrible ratio.
For the sake of the beta test, it was going to be very interesting for Will to see who his teammates had chosen for him from the hundreds of possible candidates.
He’d have to run the numbers. See the exact percentage but it seemed promising.
Three was workable given the number of Facebook friends on his list combined with the lists of the beta testers.
After they’d culled the candidate pool based on the parameters he’d specified by weeding out the males, the females who weren’t age appropriate or weren’t single, and those who were too far geographically, there still had to be hundreds of women to choose from and they’d narrowed it down to three.
This thing might actually work. Too bad he had far bigger computer fish to fry when he got back to the states. Maybe he could do a bit of work on the flight.
Freaking Air Force Two—good luck concentrating on stats while on that.
Will dragged his concentration back to his teammates, hovering as he packed. “Okay. Thanks for testing this thing for me.”
“You gonna try to go out with all three of them?” Boomer asked.
Will frowned at Boomer. “No. I’m not going out with any of them. I already told Tompkins before we started testing that I’ll go through the selection with you guys to be better able to evaluate the user process, but I’m not meeting anyone.”
“What the fuck, man? He never told us you said that. Why are we wasting our time on this then?” Fitzy’s frown spoke his displeasure as much as his words.
“Because you’re helping me with a beta test,” Will answered. “And as I said, thank you for doing it. I’m grateful.”
“Yeah, yeah. Beta test. Whatever.” Tompkins dismissed Will with the wave of one hand. “We’re doing this because you’re damn well gonna go out with at least one of them. And if you won’t choose one out of the three, then we’ll pick her for you.”
“No—”
“Yes.” Tompkins cut off Will’s protest.
Will laughed. “It’s not as if you can make me go out with any of them.”
Tompkins crossed his arms. “We’ll see about that.”
Will shook his head at Tompkins’s continued determination.
Between this lively debate and his summons to Meade, it had been one hell of a day, and it wasn’t over yet. He still had his flight to the states with the VP.
And he couldn’t forget what being stateside again meant. He’d finally be on the same continent as Jessa. If she wouldn’t answer his calls then he’d just see her face to face.
He intended to do that as soon as possible. The moment this Meade thing was under control and he could get back to Virginia he was driving directly to her place and making her talk things out.