Page 85 of The Team

Rhett really was nervous.

Yin clapped him on the arm. “We’ll be fine. See you on shore.”

“Okay.”

Chen put in his mouthpiece, and before Yin did, he stopped and looked at everyone. “Thank you, all of you. You defended me and stood up for me, to include me on this mission. It means a lot, and I won’t let you down.”

“You’re buying beers when this is all said and done,” Coyote said.

“And pizza,” Sid added.

Yin smiled and fitted his mouthpiece, then with a nod to signal they were good to go, he and Chen slid into the water without barely a splash.

Attention went to the sonar. Echo put his hand to theear of his headphone. He tilted his head and listened for a long moment before he smiled. “They’re quiet. How can scuba gear be so quiet?”

“And fast,” Sid said, nodding toward the tracking screen. “Jesus H Christ. Are they part shark?”

It was long, quiet drawn-out minutes of watching. The silence and the waiting were starting to make Jay nervous.

Rhett put his hand to his earpiece and turned away from the conversation, which Jay knew meant incoming intel. “Affirmative,” he said. He looked Jay in the eye. “Roger that. Alpha One team is ready on your go.”

The rubber dinghy was ready, their gear ready. They were ready.

“Breach team eighty metres and closing,” Sid said.

“We got this,” Jay said, giving a pointed look to Rhett. “Just another day at the office.”

“We can do this shit all day,” Sid said.

“All day long,” Az agreed.

“Hooyah,” Coyote hollered.

They were psyching themselves up, getting their heads in the game, and Jay appreciated the normalcy.

Azrael double-checked her EF88 before sliding it into her chest pack. “Tell me again: how many of this so-called SWAT security team are there?”

“Five,” Rhett replied.

“How many can I have?” she asked him seriously.

“All of them.”

She grinned, and they all kept their eyes on the screens.

Rhett let out a low breath. “We wait for Yin’s signal.”

They all watched.

Waiting.

They were fast, yes. But fuck, the wait...

“Ten metres and counting,” Sid said. “We should get audio in three, two...”

They waited, and Jay held his breath.

There was a soft crackle and the next sound they heard was barely a breath. “Breach team has contact,” Yin whispered.

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