Page 8 of Cole
“Almost twenty-five,” she smiled. “And no. Not dating anyone.”
She had hoped that she and Joey would connect but it seemed that all he wanted was friendship, nothing more. She was fine with that and when she realized she was fine with it, she realized that she wanted nothing more either.
“I’m forty-six,” he said glumly.
“Such an old man,” she said in a withering voice. He laughed at her, shaking his head.
“Let’s eat and make a plan. Tomorrow we start looking for your brother.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“Who is she with?” asked Eric.
“Angus Williams. He came to us as a kid, working with Tiger. He was here a few years, left to care for his mother and then went back to work for the Navy. I guess his ex-wife was a piece of work and he was embarrassed to come back to us,” said AJ.
“We rehired him, right?” asked Luke.
“On the spot,” smirked Cam. “They moved hotels, something nicer and we’ve overnighted his equipment to him. Everything in stealth mode, obviously.”
“Obviously,” nodded Luke. “What about Cole? Any read on his whereabouts?”
“Brief blips but nothing that gives us a solid read. If I could just pinpoint the area, we could get out there.”
“What was the op? Where were they?” asked Cam.
“That’s the other issue. With the commander dead, I don’t have anyone to ask other than his teammates and they’ve got them locked up tighter than Fort Knox on a ship in the Persian Gulf,” said AJ.
“What ship?” asked Luke.
AJ gave him the name of the ship and they watched, as five phone calls later, Luke was speaking to command of the ship asking to speak with the team.
“They could have my stripes for this, Luke,” said the man. “But I know who you are and what you’re going to try and do. These guys are beat up pretty bad. It’s like the whole damn thing was cursed.”
By the time he was off the phone, the entire team was staring at one another wondering why in the hell they would approach a potential nuclear hotspot in that way.
“If we knew there was a nuke there, and chances are we did know,” said Ham, “why not just blow it from the sky?”
“That’s a great question,” said Luke. “We risked an entire SEAL team for something stupid. But. It gives us an area to search.”
It was as if a golden light went on above them as the distinct sounds of ‘ping-ping-ping’ echoed in the auditorium.
“Holy shit,” said Pigsty. “It’s his signal, the manual one turned on from his VG phone.”
“Call it,” said Luke. “Call it.”
“Luke, what if they’re close to him?” asked Ham.
“We need to chance it. He won’t have it audible, so if he can’t answer, he won’t.”
They all nodded at one another as AJ dialed the number. It seemed to ring forever then a voice was heard.
“This better be fucking home or I’m going to be pissed,” he growled in a low voice.
“Son? Shit,” sniffed Ham, suddenly overwhelmed. “Cole, are you alright?”
“Hey, Dad. Nope. Not even close. During our extraction we got separated. I’m at the bottom of what appears to be a dry well.”
“How far from the nuke site?” asked Luke.
