Page 1 of SEAL's Sunshine
Chapter 1
“I can’t waitto get out of this hell hole. This deployment has sucked,” Cameron “Cam” Patterson said as he packed his gear and fed Halo, his K-9 teammate. After a three-month deployment to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, he was more than ready to go home, especially since his Sunshine was waiting for him.
“What? Are you’re tired of sand in every crevice of your body?” Rafe asked as he loaded his pack.
“No shit. Every time we’re here it seems worse.”
“You’re lucky, kid. Wait until you’re caught in a haboob. Then you can complain about it,” Rafe said. He was their second in command. “But I have to agree, this deployment was boring as fuck. Home sounds great right now.”
“He’s just in a hurry to get back to see his woman for a little batter-dipping the corndog,” Drew “Murph” Murphy, sniper and overall pain in the ass, commented as he came in from the showers.
Cam was the youngest and newest member of the Black Eagle team. He’d been lucky when Jake Warner, their master chief, had picked him from the group of frogmen that had gotten through BUD/S almost four years ago. Sure, he took a lot of shit from them, but he had no doubt they had his six, and he sure as hell had theirs. It’d been a bonus to be Halo’s K-9 handler too. The large German shepherd was an excellent soldier and made a great companion when they were home.
Ignoring Murph’s comment about Miranda, he’d just finished packing his gear when the door opened and Jake entered with their CIA liaison, Bill Lynch following close behind.
“Bad news, jokers, we’re not leaving quite yet.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Cam said before he could stop himself. It had been hard being away this time, but since Tex had given him a tracker to put on Miranda’s phone, at least he knew she was safe. It was the same type that Meghan, Rafe’s girlfriend, had on her phone. It had helped them find her when she’d been taken by the Taliban. John “Tex” Keegan was an ex-SEAL and now used his incredible computer skills to help them. Now he was like an extended member of the team.
Jake gave him the ‘watch it’ look before continuing. “Red Falcon Team is delayed on another mission. We’re the only team available and this comes from the top of the food chain. Captain wants us in the TOC asap.”
“Aww fuck. We were so close to a clean getaway,” Ryan McLaughlin, the team medic said. “I swear it’s a conspiracy.”
“Conspiracy my ass,” Murph said. “It’s payback for going off-book when we rescued Rafe’s woman.”
“Enough bitching. It’s like being with a group of old women. We have work to do,” Jake said in a “don’t fuck with me” tone. Hearing that meant only one thing, shit was about to hit the fan.
The team assembled in the TOC and waited for Captain Tony Knox to brief them on the mission that stood between them and a flight home. As happy as Cam was to do something other than training, the timing sucked. Even if he didn’t want to admit it to the guys, he was anxious to get home since Miranda flying in to stay with him for a week.
She’d been recovering from her abduction when he’d had to deploy, but they had managed a few dates before he left, and lots of Skype calls since. There had been something that had clicked when he saw her. She’d gone through hell at the hands of the Taliban and had kept it together, been so strong. Even covered in bruises, she’d taken his breath away. Daydreaming about her was pretty much constant when he wasn’t on maneuvers and it got him into trouble a few times.
The door opened admitting the captain and the colonel. If the colonel was part of the briefing, they were most likely walking into a shitshow of epic proportions. It took that kind of a mission for him to show up in the TOC.
“I know you are ready to head home, but we get to keep you for a while longer,” the colonel said as he met each of their eyes. It was as if he was assessing their readiness. They were SEALs and always ready. “We have a delicate situation. The CIA has picked up chatter about an impending attack in Saudi Arabia and you’re the only spec ops team who is close enough to get there in time to neutralize the situation.”
“We’ll do whatever it takes, Sir,” Jake responded. “What’s the mission?”
“Protecting POTUS. He’s flying in for negotiations with the Saudis. It’s been kept under wraps, but the threat was deemed credible. No one was supposed to know about this trip and that opens up other issues, but they aren’t your problem. Your mission is to eliminate the threat. You are standing between evil and the leader of the free world. Don’t fuck up.”
As per his usual, he dropped his intel bomb and departed, leaving the captain and Lynch to fill in the blanks. No wonder Jake looked pissed off when he’d come to get them.
“I know you have a lot of questions, but we’ll have to address them on the plane. Get your gear. Wheels up in ten.”
Cam caught Jake and Rafe as they exchanged glances and it made the hair on the back of his neck tingle. Even though it was POTUS, no one had explained the credible threat. When it involved the President of the United States, a Charlie Foxtrot aka cluster fuck was guaranteed.
On the transport with time to spare, they stowed their gear. Then he put food and water dishes down for Halo and joined the team where they had gathered for the briefing. It wasn’t normal protocol, but there was a leak and until they knew where it was from, the plane was one of the more secure areas.
“What’s up, boss?” Murph asked, his impatience evident. He was like an older brother and a black-sheep merged into one. If you asked who on the Black Eagle Team caused the most eye rolls, the answer was always Murph.
“Is POTUS on site?” Rafe asked.
“No, he’s landing at zero nine hundred. We’ll have three and a half hours once we land to verify, find, and eliminate the threat.”
“Piece of cake,” Murph said, which earned him a side eye from the captain. Cam wondered if he’d ever learn to keep his fucking trap shut at times like this.
“What do we know?” Cam asked. They needed the intel available to come up with their plan. Although knowing Jake, if he’d made a plan that would be close to perfect already.
Captain Knox signaled Lynch to take over. “The chatter we picked up indicates a plan to blow up Air Force One as soon as it lands with POTUS on board. And before you ask, yes, it’s credible intel.”
