Way of the Warrior (Troubleshooters #17.5)(117)

Jules Cassidy was an upper echelon FBI team leader who had quite a few friends in the SpecWar community. If anyone could get a helicopter on short notice, it was Cassidy.

“Sorry, I’m in DC,” Cassidy said. “But I have access to, uh”—he cleared his throat—“well, let’s just say certain communications satellites, and leave it at that. I haven’t quite reached Jenn and Eden yet, but I’m working on it. There is a helo—a commercial one—headed your way, but we don’t have a doctor or even a medic on board.”

Jay checked his GPS and rattled off their current coordinates. “We’re already in the middle of nowhere, still about twenty miles west of the turn off to Obsidian Springs.” He shifted in his seat as he scanned the area. “Plenty of room for a helo to land—the only wires are along the state road.”

“I’ll tell Adam,” Cassidy came back. “What color’s your car?”

“Blue Honda Civic,” Jay reported. “We’ll be the ones pulled over, waving our arms.” He realized what Cassidy had said. “Adam’s in the helo?”

“Yup,” Cassidy said. “Someone—Tony probably—got through to him on set, out in Coronado. They were filming some kind of aerial shot, and Adam commandeered the helicopter—hang on.” Cassidy was talking on more than one phone at once, and his voice was muffled as he spoke to someone else, probably Adam in the helo.

“Adam’s an actor,” Jay lowered his voice to explain to Carol. “A movie star, really. He’s engaged to be married to one of my teammates, Tony.”

“Gay married?” she asked.

“Yeah, well, I guess… But we just call it, you know, married.”

“Of course,” Carol said quickly. “Right. I wasn’t…I was just checking to see if maybe I misunderstood and there was a female SEAL named Toni in your team, because, frankly, that would be pretty great, too.” She pointed in the rearview mirror. “Is that…?”

Jay turned to look out the back. That little dot on the horizon was indeed the helo. It was a larger bird than he expected, and he could tell just from looking that it was capable of moving pretty fast.

“Pull over,” he said, but Carol had already signaled and was slowing. “I hate to just abandon you out here,” he started, but she cut him off as she put her car into park.

“Nope,” she said as they both climbed out of the car. She opened the back to extract his crutches. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Besides, I don’t want to leave my car on the side of the road, and I don’t want to take up any extra space on the helicopter. Also…” She made a face. “I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to flying.”

“Uh-oh,” Jay said as he tucked his crutches under his arms. “That might be a relationship deal-breaker.”

“About that,” she said, but the helo was already coming in for a landing. Not only did its huge blades make it impossible to talk, but they also kicked up a crapload of dust and dirt.

“I’m kidding,” Jay told her as he gently pushed her back into the driver’s seat. “Thank you again. I’ll call you with an update.” His crutches made it impossible to bury his face in the crook of one elbow, so he simply squinted and tried not to breathe in the dust as he hobbled out to where the helo was gently touching down.

Adam slid open the door and was crouched there inside. He took Jay’s crutches and helped him up and into the cabin. Jay waved one last time to Carol right before the door slid closed, and they were off.

Adam was shouting something about how Jules—he was on a first name basis with FBI Team Leader Cassidy—still hadn’t gotten through to Eden or Jenn, but that the helo pilot was going to follow the road all the way to Obsidian Springs, if necessary.

“Is there a first aid kit on board?” Jay shouted, and Adam pointed toward the back of the cabin.

The medical kit was far from military grade—geared more toward sprains, breaks, burns, and lacerations. It did, however, include a blood pressure cuff, along with tubing and equipment necessary to set up an IV, if one was needed. Other than that, if things went south with either Jenn or the baby, Jay would have to improvise.

But he could do this. He would do this. Dan was counting on him. He took a deep breath in and exhaled hard.

It wasn’t until then that Jay realized his epic fail. He’d forgotten to get Carol Redmond’s phone number. But just as quickly, he realized that wouldn’t be a problem.

He could always get her number from HoboMofo. She was, after all, the Mohf’s daughter’s fifth-grade teacher.

The SEAL chief probably had her on his VIP contacts list.

Jay gently pushed the teacher out of his mind as he went to the windows to help Adam and the pilot scan the shoulder of the road for Eden’s car.





CHAPTER 8


    Eden


A truck went by, but didn’t stop.

Eden chased the damn thing, waving her arms and shouting—screaming after it—at the top of her lungs. But whoever was driving was too busy or too frightened to pull over.

“Son of a bitch!” she said, hands on her knees as she caught her breath. “Son of a bitch!”

The heat was brain-melting, reflecting up off the road in an oven-worthy wave as she heard Jenn call out for her. “Eden…?”