When I pull away, she’s breathing heavy in a way that I’m fighting to keep my hands over her clothes. I’m not checking just what that heavy breathing leads to with eyes on us from multiple angles. “Fuckin’ Bits and their butterflies. Asa showed me the lady bugs. They’re scary kids.” Her glazed eyes focus on me and she smiles. “I’m not on a build team. They need trained security.” My watch beeps. “Tell you later, Hud’s Angel. Love when you’re breathing heavy.” I don’t like the Hud name in there but I feel it. It just sounds stupid.
She giggles pushing me away. “You can fix that later too.”
I turn back and almost trip with the sudden movement. “Count on it. Seamus gave me Havoc.” Swinging back around, I start jogging for the stairs with my new K9 partner.
“Chopper’s here.”
I almost trip again when she says I’m a thief. She wants a dog and I think Seamus is training one for her. Havoc is mine because Alder loaded all the classified jobs in my file into him. At a guess, he’s loading a new chip K9 with her records.
We make it to pad four just as the chopper is lowering. Anchor opens the door and puts a hand out before it’s down. Itake it and Havoc follows me in.
“Brothers.” I don’t say more. My objective is getting them back on the chopper.
Rescue’s engineer shows me maps. I point to trees with a field behind them. “That’s parking for a national forest hiking entrance. There’s a trail toward the dam but it stops and is fenced. It’s more scenic than a way in and that scenic is in a way that isn’t showing what money at the entrance shows.”
Clenching my jaw, I look at what’s around it. A fence line then another in high grass before the dam. I look at the legend then the lines on the monitor. Nothing else but the obvious entrance to the dam and tourist trap. “Get me behind the trees in stealth.”
He gives me a surprised look. I roll my eyes at him. “Piloted stealth as a scout. This has stealth.”
He nods. “That’s almost five miles out, Cap…Boss.” There’s a secure area that surrounds the dam and we need to be dropped outside of it.
“Who is my IT?”
Racks smiles. “Don’t scare them, Brother. This is a new Flight crew for us.”
I nod and turn at the sound of weight hitting the floor.
Two duffels are dropped just past the row of seats. “The gear you requested,” a Flight Crew Brother says.
I sent the list less than thirty minutes ago. Bending I start pulling shit out. Once everything is inventoried, I suit up Havoc with the crazy Ops gear and fill his pouches. “One or two water?”
His board comes on and he hits two. We’re headed to a huge dam that is being threatened. It sounds stupid but the water in the dam could be contaminated. I think the threat is a bomb but chemical is always a threat with fresh water sitting, or in this case, traveling miles across multiple states. When I’m done, my pockets get filled. Everything left is gear, or supplies tobuild gear we may need, that all gets transferred to the trash bag inside one duffel.
Anchor is watching and throws me chin. “You only need the one.”
I just nod.
“The robotic?” Racks asks.
“Bits waterproofed it before I got it but Seamus sealed it with a cover.” Pulling up my pant leg I show him.
He laughs reaching to touch it. “Sealed tight. He coated it all in rubber?” Now he’s amazed.
“Stronger, so nothing can cut through to the sealed wiring or sensors.”
Anchor smiles. “That Brother is covered like Fort Knox now but it’s his partners that do it. Light ordered the minerals to make the skin but never said what it’s for. I used what the Bits collected from old tech.” Anchor got it?
“Old chips?” I ask.
“The batteries too. It’s primitive now but the rare minerals are the same as if they were just mined. Alder has a truckload of phones, computers, laptops and TVs. They make them to last only so long before you need the next level. They’re building next level before the old is a year old.”
I nod. “The Story of Stuff.’ It was mandatory.”
Racks is interested. “You’re Army Corp trained?”
I nod. “It was at school first, a Badass Lead lesson, then Army Corp trained Rangers. Only ten in the class.”
Anchor nods. “Same for us. I didn't expect Badass.”
