Me: “Roger.” I turn to the Brother at my side. “You hear Ops yet?”
Second: “No, Boss. I hear you and the team.”
Me: “A tribe will get us up on the plateau. You’re going to the Bravo Club. They have food and showers open. I need to go to Ops.”
Second: “Thanks, Boss. It will be appreciated. You’re the new Club?” He’s looking at my filthy but brand-new cut.
Me: “Yeah. The training side.”
Second: “We’re tactical from the eighty-second. VP at Bravo said we’re in your next class.”
ME: I smile thinking this is how theyou belongfeeling started. “Today was my first day in the new Club. Not sure what’s happening next but I’ll be happy to see a familiar face when you show, I bet. It gets fuckin’ crazy here in the Badass world.” I hear chuckles from behind us.
Second: He points to the side but I saw. “We’ve been in Bravo for four weeks now. We’ve seen the crazy.” There is a makeshift ramp against the side of the cliff made from a cartransport trailer that’s lifted to a tipped loader bucket detached from the loader and held up by a backhoe arm.
Scanning the ledge and ramp, I let Ops know I’m officially done in the canyon. “I’m headed up to Bravo Ops. Girard out.”
A distractedRogercomes back.
It looks like a decent ramp and Brothers above show that no one was killed. I throttle up and kick it in gear to be the next to make it or die trying just so I’m not getting shit for the rest of my life.
Riding the transport ramp up, I breathe when I’m not sliding on the metal slab piece sitting on the bucket. A cheer goes up when I fly over the edge and hit the wood planks that look like they’re embedded in the cliff for this crazy purpose.
I pull right and stop to see the team come up. Every single one makes it, the last went past the wood landing and the Brothers get loud. Crazy bastards.
Taking my helmet off, I look around and see Mase with no fire and Putam from Rescue. Mase points. “They’re waiting on you at Ops.”
I nod and clip the helmet on the bar in a way it’s not interfering. The fresh air will clear my head and hopefully, hair, face and neck. The Bravo gate is open for me and a Prospect takes the bike and says he’ll clean up my coat and helmet. The bark has me turning before I go through the door.
“Brother, I’m glad you’re here.”
He chuffs then shakes, spreading dust and sand all over the Portico stone. I shake with him. I’m not likely to leave a mess but it feels like I lost some grit.
Inside, I look toward the smirking Prospect. “OPs the same as the other Clubs?”
“Same as most, VP. Second floor across the Officer hall to training, a floor up is only Ops.” He must have gotten a heads upto know I’m a VP.
I nod and get moving with my dusty K9. The doors open with my hand or a thumb. OPs is busy with ground Ops, clean up and two full decks of Flight running just past the glass wall. I step in and look for familiar. There are six stations.
“Girard, Pres and VP are in Flight. Cort and Justice are on the back wall.” The blue eyes have me nodding. It’s Mag but all I see is from the eyes up showing there’s another station that I didn’t see.
“Thanks.” We walk through without anyone shooing Havoc away.
Past the glass doors is bigger than I thought too. Cort waves me over. “This is just about done. Give me five.” I nod and step back so I can see the two back decks.
Jessie James-LaPonte is on the second. Mag mistook Jessie for Justice? Jessie laughs and looks at me. “Justice is up. I’m his control. He took over for Teller so Mag could keep running ground. He wasn’t needed there and likes flying better.”
I nod and watch his virtual thing. The chopper is setting down.
Cort steps back. “Falcon said you met the three paratroopers.”
I nod without correcting him. He talks to Jessie about Knight. He’s okay and mad as hell. I would be too. He got hit with rubber bullets on rapid fire just before the north gate. He was coming back from Colorado where he spent time with his son. The military closed the gate but Knight was outside it taking hits until the warehouse Brothers called in the shots fired. That’s when they realized the satellites were down. I thought it was just one. Jessie says Uncle Danny is pissed; he wants the fucks that shot Steve in the back. Cort tells him he’ll help. This ought to be interesting.
“This is Hud. The new Club is Liminal and Hud is VP,like Harky and MB.”
Jessie throws chin. “We met because of the cruise try on Alder.”
Cort nods. “He’s going to go for the dicktwats at the gate. They knew enough to cause some shit but Web had the AB IT organized and working to find out where it’s coming from. I didn’t think he’d get it but with code he can trace it like the spider jumps from Michael’s Op. New technology made it a fuck of a lot faster. So, Danny can be paired with Hud and the paratroopers. SOAR has a full team ready and waiting. This is all air with a team of five going in. I need when.”
