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“Hey, we have a call coming in from Admiral Garvin,” said Pigsty. Cam stared at Luke, Hex, and Eric. Eric nodded at Pigsty as he placed the call on speaker.
“Admiral Garvin, what can I do for you?” asked Eric.
“Is this a Robicheaux or one of the others?” His tone wasn’t one of respect but rather of contempt, indifference, and a general annoyance.
“It’s Eric Bongard, sir. What can we do for you?” Eric was trying to control his temper, ready to unleash on the man. But they wanted to play this carefully.
“We’re experiencing some issues with one of the technologies aboard the Michigan. We’d like to take a closer look at those plans,” he said.
“Sir, as you well know, our contract prohibits us from sharing anything with anyone. Including you. If there are issues, we can send our engineers to take a look at the problem.”
“That’s not possible. She’s on a classified mission,” he said quickly.
“Again, sir, I’d like to remind you that we have the highest classification next to your own. We can send our engineers to the Michigan’s location. Just let us know where and when.” They heard the slamming of a door, then the squeak of a chair.
“Listen to me. I can make sure that there isn’t another fucking contract delivered to you. I will ensure that nothing developed by G.R.I.P. is ever installed into another U.S. fighting vehicle.”
“Yea, you can do that,” smirked Eric. “But then where would you be? There is no one developing the types of things that we are. No one. If you want the best, you go to the best. We keep our technologies under cover for good reason. Now, you can tell us what’s wrong on the Michigan, or you can risk the lives of every sailor aboard.”
There was a long silence, and the men stilled, not wanting to make any noise whatsoever.
“Maybe you can help me with another problem,” said Garvin. “A friend of mine is concerned for his adult niece, who disappeared a few months back. There have been no signs of her, and he’s really worried that something has happened to her.”
“Has he filed a missing person report? Maybe called his local police?” asked Eric.
“No, he’d like to keep this quiet for as long as possible.”
“No requests for ransom? No requests for trade?” continued Eric.
“None.”
“Sounds like maybe she doesn’t want to be found,” he said. “You can give us the name, and we can try to track her down, but the truth is, if she doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be found.”
“Fine. Her name is LyraWolford. She’s about twenty-seven, maybe twenty-eight now. Five-feet-four, about one-forty, long black hair with big brown eyes.”
“Sounds like you’ve met her,” said Eric.
“As I said, she’s the daughter of a friend. I’ve met her once or twice.” Abe started to move toward the speaker, but his father gripped his shoulder, shaking his head.
“Well, we’re stretched pretty thin right now, but I’ll put a man or two on it. We’ll see if we can find any trace of her.”
“I appreciate that. You may be hearing from the president on the issues on board the Michigan,” he said in a threatening tone. Eric chuckled, shaking his head.
“Admiral Garvin, you can threaten me all you like. Our contract is solid. You cannot force me to divulge any secrets to our technology. We welcome a call from the president. There’s a lot we’d like to discuss with him.”
The line went dead, and Eric glanced at the faces around him. The only one that concerned him was Abe.
“Brother, you need to rein in that killer instinct. We have to do this right, or we’re going to end up with a lot of shit laid in our laps. Without solid proof against Garvin, we’ve got to play this game for a while.”
There was a soft knock at the door, and Abe turned, expecting to see Lyra. Instead, it was Mama Irene. She wasn’t in the habit of knocking, so it made everyone a little worried.
“Grandma? Is everything okay?” asked Luke.
“No, baby. I just got a call from Iris Fontenot. John was on the front porch of their camp up on False River this morning. They’d been up there for the holidays.”
“Is he alive?” asked Abe.
“For now, yes. His mama’s sister is a nurse, and she’s with him. I told her you boys would likely be sendin’ someone to speak with him. Riley’s willin’ to go with you and check him out.”
