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“Thank you, Grandma.” Luke looked at the other men. “Abe, you should go. I’ll go with you since I knew John in school. Max? Riley is coming, so you should come as well. JB and Ham. That should be enough.” Abe nodded at his friend.
“For now.”
John Fontenot was the same age as Luke. Divorced, he had two grown sons who were now living in the northeast, pursuing their own careers. Lying on the bed in the small vacation home, he looked much smaller and much older than the actual image in Luke’s head.
“John, you don’t look so good, brother,” said Luke, taking a seat beside the bed. “We’re gonna let Riley do her thing with a little help from Ham. Can you speak?” He nodded, every move causing him excruciating pain.
“John, my name is Abe Salcedo.” He nodded.
“Know who you are. Kept track of friends for Lyra. We were hoping you might figure out what was going on. We couldn’t tell you, and she was too scared to.”
“I know,” nodded Abe. “I sure wish she would have said something sooner. Did her uncle do this?”
“His men,” he grimaced as Riley pressed against his belly, then examined the broken bones of his hands and feet. “Thought they wouldn’t find me at my lake house near Glenora. I should have known Garvin would rat me out.”
“Garvin? Admiral Garvin?” asked Luke.
“He’s behind everything here. I’m not sure what Wolford is feeding him or vice versa, but he’s up to his eyeballs in this.”
“Funny,” frowned Abe, “he called a while ago and wanted us to give him the plans for all our technology on the Michigan.” John shook his head, trying to sit up.
“Stop right there, Superman,” said Riley. “Beyond the broken bones in your hands and feet that your aunt did a fine job of setting, I’m detecting broken ribs, bruised kidney and liver, possibly more. Ham? Get the portable machines for me.” Ham disappeared, and John lay back against the pillows.
“You can’t let him get to the Michigan. If something is wrong on it, it’s because of sabotage. They want the plans for everything to sell. We were sure of it. I think he has someone on board fucking with the programs.”
“Any idea where the Michigan is right now?” asked Luke.
“Not a clue. You know they don’t tell us anything like that. I thought your programs could track the location,” said John. Luke smirked at him, nodding.
“You know what? You might be right.” He nodded to JB, who stepped away to make a call.
“How is she? Lyra. How is she doing? She’s a good person. That kid was scared shitless when she first came to us. We tried so fucking hard to get our division chief to listen to us, but it was as if he didn’t believe a word we said. She risked her life for this. You have no idea how much,” he grimaced.
“I have a good idea,” nodded Abe. “She’s safe, but she won’t have much of a life unless we get to her uncle and, obviously, to Garvin.”
“Don’t forget about Quetzalcoatl,” said John. “He wanted her in the worst possible way. We saw what happened to women that were left alone with him. The uncle is very low-tech. Doesn’t trust anything, which was good for us. We had some of the finest G.R.I.P. listening devices planted in his office.”
“Good for you,” laughed Luke. “Did you get much?”
“Everything. We got fucking everything, but we knew that no one was listening to us. We secured the audio in a lockbox and sent it to my Aunt Ida in Denham Springs. She’s mean as a snake and would rather shoot you than speak to you.”
“Sounds like someone I know,” smirked Luke.
“Should we head up to her and get the box?” asked Abe.
“No. My dad and brother went up there this morning and are on their way back. No problems that I know of.”
“None at all,” said his father, walking into the room. “Ida was a raging bitch as usual, but we got the box.” He handed it to Luke.
“Thank you, Mr. Fontenot.”
“Good to see you, Luke. How’s your daddy? Grandma and Grandpa?”
“Good, sir, thank you.”
“Well, I hope you can stop this man. He hurt my boy bad, and we don’t take kindly to that,” said John Sr.
“We’re going to do our best, sir,” said Luke. John looked at Abe.
