Vik notices that I’m not mad at him. “And that’s my cue. Talk later, bro.” He retreats and leaves us alone.
“Hey, chill, she’s safe and sound, besides…”
I storm into my office without letting him finish the sentence. I sit down on my chair and hear the wind through the speaker.
Fucking perfect.
“Sarah…” I say out. “Do you copy?”
A cleartapcomes through.
“Oh yeah, that’s how we have been communicating, because we don’t know if we can trust this guy. One tap foryestwo taps for—”
“That’s stupid. Sarah you can speak without any fear. The Bedouin and I go way back. We can trust him. Plus, he probably knows you have an earpiece.”
“Copy that,” she confirms, relieved. “This really should’ve been in the debrief.”
I roll my eyes. “Judging by the wind, I’m guessing you are in open sea already.”
“Correct, we are already sailing through it. This wind is crazy, by the way.”
The wind is the least of her problems right now. This is the most dangerous phase of the trip. The Red Sea waters are not safe, they are riddled with pirates and smugglers, but even with those two groups roaming around it’s still safer than risking it across the border.
“You can take a little wind. You’ll be all right.”
“I miss the train, and that’s saying something considering–”
“You knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” I cut in. “We all knew that. Let’s power through it just like we did on the train.” Her voice is breaking up and the wind drowns the rest of the conversation.
“American Girl. The sea made you mad already?” I faintly hear The Bedouin say.
“You can tell him we’re talking.”
“Roger. No, I’m talking with Rage,” she says followed by a few taps on the earpiece, probably signaling she has one.
“Ah. At long last. When did you decide to drop the act?”
“What do you mean?”
“It was obvious that someone obsessed with control like him, wouldn’t send his girl to these parts without any kind of device to communicate.”
“You knew I had something on my ear the entire time? And, I’m not his girl.” Sarah’s voice sounds tight.
“Whatever you say, American Girl, whatever you say…”
“You should hear what he is saying, kiddo. I wonder what made him say that,” I suggest with a fake curious tone. “How long since you set sail?”
“A few hours. Dawn is breaking now; I could really use some sunlight.”
“Yeah, sailing across the Red Sea is a bitch.”
“Now I know.”
“You had your training. Remember it.”
“Copy.”
Boot camp teaches you many things, but the most important thing they teach you is how to survive in any kind of weather. There’s a point to it. Even wounded you need to be combat ready.
