“Untwist your panties.” Micah leaned over and patted Cade on the knee, ignoring the growls from both his guys. “We’ll find your man and get him back safe.” He gestured to Hawk and Creed, “We’re kinda experts, in finding lost lovers these days.”
Grif snorted, but he knew his former Panther teammate was correct. Finding missing loved ones, especially their own, was becoming a habit.
Cade shut out all the noise around him. He was grateful that Panthers had sent people. Securing an airport was not going to be easy. They needed a plan. Normally, he was the one who could see the best route, but his brain was on strike. It spun on his merry-go-round of what if… what if they weren’t in time? “Can we get someone on the plane as pilot?”
“Already arranged.” Hawk told them. “Tomorrow is my first flight with Qantas.”
“Where am I going?” Rock glanced in the rear-view mirror, “Using base facilities or…”
“No.” Hawk got out of his seat and moved to grip the back of the driver’s seat, his boots planted on the floor to keep himself in place. “We did some recon.” He bent down to ensure Rock could hear him over the rattle of the bus. “Someone owed me a favor. We have access to the airport.”
“Okay, good.” Rock hit the flicker and pulled into traffic. “The guy Hezbollah has in place?”
“He’s not working today,” Hawk told him, “Kalon hacked the roster. He’s due in tomorrow morning at zero five hundred.”
“Better that we are in place at that stage.”
“You ever done one of these?”
“No.” Hawk shook his head. “I was on a job, dark, when 9/11 went down. I didn’t hear about it until two weeks later.”
“Yeah.” Rock concentrated on keeping an eye on the idiot in front of him. “Gas is the first pedal dumbass, move it.” He winced as the vehicle in front of him swerved onto the other side of the highway, narrowly avoiding a truck, before getting back into the correct lane again. “Sit your ass down, Hawk. We probably got sixty miles of this shit to go.”
“Yup,” Hawk grunted, “Thanks for letting us tag along.”
“You’re welcome, asshole.” Rock said. “Tell me you have an idea for a plan?”
“Yup.” Hawk called back over his shoulder as he went back to sit with Creed. “I’ll lay it out when we get situated.”
“Okay.” Rock could wait, Hawk McKinnon loved to bust his balls, but he was a solid soldier. He knew his shit. If Hawk had a plan, then Rock and his Ghosts would listen.
* * *
“You think they are going to allow us on the tarmac?” Cade didn’t really give a shit if the international airport authorities didn’t want them there or not. Tomorrow, his man was being loaded on a plane here, so he was going in. If they wanted an international incident, then he would quite cheerfully provide one.
“Yeah.” Rock nodded to where Hawk, Creed, and Micah were talking to Grif. “It’s why we’re at this service entrance. Hawk called in a favor.”
“I owe him one.” Cade made a mental note in his brain. In his world, favors were earned and returned freely, but he always paid his debts.
“We all do.” Rock grabbed his bag of weapons and gear. They were waiting for Hawk and Creed to finish talking to the airport manager, then they had a mission to plan. “As soon as we get in there, get me plans of the airport. I want to know every corridor and escape route.”
“We are not going to have enough people to cover all exits.” Grif shouldered a box Micah handed to him. “It’s just not possible.”
“Yeah.” Rock agreed. Maybe he should have called for reinforcements, but too late now. They had worked with less before.
“Rock?” Hawk pushed open the security door and stuck his head around it. “Get your asses in here.” He glanced at the pink bus. Well, that was going to stand out. “Someone park the freaking bus.”
“Got it.” Danny handed off his go bag to Angelo and jumped into the driver’s seat. “Long-term?”
“Yeah.”
Rock and the others waited for Danny, then they all followed Hawk into the building, down a corridor, and into a room where Creed faced off across a desk against three men in suits.
“What’s going on?” Hawk looked at Creed for answers, if his guy had managed to piss off airport management in the ten minutes he’d been gone to bring Rock and Ghosts into the building, he would freaking kill him.
“They want to run the op.”
“No fucking way.” Rock’s growl caused the eyes of two of the men to widen. He bit down on his lip to keep himself from exploding in temper, when Hawk gestured to him with a signal they used in the field for silence.
