“Rick, we gotta go, stat.”
Chapter Seven
“Wow,”Rick gave a soft whistle as Saxon led him into the main headquarters of Red Squadron. “This is some setup.” He shouldn’t be surprised; this place was a former military base. Even though the drive from Saxon’s house to this building had showed that most of the structures were boarded up and not in use, the scope it gave Red Squadron as a team was enviable. He knew his boss would give his left nut to have a similar location as a home base for his own team.
“The boss will be thrilled you think so.” Saxon glanced at his watch and winced. They were so freaking late. “War-room is just down here.”
Rick walked close enough to him that the backs of their fingers touched as they walked. “Bauer will be pissed we’re late?”
“Bauer is pissed you’re late.”
The growl from behind them made Rick jump. “Shit, you’re quiet for such a big fucker.”
“I keep telling him that,” Saxon bit his lips to hold back the laugh that threatened to escape at Noble’s scowl.
“Dickhead,” Noble pointed in the direction of the door. “Get your asses in there.”
“I want to call my boss first,” Rick decided that here where it was just him, Saxon, and Noble Bauer was a better place to make the request, than in a room full of people. “I won’t debrief until I have spoken to him.”
“Sure,” Noble pulled a cell out of his ass pocket and handed it to him. “Use this. Four, zero, one, seven, two is the code.”
He glanced suspiciously at Noble. He’d expected it to take a hell of a lot more standing his ground before he was allowed to call his Commander, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Thanks.”
“Boom-Boom, ass in the war-room,” Noble pushed open the door. “Give the man some privacy.”
“What?” Since when did Noble let people, SEAL or not, who weren’t cleared, stay on their own here? His boss knew more than he was letting on, he was sure of it. Did this mean Rick was cleared by the DOD to be here?
“It’s good.” Rick reassured Saxon. He got it, the man he was finally admitting to himself meant more than he’d ever expected, wanted to know what was going on. “It’s just my boss. Not the DOD, or a four star.”
Is looking for reasons to stay nosey?
Probably.
He jerked his chin in the direction of the door, “Ok, I’ll be just in…” He cut himself off. Showing he cared? That was not in the cards right now.
“Sure.” Rick held up the cell, “I’ll be in as soon as I am done. Five minutes, ten max.”
“Ok.” Saxon disappeared into the room and closed the door behind him.
“Idiot.” Rick kept his voice low. No way did he want it to travel into the room inside. He didn’t need Saxon getting shit from his teammates. At least not until they had figured out what the hell they were doing. He turned the cell over in his hand and popped off the back. Pulling out the battery showed him there were no listening devices or anything that could make him think it had an external tap on it.
Hitting the button to turn it on, he tapped in the code. Yes, it worked.Dumbass, Bauer has no reason to give you a cell that doesn’t work.He quickly flipped through the apps, looking for anything that might tell him there was a recording device on it, but could find nothing.
He dialed the number he’d memorized.
“Good morning, Cal Tech, how may I direct your call?” the automated voice he had become so used to asked.
“Operator, nine, three, four, one, two, seven. Requesting Operator, seven, six, one, nine, five, one.”
“Hold please.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He knew he was probably talking to a machine. His teammates gave him shit for being so polite to what was probably some kind of AI device, but he wasn’t taking chances, if he needed his ass extracted out of a bad situation, he didn’t want the person answering the phone to hate his guts. The voice was female, so he could be polite if his instincts told him to be, no matter how much shit Elijah and the others gave him.
“You have reached Operator, seven, six, one, nine, five, one,” his boss’s voicemail clicked in, “leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”
Phew, it sounded like things were normal at the office. Thank fuck, that meant he’d been targeted and not his team. “Operator, nine, three, four, one, two, seven. Red sky at night.” The words were barely out of his mouth when a click sounded on the line.
“You’re good?”
