involved in a decade-long study of the four most accurate hurricane prediction methods. A quiet man inclined toward his own company, Tremblay just stared up as his lips moved silently. He was counting to sixty, letting the seconds tick off in his mind to see if the sudden rainfall was like many of the tropical downpours he had experienced. After a minute passed, he looked down and removed his glasses to pointlessly wipe them clear of water, an air of disappointment surrounding him as he trudged toward shelter.
~
I ran inside, wishing I could strip off my shirt that was clinging to me like I’d worn it in the shower. I had, in a way, but my discomfort was heavily outweighed by my insecurity as I glanced up to see Stevens and Weber already ahead of my idea. Seeing two professional soldiers, both strong and heavily muscled with a body fat percentage far lower than my own, shirtless and scanning my eyes to the surreptitious glances of the women in sight, I decided not to embarrass myself. Satisfying the partial need to dry out, I made do by squeezing out the loose material and wringing the warm water out onto the ground.
The air inside the shelter soon became thick and sweaty with so many wet bodies seeking respite and people laughed with one another. As one, a select number of people suddenly snapped-to and concentrated into the earpieces a lot of us wore as there were many sets of ears listening now.
For some reason, probably out of Annie’s loyalty I imagined, I was included in this select few.
“Contact detected,” she said in hushed tones as though she was trying to keep her voice down, “tree line, two hundred meters, I’m reading one of the Charlie site personnel.”
A pause followed as Hendricks, Me, Weber, and Stevens all exchanged glances; our faces betrayed that we had all been included in the information. Without the fuss or flurry of movement, the three team members quietly collected their gear and made their way toward the exit at a walk. I followed them, forcing myself not to react and ask questions that could cause panic. The others jogged toward the gate, the rest of the team coming from different directions having been given the unexpected news. Amir was there, rapidly getting soaked as he had been in the dry when the rain started, and Hendricks was the first to hit his radio.
“Private channel?” he asked, hearing a rapid chime from Annie to signal the affirmative.
“How do you know?” I asked, not bothering to press the button on the radio as I knew she would be listening to our mics.
“Wristband,” she responded immediately, “functionality is limited but I am receiving intermittent vital signs data from the device. It belongs to a Milstone, Dr. Robert E.”
“Can you speak to them?” Magda asked, seeking a way to make contact without risking a confrontation.
“Negative, there are no speakers or microphones in range.”
“Can you get a drone to them?” Amir asked. “Maybe use that?”
“Negative, drones unable to fly due to adverse weather conditions.”
“We go then,” Hendricks said as he checked his weapon and watched as his team stacked up in a line behind him, a hand on the shoulder of the one on front. “Annie, can you give us directions to them and call out any changes?”
Again, the single, streamlined chime of affirmation came through our earpieces.
With a nod, Hendricks opened the gate wide enough to get through and led the way. His team fanned out either side of him so that they proceeded in a ragged line spaced far enough apart that any attack should not be able to encompass them all.
“I guess we wait here?” I said, looking at Amir who nodded and drew his sidearm to hold it down toward the ground. I did the same, watching as the team disappeared into the steaming mist brought on by the rainfall onto hot ground.
“One hundred meters,” Annie said in a low voice to Hendricks, “raised ground, turn twelve degrees right.”
“Roger,” Hendricks whispered, instead turning a few degrees left to avoid a head-on approach. He heard the double chime in his ear to indicate that Annie was calculating, then the down tone to signify that she had stopped the interaction.
What Annie had done, was to call up the training manual produced for the three security teams which had been used to assess a candidate’s tactical ability. She quickly, in a microsecond in fact, cross-referenced the situation with the training and