his codes. Only once had one of his codes been broken, and that was in the beginning of his lifelong career. Since then he’d acquired underground fame as many in his world had tried figuring out who he was and how he did what he did. To this day they didn’t have a clue. He was damn proud of that.
Because Brackish was as good as he was, Chad was able to send the men secure texts, alerting them when they needed to come in, when something on a mission was changing, and keeping them updated on day to day operations. They didn’t always meet at their headquarters, but they didn’t go a day without speaking to one another. There was too much to do for them to let time pass. For the first time in weeks the entire team was together in their secure location. Often at least one or two of them were on location and they couldn’t all come together.
In his first week in the secret compound Brackish had secured the premises tighter than Fort Knox. Their phones were protected, but beyond that, anything electrical had multi-level fail-safes. If something was connected to any type of network, it was encrypted beyond any hacker’s ability.
Brackish sat back at the table as the men chatted while waiting for Chad to begin the meeting, smiling at a job well done. Monitors filled the room, live streams of video from around Seattle and surrounding cities circulated while monitors buzzed, and printers quietly spit out reports. This was all done without them having to push buttons — while they slept, while they ate, while they played, and of course, while they worked.
“I hope you guys got your beauty sleep, because the next few weeks are going to either be heaven or hell, depending on your performance,” Chad said as his official start to the meeting.
“We’re already beautiful and don’t need any sleep,” Smoke said.
Smoke was named for his ability to get in and out of locations without anyone knowing he was ever there. The man had superhuman speed, and that was saying something because he was large. But he knew how to move in the shadows, and he was essential to their success on every mission.
“You only think you’re pretty,” Chad said with a roll of his eyes that had Brackish smiling. “But in reality, you’re old and worn.”
“Speak for yourself, Chug,” Eyes said. They’d named Chad Chug because he slammed down more coffee than a fleet of truck drivers on a snowy winter night.
Chad had been a SEAL and then moved on in his life. He had no regrets of where he’d been or where he was now. He was a very happy man who had experienced more in life than most could ever hope for. He had many more years to go, and a lot more adventures to experience. This team was giving him a new mission he was more than happy with.
“Our operation starts tonight. How are the vehicles?” Chad asked. He was used to his name now and didn’t even blink.
Brackish sat up, his cocky grin in place. “Along with all of the usual cool things like hidden cameras, microphones, updated Bluetooth, and wireless connectivity, which is kid’s stuff, I’ve added some tasty little treats,” he began. “Infra-red lights have been embedded in the front and back window trim giving us a steady low-level glow when the vehicle is shut down, and a strobe pattern when turned on. Just for fun we also have multiple tracker beacons for the drones to lock onto. Those drones will continually relay info to the conference room and all of you unlucky enough to be missing out on the action will be able to watch it live.”
“Wouldn’t that be you sitting here?” Green pointed out.
“Not always. This operation is so smooth, I can leave even the youngest behind to keep an eye on things while the big boys do all of the hard work,” Brackish said.
Green was the youngest member of the team, but he was absolutely brilliant, and they might tease him for his age, but they knew his knowledge and skills were invaluable. The man had done more in his short life than a hundred men put together.
“Don’t knock the young. We get more done in a shorter amount of time, without the aches and pains of the old,” Green said.
“Okay, maybe we can get back to work,” Chad said. Once the men got on a roll it could go on