marriages and were happily married the second time around. Trace married Tyler’s older sister, Gretchen, and was fathering her three girls from her first marriage to the former NBA star Tony Sanders.
Gibson was a good Commander, mostly because he trusted his enlisted men and rarely overruled them. He didn’t brag and rarely showed off. He liked to joke but kept his opinions about anything controversial to himself. Jason felt lucky to be under his command.
Lt. Gridley was also well liked, his confidence growing with each successful mission he was part of. In the field, he stuck to Kyle Lansdowne like glue.
Kyle introduced Sven Tolar and Kelly Fielding, who were on special assignment from the State Department.
“We’re going back to the Canaries.” The lights dimmed and pictures flicked on from the last mission there, including pictures of two associates of the now-deceased gun-running billionaire Lars VanValle—Nigerian warlord General Two Fingers, and Jens Vandershoot, both captured on the previous trip but subsequently released.
“We don’t yet have all the details, but have reason to believe they are back in operation, being funded by their benefactor’s heirs, who now run the cartel from Europe. They have a fleet of cruise ships they’ve recently purchased on the open market from a now-defunct Italian cruise line, and are operating them as floating brothels.”
Kelly Fielding stepped next to Kyle and interrupted, “If I may?”
Lansdowne nodded.
“They are learning. We have intel that says they have sold shares in these ships, “condominiumized” them, so to speak, using some Dutch loopholes in maritime law. That makes this a legal enterprise. In short, they’ve gotten quite blatant, giving partial title to these floating palaces, even registering them such that wealthy businessmen can claim a tax deduction and write off the expenses as legitimate costs. What is illegal, however, is the trafficking of young men and women, who are conscripted for sex and the chance of a better life amongst the rich and powerful.”
The room was deadly silent. Jason knew this sort of crime, the selling of human flesh, was on the top of their team’s most hated list. Variations of the same themes had been operating for centuries and had touched just about every country in the world.
His grandmother told him stories of how early slaves had first made it to the Hawaiian Islands from the Orient, and that some of his ancestors had borne some of that guilt.
His LPO continued the logistics, how the team would be flown over and what the squad breakdown would be. They were to leave at 0800 for the flight to New York and then on to Gran Canaria via a stopover and plane change in Madrid. Jason calculated the flight times and discovered it would take them over thirty hours to reach their destination.
He hated long flights almost as much as he hated long airport waits. He’d be exposed to both this time around.
He made plans to have an early dinner with Ned and Damon, plus a couple others on the team before returning home to re-pack and get to bed at a decent time. He knew better than to be able to count on getting any sleep on the planes, since flying made him nervous.
On their way over to the Rusty Scupper, Jason dialed Kiley and was pleased she picked up right away.
“Africa? I didn’t know we had troops in Africa,” she said.
“Well, not exactly a deployment of troops. Just a mission. And that’s an approximate. I can tell you more when I return. But I thought you’d worry less if you knew it wasn’t somewhere in the Middle East,” Jason said, even knowing there really was no completely safe place to be. The places that looked quiet and normal were some of the deadliest. Africa was in some ways more dangerous. But she wouldn’t suspect that.
“You’ve got that right. So when do you leave?”
“Tomorrow. Early. So this will have to be good-bye for now.”
“For now. That’s how you say it.”
“That’s how we say it. I didn’t get to mention some things you need to know. You can’t just call me, Kiley. I mean, I won’t pick up. I will call you. My phone’s shut off as soon as we take off. It might take me days to see a message from you. But it doesn’t mean I don’t care, okay?”
“I got it.”
“I’m going to send you my LPO’s wife’s contact information, so if there’s anything that comes up and it’s like an emergency, you can call Christy.”
“LPO?”
“Leading Petty Officer. He’s sort of