back. Up front, a large conference table and several computer displays fill the fuselage.
Mitzy and her tech team sit up there where they’ll direct the mission from inside the plane while it sits on the ground.
With arms crossed over my chest, and ankles locked together, I throw a blanket over my body and cover my head. I shove earbuds in my ears, pick a song track and ignore my teammates.
Which is hard. They’ve officially reverted to grade school shenanigans with thick, sloppy kissing noises and other, rude sounds. I tune them out and turn my thoughts to Moira.
I’m coming, little minx. Hang on a little longer.
Mission planning continued from the moment we were wheels up and concluded not too long ago. We feel good about our plan. It’s solid with little room for shit to hit the fan, but we always think that until the shit hits the proverbial fan.
Charlie Team joins us. They retreated to the back of the plane once mission planning was set.
Smaug, Mitzy’s drone, is in the air. She calls her drones dragons, and each one comes with a name; even her little “dragonflies.” Those are tiny handheld drones we carry in our gear for close-in operational support, but we, meaning the Guardians, refuse to refer to any of them by the oddball names the tech team baptized them with.
Smaug follows the tanker as it meticulously enters the mouth of the Mississippi River. It reports back when a small boat carrying the river pilot meets up with the ship. I follow the conversation, despite the earbuds, overly attuned to anything dealing with Moira’s rescue.
The pilot is standard operating procedure and, therefore, doesn’t raise any red flags. He’ll assist the crew in navigating the winding twists and turns of the massive river. Smaug sees only one man board the ship and keeps watch for any other boats bringing reinforcements.
Mitzy and her team peer over Smaug’s readouts and try to locate Moira.
So far, Moira’s a ghost.
Not that it comes as a surprise. We assume she’s being kept out of sight, most likely in one of the cabins.
My team, bolstered by Booker from Bravo, who fills in as Alpha-4 for this operation, will approach from upriver. Sam activated local assets before takeoff and they’ll have six-man Zodiacs pre-positioned ahead of the tanker.
From the airfield, a helicopter will take all of us near the staging area. That’s where I say goodbye to the rest of my team. While they load into the six-man RIB, I’ll remain in the helicopter to provide visual support from the air.
Smaug is good, but we still rely on good old humans when possible. Too much information is rarely a problem in our line of work. I shift a bit, taking tension off my injured leg. The pain settles into a dull ache. So far, I’ve managed not to mess up Doc Summers’ handiwork.
Her team, standard practice, follows us out, but since we have Charlie with us, they do so on another jet.
Equipped to the nines, Alpha team will have no problem scaling the walls of the tanker. Getting off will be a breeze as well. They’re equipped with a new device, one Mitzy’s team developed. We recently implemented it in training. This will be its first use on a mission. It’s a mix between a parachute and a hang glider.
All they have to do is locate Moira, secure her to one of them, and literally run off the back of the boat. The glider will deploy and they’ll float to the bank of the river where a retrieval group will pick them up.
Since I won’t be there to rescue Moira, I insisted Axel carry my girl and protect her for me. Which is why they’re having fun with me.
He’ll strap her to his harness and the two of them will glide to safety. I wanted to be with the retrieval unit, but CJ and Max, need me on the helicopter as air support. Which makes a ton of sense, not that I like it, but that’s not my call to make.
Charlie will be on the water, prepared for contingencies, and of course, the helicopter is fitted with all manner of life-saving gear. We’ve got a winch, a cradle which can carry not one, but two people, as well as enough rope to rappel out and down in case a water rescue is required. There’s also a complement of two machine guns, mounted on either side of the helicopter, as well as a nose operated weapon.