Chapter 34
LPOV
"What do you mean? Isn't Steph on leave?" Manny asked.
"Don't you get it Manny? Steph's one of us. Lester was right. She's obviously on the same mission as Binkie," Woody said in awe.
"Whatever you need, I'll do it," Manny offered before knowing what he's being asked to do.
"I have a plane secured. Rodriguez said you have a current pilot's license Manny?" she asked him.
"I just renewed it last month. Figured it wouldn't hurt to keep it current," he admitted.
"Perfect. You're coming with me. We need to leave within 30 minutes," Mallory explained. "Grab your duffle and weapons."
"They're locked in the bottom drawer of my desk," he stated. "I can grab them on our way out."
I gave them a brief explanation based on Stephanie's call. "She told Mallory to come alone, but Mallory needs a copilot to watch her six. Mallory has the pickup location. Take your secure phones. Manny, make sure Mallory has the Rangeman satellite number programmed under speed dial 8. Woody, divide the weapons between Stephanie, Binkie and Mallory's duffles."
He quickly split the weapons. I noticed he added extra magazines and holsters for the various weapons. Woody knew exactly what to grab for the men. Vince arrived with plenty of currency to send with the team. "They're going to need funds for this adventure," he reminded me. He split the money between Mallory and Manny. "Bring home our sunshine," he said while giving Mallory a hug.
Mallory gave me a quick hug, "I'll bring your wife and Ranger's team home."
"Have her call," I asked.
"If it's safe, I'll get her to call you," she promised. "We'll check in whenever we can. If you don't hear from us in 3 weeks, send help."
"Rodriguez, we'll keep her safe," Manny stated. He gave me a hug which threw me off. Neither Manny nor I were huggers. "I'll give her this hug," he joked.
"Stay safe and find them," I said before reactivating the cameras.
They gave me a perfunctory nod and left the building together. Manny carried the 2 duffles and I heard him grab the items from his desk. I watched them on the cameras until they left through the employee entrance. Woody was driving them to their destination.
"Boss man left the right man in charge," Hector stated as he took a seat across from me.
"I'm not so sure I agree with your assessment."
"He knew when things got tough, you would put your personal feelings aside and do what's best for everyone," he stated.
"I want to be the one to help my wife," I snarled.
"You are helping your wife. Sending Mallory and Manny is helping her. They will move heaven and earth to bring her back home to you. For now, they need her help to find Ranger and his team. Stephanie is the only person who could find them."
"It doesn't make it any easier. I just want her back home with me," I admitted.
"Keep the faith Rodriguez. Your wife will save Ranger and his men. She will help neutralize the threat. Wherever he is, Stephanie will find him and she will also find Ranger."
"She truly is Wonder Woman, isn't she?" I asked Hector.
"Pretty soon everyone in Rangeman will see the wonderful, brave woman you married," he answered.
"Thanks Hector. I'm feeling more grounded."
"Anytime hermano. Adios," he said as he left the office.
I grabbed the satellite phone and carried it to my apartment. Hopefully it's safe enough for her to call. All I need to hear is my wife's voice. She sounded a little too focused during her last call. I guess when you have to beg, borrow or steal to get somewhere, it would be easy to maintain focus. My main concern is her safety. She's about to enter a very dangerous territory. They need to take every precaution necessary to get through the obstacles I know they will encounter.
A few hours later, I received a call from my beautiful wife. "Yo," I answered.
"Hey lover," she replied. "Are you in a safe location?"
"In our Rangeman apartment."
"Thank God. Please promise me you'll stay in the building?" she begged.
"Talk."
She let out a loud breath. "Luke, the mission's been compromised. Dad and my uncles handled the threats in the states. There's a larger threat in Afghanistan. The men completed the main part of their mission, but I discovered nearly too late there's an additional player. It wasn't until Dad compiled the US portion of the mission when we uncovered the problem. Have you ever heard of Billy Bernstein?"
"He goes by the nickname Invictus. One of the toughest men to locate," I answered.
"Only because he's had plastic surgery many times. He even has his minions get plastic surgery to resemble the old him. I found an old Ranger mission where he was neutralized. When I saw he died in Saudi Arabia, I realized it wasn't him," she stated.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"His tattoo was in the wrong location. All the debrief notes states he has a pitchfork tattoo on his right shoulder with he tines pointing down. Invictus, as you called him, has the tattoo on his right biceps with the tines pointing towards his shoulder. Bernstein was in Germany visiting his ailing mother."
"So the man killed during the mission was one of his minions?" I knew there was something wrong with that mission. He seemed way too easy to find.
"Who confirmed the kill?" she asked. I had a strong feeling she already knew the answer.
"Damien Dietz," I answered.
"Do you know who ran the intel?"
"General Dietz, Damien's father," I answered honestly. She likely already had this information.
"The debrief notes had someone else listed. Officer Eric Baldwin. He also happened to be a casualty of that mission," she stated.
"Someone altered the file," I observed.
"Exactly. I think we found everyone involved, but my spidey sense says there's another player we've overlooked. It's someone who remains involved, but not currently contracted with the Army. I need more time to find him. In the meantime, we're completely on our own."
"Hence the reason for recruiting your sister."
"You would be correct. I know I can trust her… and Manny. Thank you for sending him and the gear. Luke, if anything happens, remember the names I gave you. It will lead you directly to me."
"Manny?"
"Yes, boss?"
"Take care of my wife," I answered.
"I will guard her with my life," he reassured me.
Steph laughed, "Luke, I can take care of myself, but I appreciated the gesture. We have to go. I need to run through our intel again. I love you so much."
"I love you too Steph. Don't get shot," I reminded her.
"Don't go crazy, my love," she stated before ending our call. She sounded more like herself during this conversation. I love her more than anything else.
SPOV
When I woke up this morning, I didn't expect everything to go completely sideways. I kept dreaming about someone seemingly at the fringe of my dreams. He's not a very nice person. Binkie and I were supposed to report our findings to Bernie today. I had a feeling we needed to grab the secure laptop and run.
Dressed in my loose fatigues with my nondescript black clothes underneath, I strapped on my service weapon and tucked my knives in my boot. I stroked the carved wooden handle on my favourite knife, a treasured gift from Hector, and tucked it into my right boot. Another knife was tucked into my left boot and one in my canvas weapon belt. Once I secured my guns, I tucked my hair under my hat and made my way to Binkie's barracks.
He must have been feeling antsy too. I saw him exit the building and head in my direction. Reaching out my left hand, I gently tugged his sleeve and slipped my hand into his. "It's only 0400, why are you already awake?" he whispered.
"No. We need to do a quick search, grab a laptop and run. I only grabbed the necessities. All my other clothes and my duffle are still in my room," I answered.
"Did you remember your passports and papers?"
"Those are necessities. Since you asked, I assume you grabbed your passport."
"I did. Including all guns and knives. Do you feel the energy too?" he asked.
"Like something bad is going to happen if we don't leave now? I don't feel we are the ones in danger. It's our friends. We need to find them."
"And you know where to look," he concluded. We used our ID to enter the secure room.
I grabbed a laptop and quickly transferred my research results. As the information was transferring, I noticed a name I didn't notice before. "Hey Bink, this name. I don't remember seeing it before. Where did it come from?"
He used his computer to go through the information I compiled. "Here it is. You selected this option and it pulled his name," he answered. I checked where he pointed on the screen and smiled.
"Now I remember. I was going to bypass that screen, but my spidey sense said it was important. So much information appeared, it was difficult to process all at once."
"You are an absolute genius. I hope you realize what you just found," he proudly stated.
"I'm sure you're going to tell me, aren't you?"
"Billy Bernstein should have been dead. How can he be in 2 places at the same time?" he asked. "He can't. Which means he wasn't the man neutralized during this mission. This is strange," he said as he pointed to a name.
"Why is this strange?" I started to ask. "Oh… he died during that mission." I did a little more digging as the data transferred to the laptop. "Bink, we need to leave now. I need you to disconnect the laptop when the data transfer finishes. We need to remove our activity from the computers."
"Sure, you're better at hiding your activity than I am," he confessed. I watched him wrap the power cord. When he looked confused about where to put it, I unbuttoned my shirt to reveal the satchel I had draped across my body. He smiled, "I wondered what was causing that lump."
Binkie tucked the power cord into the satchel and returned to his station. In the time it took to finish the transfer, I had removed our latest search results. I backed up my information in an encrypted folder and shut down the laptop. Binkie held the satchel open so I could slip in the laptop. Once it was secure, he grabbed my hand and led me from the building. We hiked from the area until we were several miles away from base.
When I felt it was safe, I took off my boots and removed my outer clothes, revealing the all black outfit. I pulled a canvas bag from my satchel and placed my fatigues into the bag. Binkie followed suit, surprising me. "Smart man," I joked. He grabbed the canvas bag and tightened the strings to close the bag and create handles to slip over his shoulders. It was a tight fit, but we managed. "If it's too uncomfortable, I can carry it."
"I've got it." The only thing we didn't think about was food. "I have money too. Ranger gave me some in case of emergency."
"Oh thank God. I thought we were going to starve," I stated as my stomach rumbled. We managed to get far enough away from base to feel comfortable. Binkie and I are going to be in so much trouble if we're caught. I need to call my dad to let him know.
Binkie entered the diner to grab us some food. I went to a secluded area to place my call. Speaking in a mix of Italian, French and Spanish, I told dad our plan. He promised to have Bernie take care of the details so we weren't classified as AWOL. I needed Binkie to cut my hair.
We sat on the bench in the park to eat our breakfast. When we finished, I grabbed his hand and entwined our fingers together. It was a way to keep the staring women away and to keep him close to my side. "Making sure we don't get separated?" he asked, easily understanding my plan.
"Yup," I answered. "Hey, I need you to do something you're not going to like." He raised an eyebrow instead of asking me what I wanted him to do. I pulled him into a small wooded area and reached for the knife Hector gave me. "Cut my hair."
"I can't do that. Your man will kill me," he protested.
"Think about where we are heading," I firmly stated. He lowered his head and accepted the knife. I pulled my hair from the confines of the elastic and let it drop down my back.
"All this beautiful hair," he growled before using the knife to cut it to shoulder length. I held open a plastic bag for him to deposit my hair into. He continued cutting my hair shorter as I indicated. Once it was close to 3 inches long, I told him to stop. "Who sharpened the knife?" he asked even though he should know the answer.
"My hermano," I answered.
"That's what I thought," he said bumping into my shoulder. I slipped my knife back into my boot and we continued on foot until we were in Newport Maryland. We stopped for something to eat before continuing further. Binkie told me his cousins run the airport in Pilot's cove. They will keep our location secure since they like to walk the 'plausible deniability' fine line.
I called the Rangeman satellite phone to talk to my husband. If I didn't stick to immediate details, it could put more people at risk. I used Dave's office, after Binkie checked for bugs, to place the call. Keeping everything clinical, I managed to arrange for Mallory to pick us up. She assured me she could get a plane.
When she arrived a few hours later, I felt a sense of relief for the first time today. We gathered our belongings and paid Binkie's cousins in cash for using their airport. They wished us a safe journey as we boarded the plane.
Mallory announced it was safe to roam around the plane. I told her and Manny the plans and promised to give them more intel once I sorted my thoughts. She reminded me to call my husband since he was worried about me. I placed my call and felt more at ease letting him in on our mission. If our mission goes FUBAR, we at least have someone back home who knows exactly where we're going.
I fought back a tear when I ended the call with Lucas. "Are you okay Mitch?" Binkie asked.
"Ya I'm okay now. We need to discuss this mission and go over the intel," I answered. Mallory and Manny listened as I went through all our plans. Where we needed to go and how to help Ranger and his team.