Gifted Connections 3

Yaris raised his hand. “Who is assigned to which teams?”

I hadn’t noticed Paul had been writing until he pulled out his notebook. He began to rattle of the names of each team. My heart sunk when I found out I was separated from Jaxson, Noah, Remy, and Jace. I was on Team Alpha with Troy and Drake. I remembered the last time we had been separated, and I really didn’t like the idea of it, but at least we were going to the same location.

I didn’t have that uneasy feeling in my gut like I did before. I wasn’t going to make any waves. My personal desires would have to be pushed to the back burner for the success of the mission. They separated us so the teams could be balanced.

“This is the drop zone,” Paul continued. “Once the helicopters drop you off, they will be taking right back off. I need you to use your comms to let HQ know when you are ready for pick up.”

The door opened, and I recognized four of the techies come into the room.

“These will be the voices in your head and the eyes in the sky,” Will explained. “They will be tapping into the surveillance and letting you know when or where they spot Horatio’s infiltrators.”

The Knights didn’t have the technology or the computer savviness that Paul’s team had. I was glad to add their knowledge and expertise to this mission.

We just had to hope that no one on Horatio’s team had the expertise that Jemmy had so that we weren’t flying blind.

“The director of the labs is aware of your arrival and will further debrief you and help you with the mission on the other side. Good luck,” Paul added as he opened the safe-like door behind him.

We were going in with body armor, tasers and guns. I was glad I had been trained on them but I doubted I needed them. We all filed into the large room and started to put on our gear.

“We’re supposed to go Black Friday shopping today,” Jemmy pouted. “Horatio’s such a Summer’s Eve bottle. Couldn’t he let us enjoy our holidays?”

“Summer’s Eve bottle?” Dawn asked in confusion.

Rachel giggled. “What does Summer’s Eves bottles do?”

“They douche- oh, oh I got you,” Dawn snorted out in laughter. “He’s totally that! We should be able to enjoy our down time!”

“That’s why he chose tonight,” Jace explained patiently. “He knows the labs are running on a ghost shift because of the holidays.”

“So, we should expect another attack or infiltration on Christmas too,” Jemmy whined.

“Don’t jinx us,” Sierra frowned as she pulled on her Kevlar.

“Wheels up in five,” Paul came into the room to remind us.

We all were quiet and deep in thought as we marched up the metal stairs. Our boots rang out in the silence of the stairwell. The sounds of the helicopters met us as we reached the top landing.

“Radio check,” Troy’s voice sounded in my ear from the earpiece.

“Lima Charlie,” a male voice responded.

“Radio check,” Terrance’s deep timber was next.

“Lima Charlie,” a female’s voice resounded.

“Radio check,” Remy said next.

“Lima Charlie,” yet another male voice replied.

“Radio check,” Jace depressed the button in his ear.

“Lima Charlie,” another male voice retorted.

“Let’s go,” Troy called out as he opened the door leading to the roof. “Everyone is to return safely tonight,” he said fiercely.

Be safe, please, I bade silently to Jaxson, Jace, Remy, and Noah as they headed to their respective helicopters. It was too loud to communicate to them aloud, and I didn’t feel like yelling at their retreating backs.

You too, they all replied back.