SEALs of Honor: Hawk (13 page)

Hawk stopped in his tracks, and a look of relief washed over him. “Damn it’s good to see you.”

“Did you get her message?” Mason asked.

Hawk frowned. “Her damn apology? That girl would tell us to forget about her and to stop the bombing.”

“Smart girl,” Mason said calmly. “And you know we’d all say the same thing.”

The other men slowly straightened as they realized the truth of his words. “Damn. He’s right. She’s one of us.”

“Except she’s a captive.”

“And you know what that means – we aren’t leaving without her,” Mason said.

The others grinned. “Now we’re talking.”

Hawk ran his fingers through his hair. “She’s something, isn’t she?”

“She is and now she’s our something and we take care of our own.” He turned to study the map. “You guys saw her say ‘fishing boat’ at the very end, right?”

They bolted toward him. “No, we didn’t.”

He stared open-mouthed at them. “Really? The news cast I watched had the camera rolling as it moved away from her, she leaned her head to the side and mouthed ‘fishing boat.’”

The others all shook their heads. Hawk said, “The version we saw didn’t show her head leaning to the side at all. Damn.” Hawk spun and walked to the map. “I said a large fishing boat would be the best way to transport the bomb to the underwater footings.”

“So let’s get the equipment we need.” Mason smiled. “Looks like we’ll get a chance to go swimming after all.”

Getting the equipment took a little longer than they’d expected. Thankfully they didn’t have to rely on the task force for the supplies. The task force wasn’t on the same side of the shipping vessel that his team was, and Port Authority wasn’t interested in having the docks searched at all. Also shutting things down for a few hours was impossible apparently. The task force was taking the stance that the bombs would be delivered by vehicle so they wanted the authorities to focus on those access points and stay the hell away from the docks.

That worked for Hawk. While the task force was doing that, they wouldn’t be getting in the SEALs’ way.

SEALs preferred to work alone and do things the way they needed, to get them done. And right now they had to find Mia. They packed up their gear and left the task force to themselves.

Outside they split up into the vehicles and drove to the docks. They were going to need intel.

“Shadow, what about your one source? Any chance he’d be able to find out about Mia?”

“He’s already out there looking. I’ve got a couple more looking too. But I want to go down myself. Not at the same spot but up on the north side of the bridge.”

Hawk nodded. “Any particular reason?”

“Yeah, it’s where I’d go in.”

That was good enough for him. Mason drove to the area in question and parked.

The sky was quiet. At peace. At the break of a new day. He’d taken several power naps to keep up his focus strength. As he walked around the truck and stared at the water, he had to wonder what this new day was going to bring.

Shadow pointed out the ships already working the water. There were tankers waiting to load and others waiting to unload. Dozens of sailboats bobbed in the small crests brought on by the cool wind drifting across the water.

It would be cold for Mia if she was out there. On camera she hadn’t been wearing enough to keep the icy wind at bay, just a hospital gown and not much else. If she was outside, cold was going to be a major factor.

Shadow pointed out to the bay. There were several ships anchored at the mouth. Smaller watercraft bobbed around them. He studied the footings above the water and the access points from where they stood. Only two major supports, so that was where the bombs would need to be.

Easy. No guess work there.

Too easy in fact.

There were no vehicles, ships or people that they could see at the closest pylon. It looked calm and tranquil. But the water seethed around the base from the wind.

His phone beeped. “Dane has several longshoremen friends. There’re rumors of some unusual cargo at the Oakland cargo facilities.”

“Where?” Shadow asked. “We need more. That area is huge. Which pier for a start. And what ships are docked on that pier. Then we need the call number of the ship, so we can find it and track its movement. Might be nothing but we’ll have to check them all.”

“Dane also says,” Hawk paused as he read the incoming text, “no woman was seen, but a body was possibly sighted.” His heart dropped. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

“Easy. She’s been unconscious since they hauled her out of the hospital – no way she’d have gone if she wasn’t – that means a body to most people. They’d have seen her being brought in to wherever they took the video.”

“Right.” It had better be. She didn’t deserve this shit. She’d been involved earlier because of her father, but now…now she was there because of him.

“We’ll get her. Hold tight to that thought. We. Will. Get. Her.” Shadow’s voice was both reassuringly hard and equally pissed. That was how Hawk felt.

“Let’s get down to where ‘the body’ was sighted. We don’t want her out on the water if we can save her before that happens.”

“Does she swim?” Swede asked.

“No idea.”

“Well, I hope she understands water rescues because chances are good we’re going to be doing one,” Shadow said.

They returned to the truck as word came she’d been seen at the Seventh Street Terminal at the Port of Oakland container handling facility. And nothing clearer than that. But men were looking everywhere there for her.

Only it was massive, damn near a city in itself. Full of places she could be stashed until needed for further media frenzy moments.

Not good enough.

Hawk wanted to make sure that after all the rescues she’d participated in – someone would be there to rescue her.

Chapter 17

N
OW WHERE WAS
she? Mia could feel the rocking motion that said water. So likely she was still on the same fishing boat. Where? And why? She didn’t want to be a damn prisoner again, but that was exactly what she was.

There were two men with her that she could see. They’d loaded her into a van earlier, but she’d succumbed to the cold and the rest of the drugs still coursing through her system and passed out. Now awake again, she was numb from the lack of clothing. Why couldn’t they have given her a blanket at least? She knew they planned to kill her but still…

“Can I have a blanket please?” she politely asked the first man.

He ignored her.

She asked again, he ignored her again.

Great.

She turned to the second man and asked him. He looked up, saw her speaking and responded in a spate of something she didn’t understand. The meaning was clear though. No, she couldn’t have a blanket. She curled up into a ball and tried to hold her fears back. She refused to be a milksop. Not now.

But damn that cold was sapping her strength, both physically and mentally.

Her father had played games with her when she was younger and bored. Now she tried to keep her mind active by replaying the same games. Something about finding a country starting with the last letter in a country name. She quickly ran through as many as she could to keep her mind off the problems. Yet at the same time she had to keep considering what choices she had. Surely there was something she could do. Stay quiet and low key, don’t do anything to bring up their ire and wait it out. Take the opportunity and run if she could. She was a strong swimmer. Although the bay, tired and injured as she was, might be more than she could do. But then again, her choices were limited.

She had to be ready when opportunity knocked.

And in whatever form it arrived.

If that meant going for a dunk in the bay then she’d better be ready. Besides, she’d take that over being blown to shit by a bomb any day.

Especially if it was going to be done publicly. She’d had enough nightmares. She didn’t want to be the cause of more for someone else.

Besides, public executions were icky.

She grinned. At least she still had her sense of humor.

If nothing else, she could keep her head up. And stay alive.

She needed to give Hawk time to rescue her.

*

T
HE DOCKS TEEMED
with life. But they had to consider not just commercial shipping but private boats that could be big enough to do the job. It was going to be impossible to track everyone.

Swede came up behind them and walked past as if not seeing them. He walked ahead a few yards then slowly cut to the left.

Hawk and Shadow followed.

“Why the Golden Gate? Why not the Oakland Bay Bridge?”

“Why any bridge? To send a message. Which bridge do you think of when you think of San Francisco?”

“Golden Gate.” Shadow shook his head. “It’s the iconic nature they want to blow up. The American symbolism, not the actual bridge.”

“Terrorists get both in this case.”

They took precious hours to walk the docks, pulling in necessary information and asking the questions that needed to be asked. It was when they were just about ready to go back to the base that one man sidled up to them.

“Heard you were asking about a woman in a hospital gown.”

Hawk frowned at him. “Maybe, what’s it to you?”

“More like what’s it worth to you.” He smiled, showing a missing front tooth. “If it’s not worth anything, then it’s nothing to me.”

And wasn’t that the truth. Did no one do anything to help others anymore?

Shadow slid forward.

The man slid back, then narrowed his gaze. “How much?”

“Tell us first then we’ll decide.”

He snorted. “And then you take off, without paying.”

Shadow slid a half step forward.

“Shit.” The toothless man backed off slightly. “I saw them carry her onto a tugboat.”

“A tugboat?” Hawk froze, his mind spinning on the possibilities. A tugboat worked if they were taking out a different watercraft of some kind. Tugboats were a dime a dozen here and were a major part of the city. No one would question a tugboat’s movement. They damn near ran the place. Although it could be the one vehicle they were using to move bombs, but that wasn’t likely – was it? He pondered the logistics and size.

“How do you know it was her?” Shadow asked, that ever present threat in his voice slightly elevated.

“She was in the damn hospital gown. Poor thing. She didn’t look conscious. I saw her on the tele too. They’re going to blow her up and that’s not good.”

“No, it’s not.” Hawk thought about it a moment longer then said, “Can you identify the tugboat?”

He snorted. “There are thousands of them here.”

“So you can’t add anything to the little bit you told us,” Shadow said in disgust. “How about where the tugboat was headed?”

“Hey, I didn’t say that. First off there were two men who took her on board. A third man was driving the van. No, I didn’t recognize any of them, but they were olive skinned and dark haired. All younger.”

“How young?”

And the questions fired in a volley as they tried to draw out as much information as they could get from him. When he’d been paid and walked away, the two men stared at each other then broke into a run heading to where the tugboat had docked. The informant hadn’t seen where it had gone except out into the harbor, and that could mean anything. But he’d given them a few identifying marks.

If they could identify that boat, they might identify where Mia had been taken. That the van was still driving around was worrisome. Not that it would help, he knew. If they were smart enough to pull this off, they were smart enough to have exchanged license plates with a different vehicle. It was a simple switch and done all the time.

At the docks they walked through the heavy winds that blew water from the ocean, soaking them instantly. Hawk stared out at the ships in the Bay. There were an easy dozen. Mostly carrying shipping containers but it wouldn’t be hard to smuggle Mia aboard if they were crew members. And then again they’d likely not trust anyone and wouldn’t want to be seen with her. So a private place was more likely.

His gaze caught the fishing boats riding the waves in the water. Tiny beside the container ships but some were certainly big enough to get the job done.

That meant there were more options to look at and not enough time.

At least for the moment. They could take a different escape route. Particularly if there were just a couple of them. Depending on the terrorists, it was also likely they had no plans to escape. Suicide bombings were common. Sad. Deadly. There wasn’t anything new to be found except to keep watch on this place and get eyes on the water.

They had the gear ready to go and were on their own small water craft within two hours. This time there were five of them.

Hawk stared across the water, terrified of where Mia could be. There’d been no other broadcasts, but the media wouldn’t leave it alone. They wanted to know who the mystery woman was, and why she’d been targeted.

It wouldn’t be long before they put all the information together and found Gordon. If he stayed quiet, it might help, but now that he knew what was happening to his daughter…well, no one would blame him for doing what he thought was right.

If he thought it would save Mia, he’d do anything he could.

And so would Hawk.

“Hawk, we’ve picked up a couple of old fishing vessels by the bridge.”

“I’m coming.”

Chapter 18

L
ORD, SHE WAS
cold. Her toes had turned gray and her skin had an odd purple cast to it. The terrorists didn’t care about her health, she was dead already as far as they were concerned. If she was going to die anyway, she wanted to die warm. She also had to go to the bathroom.

As in now.

She tried to straighten but her arms wouldn’t shift. She was no longer up against the wall. She’d been dragged to a corner and left alone. After she’d done the presentation on camera they didn’t care. With her arms still tied but no longer behind her, she hugged her knees tight against the cold. A blanket, something to ward against catching a chill would be lovely. Too late. She figured. She was already frozen and injured and couldn’t imagine her body having much left in the way of defenses.