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Echo turned her head to Ace, who took a moment to find the correct size. When he handed it to her, Deacon took it from her and put it into her ear. “To activate the device, you tap your ear here.” Deacon touched her ear. “Tap it twice to mute it. You can still hear them, but they can’t hear you. Three times will turn it off. Don’t do that.”
“That is so cool. I can hear you through the device and hear face-to-face, but there isn’t any latency.” Echo looked at each of them. “Do you know how advanced this tech is?”
They all chuckled. A man with a heavy Boston accent came across the system. “Can we start now?”
“Oh, who was that?”
“My name is Click, and we have a briefing to start.”
“Click. Nice to meet you. I’m Echo.”
“Yep. Your security clearance has been transferred from the CIA, and you have the necessary clearances to use the comm systems. However, you will be required to sign an NDA after the mission.”
“That won’t be a problem,” she assured Click.
“Yeah, I know. Cap, the plane is refueling as we speak. We’re going to drop you into Laos and do our best to jam their systems. Communist countries don’t seem to like us flying over their country.”
Deacon snorted. “No shit. We’ll need to equip Echo.”
“Archangel had a shipment sent to Hawaii two days ago. It’s in the plane,” Click said.
“Well, thank the guy for me, will you?” Echo said.
“Right, I’ll call him up and do that.” Click laughed. She frowned and looked at Deacon.
Deacon rolled his eyes. “He’s one of the three people who run Guardian.”
“Oh.” She didn’t have anything else to add. Guardian was the flagbearer for all intelligence and operational agencies. Being one of the three people who ran that organization meant he was a very powerful man.
“We’ve been monitoring the primary site that Flanagan gave us. Right now, it appears to have minimal activity. The nearest village is ten clicks to the east. There’s river access as long as it isn’t past flood stage. You have storms moving in. Two days, and you’ll be very, very wet.”
“Exit strategy?” Deacon asked.
“Working it,” Click confirmed. “Fluid at this point, and with an incursion into Laos’s airspace, it could be you and the team walking or floating out.”
“Not particularly thrilled with that last option,” Bandit said.
“None of us are,” Click said. “I’m working it, guys. It’s going to be a mess. The system that’s coming is a bastard. Excuse my French, ma’am.”
“I served for eight years, Click. I’m not going to wither from a few curse words,” Echo said. “So, we’re doing a low-level drop during daylight hours.”
“That’s the plan.”
She closed her eyes and grimaced. “Great. You do know that technique was developed for equipment, right?”
“Welcome to Guardian,” Deacon said, dropping his arm over her shoulder. “We’ve perfected the process.”
“God, I hope so.” She looked up at him. “Remember what I said about being worried if the person leading this mission could be an asshole or a jerk?”
He pulled back a bit and frowned. “Yeah. Why?”
“I think I should’ve been worrying about him being bat-shit crazy and having a death wish.”
All of the men laughed at that. “We got you covered, Echo,” Ace said. “Just remember to tuck and roll when you hit the ground.”
She turned to Ace. “And you realize we’re dropping into a jungle. What am I going to roll into?”
Laughing again, the men seemed to relax a bit. “Click, do you have anything else?”