Page 19 of Hayes (Voodoo Guardians #37)

Bonds was beginning to panic. There was no sign of O’Neal, and no one in the village confessed to seeing him or helping him. If he didn’t produce him soon, things would go downhill fast for him.

“My patience is wearing thin,” said Aamani. “You promised me a genius that could make all my dreams come true. Where is this genius?”

He wiped the blood from his hands, then from the knife he’d used on a few local villagers. When he was done, he tossed it at the wall near Bonds’ head, where it stuck, bobbing up and down.

“You kill me, you have nothing!” yelled Bonds.

“You’re already dead, lieutenant. Remember? You and your entire team died on that mountain.” Bonds was beginning to panic, then it hit him. He was thought to be dead.

“Wait. I’m not dead. I could contact command, let them know that I survived, but I believe O’Neal was the traitor.”

“No. If they believe he was a traitor, they will want him and will want to try him for his crimes. They need to believe he’s dead.”

“Alright, then I’ll make the case for a second.”

“A second?” asked Aamani.

“Yes. He has a fellow teammate, someone from the same family tree, shall we say? A pilot with amazing abilities and a mind nearly as good as O’Neal’s.”

“And who is this flying genius?” asked Aamani.

“Wyatt O’Neal.”

“A brother?” he asked.

“Cousin, I believe. I think he’s stationed on the carrier sitting out there in the Gulf.

If I contact command and ask for pickup to get to the carrier, I may be able to convince them that I need his assistance.

If you know where he’s going to be, you shoot the jet down, he bails, and you’ve got yourself your man.

” Bonds was proud of himself, smiling at the other man.

Aamani stood, pacing back and forth. He was rubbing the scruffy beard that he believed made him appear more authoritative. To Bonds, it made him appear dirty and unkempt.

“He’s a genius?” he asked.

“His IQ is well above the norm. He flies every aircraft imaginable and understands the navigation, satellite, communication, and stealth abilities created by G.R.I.P.”

Aamani nodded, grinning at Bonds.

“Call your ship. I need that man.”

Hayes had been sleeping on and off all day, the pain from the resetting of the bones and the surgery to hopefully regain feeling was more than he expected.

Cruz was managing his pain the best he could, but it would be a long road to recovery for Hayes.

One that he might not fully heal from, even with the pond.

“Hey, I’ve got command from the carrier on the phone,” said Wyatt, walking into the room. He put the man on speaker for everyone to hear. “The entire team is here, sir.”

“You nailed it. Bonds suddenly appeared alive but desperate for pickup and is requesting a pilot to go in and bomb the area where he is certain Aamani is currently residing. I’ll give it to him. The guy is ballsy. He went so far as to request O’Neal. Wyatt O’Neal,” he smirked.

“You know that he’d shoot me out of the sky,” said Wyatt. “We can’t let him do that to a multi-million-dollar aircraft.”

‘I’m aware,” growled his commander.

“Sorry, sir.”

“It’s fine. Listen, if you’re asking my opinion, and you’re not.

But since you have two active-duty Navy personnel in your hands that technically belong on my ship, I’m going to give you my opinion.

We get him onboard the carrier, hear his plan, the coordinates, all of it, and make it look as though we’re sending someone out.

“While the jet leaves the carrier, headed to the alleged bomb site, you guys get your asses in there and kill Aamani. I don’t need him alive. I need him dead. That guy has been a pain in my ass for years.”

“It just might work,” said Luke. “We need to get our team back on the carrier to confront Bonds.”

“I let you on once, I can do it again,” smirked the man.

“I’ll reach back out to Bonds, find out where he’s located, and get him on board the ship.

I have no doubt once he’s here, he’s going to insist he be in on the attack of Aamani, which then, of course, would get him off the ship and able to disappear again. ”

“We won’t let that happen. Once we have our dummy jet launched from the carrier, we’ll let him signal Aamani, and then we approach him.”

“I can’t wait to see that,” smirked the commander.

“You may want to step out after we walk in, sir,” said Cam. “Plausible deniability and all that bullshit.”

“Son, this is my ship. If it happens here, I’m going to witness it, and I don’t give a damn about anything else.”

“Yes, sir,” nodded Luke. “We’ll catch the same bird to the carrier and see you soon.”

“Roger that.”