Page 26 of Vapor (BSC #32)
Two days
SOAR
Julius
I bend and kiss Aunt Becky’s cheek. “Thanks for moving again. The kids already love you and Vapor said you adopted her.” She swats me away but doesn’t ever touch me. It’s an air swat.
“I like it here. The girls from the letter club know all about the clubs so they’re bringing me around when we’re not working. I want to take Greg and Suzie.”
I nod. “Sarah is on today while Vapor is over the US. I can ask her.” I turn from the sink and see the phone she holds up for me. “Or you can chat her and have an answer without me as the middle man.”
She nods. “Don’t you have work to do?”
“I have a class at Veritable but wanted to make you breakfast on your first day.” Vapor left over an hour ago so treating aunt Becky for moving less than a month after her move to Champion seemed like the thing to do. She moved west from Virginia after her house got leveled by a hurricane.
She does the swat motion again. “I love when you cook for me. Thank you. I told the kids and Enola I’d be at the kitchen tomorrow for breakfast.” She subtly shoos me away.
“I’ll see you there.” I kiss her head, grab my bag and go.
She’s never been the needy type but when she’s excited, she wants what she wants, when she wants it. I think I take after her so I don’t take offense.
The ride to Veritable has my mind wandering. Mase is on the plane and Alder in the jet with my Vapor. I don’t know how or why, but they all left happy.
I’m relieved to see the tents are gone. The road that loops around is still down. At a guess, it’s for another tent city party or the machine to roll up the road isn’t here.
The Veritable Rising Club looks huge and very much like a Badass Club.
I smile, backing my bike up to the paver.
The SOAR Club is impressive behind the facade of farmland barns.
Aaron said the town wears a mask, SOAR is like that and I’m just as proud of the Club as I am the town.
Cort told me about the Silo and horse stall at Elite. I like being different.
“Hey, Julius. Did you get my virtual link?”
I nod for Nash. “Thanks. Mase said to do it after the Officer training.”
He nods walking up the stairs with me. “Yeah, it’s more about the paperwork than the whole job course. I can set up the app and add the month of your paperwork on it.”
I nod. “Thanks. We don’t need the report part but I want to do them as a practice.”
His phone goes off. “I’ll see you for dinner and input your month. I can answer questions about the reports while I’m there. Later.” The Blackhawk is just gone.
I head to the meeting room until my phone goes off. It’s going to be one of those days. Amal tells me he’s back in a funny voice. I take a breath and nod because I didn’t know he was gone.
“Vapor is gone for a few days, the tents are finally down, so you’re not calling because Cort is showing for another party.”
His giggle makes me smile. “You go to Ops and we’ll finally get this party started.” He sing-songs then hangs up.
I laugh jogging up to Ops. “Jarret?”
“Yeah, Julius.”
“Can you get my class at Veritable covered? I have virtual stacked. Today is plan #132 if everyone is busy.”
“I can head over. Cyrus has the new guys shadowing him in Ops. I’ll follow your 132 plan.”
“Thanks, Brother.”
I hit the keypad and walk in. “Julius, the cargo plane got picked up. Cort wants you on at Phoenix.” Kyler says like I know how to do that.
He smiles at me. “Debra, can you get Julius on with Cort?”
“Glasses, Boss Debra. VP Julius train, he no have glasses.”
Kyler looks at him. “Why doesn’t he have glasses? That’s Alpha-Bit IT.”
Aaron looks like he just went from cute angel to chaotic gremlin in a split second.
I jump in before the running starts and people, keel over. “Hold up. Can you get me on with Phoenix or hand me glasses before you turn into the Tasmanian devil?”
He smiles at me and runs for the glasses. I can get me on with Phoenix. While he bitches out Kyler, I take the glasses and find out what’s going on with the cargo plane. All I know is it left Rhode Island last night.
Ben is on with Ranger. “Brothers,” I say. They both turn.
Ranger looks relieved. “Ben needs help with the cargo plane. I have flights running. You got this?”
I smile. “Yeah, Ranger. Is there a way for me to talk to you that’s not through Phoenix, Boss?”
Ben nods. “Brantley get me over to Veritable.”
Ben shows up about two feet away from me.
“Whoa. Okay. I don’t know how to do that.” I take the glasses off and he smiles.
“The Ops room does. I’m on a station that wasn’t in use. So, the cargo plane. Brantley put what you had up.”
I read through and see the plane was logged by Algeria. I call Sarah. “The cargo plane was logged by Algeria.”
“No, I changed the numbers. Algeria will have it dropped in a few minutes. It was logged by Turkey. Changing the flight number isn’t possible in Turkey so I changed the country ID. They got the flight number changed in Algeria. You’ll see it in a minute or so.”
“Thanks, Sarah. Has there been any other issues?”
“Getting logged is normal. We change the flight number or country regularly.” She sounds amused.
“I’ll remember. Thanks for explaining.” I hang up and shrug at Ben. “It’s normal and they follow the planes and choppers the whole way. She didn’t say that but I know they do.”
He nods. “Alexia did that a couple of years ago. FBI scheduled the flights for the Alpha-Bit Ops so I guess she did it for them then. We don’t do many international Ops but we always land on bases when we do.” It sounds like he’s asking for information.
I raise my shoulder. “I don’t know how it works, Boss. I’d get redacted sheets with questions about legal jurisdiction or specific artillery, assets and country laws or customs.”
He nods. “Thanks. I’m not on Ops but Brantley sent me the tag.”
“You’re not home?” The tents are gone.
“I’m in Colorado. Lily wanted some time with Aylen for shopping. I’m not shopping so I was watching the FBI boards.”
I nod and look at my phone. Jarrett has the class and told me to relax. I roll my eyes at the chat. “My class is covered.”
He turns from the board here. “What’s the virtual in SOAR? Cort said it’s different but we all have virtual.”
I smile. “You’re bored too.” The smile he shows reminds me of Teller. I can see him younger like the pictures in Colorado. They’re all serious looking but that smile says it all. “Can you get to an unused station in SOAR?”
He laughs. “I’ll be there in person before you.”
I run. “You’re on.” The Ops room laughs. Shit! I run back to Aaron and hold out the glasses. “Thanks, Aaron.”
He shakes his head. “Spare to VP Kyler. You keep. I order pair to him… I remember tomorrow.”
I laugh and run. “Thanks.”
“Hey, that’s my spare!” Kyler has me laughing louder.
Ben beat me to SOAR. I let Moss and Donovan show him the virtual, then they show the Prince Club the virtual.
He wants it in Colorado. Cort shows and we’re flying to meet everyone at Delta.
Races, zorbing and flying laser tag is the plan.
We invade with kids from rescue, Phoenix and his Sesame Street kids, Alpha-Bits and Little Brothers who divert from the Vision in Bravo.
Anton is proud and lapping up the attention.
I keep him grounded with a list for Alder and Vapor to see the rescue kids having fun.
He’s all over it and I relax with Sarah, Aylen, Enola, aunt Becky, Billy and Ben.
We have the zorbing track. It’s an easy job. We’re like the life guards at the pool.
~*~*~
Vapor
“Moss said Ben Knight was at the Club.” I thought he was lying but the video and drone shots I got are real, according to Alder.
“Yeah. They showed the Prince Club how the virtual works. He wants it at Princes and in Colorado. How was the flight?” He’s not interested in my adoration of Ben Knight. He bought a carrier.
I yawn before answering. “Shorter than it should have been. The new jet can sustain high speed for a lot longer than the specs say. Alder had me pushing it the whole way and not one alert or warning showed. The carrier is smaller than the Navy’s but the mess and rooms are more like a cruise ship.
Alder said it was confiscated but not anything about how we got it.
” I throw the adoration of Ben buying a carrier in anyway.
I’ll tell him about my new dog tomorrow.
“I can find out. Virginia Ross, you sound beat.”
“We just finished eating and I ate too much. The kitchen is unbelievable here. We go for the prisoners tomorrow.”
“Sleep, baby. I’ll be in Ops tomorrow. Ben and Cort are BSC Controls from SOAR.”
I yawn again. “Tell Ben I love the carrier.”
“I will, Virginia Ross. Love you, baby. Call me when you can, stay safe.”
I open my eyes and blink a few times. “Love you.”
He laughs then he’s gone. I drop the phone and turn over.