Page 55 of Building Courage

He laid his glove-covered hand over hers. “It’s just turbulence. You’re safe. We’ve got you.”

She nodded and eased back again, but he left his hand resting over hers.

The Seahawk landed on the deck, and medical personnel rushed forward to offload the hostages and give them medical care. They all jogged across the rain-slick deck to a hatch.

A young Seaman led the team below decks to the mess hall. “Captain said you needed a meal before you catch transport to the airport for the flight back to Miramar. I’ll take you to the ready room, and you can drop your gear and dry off, then we’ll head to the mess.”

“Roger that,” Sam said.

It took little time to dump their gear and follow the Seaman to the mess hall.

“Senior Chief Masters wants to debrief you before your flight,” the Seaman said. “I’ll return in an hour for you.”

Sam nodded. “Thanks.”

Tucker fell in between Bullet and Knotty to get food. They ate like the hungry men they were, concentrating on their food in silence for the first ten minutes. Because it was late, the only crew in the mess hall were a cook and a couple of kitchen crew. None came near their table.

“You were good with Townsend and Carpenter,” Bullet said from down the table. “Kept them calm and moving.”

“They wanted to get the hell out of there,” Denotti said. “We didn’t have to do much since they were both still ambulatory.”

“Knowing the fuckers who kidnapped them are no longer breathing will help them recover, hopefully,” Bullet said, echoing Tucker’s earlier thoughts.

“And we earned some points with the ambassador,” Rosenburg chimed in. “His son’s got some balls on him, too.”

“He’ll probably have to have surgery on his nose. Fuckers did a number on it,” Sam said as he pushed his plate forward to rest his arms on the table.

“I wouldn’t mind doing more missions like this one. Human trafficking is just…” Denotti shook his head.

“Evil,” Swan provided.

Tucker studied each man’s face. They didn’t get emotional about the work, but a current of anger ran around the table. Even Swan, who had an unwavering distrust of all women, had had empathy for the brutalized, traumatized hostages.

“We’ve dealt with evil before, and we will again,” Sam said, his voice even, carefully unemotional.

Brynn had probably looked worse. So many facial injuries. But Gillespie hadn’t raped her, thank God. He’d been too busy trying to wipe her off the face of the earth for rejecting him.

Jesus, he couldn’t think about it now. But it was hard not to find a parallel between the women and her. What kind of surgery had she had to repair what he’d done? A broken nose, a broken jaw…plastic surgery possibly. She’d never said. He had so many questions, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to ask them.

He rose to dump his tray, and the others followed.

“You okay, Gilly?” Arrow asked.

“Yeah. Just ready to go home.”

“Roger that!”

The Seaman arrived a few minutes later to take them to the ready room where Senior Chief Ken Masters, the intelligence officer who had set up the op, waited for them. They had worked with Masters several times since Senior Chief Engle had retired. He was a wide-chested, fireplug of a guy, standing only five foot eight. His dark hair was scattered with grey, as was his beard. He had a reputation with the teams for his ability to find the bad guys, compile the information, and plan successful missions. Thus far, they were four for four with him.

“Glad to see you back, guys. Have a seat.”

While they were all taking a seat, he continued. “I’ve spoken to the hostages. They’re all in better shape than we expected, and they’ve already been transported to the mainland to catch a private jet to San Diego. You’ll catch a military transport within the next hour to Miramar.” Masters turned his attention to Sam. “Lieutenant Harding.”

“Yes, Senior Chief.”

So started the questions and the verbal report, with each member adding their observations on how things went and what could have gone better.

“I’ll expect a written report in the next forty-eight hours, Lieutenant Harding.” Senior Chief seemed to draw a deep breath. “One last thing.” He paused. “There’s been another parachuting accident.”