Page 4 of Covert Mission
Scout’s snatches his tablet off of the tailgate. “There’s a fault line here…”
Fault line?
As if that makes any sense. But that’s when all hell breaks loose. The ground heaves so hard under me that I slam into the truck.
Evan drops to his haunches. “Earthquake!”
“No shit. Watch out!” Justice yells as a crack snakes across the dirt road between us.
Never been in a quake. Didn’t think about full sized trucks bouncing around.
I didn’t know the earth would groan. Or that the trees would make the eeriest sound as their foliage shudders.
The god’s honest reality is I couldn’t stand up if I had to.
When the shaking and lurching stops the world around me is changed. One of our three trucks is half swallowed by that fracture in the earth that started as an inch wide crack. Trees are toppled at the forest edge. Rocks have tumbled down into a nearby ravine.
It’s not just the nature surrounding us that got jacked. I’m on my side with a mouth full of dirt. Scout’s on his ass holding his tablet to his chest. Evan’s on his knees with a shocked expression. Justice is sprawled out like Spiderman on the ground, praying out loud.
“Where the hell is Truck?”
“Over here,” he shouts. “Damn near got taken out by a coconut that fell out of a tree.”
“There could be aftershocks.” Scout slowly climbs to his feet and it hits me, what I read in his file. He grew up in Southern California. He’s got far more experience than this Kentucky boy.
I climb up to my knees. “Gonna trust you on that. Now ask me about bourbon and Bigfoot and I’ve got you covered. Earthquakes, all my knowledge would fit on a cocktail napkin.”
Turns out Scout was right. And the first wasn’t the big one. That was yet to come. The next twenty four hours are rough, and for men like us to say that means things are bad.
But that wasn’t the beginning of my troubles, that starts when the team finally hits Santa Rosa and I fuck up Team Falcon’s first mission.
ChapterTwo
The erratic pounding of my pulse in my ears is alarming. So is the tremor in my legs.
“Camile!”
I cringe. Belle’s looking for me.
When I raise the plastic bottle of Deer Park water to my lips, my hands are shaking and my lips are quivering. I have to fight to make them intersect. The tepid liquid fills my mouth and chokes its way down to my stomach.
Please let it stay down this time.
I clear my throat. “Coming!” There’s a bitter, coppery taste in my mouth. The flavor of fear. I’ve lived with it my whole life.
No training in the world could have bolstered me enough for this. With a shaking hand, I mop the sweat off my face.
It’s boiling hot and it’s only nine in the morning. Humidity at one hundred percent. As much as I want to, I can’t hide in the shade of the supply truck forever.
Maybe I’m not cut out for this work. Especially when I have to lead a team of people who think I know what I’m doing.
The rest of the team thinks I’m a pro at this.
So wrong.
I’m a pro at talking a big game, not anywhere close to being who they need me to be. But I can’t let them down. I can’t fail my mission.
A wave of nausea hits me as I raise my eyes to the piles of earthquake rubble that stretch out in every direction.