Page 45 of Fear No Evil
Fisting the back of Jake’s jacket, Gallo prodded him into a walk. “You will wait in the shed untilel comandantereturns.”
Lena’s expression didn’t alter one iota, save for a faint thinning of her lips, but Jake knew by her sudden silence she realized what he was up to.
He was going to sacrifice himself to make a phone call.
The villainous hornets had stingers the size of hypodermic needles.
“Ouch!” Jake slapped the insect stabbing the back of his neck and focused his efforts on keeping the intermittent signal. So long as he stood below the hole in the tin roof, straddling a puddle of fetid water, the signal was strong enough.
Holding down number seven, he speed-dialed the JIC, while praying no one had overheard the beep and that the call went through. Surely only Lena, who hovered nearby, was close enough to hear either.
Bambino’s deep voice, laced with his Philadelphia accent, was a balm to Jake’s ears. “This is Spiderman in the Hall of Justice, over.”
“Iron Man here.” Afraid the call might drop, Jake wasted no time getting straight to the point. “Did you get the images I uploaded last evening?”
“Roger that, Iron Man. We’ve been lookin’ at ’em all day. What took you so long to check in?”
“Technical issues with the equipment. Listen, the place names are encrypted, and I think I know how.”
“Just a minute. I’m gonna put you on speaker so the rest of us can hear.”
The speaker gave a click and Lobo’s deep voice asked, “What’s your idea, Iron Man?”
Jake pricked his ears to any sounds outside the shed, heard nothing, and proceeded. “Look at my global positioning right now. Convert my latitude, longitude, minutes, and seconds to decimal form. You follow me so far?”
He waited for confirmation before proceeding. “Now, convert those numbers to letters and you getCfor the first letter,Efor the second. See a camp that starts with those letters? It’sCecaot-Jicobo.”
“Hooyah!” Harm cheered Jake’s success.
Lobo’s response was tamer. “Sounds promising.”
“And theOinCecaotis probably a decimal.”
“Good work, Iron Man. We’ll play around with this and let you know via a text if you’re right. Still no name on the third camp?”
“That’s correct. That may be where the hostages are kept, I don’t know.”
“How are negotiations going?”
“We’re awaiting proof of life for one of two targets. Texas appears to be alive, but there’s some doubt about South Carolina. The team lead requested radio communication with the two, which would tell us right away if they’re both alive. I think we’ll find out today if that request is accepted. Ow!”
With his grandpa’s favorite Celtic swear, Jake squashed the wasp stinging his temple. After brushing it off him, he teased out the stinger still lodged in his scalp. “Hey, before I forget, I think the top brass here has my watch. If my theory on the encryptionis right, the watch’s coordinates should match one of the camp’s names, the one starting withK, I think.”
“We’ll work on it and let you know via text,” Lobo assured him.
Harm asked with a smile in his voice, “How’s the missus doing?”
The reference to Lena eased the stinging in Jake’s temple. If only she were his missus. “She’s alive and kicking.” Which was how he intended her to stay.
“We were starting to worry when we didn’t hear from you,” Harm added.
“Yeah, well, the comms don’t work under the dense canopy. Can you see our trackers, at least?”
“Perfectly. We figured the phone had problems.”
“Yeah, you may not hear from me for a while, but I’ll look for your text and send one back if I can.”
“Roger that,” Lobo answered. “Take care out there.”