Page 1 of Operation Heartbeat
ONE
The helicopter blades slashed through the air, a relentless rhythm in sharp contrast to the chaos inside Ryan Constantine, aka Con’s, head. In his ear, static hissed and popped, cutting out for the sixty-fifth time of the seventy minutes he’d been in the air. Worse than the crackle that was driving him crazy, he was cut off from his SEAL team.
Con clenched his jaw. Without communication with his SEAL team, he was flying blind. The mission was already on thin ice. Without intel, it felt as if he was skating right into enemy territory.
He glanced at the digital clock on the control panel of the chopper.
13:24:07
Not enough time.
He adjusted his headset over his ears and spoke to the pilot. “ETA to Blackout Alpha base?”
“Nineteen minutes. Tailwind’s on our side. Hang in there, Con.”
“I lost communication with my team.”
“It happens sometimes in this flight path. You’ll pick it up again when we land.” The pilot’s job wasn’t to stress over the nuances of the life of a SEAL. His job was to get Con from point A to point B.
Con stifled a growl that built in his throat. Every single second mattered. When it came to matters of national security, they were always fighting an uphill battle while racing the clock.
Without more information, he was standing on a cliff in the dark.
What was taking place back at JFK Airport was anyone’s guess, but he knew better than to jump to conclusions. All he knew was that he was tasked with getting a phone into the hands of an expert.
A phone that authorities confiscated from a man about to board a flight to Turkey and held the key to the suspect’s activities while he was in the United States. Con had limited time left to get the device to SEAL Team Blackout Alpha’s base in Washington, DC.
He fisted a hand on his knee, willing voices into his ear rather than the occasional crackle of interference. Nothing came.
This wouldn’t be the first time he jumped into an op without a plan or backup. Plans could change in a split second—he had the experience to wing it.
A deep voice blasted into his ear, making him jolt. “Blackout Charlie 1, come in.”
“Blackout Charlie 1.” Before he lost contact with his commander again, he got straight to the point. “Who do I give the phone to at Alpha HQ?”
“Kit. She’s the best.”
The device stowed away in the depths of his tactical vest pocket felt like it was ticking. Like it had a heartbeat all its own.
A second later, the comms unit crackled in his ear again. His commander was gone.
At least now Con had a directive. He’d hand over the phone to Kit, the in-house tech and cyber specialist for Blackout Alpha.
The chopper dropped altitude, hovering over the roof of Alpha’s base. When the landing gear touched down, Con wastedno time. He opened the hatch door and ducked out under the whirring chopper blades.
He strode straight for the hatch in the roof and entered a universal keycode to unlock it. When he pulled open the hatch, revealing a flight of stairs leading into the base, he rushed down them at a fast clip that matched the urgency of his mission.
A big man suddenly loomed up, blocking his path.
“Get out of my way, Ramsey.” Con wasn’t taking any crap from a guy who thought his name was cooler than Con’s.
“Nice to see you too, Con.” The other operative folded his arms over his chest, stretching the sleeves of his black T-shirt.
“I need Kit.”
The stairs emptied into a long hall lined with doors leading to other parts of the multi-storied base. His words echoed down the empty hall.
Through one of the open doors, a man emerged. He stepped into the hall, and in long strides, made his way to Ramsey and Con.