“Buck. Call the Coastie you know at the local station and tell him we have a Night Stalker who’ll take us out.” He rattled off Obi-Wan’s tail numbers for clarity, then searched for Obi-Wan’s number.
His fingers shook as he scrolled, but when he finally found it, he punched it, hard.
Waiting for his connection to go through, he noted that Buck was already making contact with the Coast Guard station.
He was giving Vince the thumbs up, which meant they could proceed.
It was all the permission they needed to join the operation.
Come on, come on.
Obi-Wan’s phone rang five times before it went to voice mail.
Shit.
Vince hung up and tried again.
It rang twice.
Obi-Wan picked up on the second ring. “Yo. Vince. What’s up my man? We just got back from an epic hike. Sorry it took me so long to answer, but my phone was at the bottom of my pack. I?—"
Vince cut him off, wasting no time. “We have an emergency situation.”
“Go.” Obi-Wan immediately dropped into mission-mode.
Vince’s four brothers, as well as Jett, followed him outside where they were all grabbing their diving gear from various vehicles.
Tabbi and Sheila hadn’t joined them. They’d man the office and monitor the radio.
“The boat Lace is on just called in with a man-overboard alert. Two victims,” Vince managed despite the tightness in his throat. He rattled off the GPS coordinates.
The group, as one, piled into a van they’d endlessly teased Buck about owning. But right now, Vince could kiss his brother’s hairy ass for ignoring them and hanging on to it.
They all fit in,withtheir gear and room to spare.
Buck put his foot to the floor, and was already careening down the street toward the Sothard compound before Vince could even get his seatbelt fastened.
He continued giving Obi-Wan as much as he knew.
“The Coast Guard helo is off on another rescue, and?—”
“Say no more,” Obi-Wan interrupted. “Meet me at the back of the barn, ASAP. I’ll have my pre-flight complete and Belle ready to spin up as soon as you get here.”
“ETA, eight minutes,” Vince quickly figured out.
“Five,” Buck barked from the driver seat.
“Five it is,” Obi-Wan responded, clearly having heard Buck.
By the unevenness of the Night Stalker’s voice, the man was already on the run. “Don’t worry, Vince, we’ve got this,” he stated calmly.
With the kind of missions Obi-Wan had run, Vince assured himself, this would be a piece of cake.
They didn’t yet know who’d gone overboard, and even though Vince was praying it wasn’t Lace, his gut was telling him it was.
The five minutes of travel time seemed like an eternity to Vince, but his brothers kept him together and they were all out of the van, fully loaded with their equipment as soon as Buck, on two wheels, pulled to within twenty-feet of the helo.
Obi-Wan was already in the pilot seat, and Zita was on the ground, beckoning them on. The luxury seats from the craft that they’d previously used, were piled up beside her.