And Jett? Well, the woman was a quick study, a beast, and sure as shit fit right in.
Hell, she took ordersandrefuted them when necessary, like the pro she was.
As soon as Mason gave the signal to hit the water, it would be Vince’s operation. He’d be in charge of the divers.
Vince hadn’t hesitated when his brothers had asked him if he would call the shots. The rescue of Lace had somehow, amazingly, restored the majority of his confidence in his abilities to lead.
He wasn’t a hundred percent there, but…
It was pretty great to be back.
Vince would wait in the nets for the tell-tale thump of lines being thrown and Mason’s affirmative in his ear before giving the hand-signal that his team was to submerge.
It came not even a minute later.
“Deploy.”
They hit the water smoothly, without a sound, then five bodies followed Vince as he led aft, around the stern of theWater Wrestler,then across an expanse of no more than fifteen feet, where they positioned themselves, still underwater, at the transom of their quarry.
Luckily, their short supply of intelhadassumed this type of vessel would be equipped with an emergency ladder next to the transom, and when Vince popped up briefly to ascertain if that advantage existed, thank god it was right where it was supposed to be.
Going back under, Vince, along with his team, quickly shed their fins, hanging them on their buoyance compensators with BCD D-rings, to be left in their water booties that would allow them to climb the ladder with ease.
Easy part over.
The toughest thing, Vince knew, would be breaching the deck.
If SWAT didn’t have things predominantly under control, the divers would be revealing themselves one-by-one as theypopped up, putting themselves in possible jeopardy, and for that reason, Vince had insisted on going first.
If anyone was going to encounter a problem, he wanted it to be him.
Mason’s voice came through his ear-piece, loud and clear.
“Time,” he clipped. “We’ve been made.”
His voice emerged crisply and clearly, despite the adrenaline that had to be flooding his system right now.
The added, “they’ve opted to fight” gave efficacy to Vince’s thoughts.
There were shots being fired, heard even from Vince’s position under water.
Clearly, time was of the essence.
He gave the signal for his team to ascend, which they did quickly.
“Everyone ready?” Vince asked rhetorically.
They all nodded.
Putting one hand into his shoot-through dry bag and fingering the trigger of the Mk 25 that lay snugly inside, Vince used the other hand to grab the ladder, and began a fast crawl upward.
Chaos was erupting above.
Vince made it to the seventh rung from the top, nearly ready to breach, when a grizzled sailor appeared above him. Having thrown one leg over the gunwale, he was obviously trying to escape the carnage on deck.
“Don’t move,” Vince barked at the man who looked down, his face comically surprised at the appearance of the divers.
Vince raised his concealed weapon and aimed it at the would-be defector.