Targets Entangled (16 page)

“We’re not prey,” Stick said with a shake of his head. He and Daegan watched as Doc left the cabin in search of Trigger. “Anyway, I much prefer being the predator.”

“Amen, brother.” Daegan crossed his legs at his ankles, making himself more comfortable in Stick’s desk chair. He hadn’t imagined someone listening to their discussion in the team ready room earlier. Starr might be scouring through the personnel logs, but more eyes meant finding that elusive needle in the haystack sooner rather than later. “Something’s been off about this mission from the word go.”

“Where is he?”

Daegan zeroed his gaze on Stick, knowing damn well from his friend’s tone that he wasn’t talking about the person they were looking for. He’d been edgy ever since they’d had a private conversation regarding Kayla. He wanted to know the details and Daegan had to wonder just what was going through Stick’s mind regarding his sister’s DUI offender. Daegan wasn’t sure what he would do if Callum or anyone else in their family had been paralyzed from the neck down due to someone else’s poor choices. It had been hard enough when it had been Kayla, but to have it happen to his brother or parents? Stick had mentioned the man responsible for his sister’s life-altering injury was up for parole. What exactly did he have in mind if the offender was released?

“Dead.” Daegan normally would have left it at that, for no one needed to be privy to the facts of his personal life. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be a friend or teammate if he withheld information that could help Stick see reason. “The man got off on a technicality. I’m not proud of the things I did back then and it was through an act of fate intervening that my ass wasn’t the one in a jail cell.”

“You tried to—”

“It doesn’t matter what my intentions were. The man was a junkie, pure and simple.” Daegan could still smell the odor of death that clung to the particles of air when he had stood above Clive Abbott’s body—a needle sticking out of his arm. It had taken everything in his willpower not to shoot him in the head just for the sake of it. “It was his own actions that led to his death and if you ask me, he received mercy when he shouldn’t have.”

Shouts could be heard in the corridor, mainly coming from Starr and Gunny. Daegan and Stick scrambled to quickly see what had occurred now, meeting them halfway down the passageway. He was in his bare feet, wearing a pair of digital trousers and having thrown on an olive drab tank with an old 1
^st
Battalion 7
^th
Marine Regiment unit logo on it when he’d been ambushed by his teammates. At least Stick was still in his cammies minus the blouse.

“Stick, get your go bag,” Starr ordered in a sharp directive. Daegan hadn’t seen or heard her like this since they’d handled that hostage rescue assignment in Missouri. Whatever shit was going down was bad and if they needed Stick’s expertise, it was only going to get worse. “We have a bomb aboard, located in the radio room. I’m told we have eighteen minutes before it detonates.”

Daegan’s hearing narrowed in on his breathing, much like when he was about to take a shot. Starr continued to give directives, but he concentrated on her face. He hadn’t misunderstood. Starr had said the radio room and that was Ferrin’s location. His rational thought knew that depending on the bomb, it didn’t matter where anyone was located. They could all be blown to kingdom come and it wouldn’t matter.

“Take Stick with you,” Gunny barked as he walked past them. “The rest of us are going to canvass the ship. For all we know, this could be some kind of distraction for what this fucker really has up his sleeve.”

“Guess we no longer need to question if someone is out to sabotage this ship,” Trigger muttered under his breath, tapping his leg in indication that Diesel follow in line as they quickly fell into step behind Gunny.

Daegan wanted more than anything to go with Starr to the radio room so that he could ensure that Ferrin was fine and that she got as far away from the explosive device as possible. He wanted to be in the know and hear for himself what kind of bomb they were dealing with. He wanted to do a lot of things, but Gunny was their lead operator and he was making the right call. What if there was another explosive somewhere aboard the ship that would cause greater damage?

“I’ve got this,” Stick muttered, slapping Daegan on the back knowing exactly why he was torn. “Go.”

Stick quickly detoured to his cabin for his EOD tool bag but Daegan didn’t wait around. He took off and joined Gunny, Doc, and Trigger as they made their way through the ship, drafting mostly security personnel on board that weren’t required to be on the bridge with the CO. This went far above the worry of causing a panic since they had no idea how many explosives had been set on board, but they needed to keep it low key enough that the bomber didn’t command detonate the device if he noticed something was up. Daegan figured they had less than five minutes before every crewmember was aware of the threat and scouring the floating hunk of metal for what could potentially be their way to meet their maker.

“Fuck this.” Daegan turned around and headed toward the radio room. If there was another bomb, they were all fucked anyway. Stick could only work on one at a time and he wanted to be with Ferrin if they were going to die in the middle of the goddamned Atlantic Ocean. He had mentally been keeping track of the time and he broke out into a run, pushing past the crewmembers that were looking for anything that might resemble an explosive. He walked toward the entrance to the radio room, seeing Lieutenant Irvine clearing the area and giving instructions. He held up a hand to keep Daegan from walking into the room, but one look at his face had Irvine backing up and allowing him to enter.

“Anything?” Starr inquired, not bothering to look over her shoulder as she asked the question. She was standing at the end of a row of shelves that contained a large amount of radios. Her arms were crossed and she was settled in for the long haul, whether or not Stick was able to dismantle the bomb. Daegan had been told multiple times that he must have a death wish, but he was inclined to believe that Starr was right up there with him. “And why aren’t you with Gunny?”

“Nothing so far and I figure if we’re down to the wire, it isn’t going to make much of a difference where I am on this ship.” Daegan felt a sense of relief that Ferrin wasn’t in the room, but it might not matter depending on the blast radius. If it was more than two kilos of any type of modern plastic explosives compound, the ship would not have a superstructure after it exploded. The room felt stifling hot and when he finally spotted Stick carefully and delicately removing the top of the device housing, he could visibly see the sweat rolling down the man’s face. “Odds?”

“Good,” Starr said, her voice as steady as Stick’s hands. “It’s a prepackaged deal with a few tamper triggers that he has already disabled. At this point it’s up to Stick and how fast he can defeat the firing circuit.”

“No pressure,” Daegan muttered, having kept his voice low so as not to bother Stick. Starr didn’t seem to have that issue, but Stick didn’t appear fazed in the least. “We need to find this son of a bitch.”

“Agreed.” Starr didn’t flinch when Stick announced the time left, but Daegan was man enough to admit he did. He wasn’t ready to go out quite yet. He really wanted to know that Ferrin was on the other side of this fucking heap of metal, but Starr surprisingly spoke once more before he had a chance to ask. “The only regret I’d have if that bomb detonates is that I didn’t uncover the truth about what happened on that last mission with Red. You have to wonder if he had run into the same type of problems we are facing and if they’re related somehow.”

Daegan was glad to focus on something other besides their impending doom, but shit if he wanted it to be about Starr’s husband’s death. In a way, both of them would be with their loved ones should they die today. He had a startling clarity that he wasn’t only talking about Kayla, although he wondered how his life would have turned out had he not known who’d been responsible for her death. Starr didn’t have that closure.

“Fuck, that was close,” Stick said, leaning down and placing his hands on his knees. He touched the silver chain around his neck before he stood up, making eye contact with Starr. “And here I thought these number ten pucker factor days were behind me.”

“Never assume anything in this line of business,” Starr stated in a deadpan voice, not once releasing the tension in her shoulders. Now that Stick had done his job, it was time for her to do hers. “Lieutenant Irvine, conduct your interviews and then I want a SITREP ASAP. Inform the captain that the device is disabled and the ship is to be searched from the radio antennas on top of the mast to the sonar dome below. The peak of the bow to the truck on the National Ensign on the fantail…get it done now!”

Daegan saw Chief Jackson walk into the room, along with one of the technicians whom Daegan couldn’t name. Ferrin wasn’t in sight and Daegan started to get an uncomfortable knot in his stomach. Something wasn’t right here.

“We have a very serious problem on our hands, gentlemen. I want this villain found and I want to know the reason he or she is sabotaging my ship.” Starr paused as if an idea had come to her, but she kept it to herself if that was case. “Chief Jackson, you’ll need to have someone cover Ferrin’s shift until Lieutenant Irvine is through questioning her. In the meantime, continue normal operations. I’m going to go and speak with the captain on the bridge. Daegan, I want the team in the ready room in ten minutes while the crewmembers get back to work once this ship is verified. I’ll let Gunny know and then I’ll meet you all there once I’m through on the bridge.”

Daegan narrowed his eyes, coming very close to requesting that he be able to sit in on the interview that Lieutenant Irvine was about to conduct with Ferrin. He quickly ran through the scenarios and it wasn’t until he saw Stick slightly shaking his head at the directions of his thoughts that he reconsidered. The best course of action was to gain as much information as he could and then seek Ferrin out after the fact to get her take on what happened. This was the second time that she’d been put in the middle by whoever was playing these games. Now that everyone on board knew that someone was out to incapacitate this ship, it would be harder for the perpetrator to hide among them. As Stick said earlier, it was time to become the apex predators they all were.

‡

F
errin leaned her
elbows on the table, using her hands to smooth back her hair, which had come halfway out of the band a while ago. She ignored the trembling in her fingers and almost laughed at the newly formed habit. Her life had been boring, mundane, and downright repetitive, just the way she’d liked it, before she took this job. There wasn’t any aspect in her life that hadn’t changed in the last six months, but especially this last week.

“I don’t know what more I can tell you,” Ferrin said, finally looking back up into the intimidating face of Lieutenant Irvine. He reminded her of a bulldog and he wouldn’t let go of one particular answer she gave, which just might well be the end of her job. “I wasn’t gone for more than ten minutes. I had to retrieve my eyeglasses. I came back, made a new pot of coffee, sat at my desk where I received a radio transmission from Jerry to check on a SatCom net we were working on, and that’s when I found the device in the rack.”

“Did you speak to anyone on the way to retrieve your glasses?”

Lieutenant Irvine had asked this question multiple times and Ferrin answered, giving the same response she’d given before. She told the truth, but she did omit the fact that she’d regained possession of her glasses in Daegan’s stateroom. Irvine had assumed she’d gone back to her cabin and she hadn’t corrected him.

“Yes, Daegan Murphy.” Ferrin rubbed her face in exhaustion and then leaned back in her chair. “I contacted Jerry after I found the bomb and told him that I needed him and the captain down in the radio room immediately. I contacted Chief Jackson and told him the same thing, although I was very careful with what I put over the two-way radio. I didn’t know if the captain would want the word
bomb
to be public knowledge.”

“How long was it before—”

“Lieutenant Irvine, some information has been brought to my attention,” Starr said, barging into the wardroom that had officially been set aside for interviews. The center of the room was dominated by a sixteen by five foot solid oak table and a total of eighteen leather-bound heavy oak chairs. Most of the chairs had been pulled back to the bulkheads around the edge of the wardroom to give the impression of a courtroom. By rushing in, Starr had blown Lieutenant Irvine’s carefully setup interrogation stagecraft. “May I have a private word with Ferrin, please?”

Lieutenant Irvine appeared as if he was going to argue until Starr stared him down and he finally relented and left the room. The man wasn’t pleased to have his interview interrupted, but he wasn’t about to go against the woman who paid him his salary. Ferrin wasn’t too comfortable with what was about to be said either and when Daegan walked in with Gunny in tow, she felt slightly nauseous at the turn of events. She’d had a handle on it, damn it. A slow burning anger started to push aside the fear that had been instilled inside of her since finding Tami.