“We’ll open the engine hatches to the twin V-12s. Everything will be tarped. The casual onlooker will think we are doing engine maintenance. We’ll leave everything covered until tonight. Once we hit that ship, we may have to run for it. This boat is built for speed and shallow water, plus we out gun almost everything out there that is not military. If we have to, we should be able to run for the San Joaquin Delta. I know of a slough where we can hide this boat for a while if we need to. At the worst, I know where we can sink it temporarily in fresh water so that we can recover it in several months and rebuild it.”
“I’ve got to hand it to you boss, you really have some brass cojones.”
Dawn found Joe standing at the mine tunnel collapse, looking into the hole with the now collapsed tunnel opening. He thought about what he would have to do to dig up the likely collapsed area and then to reinforce the opening. He would have to do it all himself to maintain the secrecy of the wine tunnel. Perhaps he could build some sort of barn over the site to help hide the entrance.
About that time, Porto came proudly bounding up with what looked like a furry leg in his mouth, obviously having found the remains of a recent coyote kill. He dropped it in front of Joe and then proceeded to roll on it. Joe moaned. Now he would have to give Porto yet another bath before he left for Oakland. Or maybe it could wait.
DeMario and his buddies snoozed on cots in a room next to the FBI briefing room. An alarm started beeping.
Charlie reached over and turned off his alarm. “I’m glad that I managed to convince the Maritime Safety and Security Team to hold exercises today. The orange alert helps. However, with the short notice I am not sure what kind of resources we’ll have.”
DeMario was instantly awake. “Please be sure to keep us informed. This situation could get real ugly real fast. Getting clearance from Derek for you to coordinate potential assistance from your team is a big help. Too bad that you can’t brief them on what really is going on.”
Pete got up and poured himself some coffee from a thermos. “Keep your powder dry. What kind of personal armament are you going to be allowed to take?”
“Not as much as I would like. We don’t have a lot of room on those Defender boats. The boats are armed with the M240 machine guns, which can pack a pretty good wallop.”
DeMario took a cup of coffee offered by Pete. “Pete and I will do another recon this morning to see what the damage was last night. It’s kind of strange how everything quieted down after midnight.”
Pete sipped his coffee. “Yeah, but I think everyone just got dug in, waiting for the real action to start.”
Ed parked his Citroen at the apartment complex. He then walked up to a door and pushed the doorbell.
“Good morning Ed. Come on in, I was just finishing packing.” Pauline caught Ed staring at her three suitcases and smiled. She was dressed in a green low cut backless and tight dress that accentuated her perfect breasts, the fitness of her bottom, and her shapely legs. “It is all about choices. This dress is not very warm if it gets cold.”
Ed had to work to control his breathing, seeing Pauline looking so good in her tight dress. “My car doesn’t have air conditioning and it is already almost 90 out. The northeasterly will be blowing warm air into Oakland. You will be fine.” Ed had to admit that it would really feed his ego to be seen with someone as attractive as Pauline.
Pauline leaned up, put her arms around Ed’s neck, pulled his head down, and deeply kissed him. Ed picked her up by her bottom and passionately returned the kiss. Pauline looked Ed deeply in the eyes. “Being here in my apartment, if we are trying to take it a little slower, we better get going to Oakland. Or we won’t be going slow any more. I can’t resist much longer.”
Ed smiled and set her back down. “You’re right. It would be too easy to let our passion take control. We should savor our falling in love. It isn’t every day that this kind of thing happens. You are becoming everything to me.”
Pauline had to work very hard to resist kissing him again. Doing so would make her lose all control and then they wouldn’t be going to Oakland any time soon. “I think of you all day and all night.”
"I think of you constantly. I really look forward to spending the day with you.”
Joe and Elise cruised along in the fast lane of the freeway in El Zin, their customized 1956 Chevy hot rod panel truck. The tuned exhaust rumbled deeply, hinting at the horsepower under the hood, and that this was no ordinary truck. Of course the chrome tips on the 3-inch diameter twin exhaust, and the chrome wheels with wide meats on the rears more than hinted that this truck had something more. Elise rolled her window up to cut down on the wind and exhaust noise so that she could talk “This is awesome to get a gold medal and best of class for this event. The competition is pretty stiff.” Continued ...
