***
Admiral Robert Mathias sat on his porch, nursing a glass of scotch when the call came.
“Mathias.” He grunted surlily into his secure line.
He wasn’t a happy man. His Arrowheads were still at large. He’d been given only a three-month waiting period by his superiors. After that period, he was to presume his men dead. Then he was expected to send in another team. The three months were almost up. Admiral Mathias was definitely not a happy man.
“Lt. Cdr. Wesley reporting, Sir. Mission accomplished. Requesting assistance to convey my crew and our prisoners back to base, Sir.”
“I’ll be damned.” Admiral Mathias breathed, his voice filled with incredulity. “Number of persons to be conveyed?” The Admiral was already headed back inside, his body shaking with relief and excitement.
“Seven, Sir. The rest of the prisoners, who are mostly wounded, can be held in the prisons here.”
“We’ll be there soon. Sit tight. Is there anything we can do in the meantime?”
“Well…since we have nothing to do but wait, the guys and I would like to call and talk to our families. We’ve found four GaTo CDMA handsets and would like to secure…”
“Give me their codes.” The Admiral demanded, reaching for a pen and paper. After quickly taking down the codes Ty rattled off, he started punching the codes into his computer.” Give me ten minutes. Then you can start making your calls.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Good job.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Ty responded with a smile in his voice. It was very rare for Admiral Robert Mathias to pay a compliment.
“And, Ty?” The elderly man’s voice shook with emotion.
“Admiral?”
“I’m proud of you son.” He said quietly.
“Thank…” Ty trailed off when he heard the dialing tone in his ear, indicating that the Admiral hadn’t waited at all for his response. He grinned as he watched the handset in his hand.
“Care to explain that shit-eating grin?” Jackson asked as he sat beside Ty on the bench.
“Admiral Robert Mathias says he’s proud of us,” Ty said simply, almost bursting into laughter at the disbelieving and yet awed look on Jackson’s face.
“He said that?” Jackson stared into his friend’s eyes.
Ty nodded slowly. “And he’s going to secure the handsets in the next ten min…”
“Yes.” Nate, who’d been dying to speak to his wife and kid, gave a fist pump. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
The Arrowheads laughed. Ty had called the Admiral’s secure line, using one of the GaTo handsets. But they definitely couldn’t call the unsecured lines of their loved ones with those gadgets unless the GaTo gadgets themselves were made secure.
Whilst Ty waited for the ten minutes to be up, his fingers hovered over the keypad of the handset…ready to punch Tanesha’s numbers. But for some reason, when he finally punched a number after the ten minutes, it wasn’t Tanesha’s number.
***
“Hello.” Kyle Parker was still chuckling as he picked up his phone. Dean Broody was an idiot.
“Did you knock him up?” Ty drawled and then promptly burst into laughter when Kyle gave a roaring shout. “Dude, shut up and listen to me.” He couldn’t stop laughing himself
“It’s Ty, guys.” Kyle bellowed. Then amidst the sudden uproar, he growled… “You son-of-a-bitch, tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. How is Tanesha?”
“Wait. I’m connecting you to…” Kyle trailed off as Cole snatched the phone from him and connected it to the huge speakers in Kyle’s large plush den, which he called his ‘Man Cave’.
The squad, together with Tristan, Aaron, and Shane, where in Kyle’s house to hang out as it was Kyle’s turn to entertain on that Saturday. The cozy ‘Man-Cave’ was filled with lots of fun stuff such as video games, pool table, dartboard, two different projected screens; one showing soccer whilst the other showed a movie, recliners, lots of comfortable seats, a bed and a bar which was stocked with any interesting liquor that could be thought of.
Though the squad as usual had come together to have fun, the guys were not their usual lively and fun selves. Much as they knew their buddy Ty was a survivor, they couldn’t help but get genuinely worried as he’d been gone for nearly three months without a word. So to say they were thrilled to be hearing from Ty at that very moment, would be an understatement. Everyone spoke at the same time immediately they heard Ty’s booming chuckle on the speaker.
“Guys, guys…one at a time.” Ty finally bellowed. “Jeez, you’re all such idiots.”
“Fuck you, dipshit.” Matt laughed. “You okay?”
“I wouldn’t be talking to you fools if I wasn’t, would I?” Ty asked dryly. “Now tell me, how’s Tanesha?”
“Before or after she realized she’d been knocked up?” Chris muttered to the guys, drawing chuckles from them.
“What was that, Chris?” Ty asked, sounding anxious. “Speak up man.”
“She’s pregnant, Ty.” Kyle dropped the news.
“Yes.” Ty couldn’t mask the joy in his voice. “I know.”
“You did?” Michael asked, sounding surprised. “You couldn’t have possibly…”
“Dude, when you hit the jackpot, you can feel it in your bones even before the machine announces it,” Ty said cockily and then burst into laughter when the guys started raining curses and insults at him. “Ow come on Michael. I know that idiot Dean didn’t even have a clue when it was staring him in the face, but you are a doctor and have two kids for fuck’s sake. Are you saying you didn’t feel it when your swimmers hit that egg?”
“You’re a fool, Tyron,” Dean growled, the insults and laughter getting even worse. The guys had a good laugh till Ty got all serious.
“Guys I want to do something outrageously massive for her but I don’t know exactly what to do.” He said quietly.
“Yeah, she definitely deserves something great after all you’ve put her through, soldier.” Aaron quipped up.
“I know Aaron. I know.” Ty responded.
“So get back here quickly and marry the girl,” Damon said.
“Maybe it should be a surprise wedding,” Tristan said.