Maddie stayed close by his side and often held his hand. He couldn’t tamp down the excitement to be close to her, no matter how dangerous this situation was. He was proud to be part of it and hopeful someday soon he’d be part of the Delta family. Maddie would tease him to slow down. He’d let her tease him later.
Papa sent Lieutenant Udy and Thor to fly the Blackhawk to the clearing the SEALs were originally supposed to land in and blow it up. He sent Greer in his Razor to meet them. They were to turn on the transponder right before they set the dynamite. The Navy would see it had been destroyed. Before they could deploy troops to investigate the crash, he determined it was time to call out Admiral Gusbane.
The conference room was tense as the phone rang and then connected. “Admiral Gusbane here,” the man answered.
“Admiral Gusbane.” They all listened in as Papa Delta spoke in his calm, articulate tones. “Retired Admiral Davidson Delta here, sir.”
“Davidson, Davidson. Wonderful to hear from you. How are you? How’s the family?” The man sounded friendly, but Braden didn’t trust him. There was something tight in his voice. He knew about the Blackhawk crash and was scrambling to know how to respond to Papa.
“The family is wonderful. My grandchildren are the best of the best. I trained them and they’ve all exceeded my expectations or level of training.”
“I bet they are impressive.” Admiral Gusbane gave an uneasy chuckle, probably wondering which if the “impressive” grandchildren took out his SEALs. “What can I do for you, Davidson?”
“Well, Admiral.” It was interesting that Papa Delta kept the man’s formal title. “We had a tragic accident near my home in Colorado recently.” The timeline would not add up, but Papa was counting on the man not daring to call him out about it.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“As am I. A Blackhawk down. Flew too low, got caught in the trees, and slammed into a beautiful mountain clearing. Tragic.”
“For sure.” A pause. “How does this involve me?”
“Well, as my boys investigated the crash, they were able to shift through the … remains and found dog tags for six service men. Four Navy SEALs—Captain Zeke Hendrickson, Lieutenant Vance Udy, Petty Officer Kyle Christensen, and Petty Officer Manuel Leandro—one Naval Lieutenant, Braden Moyle, and one EOD, Senior Petty Officer Zander Povey.”
Another pause. “This is very tragic. Such highly trained men … lost.”
“Lost,” Papa agreed. “Extremely tragic.”
“Thank you for informing me. I will pass this information along … Davidson, is there any possibility the men survived and we could list them as MIA?”
Papa looked around the room. Obviously, the admiral knew they weren’t dead. “There’s always that possibility until we identify the remains.”
“I’ll make sure a team is en route to investigate the crash and retrieve any remains for the family.”
“No, you won’t,” Papa said.
“Pardon me?”
“This is my property. I don’t want to level any charges against the U.S. Navy of an unlawful mission against U.S. citizens, but you know I can and I will.” His voice dropped. “And you know I have the friends and support to make this very sticky for the Navy. Very messy.”
There was silence, and then Gusbane cleared his throat and said, “That makes sense. I have no orders for a Blackhawk to be in your area. I’m sure it was only a training mission. How do you propose we … clean it up?”
Papa smiled and Braden felt relief sweep over him. The admiral was backing down. “I know the Navy needs to confirm the deaths and investigate, but that can happen in a few … weeks. I think we’d better keep it quiet until you find out who ordered them to be here.” He paused, giving him a chance but the admiral said nothing. “Or until I get more information from the crash site itself. We have a fabulous local sheriff’s office here.” He winked at Sheriff Reed, Esther’s fiancé. “I’ll have them get on that.”
“Um … Thank you.”
“Blessings to these men’s families,” Papa said.
“Yes, yes.” Gusbane sounded impatient to hang up and relay either the tragedy or that his attempt to steal the Delta weapon had failed.
“Oh, and Bruce?” Papa used the man’s given name for the first time.
“Yes, Davidson?” He was obviously annoyed at Papa’s flexing.
“I would caution any of your personnel from any sort of training near my valley. The winds in our valleys can be unpredictable, so the possibility of injury or death is very, very high.”
Another pause. “I understand. Thank you for the warning.”
“Goodbye, Bruce.” Papa hung up and looked around the room.