Blind Promises

45. Alaska

Another day, new orders. Finally, they'd get to leave the Texas heat. The nightlife wasn't so bad but the base was boring. Working with a bunch of men and women who would rather you not be there was not the best job in the world either. Quite a few reserved admiration for the general badassness of the Special Forces Airborne Ranger Ninja Ops Super Bros. For the most part, in the office where she was stuck gathering information that she was certain Hal already had a great deal of, there was disdain. The females looked down on her plain clothes, all the men looked down into them, and Rich just gave her shit constantly for it.

"Okay boys, looks like we're out of this hell hole. Who is excited?" Hal was perky, which never bode well. Coop barked with a particular bit of exuberance. Gwen helpfully suggested, "I'd say the dog is ready."

"I'll reserve my excitement for the next twenty minutes when you tell us where we're going and what we're going to do when we get there," she smiled with enough saccharine to kill a horse.

Neither of the boys said much, just looked at Hal. They were dressed in their full battle cammies looking hot as hell. She was having a hard time not jumping right in the middle of them and doing inappropriate things to Liam's body.

She wore a set of id tags just like Liam's at all times, not only did they have her information but his. "Okay, well, you guys are a lot of fun this morning. What's up, tell me or I'm throwing a fit."

"Mrs. Denton-Halstad, is that a threat?" Hal asked. Gwen looked at him as if he'd left his head in his office, "No, not in particular. Unless you feel like my fit throwing is particularly threatening."

Liam drug her over to where he sat on the edge of the desk, "Shut up," he said. He amended, "Please." He was quiet a moment before he interjected, "I love you."

"Pussy," Rich whispered from behind him. Liam checked him in the forehead. "God damn, mother fucking son of a bitch. Why do you do this shit? Why?"

Liam turned around and looked at him a moment, "You called your CO a pussy, you deserved it, unfuck yourself."

"Shit, we're going to fucking Siberia, aren't we? We are going to some where worse than hell. Mother fuckin' son of a bitch. Hal, what in the shit? Wasn't Hell's Asshole enough?" Gwen fussed. The desk groaned when she threw herself back over the top of it. The silence of all of them was damning. "Mother..."

"Not Siberia exactly. It's still US soil. Some people consider it prime vacation real estate. I have an old friend who lives up there that needs our help. Something is going on up around his area and he's none to happy about it. He's a retired Navy CWO, a very smart man who is astute in every possible way. I don't feel like this is over, whatever Mitch was dealing in, his higher-ups aren't giving up. What the fuck this organization wants with my boys I do not know but I'm not impressed. We've got to get some real work done and not this lollygagging around." Hal wasn't honest but that jab at the end left Gwen defensive.

She shot up, "Hey, I've legitimately been working my ass off for you! Maybe you three didn't feel the need to let me in on the system because you think it's cute or whatever, but I've wasted hours of my life bored out of my mind. I can't help what these two do on the daily but I've been legit working my ass off for your entertainment."

"I know you've been doing busy work and I apologize for not giving you proper clearance, I'll fix that ASAP. You should have never been gathering unusable information in the first place. You should be writing reports on structural enhancements and the ways in which they can be weakened. Please accept my apologies for my shortcoming." Hal addressed her seriously. She knew shit was about to get real for some reason.

Gwen started to worry, "Okay Hal, what's up? Are you about to kill me or dump me off in Iris' lap? I'm fine if you put me back in Nowhere, Oklahoma but let's not tell Iris I'm home, 'kay?"