CHAPTER TWENTY

Ace was seated at his computer station with a dozen screens glaring his way. When they heard the communication with Burkhard, they immediately began searching for all the known islands that Japanese soldiers hid on post-WWII. Many, as suspected, were not Japanese islands at all. They belonged to the Philippines, Taiwan, or Malaysia.

"Ace? Can you come look at this?" asked Jean, walking in with the others. He tried to turn in his chair but couldn't move. "Do I need to come to you?"

"You do unless you can get Goliath and Atlas off my feet," he smirked. "I kind of hate to move them. This is the warmest my toes have been in ages."

"Jesus," muttered Miller, crouching down to look under the desk. "It's like you're wearing the biggest, furriest slippers ever made by man."

"Here, boy," said Tailor.

The two dogs jumped and moved toward Alec and Tailor. They liked the big men because they could pick them up and carry them for their baths. They also ate a lot of food, which meant a lot of scraps for the two of them.

"These are the locations of the other sites he's holding the women. We want to carefully plan these out. Who are our allies in the area? Who can we count on?" asked Jean.

"Also, who the fuck is protecting this dick in D.C.?" asked Miller.

"It's more than one person," said Victoria, wheeling her chair from behind the screens. They hadn't even seen her.

"Shit, kid. Tell me when you're in the room so I don't cuss so much," frowned Miller.

"What fun would that be?" she smirked. "I like that you act normal around me. It lets me know that you trust me. Anyway, it's more than one person protecting them. Well, just him now. With his father, it was former presidents, senators, cabinet members, you name it. With the brothers, it's been primarily the vice president, two cabinet members, and some key lobbyists who have control over a lot of people. The vice president is now the former vice president, but the two cabinet members are still there. Here's the list."

She handed them the list and smiled at them.

"Hayes is doing well," she said quietly. All the men looked up at her, nodding with a grin. "He loves what he's doing, and he's already received praise from his commanders. I guess it's no surprise, right?"

"No surprise to us at all, honey. He's amazing. Did you want to go see him?" asked Gaspar.

"Oh, I don't know. I mean, maybe. Can I think about it?"

"Take all the time you need. If you want to see him, we'll get your dad's approval, and we can put a team together to get you there."

She blushed a bright pink and nodded at the men, wheeling herself behind the screens once again. Her fear of the outside world nearly crippled her, but she was slowly coming around with small trips to the General Store, shops in New Orleans, and other locations that were only a few miles away.

For now, she was happy helping the comms team for both VG and Gray Wolf. She loved being the daughter of Mo and Ophelia, and they loved being her parents.

"This is the one you're going to have trouble getting in and out of," said Ace, looking at the list of other sites. "Domas, in Jakarta. They're still not happy with someone blowing up several weapons depots."

They all turned to stare at Miller, and he looked shocked.

"What? It wasn't just me, and those damn depots were providing weapons to terrorists. Don't blame me."

"It wasn't just the weapons depot. You blew up that ship in the harbor," frowned Ace. Miller grinned, nodding his head.

"That one was beautiful," he smirked. Tailor and Alec smiled at him, nodding. Seeing the serious expressions of Ghost, Ian, Nine, and Gaspar, they cleared their throats and wiped away the expression.

"Sorry. We just remembered how pretty it was watching that ship go down," said Tailor.

"No ships going down this time," said Ghost.

"Well," said Ace, drawing out the word.

"Well, what?" frowned Gaspar.

"Well, one of these sites is using the top of an old barge. You might just have to sink it. I mean, get the girls off, blow the barge."

"Where is it?" asked Ian.

"Jakarta."

"Of course it is," frowned Ghost. He looked at Miller and the others and nodded. "Alright. Get those kids off and get them to safety. Ace, Code? Find a way to get our allies there to help get those kids some help. Who can we count on for Jakarta?"

"Australia. They'll be the ones most willing, and their Special Forces teams are as good as ours. They could have a boat ready, and we can load those kids off, set the explosives, and be home for breakfast."

"And the other locations?" frowned Nine.

"Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the northern tip of the Solomons. Again, I think our best bet is the Australians to help with that one."

"How long before we can arrange support with them?" asked Gaspar.

"Working on it now. Give me twenty-four hours. Max." They all nodded, and Ace went to work on the allies.

"Code, what do we have on the remote islands?" asked Ghost.

"There are probably two or three dozen that I need to check. I'm moving some satellites and sending out long-range drones that we have in position on the West Coast. It's going to take me some time, but I understand we don't have time.

"The islands are too far apart to send you out there and go island hopping around the region. Besides, you could end up playing whack-a-mole if he was one step ahead of you. Let me find them if they're still out there."

"Anything else we need to know right now?" asked Jean.

"While you guys were gone, we have Vic, Damon, and Calvin looking through the balls of dog tags. They weren't the ones to send them out, which tells us that there are others still alive. They went through them and identified as many as they could that they knew were dead. It was nearly all of them."

"Fuck," muttered every man in the room.

"Hey, I'm getting a message from a man named Burkhard," said Victoria. "he said he's a friend."

"Patch him through, honey," said Jean. "Burkhard, this is one of the men you met yesterday."

"That narrows it down. Look, a contact of mine said there is an island off the coast of Alaska where he thinks some of these men are located."

"Alaska? They would have frozen to death," said Nine.

"Most did. The Kaplans were kind enough to leave coats and blankets. The island isn't ever visited because it's so desolate other than a few caves, walruses, seals, and polar bears. The contact said that Kaplan was sending someone to get those men and move them. You need to get there first. I'm sending the coordinates now."

"If this is true, Burkhard, we owe you," said Jean.

"It's true, and you don't owe me. I'm alive, so I count that as a win." The line went dead, and Jean looked at the others.

"Get your long johns on. We're about to get cold."

The absolute desolation of where the island was located nearly took their breath away. There was nothing except glaciers, snow, ice, and miles of absolutely nothing. Savannah and Doug landed the Osprey on a firm piece of land and let the men off.

Code had been able to move the satellites into position and found thermal images of humans in a cave nearby. They could see footprints in the snow. Praying that they weren't too late, they moved quicker.

When they reached the entrance to the cave, Jean, Wilson, Miller, Alec, Tailor, Whiskey, Rory, and Ian stood at the entrance.

"Hello? Is anyone in there? Don't be afraid. We're here to get you home," said Jean.

"They may not be English speaking," said Rory. "Try Russian or Chinese."

"I don't speak Chinese," snapped Jean.

"I speak Russian," said Alec. Remembering all of the Russian he was ever taught, he spoke to the men casually. "It's alright. We're here to take you home. No one will harm you. We are enemies of Kaplan."

They heard men speaking rapidly inside, and Alec knew he'd reached them. Since they didn't have weapons other than possibly handmade ones, the men slowly walked to the entrance. In spite of the frigid temperatures outside, the cave was fairly warm, with two fires going.

Adjusting their eyes to the darkness, they narrowed their gaze and spotted a group of men huddled near the back of the cave. One stepped forward, his gaunt appearance nearly knocking Alec to his knees.

"You're Russian?" asked the man in English.

"No, I'm American. So are these men, but I speak Russian. We're here to get you off this island. Can you step forward? We mean no harm and have food and warm clothing for you." Seven men stepped closer to the fire, and Alec's breath caught in his chest. They looked like Jews walking out of Dachau. He turned to his brothers, pleading for help. Wilson walked up slowly, showing them the red cross on his bag.

"I want to help you. Is anyone injured?" he asked.

"We all have frostbite," said one of the men in English. "We've lost toes and fingertips. That's how most of the men died."

"You're American?" asked Wilson.

"Four Americans, four Russians, but we're friends now."

"How long have you been here?" asked Ian.

"The longest has been here for twenty-six years. The newest, just eleven. We don't even know why we were taken. Most of us were on training missions at various bases around the world. Why are we here?"

"We can't answer that because we don't know," said Rory. "What we do know is that we have to get you off this island before Kaplan's men come back."

"D-do you have any food?" asked one of the Russians.

"Yes. Of course," said Wilson. "Let me check all of you on the chopper, and then we can give you food. I don't want you to get sick, though." As the men shuffled forward, they saw the state of their feet and cringed. With winter fast approaching, they all would have died from exposure.

"Let's go, my man," said Tailor to the first man. "Free rides today." He pulled him onto his back, and the man didn't have the strength to fight him. Each of the others followed, returning for the last one.

"Get them to Anchorage," said Jean. "Rory, Tailor, Alec, and I are going to spend a few nights to see if we get any company."

"Aw, man, they get to have all the fun," said Miller.

"Fine, you can stay too. But don't blow any shit up. We're liable to create an avalanche or some kind of fucking earthquake, and all die."

"Spoilsport."

"Get the chopper out of there in stealth mode," said Code. "We've got an incoming boat." Tailor smiled at his friends, waving the chopper off.

"Let's go, boys. Time to have some fun."