Page 6 of Keeping Penny

“How are you doing? Feeling sick?” Casper asked.

“No. It’s called morning sickness for a reason, Tate,” Laryn said with an eye roll.

“And our little one? Or ones?” he asked, putting a hand on her belly.

Laryn beamed up at him. At only five foot five, she was about half a foot shorter than Casper. She put her hand over his on her belly. “They’re good.”

Casper nodded.

Not only were Casper and Laryn dating, she was pregnant. They all assumed at some point she’d have to stop being deployed with them, but he had a feeling Laryn would put that off as long as possible. Which Pyro wasn’t opposed to, because having anyone else looking after their precious choppers wasn’t a happy thought. Everyone trusted Laryn one hundred percent, and not having her with them would give them all something else to worry about when they were deployed.

Laryn gave Casper another hug, then stepped away. “Go,” she ordered. “I’ll check things over and make sure you’re good for your next flight. I’m assuming there are more people you need to evacuate.”

“There are,” Casper said, his expression turning serious.

“Do you know where they’re putting the people we bring in?” Pyro asked. He’d never cared in the past, and he felt a little guilty about that. But he couldn’t get little Bowie out of his mind. Being in a new place was probably a bit scary, especially since she couldn’t see. He just wanted to make sure she and her mom were all right.

It was just because of the girl’s disability. That was all.

He ignored the voice in his head that said he was full of shit.

“I think they’ve set up a bunch of cots at the far end of the hangar bay. Not sure where they’ll put everyone once we head back home, since the choppers will need to go back inside the hangar, but for now, that’s where they’re stashing them.”

Pyro frowned. The hangar was a massive space where the aircraft were stored when not in use. There were three decks with multiple zones, allowing for better flow and more efficient storage and maintenance of the extremely expensive airplanes and helicopters. It was loud and drafty—and not, in Pyro’s estimation, the best place for people to actually sleep.

But the ship was at full capacity, and there weren’t enough extra bunks for all the evacuees. It was the most obvious place to set up cots and put the extra people who were being brought onboard.

Yet, just thinking about Bowie and Penny trying to rest in the hangar made Pyro frown.

“Wow, do you look serious. Come on, let’s go find the others. We’ve got other evacuations we need to facilitate and plan for. Now that it’s more than obvious who we are and what we’re doing, things will probably be even hairier on our next trip. We need to make contingency plans, maybe move the evacuations to different places in the city so we aren’t such easy targets.”

Pyro didn’t disagree. Given that was their first rescue of the mission, they were able to take the rebels by surprise. He had no idea how many more US citizens were out there in need of rescuing, but the next trips into the city would be far more dangerous.

His thoughts turned back to Bowie and Penny. They were lucky to be among the first round of evacuees. He wondered what Penny’s story was once more. How she’d come to find herself in Gabon, where she was from, what her plans were now. And he couldn’t help but wonder how they were doing, if they were being taken care of properly.

Doing his best to tune out the thoughts—and his concern over what the next steps for all the women and children would be—Pyro followed behind Casper as they left the flight deck.

Three hours later, Pyro’s back ached from hunching over maps of Libreville as he and his fellow Night Stalkers scoured the area for the best places to have the next round of evacuees gather so they could be picked up as safely as possible.

From intel they’d received, they knew they had probably two more trips each. Six more loads of US citizens to evacuate. The first would be a mix of women, children, and men, and the last would be mostly men. Those who’d made the decision to stay until the last possible moment as they did what they could to secure top-secret documents and help their Gabonese coworkers.

“Go get something to eat. Maybe a nap. We’re headed out in four hours. Things will be trickier in the dark, but hopefully it’ll cut down on the number of people in the streets who want to take us down.”

Pyro didn’t need Casper to tell him a second time to head out. His stomach was growling, and he was more than ready to eat. He wasn’t sure sleeping was an option, as the details about the upcoming mission were swirling around in his head. And he still couldn’t shake the desire to check on Penny and Bowie…and the other women who they’d evacuated this morning.

“You headed to the mess hall? I’ll go with you,” Chaos said.

“Wait up, me too,” Edge called out.

Pyro was glad for their company. They walked through the maze of corridors toward the main mess hall. They were at the tail end of service time for dinner, but hopefully they’d make it and not have to settle for something from the grab-and-go area. There was nothing wrong with the food offered in the to-go boxes, but Pyro needed something heartier than a sandwich and potato chips.

As he suspected, the mess hall was pretty empty, since there was only ten more minutes until the chow line closed up shop. He and his friends went through quickly, piling their metal trays with hot food.

“I swear this stuff gets less and less appetizing as the years go by,” Chaos bitched, as they sat at a circular table near one side of the open space.

“These have to be powdered potatoes for sure,” Edge agreed.

Pyro kept quiet, as he was too busy eating. And he’d definitely had worse growing up. Powdered milk, eggs, and potatoes were an everyday part of his caloric intake as a kid. The families he’d lived with hadn’t been rich, but they’d always managed to put food on the table. It might not have been gourmet, but for a hungry kid, food was food.