Free Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology by Jake Devlin

said.
    Jake looked at his
watch. “Even earlier.
    “ Oh, JJ, if you
want, just for your memories, once we get the faces blurred out, we
can email you the video from last night.”
    “ You videoed it?”
    “ Yup. We video
everything.”
    “ Was anybody
watching?”
    “ Nope; that was
all internal, in the suite, no crew.”
    JJ breathed a sigh of
what Jake had previously breathed a sigh of and said, “Okay; I
might want to relive that some night back in the States.”
    “ Your eyes only,
okay?”
    “ Oh, Jake, if I
do watch that, I'll have a lot more than my eyes involved.”
    Jake and Pam glanced at
each other and smiled. “She's baack.”
    “ Got that right,
Jake.”
    As the helicopter hove
into view, the three of them hugged.

- 33 -
    November
13, 2012 4:24 a.m. local time
    80 feet above the
Aegean Sea

    The helo took off in a
very light mist, with Craig at the controls and Becky next to him.
The doctor sat in the back, his hands once again flex-tied, between
two large members of the cleanup crews. The 3D printer and its
associated equipment and supplies sat securely tied down in the
middle of the passenger bay. The rest of the crew sat on benches or
on the floor, all safely strapped in.
    “ Faster, Craig,
faster. We've got to find Cam.”
    “ I'm going as
fast as this baby can go, Becks. We'll find her.”
    “ Fiona, any luck
yet?”
    “ Sorry, Becks,
nothing.”
    “ Shit. C'mon,
Craig.”
    “ Easy, Becks.
We'll find her. I'm on the same bearing she woulda taken back to the
launch.”
    “ Shit, shit,
shit! Fiona, keep trying.”
    “ I have been,
Becks; still nothing.”
    “ How about her
chip? Can you get a reading on that?”
    “ I've been trying
that, too. Nothing.”
    “ But that's
impossible. Have you checked your settings?”
    “ Yup, Becks; it's
set to her chip and it's working fine. Just no signal coming in.”
    “ Check mine, just
to be sure. 4639807.”
    “ Got it. Yeah,
you're coming in fine. And you're heading in the right direction.
Not the equipment, okay? And … nope, still nothing from Cam.”
    “ 8974395, right?”
    “ Right. Still
nothing.”
    “ Shit.”
    “ I've just put
the drone back up, on a rear azimuth, but I can't keep it up for long
with this incoming weather.”
    “ Okay, copy that.
    “ Craig, any more
speed?”
    “ 'Fraid not,
Becks; I'm at full throttle. And that storm is moving in faster now.
Look at the radar.”
    “ Double shit!”
    Ten minutes later, as
the rain and wind picked up, Becky shouted, “Hold up, Craig.
Look! Two o'clock, 200 yards.”
    “ Where? What?”
    “ There,”
Becky said, pointing. “It's one of the jet skis.”
    “ Ah, got it.”
Craig veered the helo and hovered. Becky undid her seatbelt and
headed back to the passenger bay.
    “ Where do you
think you're going?”
    “ I'm going down
there. Get the winch out!”
    “ We don't have
time, Becks; that storm is moving fast and we'll go down if we stick
around.”
    “ But Cam is down
there somewhere!”
    “ Maybe not;
there's only one jet ski down there. She may have had to abandon
it.”
    “ Maybe. But if
she did, she should already have gotten to the launch.”
    “ No such luck,
Becks; she's not here. And still nothing from her chip.”
    “ Shit, Fiona.
    “ Craig, I don't
give a shit. Lower me down there, NOW! That's an order.”
    “ Okay, okay. But
you've only got two minutes, max.”
    “ Then get me down
there fast!”
    Fifty seconds later,
Becky splashed down next to the jet ski, swam over to its bow and saw
a rope tied to the tow ring, running down into the increasingly
choppy water. She tugged on it, but it wouldn't budge. She
disconnected from the winch line and hooked it into the rear tow
ring. She then climbed aboard, tied herself on and held on tight.
    “ Bring it up,
Craig.”
    “ What?”
    “ Bring it up …
now. That's an order.”
    “ But” –
    “ NOW!”
    “ Okay, okay.
Bringing you up.”
    A moment later, as
Becky reached the floor of the passenger