~ Fairfield ~


    September 23


    "Aaaaaah!"


    Sudden scream gave Aiden a jump. He was sleeping… What''s with the noise? Sarah! She is not next to him!


    Aiden scrambled out of the bed and rushed out.


    He found Sarah on the sofa, staring at herptop and not moving. If not for her blinking, he would think that she turned into a statue.


    Her face is pale… she looks terrified.


    "Sarah, love? What happened?", Aiden asked as he cautiously approached her.


    She didn''t react.


    Aiden sat next to her and looked at herptop. She was reading work emails.


    "You are ted to give a presentation on security enhancements at White corp. during thepany meeting?", Aiden''s face lit up for a second and then he remembered how Sarah is petrified of those things. She does not like being in the spotlight or people looking at her… but he thought thattely she made progress rted to that.


    "Hey…" Aiden touched her chin to make her face him. "It''s OK. You can do this. And you will be great. I will help you."


    She plunged herself into his embrace.


    "I told Jeff not to put me on the spot…", she whined.


    Aiden rubbed her back gently. "Jeff is on his honeymoon. Oscar is in charge now… and he probably does not know. But you can do it. Or do you want to tell him to pull you out of the lineup?"


    "This is already sent to the wholepany!" Sarah was close to hyperventting. "If I pull back now, everyone will know that something went wrong. And they will probably think that something is wrong with me, or my performance, or who knows what… but it will not be anything good."


    She took few deep breaths. "I would like to step up and do this… but I''m afraid that I will mess up and make a fool out of myself."


    Aiden wanted to tell her to snap out of it and to stop doubting herself, but he felt that Sarah is trembling, so he decided on a softer approach: "How about this… there is no need to cancel anything at this point. You prepare your presentation, and I will help you practice. If you don''t like it one week before the meeting, and you are notfortable about it, then you can back off. OK?"


    Sarah nodded and buried her face in his chest.


    ~ Ind in the Pacific Ocean ~


    (Almost at the same time when Sarah''s scream woke up Aiden…)


    "Aaaaaah!"


    Sudden cry startled Jeff and he rushed out of the bathroom with only towel around his waist. He was in the middle of the shower and he still has soap in his hair.


    "What happened?" He frantically looked at JoAnna.


    JoAnna beamed. "They areing here!"


    Jeff''s appearance earned him a raised eyebrow and a smirk from JoAnna. "Not bad… not bad… but not good for fighting pirates. Get that soap off yourself and dress up. They are here!"


    Jeff''s face darkened. "What pirate fighting?"


    "Look, look…", JoAnna was pointing on theptop which showed a map with their ind in the middle and a dot approaching it. "They areing… THEY are COMING! Based on this, we have just over an hour to go into our positions. Quickly, get ready! We leave in ten minutes!"


    JoAnna dashed into the closet do dress up. Well, she can''t fight pirates in her underwear. And she already picked perfect clothes.


    Jeff swallowed hard and told himself that it will be all fine while going back to get ready.


    Two of them were supposed to leave this ind, but JoAnna insisted on staying longer even if that means spending the whole honeymoon here. She didn''t flinch when he mentioned expensive reservations which will go to waste unused. He was unable to convince her to leave. Ah, his wife is hungry for adventure. She is awesome like that.


    Jeff repeated silently that they nned for this. Security is there to handle apprehending the smugglers, and JoAnna will be in sniping position, away from the trouble. They can do this. She will get her fun, he will not be punished because he is preventing her from having fun… but he is worried… JoAnna is too excited about this.


    …


    JoAnna is in her sniping position. Jeff is next to her. Two of them are using binocrs to observe onerge fishing boat as it''s approaching the ind. That boat is dragging a smaller one.


    Number of bodyguards are already in position, close to the cave. Jesse is on top, just above cave entrance. He insisted to be on the frontline saying that he is missing some real action. And JoAnna is almost sure that she heard him say that all this babysitting is making him die on the inside, but she decided not to respond. JoAnna allowed Jesse to do what he wanted, but she hopes that nothing happens to him, otherwise she does not know how she will exin it to Sarah.


    Two speedboats are hidden nearby, each with four armed bodyguards. They should capture the vessel which stays in the water.


    JoAnna can see five people in the smaller boat approaching the ind, whilerger one was waiting a bit further away. Perfect. Just how she estimated. The smaller boat also has number ofrge boxes in it. JoAnna grinned while thinking that there is more treasureing her way!


    "Five people areing to the ind. No one moves until I givemand.", she spoke into themunication device. "At least one person is left on therger boat."


    They see the boating toward the sandy beach and two men got out of the boat… they pulled the boat on the sand partially and started unloading boxes. It seems they came to make another drop off.


    It was well coordinated.


    When five men entered the cave, less than a minuteter, there was amotion inside… they discovered that their other boxes went missing. Jesse and bodyguards surrounded five distressed smugglers as soon as they exited the cave, and after a small scuffle they overpowered them with ease. By then, two powerboats captured therger fishing boat. It had two people on it.


    Seven smugglers were armed, but it seems that so far they didn''t encounter troubles, so they didn''t expect any. They were mostly confused, unable toprehend what is going on.


    JoAnna was disappointed. She was hoping for some more action… at the end, she didn''t get to shoot even once.


    Jeffughed. "You should be happy that you didn''t need to shoot people."


    He was relieved that this is over.


    "Let''s take their gifts and interrogate them." JoAnna reminded Jeff that it''s not over. "We need to find out who else is involved in all this."


    "Gifts?"


    "Don''t you think that they came to deliver wedding gifts to us?", JoAnna grinned while walking toward the cave where security already tied up the smugglers.


    ---


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