Dante Valderez sat rigid in the back of the large black helicopter speeding over the choppy ocean, the waves sparkling in the crescent moon’s dim light. He was barely visible in his black uniform, and with the side doors open on the helicopter, he tilted his scarred, bald head forward and held onto the respirator covering his mouth.

Beside Dante was an officer in light grey armour, who was scanning the ocean below and shouting out over the whumping of the helicopter’s blades, “What are we looking for, sir?”

“One of our inflatable life rafts!” Dante shouted back, his voice muffled a bit by his hand cover the front of the mask. The officer nodded, and continued to scan the ocean below, but both him and Dante soon saw the red flare shoot above the ocean a few miles a head. Dante commanded the pilot to head towards the flare, still burning bright above the now red-lit water. The flare floated back down to the water slowly, and the officer next to Dante grabbed a set of binoculars and focused on the patch of ocean near the falling, sputtering red light.

Before he could even point it out to Dante, the black-uniformed commander leaned forward, gesturing to the helicopter’s pilot, and waved at a barely visible cone-shaped object bobbing on the water. “Bring us down to 50 feet above that life raft!”

The pilot nodded and banked the helicopter into a dive, heading towards the orange cone lit against the inky black waves. As they approached closer to the life raft, the pilot turned on the helicopters lights, and lit up the water around it. In the water near the entrance to the raft was the blonde head of a young man, thrashing in the water and waving frantically at the helicopter.

“Lower a cable to him!” Dante commanded the officer with him, who dutifully powered on the winch that lowered the steal cable from the side of the helicopter. The young man in the water reached out to the life preserver on the end of the cable and clung to it once it was in reach. Dante gestured to the officer operating the winch to reel it back in. The winch reversed, and started to pull the young man from the water.

In the meantime, the downdraft from the helicopter blades was buffeting the life raft and pushing it away from the aircraft. Dante maneuvered one of the spotlights onto the entrance of the raft, peering carefully into the interior of the inflatable cone. He stopped for a moment on seeing someone inside the life raft, and roughly pulled the officer operating the winch close to him, shouting at him, “Stay with that woman and don’t let her leave the life raft!” He shoved the officer up to the open side of the helicopter, and then pushed him out in one powerful move before the office could respond. The officer fell out of the helicopter and straight into the water, passing the young man being pulled up by the winch. The young man looked down to watch the officer fall into the ocean, and then re-surface, sputtering in shock. He swam over to the life raft’s opening, and pulled himself in.

Dante leaned over the side of the helicopter and turned off the winch, grabbing the young man pulled out of the water onto the floor of the helicopter. The soaking wet young man pulled himself up, gasping, and sat on the bench opposite Dante, who had himself sat down again, and was directing the helicopter’s pilot to leave the area. “You’re a lucky man, Lucretius. I can see how you earned your nickname, ‘Lucky’,” Dante shouted at the shivering blonde man, chuckling as the helicopter continue to lift away from the ocean’s surface. “We’ve got a long ride ahead of us, Lucky!” Dante continued, and threw a light grey blanket across the cabin to him.

Lucky didn’t say anything, but instead tried to dry himself off with the blanket. He tried not to look at the dark figure staring at him, the dark eyes shining in the moonlight, unmoved and harsh. Dante leaned over to the pilot and shouted some directions to him, the pilot nodding in acknowledgement and then making the helicopter bank again sharply and lean forward, speeding away from the life raft that Lucky was just rescued from.

“Where are we going?” Lucky asked, looking away from Dante and watching the black ocean waves below them race past.

Dante didn’t answer, but instead leaned back on the cabin bench and continued staring, the black eyes unfocussed now and looking past Lucky. The young man ran his hand through his wet blonde hair, slicking it back and covered himself with the now damp blanket, trying to warm himself.

“Was the girl with you? In the life raft?” Dante suddenly asked Lucky. Lucky nodded, and started to shiver. “Did she offer any information about what she was doing in Joshua Tree Park?” Dante asked, his voice more pointed now. Lucky shook his head. “We’ll talk more later about what you learned from her. You did well, and I will commend you for a promotion.” Lucky bowed his head slightly, and pulled the blanket closer around himself.

“The California Independence Movement has some dangerous information in its possession, and you will be key in assisting me in retrieving it. Our mission tonight is to find the bearer of this information, none other than Rosa Jardine, the mother of your son!”

*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***