FIFTY-FOUR
When the Bougainville’s engines cut off, an eerie silence followed. Even the dolphins ceased their chatter as if they knew they’d arrived—and that danger awaited them. Their ship now floated in the middle of the northernmost part of the Taiwan Strait, still some distance from their target: the Chinese military base atop the atoll that held Cleo and Romeo, the wild pod, and hopefully Marie. That was, assuming intelligence sources were accurate.
Eva and her team geared up in silence, and the SEAL team geared up in the opposite corner. The SEALs were much more somber than when they’d done their practice mission the day before—and they wore even more of the greenish goop on their faces. She wondered if they were always this way before the real deal, or if the bomb scare had put th
