Bloodstorm

2

Senior Chief Will Dobler grinned as his eleven-year-old son, Charles, stared in wonder at the “0” course while a squad of tadpole SEALs scaled the walls and walked the logs and powered over the obstacles.

“Wow, Dad, I want to do that. Please?”

Dobler chuckled. “Not quite yet, mister. You’re not big enough to get halfway up that wall. When nobody is using it we’ll go out and you can give one of them a try.”

It was visitors’ day at the Navy SEALs training facility on the strand at the south side of Coronado, and the senior chief of Third Platoon of SEAL Team Seven had his family on the tour. The Navy Special Warfare Section, Group One, was a secure facility. But the part of it that was the BUD/S training section and the home base for SEAL Teams One, Three, Five, and Seven was not actually a part of the secured area. It was a little more relaxed, and from time to time visitors were permitted to look over the training areas and the SEAL facilities.

Senior Chief Dobler’s wife, Nancy, and Helen, his fifteen-year-old daughter, were along as well. It was to be an all-day family outing. First the base, then a picnic and surfing and swimming down at the Silver Strand State Beach on the ocean side.

Gunner’s Mate Miguel Fernandez had brought his family along on this Sunday afternoon, and they’d teamed up for the tour. Maria Fernandez had been a help to Nancy, and now they were good friends.

At the fifty-foot-deep tower tank, Charles wanted to jump in, but his father gave him a curt no. The tank was little used now. The waterproofing of the tadpole SEALs was done in a new pool.

Helen had asked to stay in the car during the tour, but her mother had persuaded her to come. “We want you to know where your father works and what he does here,” she had said. Helen had pouted a little, but had gone along. She was tall, slender, and dark-haired like her mother. She had filled out during the past year, and Senior Chief Dobler had been worried about the boys who began to come to their house to talk to Helen. He knew they had more in mind than talking, and it bothered him. So far, no major problems.

The tour moved to SEAL Team Seven’s headquarters and the Third Platoon office. Jaybird Sterling sat behind one of the desks, working on his machinist’s mate specialty and getting ready for striking for first class. He stood as the civilians came in, then saw Senior Chief Dobler and relaxed.

The chief introduced his family and Maria and Linda Fernandez to Jaybird. While the chief told his family what he did in the office, Jaybird moved over beside Helen. Jaybird had felt his jaw drop in amazement when he saw the pretty girl.

She had to be eighteen, long dark hair, dark eyes, beautiful skin, and a face and figure that made him stop and look again. He grinned foolishly as he motioned to her.

“Hey, how do you like our digs?” Damn, what a stupid thing to say. She probably wouldn’t even look at him.

She turned and smiled, and Jaybird almost melted into a puddle on the floor. “Jaybird. Yes, I’ve heard Father talk about you. He wonders how you got your nickname.”

“That’s classified. Sorry. You like the tour?”

“First time I’ve been here. Seen a lot of the Navy, of course. Ever since I could walk and talk.”

Senior Chief Dobler looked at his daughter and frowned. He went on explaining what they did in the office. Then he looked at his daughter again.

“Jaybird, knock it off. I’m trying to talk up here.”

Jaybird waved, and looked at Helen and grinned. “I’ll get chewed out tomorrow,” he whispered.

Helen laughed softly, and her smile brightened. “I hear there’s a fish fry for the platoon coming up.”

“Yeah, someone is always having one. Oh, you would come. Yeah, I’ll look forward to it.”

“That would be nice. I haven’t made many friends here yet.”

“Hey, I’ll be your friend. Maybe I could call sometime.”

“Jaybird, I hope so.” Her smile was perfection.

Senior Chief Dobler growled at Helen as he led the group from the office. Jaybird stood watching. Helen was last to leave. She waved and gave him her best smile, then hurried out.

“Damn,” Jaybird said softly. Now there was a girl. She had to be eighteen. He could check on the chief’s personnel file. Hell, no. She was at least eighteen. He’d call her tonight and have a chat. The chief couldn’t object to that. Jaybird snorted. The chief damn well would if he knew about it. He must protect Helen like he was a Doberman pinscher without a leash.

Later that afternoon Jaybird went to a movie by himself, had a beer, then from the apartment he shared with two other SEALs, phoned Senior Chief Dobler’s home. Helen answered.

“Hi, this is Jaybird, hoped that you would be home. How was the swim?”

“Fine, but those breakers are so rough.”

“I could teach you how to duck under them.”

“That would be great. Only…”

Jaybird laughed. “Only your father wouldn’t let you anywhere near me in your swimsuit. Hey, if I were in his place, I’d probably do the same thing. You have a boyfriend?”

“No. We’ve only been here a short time. I hardly know anybody.”

“That will change. Are you out of school?”

“No. Soon.”

“You’ll probably go to college.”

“I hope to. Did you have any college?”

“Just a few courses. No chance now that I’m a SEAL.”

“Is it… do people shoot at you?”

He laughed. “Oh, yes. From time to time. But not when we’re on base or in training.”

“It must be hard. All that training. Then you go on the missions. Dad tells us a little about them, but not much. Mom goes out of the room when he starts talking about them.”

“Good idea. Then she won’t worry.” He wanted to ask her if she would worry about him when they went on a mission, but he couldn’t. “Hey, maybe we could go to a movie or something sometime.”

“Maybe. Dad doesn’t like me to go out on dates.”

“You have been on dates?”

“Sure, not a whole lot.”

“You ever go to the Coronado library?”

“Once or twice.”

“Maybe you could go there to research something and I could just happen to be there. Your dad wouldn’t know anything about it.”

“We could talk?”

“For hours we could talk. How about tomorrow night, about seven at the library?”

“Yes. I’ll be there. I better hang up. Bye, Jaybird.”

Jaybird said good-bye and sat there grinning. He hadn’t been so pumped up in years. A girl? He was getting this excited about a girl who was also the apple of the eye of his senior chief? He must be nuts. He laughed. Yeah, he was nuts, all right, nuts about this little lady Helen. Right then he couldn’t wait for Sunday to end so he could wait for Monday night. If they had a night exercise or night training tomorrow, he was gonna kill somebody.

Monday came at last for Jaybird, and the training was easy, some classroom things about new weapons and then a ten-mile training run along the sand. He was tired, but so nervous he couldn’t spit, as he walked up to the Coronado library. He was ten minutes early.

Jaybird found a table with no one sitting at it in the far corner of the reading room. He picked a book off the shelf and pretended to read. When he looked up from the book for the twentieth time, Helen stood across the table from him. She watched him as she stood there smiling but with her arms folded protectively across her chest.

“You came,” she said, sliding into the chair opposite him. She reached out and touched his hand across the table. “I told Daddy that I wanted to bring home some mysteries. Let’s do that first, then we can talk.”

They found the mysteries, checked them out, then went back to the table and talked. Mostly she listened to him. He told her about his growing up in Oregon. She told him about moving from one Navy base to another. It was so comfortable, seemed so right to Jaybird. He’d never been this open with a girl before.

Helen looked at her watch. “Oh, dear. I have to be home by eight-thirty and it’s almost eight already.”

“I’ll walk you home, almost all the way. First, let’s look in the stacks.”

They went into the long rows of books and stood close. When nobody was in the row, she reached out quickly and kissed his lips, then came away.

She sighed, her smile radiant. “Oh, my,” she said softly.

He kissed her back and held it longer. They clung together.

“I think I love you, Jaybird,” Helen whispered to him.

“Oh, yeah, I feel the same way. But you’re my boss’s daughter and he would kill me if he could see us right now. What the hell am I supposed to do now?”