Annie tried to remember the best way to get to the café without going through the main lobby. They had to backtrack twice when she took them into older parts of the building, but eventually they made it.
“Are you going to unload that somewhere?” Annie indicated the bag of bombs he was holding. She knew in her head that it was stable, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be inches from enough explosives to blow up a city block.
“I’ll stash it in that closet over there. If anything happens, take it and run for the exit.”
“I’m not leaving without you!” Her heart dropped into her stomach at the thought of losing Mace.
Irrational as it was, she’d formed a bond to this man and she couldn’t fathom leaving without him.
“Hey, I’m not planning on dying anytime soon, but I can’t concentrate if I’m worried about you getting killed. I know it sounds crazy, but I-I have feelings for you I can’t explain.”
Hope surged within Annie’s chest. Maybe he felt the same way that she did?
“Then you’d better live long enough to figure them out. Come on.”
Annie watched Mace’s back again while he broke into the janitor’s closet and stashed the explosives. Her blood pounded in her veins as they crept down the silent halls. The café was in the basement of the building and it was dark and creepy on a good day. With only the emergency lights on and no people bustling around, it was even worse.
Ducking into an alcove, Mace pulled her to his chest and motioned for silence. How could he know if anyone was coming or not? It was so dark she could barely see a foot in front of her. A few endless heartbeats later the sound of clumping feet echoed in the hallway.
“Hey, Brett, you see anything?” A scratchy voice came over the radio down the hall.
“Nah.Nothing. ‘Course it’s darker than witch’s heart.”
“Whadda think happened to Jud and the rest of ‘em?”
These guys were darn chatty over the radio. The wait must be getting to them.
“Probably got scared and deserted their posts.” Brett snorted.
“Probably.You having any trouble with your prisoners?”
“Nah, after the example we made, none of them has the guts to say ‘boo’. How ‘bout you? You got the commie soldiers in your group.”
“Hell no. They’re afraid they’ll be the next example. I thought this’d be more interesting, ya know. It’s just waiting around for something to happen.”
“I know. Boring. I was thinkin’ of having some fun with one of the nurses.”
“Command said don’t touch ‘em.”
“I wouldn’t touch her, much. Just make her touch me, if you get my drift.”
Annie’s gut clenched again. Those were her nurses, her staff. No hick was going to rape one of her friends. She’d tear this freaking hillbilly apart with her bare hands!
Something in her body language must have told Mace what she was thinking, because his arms tightened around her and she couldn’t move. She was afraid to struggle and alert Brett to their presence, but her heart pounded in fury.
Mace continued to hold her until the goon walked down the other end of the hall. Even once he determined the coast was clear, he held onto her arm and steered her back to the janitor’s closet.
Once inside he let her go.
“Why did you stop me? I could have taken him out before he even knew what hit him!” Annie got right up in his face.
“Yeah, but could you have done it before he radioed his buddy? I’m just as pissed off as you are, but we have to think with our heads, not our emotions.”
“He’s going to rape one of my nurses! I can’t allow that!”
“Stop freaking out and use your training. You can’t let the fate of one person jeopardize hundreds of lives.”
“What do you know? You’re a man. You have no idea what it’s like to fear rape.”
“It doesn’t mean I want it to happen!” Mace stepped back from her and looked her in the eye. “Look, I’ll do everything in my power to keep your staff safe, but we’ve got to do this according to plan or we’ll both be dead.”
Annie swallowed the fear and anger and tried to focus on what he was saying. If she went charging into the café, guns blazing, she could very well end up killing innocent civilians before she stopped Brett. Even worse, he could radio their location and reinforcements could come down.
But it could be one of her nurses! One of her friends. Annie’s mind struggled with the idea of letting one of her friends get hurt. She had to put the good of everyone first, no matter how much it galled her. He was right, damn it. “Let’s set the freaking charges.”
“That’s my girl!” Mace pulled her close and planted a kiss on her.
“But when the time comes, Brett’s mine.”
“No problem, as long as I get to watch.”
* * * * *
Mace set the charges in the parking garage in the farthest spot he could find. The area looked a little weak, but he wanted these guys to take a long time to find out it was only a decoy.
He really wished he had paid more attention to that explosives workshop. At the time it seemed ridiculous. He was a pilot; all he needed to know was what they looked like if they were in his copter. Live and learn. He hoped. He had a lot more living to do.
Looking over his shoulder, Mace felt his breath catch at the sight of Annie holding the weapon on the door to the garage. Her angelic face didn’t hold one hint of softness now. He almost pitied Brett. Then he remembered what Brett was thinking and all pitying thoughts vanished.
One of those bastards better not try to rape Annie. Mace would blow the whole hospital up before he let that happen.
Stop! He couldn’t think like that. One life wasn’t more important than hundreds, isn’t that what he just told Annie? He looked at her again and his heart did a slow thump. She was worth more than a million lives, and he’d do anything, everything to protect her.
“Come on, Captain, we’ve got work to do.” Annie headed towards the door.
“Yes, ma’am!”
Mace checked the charges one more time and followed Annie out the door. It was a good thing she knew her way around the building, because he would have been lost hours ago.
“I was thinking,” Annie started.
“Why do I think I’m not going to like this?”
“Just hear me out. I think we should split up.”
“No fucking way! There is no way I’m going to let you loose on Brett.” Or leave her open to attack.
“Then tell me how we’re going to rescue the military personnel and the civilians at the same time when they’re on two different floors? By the time we take care of the civilians they’ll have started killing off the others.”
Damn. He should have thought of that. He was no good with ground operations.
“There’re two men guarding each location, how are you going to take out both of them?” Mace’s mind raced as he tried to iron out this new wrinkle.
“The same way you planned to. When the explosives blow I’ll shoot the sons-of-bitches with this sucker.” She hefted the automatic weapon.
“You could really do that?”
“I’ve had the same basic training as you have.”
“I don’t mean physically. Can you emotionally take someone’s life in cold blood?”
“It’s down to us against them. You’re damn straight I could shoot them. I don’t want to, but I will if it means saving all of us.”
Mace looked at her beautiful face and cringed at the thought of the damage to her soul.
“We have to do this; we’re running out of time. Besides, once I take out one of them, I’m sure the civilians will come to my aid.” Her face softened and she stroked his cheek. “We don’t have any other choice.”
She was right, and he knew it. That didn’t mean he had to like it. “Fine, but I’ll take the civilians; you go after the military personnel. There’re fewer of them and less chance that they’ll panic when the
bombs go off.” And hopefully they’ll have already subdued the enemy seconds after the explosion.
* * * * *
Annie crouched down behind a huge ficus tree and waited for the explosion to launch her attack. She had been full of bold words for Mace, but the truth was she was shaking in her shoes. It was a whole lot easier thinking of shooting someone who was going to possibly rape one of her friends than it was going into unknown territory.
The roar of the explosion shook the building and shocked her into immobility for precious seconds. Training overcame instinct and Annie ran for the meeting room. One of the goons was running out as she got there and she fired at his legs.
The spray of bullets shooting out of the weapon was faster than she expected and the man went down hard, blood splattering everywhere. She hadn’t killed him outright but if he didn’t receive medical care he’d be as good as dead. That was something she’d have to worry about later. If the situation was reversed, she didn’t think he’d be feeling any remorse.
Kicking in the door, Annie shot at the ceiling and dove to the side, praying the whole time. Return fire came shooting over her head and she scrambled for the cover of a table. Peeking her head over the edge she caught sight of two officers diving on top of the lone gunman while bullets flew.
Using the furniture for cover she crawled her way over to the battle. One of the MPs she recognized from night shift was lying in a corner, his face battered and bloody, and one arm bent at an unnatural angle.
Several other military nurses were clustered in a circle. Annie handed off one of the rifles to the nearest one and worked her way closer to the last goon. Another spray of bullets flew around the room, forcing her to duck for cover.
Shouts erupted and she lost track of the present battle, transported back to the one in Iraq. In her mind, bodies were torn apart by shrapnel, wild-eyed fanatics spouting guttural rhetoric charged at her with guns flashing.
The logical part of her mind screamed at her to snap out of it, but her psyche was frozen in fear. The image of a bearded man pointing a gun at her, then jerking and falling back when he was shot played over and over again. Remembered fear crawled in her belly, and she wanted to whimper with the force of it.
“Major. Major! You can put the weapon down. The prisoner has been secured.” Colonel Michaels’ voice broke through her daze.
“Yes, sir!”
“Good work, Major. Where are the others?”
Others? “Ah, there are no others, sir.”
“You did this yourself?”
“No, sir. Captain Mason O’Keefe is now liberating the civilians. We need to get out before the rest of the enemy realizes they’ve been duped.”
“Duped? You’ve got a lot to explain.” The colonel looked at her with an incredulous expression on his face.
“In all due time, sir. Now we need to leave.”
One of the other colonels got up from where he’d been tying up the goon with a telephone cord. “Let’s take the fire exits and try to get out by the side of the building. They’re bound to have most of the exits covered.”
“I’ll secure the rear.” Annie snapped her spare clip into the weapon.
Michaels looked at her again but didn’t say anything. Two of the nurses were helping the wounded MP out, and the one she had given the gun to stopped as she went past.
“What happened to the guy that went out first?” she asked.
“He’s lying in a pool of his own blood in the hallway.” Annie felt bile climb up her throat.
“Good. He did this to Scott as an ‘example’ of what would happen if we tried anything. I think he liked doing it too. I hope he dies a slow, painful death.”
Annie looked at the wounded MP who was holding his ribs with his uninjured hand and shuddered. Anyone who would enjoy inflicting so much damage they broke bones didn’t deserve her remorse.
Colonel Michaels followed the last of the nurses and held the door for Annie. She walked to the threshold and waited for him to get out of the way so she could pull the door closed.
“What are you doing? Get out of here, Major! That’s an order.”
Colonel Michaels stood in the doorway with hands on hips.
“I’m sorry, sir; you’ll have to write me up for insubordination. I have to watch my buddy’s back.” Annie saluted and ran for the café.
Chapter Seven
Mace’s side was bleeding worse now than when he had gotten the original injury. If he had one intact stitch after this he’d be surprised. Blood from the wound he’d earned preventing a rape was dripping down from his shoulder making things look even worse than they actually were.
Trying to ignore the pain from where the bullet grazed his shoulder, Mace concentrated on leading the civilians out of the café. Annie had told him there was an emergency exit somewhere in these tunnels. Another stab of fear hit him in the gut as he thought about her. Was she okay? Hell, was she still alive?
Focus on the job, O’Keefe. He couldn’t let emotions take over his brain right now; he had to get these people to safety. The emergency lights were few and far between in this section of the hospital, and Mace flinched at every echo of sound.
They only had a limited time before the enemy realized the explosion was a trick. Once they figured it out, all the remaining unfriendlies would be trying to recapture the hostages. As it was, Mace had taken out four more men than he had planned on.
Thank God he’d told Annie to take the smaller group. They were at ground level and had a better chance to escape without running into trouble.
The thud of a boot heel hitting the floor sounded like a gunshot compared to the quiet shuffling of the civilians he was leading. Searching for options, Mace motioned for them to crouch down behind the huge laundry bins they’d just passed.
Slipping ahead, he strained his ears trying to hear another telltale footstep. If he remembered Annie’s directions right, they were pretty darn close to the exit. That noise could have come from someone guarding the door. And since none of his allies wore boots, that meant it was an unfriendly up ahead.
A slight breeze played about his face, teasing him with its coolness against his sweaty skin. If there was a breeze that meant there was probably a door. With his back against the wall, Mace slipped around the corner in time to see the silhouettes of two men standing in an open door. One of them made a pulling motion and tossed something down the hall and ducked for cover.
Shit! He must have pulled the pin on a grenade! Mace had five seconds to throw it back or they were all dead. Running as fast as he could to intercept it, Mace picked up the rolling mini-bomb. Juggling it from hand to hand, praying he had time, he kicked open the emergency exit and threw his best fastball pitch.
The grenade cleared the door, spinning through the air as it went. Mace couldn’t follow its progress, his eyes were blinded by the light streaming in. Jumping away from the exit he pulled the door closed and dropped to the floor.
“Get down and cover your heads!” he ordered his followers.
His shoulder screamed in agony as he raised his arms and covered his own neck and head. Seconds dragged out as he waited for the explosion.
And waited.
And waited.
A dud. Ten years scared off his life by a cheap surplus store dud.
Laughing to himself, Mace pushed his weary body off the floor. His knees felt weak from relief, but his job wasn’t done yet. He had to get the civilians out of the hospital, and now two enemies knew they were here.
“Anyone know another way out of here? If we go out that door, chances are we’ll be met by two guys with machine guns.”
Faces glazed by shock looked at him with blank expressions. These people had been through so many traumatic events in the last six hours, they were functioning like sleepwalkers.
“I do.”
An older man with “Sanitation Engineer” on his uniform came forward.
“It’ll be a tight squeeze with all these people, but there’s a sid
e door in the furnace room for repairs and stuff. We’ll have to go through one at a time, but I doubt anyone even knows about it.”
“Good man. Lead the way.”
“Yes, sir!” The grizzled man snapped a salute and turned. “Haven’t seen this much excitement since I came home from Korea!” He walked back down the hallway.
Shaking his head, Mace ushered his charges after the janitor. Wonder if it was the same closet that he and Annie had made such memories in? Mace would never be able to look at a cleaning closet the same way again.
The furnace room was indeed a tight squeeze. The exit was a tiny service door, and they had to squeeze by the burner of the furnace to get to it. Luckily with the power out the burner wasn’t running or they’d be risking serious burns to get out.
It seemed to take forever for the group to file through. A couple of the heavier women had difficulty getting out, and Mace had a moment of panic picturing them all trapped in the tiny space while the gunmen picked them off one by one. Eventually, the last of them made it through the miniature door.
The janitor stuck his head back in. “Your turn.”
“I’m not going.” There was no way he was leaving without Annie. He handed the veteran one of the guns he carried. “Take this and get the hell away from the building. The first guy you see in a SWAT team jacket, throw down the gun and raise your hands over your head.”
“Are you crazy? They’re still a bunch of these guys running around. You’ll be killed!”
“It’s a risk I’ve got to take. Thanks for the help, you’re a real hero.” Mace made sure he had enough ammo then saluted the man and pulled the door closed.
The darkness was overwhelming, and Mace took a minute to get his bearings. Annie should have gotten her crew out by now and be with them.
Should being the operative word.
He was positive that she was still in the building. The two of them were connected in some way, and just as he knew he couldn’t leave without knowing her fate, he knew she hadn’t left him either.
By Honor Bound Page 23
