by Dale Mayer
Levi swore and said, “Let’s check out the room, guys, but they’ve gone up.”
They did a search and realized a staircase led to the rooftop with no angle for them to see.
“Images coming,” Ice said.
Levi lifted his phone to see the drone images. Six men surrounding one man. “Images received,” he said and thought about how to get up there. “It looks like there’s only one set of stairs.”
“Second set of stairs on the far side,” Ice said. “Directly across from where you’re standing.”
They bolted to the far end of the building and found another large master suite. Levi looked out the window at a deck with stairs going up to the roof. They snuck out onto the stairs, and, from the images Ice still sent from the drone, they had HVAC vents on the roof big enough to hide behind.
They crept across and lined up shots. They were almost in the clear when one of the guards saw something and pointed his gun and fired. It hit one of the rooftop pipes and made a loud ping. Rhodes took aim and dropped the gunman.
And now the fight was on. The gunmen spread out, trying to protect their leader, but they were picked off in no time. Swearing and cussing with his hands in the air, Juan called out, “Who are you, and what do you want?”
Levi stood slowly and said, “I want to know why the hell you thought you could come to my house and just what you thought you were after.”
The man stared at him, hate in his eyes. “You’re helping the Guatemalan government,” he said. “Anybody who helps this government has to face me.”
Levi raised his rifle and said, “That’s fine. Face me then.”
Just then rapid machine-gun fire came from somewhere up in the hills. Two of Levi’s men took a hit, and he could feel his shoulder burn as he went down too, but not before he fired his own weapon and took out Juan, one bullet to the center of his forehead.
Juan was down, but so were two of Levi’s men. Merk was swearing but alive. Rhodes worried him. He wasn’t talking. Levi dragged him back into cover and saw he’d taken a bullet in the belly. He called out to Ice. “Use the drone and find that other shooter. Rhodes is down. Merk has a bullet in his arm.”
“On it,” she said, her voice calm and steady.
He appreciated that. He ripped off part of his T-shirt and used it to pack Rhodes’s side. Thankfully he was unconscious. Levi quickly used the rest of his T-shirt to tie up the bandage, cutting off some of Rhodes’s own shirt for additional packing. With that tied up and the bleeding somewhat slowed, he looked over to see Merk grinning at him.
“I’m fine,” he said. “He caught my gun arm, but I’m still in fighting form.”
“Whether you are not,” Levi said, calm and steady, “you’ll need to be.”
“We got this,” Merk said. “Let’s go get that sniper bastard.”
Chapter 7
Ice already had the helicopter engine started when she saw the gunmen on the roof. She’d tracked the location on the far hillside of whoever had taken down Rhodes. For that, he’d pay. With her heart sinking and blood in her eye, she punched in the power, lifted the bird and headed toward her men. She landed on the roof and, using the weapons on the chopper to give them cover fire, she started punching holes into the hillside.
With her group fully loaded, she lifted off just as a rocket launched at her. She was up and gone as it slammed into the compound, but she circled back around to come up behind whoever it was targeting her group. She dropped several more heavy rounds of ammunition on the hillside.
“He’s gone,” she said. “Stone, you got any satellite for us?”
“Watch your back,” he said. “I’m keeping track on the ground, but that drone of yours could come in handy right now.”
“I got it,” Merk said. He tossed the drone out of the helicopter, letting it fall before picking up the controls and moving it away from the rotors. He allowed it to drop down lower over the ground, circling and hunting for any men still alive who had shot their group. “Somebody needs to tell the Guatemalan and Columbian governments that Juan is dead.”
“I’m on that,” Stone said. “But you guys need to watch it. I don’t know who the hell’s behind this, but somebody is still on the loose.”
“Not for long,” Levi said as he tapped Ice’s shoulder.
She turned to look. Two men scuttled down the hillside as fast as they could. She took the helicopter directly into a nosedive, sending everyone skittering in the back. She wore a feral grin as she came down and faced the men on the cliff with the helicopter. They tried to lift and lock their weapons onto her, and she took out both of them. Then she rose up taller and asked, “Any more?”
Behind her, Levi whispered, “That’s my girl.”
“Find more of those assholes,” she said. “Just like every ant colony, there’s more where they came from.”
From beside her, Merk said, “Two more there,” and showed her the screen, relaying the drone’s camera sending a video feed.
She nodded and took the helicopter in the opposite direction. “See if there’re more,” she said. As she circled around, there was no sign of anybody. The drone had picked them up on one side, but they had since disappeared. There was too much cover down below.
She glanced at Levi, and he nodded. “I’ll go down,” he said.
Merk beside him said, “Hell, no, you won’t, at least not alone.”
No time to decide. Levi hooked on and threw himself out of the helicopter as soon as they were low enough for him to make it to the ground.
Ice watched him fall, her heart in her throat, but she’d been here too many times. He’d come back to her if he possibly could. And if he couldn’t … Well, the next mission, she might just take herself out too. She didn’t like that line of thinking, but it was pretty damn hard not to.
If she wasn’t the only one who could fly this bird, she’d have been down there with him. She snatched the drone controls out of Merk’s hand and said, “Go.” But he was third in line, grabbing gear, because Brandon had already thrown himself out. With a three-man crew now on the ground, she hovered low enough where she could keep her weapons live. She had to keep an eye on her fuel too.
Dakota settled into the seat beside her and said, “Give me the drone.”
She passed it to him.
Dakota was good but not as good as she was. Just something about machines in flight were her thing. She dropped down low, circling to see if she could find any movement.
And then she caught sight of him. “Uh-huh.” She zoomed in so fast, even Dakota grabbed hold as she raced toward somebody hidden among the rocks. The gunman bolted for cover, and she took him out.
Dakota shook his head beside her and said, “Damn, you use this helicopter like a bloody machine gun.”
“It’s equipped with multiple heavy-duty machine guns,” she said, her tone clear and deliberate. “And you can damn well be sure I’ll use them to my advantage.”
“He’ll be okay, you know?”
“He bloody well better be,” she said, “or else.”
Dakota laughed at that. “You guys are great together,” he said affectionately.
She grinned. “We’ve been doing this a long time. It makes you wonder if there’s any point when we can’t do it.”
“I know,” Dakota said. “I see Flynn and Anna, and I wonder myself. We’ve got so many men trying to help save the world. At what point do we hang up our belts and just become retired gunfighters?”
She laughed. “There was a time that you died to become a retired gunfighter. You would have made sure you went out on the job.”
“Yeah, but it’s different now. I’m not alone anymore.”
She shot him a look and smiled. “And I think it’s what keeps us coming home every day.”
“Exactly.”
The communication channel crackled.
“Levi?” There was no answer, just more crackling. She flew back to where she’d dropped them.
Dakota was tapping
the line, trying to pick up their communication again.
She looked at him and said, “Use the drone.”
He sent it over the area where they were hovering, looking to see what he could find. There was more crackling in her headset but nothing clear. She swore and dropped lower, but she didn’t want to get so low that she was in line for taking a hit. If the helicopter went down, they would have a hell of a time getting back home. Not to mention paying back Argentina for the costly bird.
Just then she caught Levi’s voice. “Need pickup.”
“Shit.” She banked the helicopter and started circling, looking for him. “Give me your location.” Her voice was steady, strong and crisp.
She caught bits and pieces until finally, she heard, “… at the drop-off.” She headed back to where she had dumped them, but there wasn’t much clearance. She was afraid of ending up caught in the trees. She frowned, judged the distance and gave a clipped nod. She could see Levi below.
Dakota said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a minute. There’s no room.”
But she very gently and carefully lowered the huge helicopter into the small landing spot. He just looked at her as Levi and his men dashed on board.
Levi grinned and said, “Go, go, go.”
Ice rose, not moving left or right but straight up, and she punched it hard, rising fast up out of the clearance of the trees. “Home?”
“Back to the airport,” Levi said. “We’ll meet the ground crew there.”
“What about the backup group?”
“Heading home,” Levi said. “Thankfully they are all intact, and we didn’t need them.”
She nodded and said, “Check on the wounded.”
“Merk came with me, stubborn fool. And Rhodes is still unconscious,” Levi said, his voice harsh.
She knew how he felt. They’d been with Rhodes since the beginning. He was one of the four who had started the company. To lose him right now … or at any time … Well, that would be a devastating loss, and no way in hell would she go home able to tell Sienna what had happened.
“You tell that asshole,” she roared, “that he better make it through this. I won’t face Sienna over it.”
“I was just thinking that. How is the fuel?”
“Enough to get back to the airstrip but not much farther. We’ve been up and at it for an hour and a half.”
“Okay, take us back to the airstrip. We’ll have to land quickly.”
She snorted at that. “You know that the attacks usually come from within.”
“You’re not thinking it’ll be somebody on the ground crew, are you?”
But she left her thoughts hanging on that one. They’d find out soon enough. Grimly she flew through the early morning light, loving the sun rising to the left. It was gorgeous out, but it didn’t in any way cover up the fact they were still in grave danger. At the landing site, she lowered down and called out, “We’re down, but no plane in sight. I repeat, no plane in sight.”
“We got that,” Levi said. He opened the door, hopped out and took a look around.
Immediately he picked up his phone and called someone. She waited, the engine just gently idling as she wrestled with the idea of shutting it off.
She knew it would take precious minutes to get her back up again, and those minutes could be life-saving minutes. She could lose everybody if she wasn’t ready to lift off immediately.
Instinct kept telling her to lift up, lift up, but Levi was on the ground and appeared to be unconcerned. She didn’t like it. She throttled her engine. She looked at Dakota in the passenger seat and said, “Get him back on board.”
Dakota dove out of the seat and screamed at Levi. He gave her a startled look, dove inside, and she punched it upward again.
Levi scrambled into the seat behind her and said, “What’s wrong?”
“My gut,” she said. She rose up high enough that they were out of range of anything but a missile. And, just when she wanted to tell him it was all clear, she caught sight of just that—a missile coming toward them.
She swore heavily and dropped. As long as it didn’t have tracking, she’d be okay. If it had tracking, they were in for the dance of their life. She didn’t have any kind of rough geographical terrain she could confuse the missile with. She moved up and to the left, then up to the right, trying to dodge it. The missile couldn’t go for too long but had enough juice that it would take her out if she wasn’t fast enough.
With everybody holding on for dear life, and Levi swearing a blue streak as he made call after call, she danced away from the missile. She rose, found a block of trees and dropped down behind it. The missile came right through the trees, clearing a path through the woods, but she was no longer there. She’d dropped farther down into a valley on the other side, and the missile slammed into the rocks above her. Shaky, triumphant and pissed, she turned to look at Levi. “So much for a peaceful landing.”
He nodded. “Any way we can hide?”
“We can try. At the moment, I’m pretty well hidden, and the enemy doesn’t know if they took me out or not.”
She kept the bird hovering low as they headed down into the small valley. “At least if I’m mobile, I’m agile. But you know what happens once I stop.”
He nodded. “We were set up.”
“Ya think?”
He shot her a look and said, “And there’s no plane waiting for us.”
“I know,” she said. “Now, I can take this bird far away, but I can’t take it all the way home. We’ll need to fuel up.”
“Or we go back,” he said, “back to where we were and see if we can find another way to get home.”
“That’s another twenty or twenty-five minutes in the wrong direction, and what are we likely to find there?”
“Another helicopter was back there.”
She shook her head. “It’s too small. Can’t get everybody on board. I can’t travel very far with that kind of extra weight.”
“How far can you get us now?”
She looked at the navigation equipment. “Maybe one hundred miles.”
“I’ll update the Argentinians. While I’m making calls, I can get the Guatemalan government to seize the helicopter from Juan’s compound, but, without our connecting plane here, we’ll have to find another way to get home from wherever we land this bird.”
“While you’re calling the Guatemalan government, find out what the hell happened to our pickup.” She turned the helicopter and soared straight up into the sky so they could get the best loft and the best wind speed. “I’m heading home. We need a clear place close enough to the border where I can leave this helicopter for the Argentinians. But we also need to get across the border and to a good surgeon. I want Rhodes taken care of immediately.”
“I know,” Levi said. “You’re not far now.”
They flew steadily as Levi and Stone worked on the logistics. They finally came up with a landing place close to the border. They now needed a vehicle to wait for them on the other side.
“Too bad no one is home to fly one of my helos.”
“I know,” Levi said.
Just then a heavy booming voice filled the line. “I’ll meet you at the border.”
Ice cracked a grin. “Bullard, where the hell are you? I thought you would meet us down there.”
“Couldn’t make it. I’m actually in the air on the way to the Mexican border. I will use Stone as central and will be within visual soon.”
With the two helicopters now flying together they had hope, but it was more a case of hope for Rhodes—because Ice knew perfectly well what would happen if he didn’t get good medical care soon.
*
Levi couldn’t believe they’d been betrayed, but he shouldn’t have been surprised. It could have been anybody … He’d already talked to the commander he’d spoken to earlier. The commander was currently checking through the roster of men he’d sent. He promised Levi he’d have the asshole captive by morning. Levi basically told him to take care o
f his own place as Levi had to get the hell back home. They had an injured man on board.
At that, the commander promised to get some medical assistance, but Levi didn’t trust the commander or his men anymore. “Not trying to insult you, but we look after our own. You need to clean your house before we’ll trust in your men again.”
The commander agreed.
Now that they were moving toward Bullard, that was good. Bullard was like Ice—he could fly like the wind. He was one of the few people Ice trusted with her own birds. He kept both a plane and a helicopter at his African compound. Made a hell of a difference when you could get the right equipment to do the job.
Levi headed back to look at Rhodes. His color was waxy and pale; the bullet was still inside, and he was still bleeding. Levi swore gently.
“Tell him to hold on. As soon as I switch over, and I’m not flying anymore,” Ice said, “I can do some rough field surgery and see what we’ve got going on.”
“That would be good,” Levi said, “but I’m still afraid we won’t be in time.”
He heard her swear. She would hurt so badly over this. She’d blame herself, even though it had nothing to do with her. Rhodes had taken a bullet from somebody they hadn’t known was out there, and, even though Ice had taken their sniper down, she would blame herself for not having done it fast enough.
It seemed like an interminable amount of time, but it was just twenty-seven minutes before they landed, the two birds coming in within minutes of each other. Levi’s crew abandoned the Tomahawk with the basically empty gas tanks. They headed toward Bullard’s machine. Bullard was there with the door open, and his man Ryland, one of Bullard’s top men, was in the passenger side. They helped load up Rhodes and everybody else.
Bullard didn’t give Ice a chance to take over. He took to the air and said, “Heading home.”
“Thirty minutes to my surgical room,” Ice said. She went straight to Rhodes and ripped apart his bandages, looking at the wound. “Levi, grab the medical kit.” He opened it up for her and watched as she went for the tweezers. She found the bullet in the bloody mess that passed for Rhodes’s gut and pulled it out. She tossed it into the lid of the metal tool kit and said, “They nicked an artery.”
