Redemption

by Ever N. Hayes

  It was almost dark at this point, and we were looking for any signs of life on the property—a light, a movement … anything. We saw none. A couple hundred yards beyond the crumbled farmhouse there was a small shed and a two-story old barn. Between the farmhouse and barn we could see a swing set, a doghouse, and an intact propane tank. The tank was partially obscured by a stack of hay bales, and there were other hay bales scattered randomly around the property. As a trained Marine sniper, alarms were going off in my head. There were too many places the bomber could hide and wait. We couldn’t afford to step out into the open, forsaking the cover of the forest, and expose ourselves to whoever might be out there. It was possible they knew they were being followed. It was equally possible they’d set a trap for us. Given there were no signs of pursuit behind us, we elected to wait for total darkness.

  I decided we needed to stay together. Splitting up could allow us to be picked off one by one. If the bomber—or people—we’d followed knew we were here, they’d have to come for all of us at once. They’d have to be able to fight all of us at once. Thanks to our sniper encounter on the ridgeline, we all were now armed with Qi Jia Berettas and night-scoped, infrared-equipped rifles. The fight was finally semi-fair, from our perspective.

  On the other hand, we couldn’t cover the entire property from this one spot. I also knew we were only a little more than a mile from the building the mystery man had blown up. A couple hundred soldiers would be all over these woods by morning, probably even with aircraft and radar assistance. Sitting still was not a long-term option.

  I’d been trained in many operational skills as a sniper, and stealth was always paramount. I’d had to infiltrate buildings full of people without being noticed. I’d crossed properties undetected by soldiers and guard dogs. It was one thing to know your enemy and to know what to be on the lookout for. It was another entirely to have no idea what you were up against. Four sets of tracks indicated—obviously—four people. But were they all armed? Were they all traveling together, or had the bomber followed an old trail to mask his escape?

  I was now kicking myself for not looking at the dead soldiers a little closer. It would have been useful to know how they’d died—by knife, gun, broken neck, or whatever. But there’s been no time. Even now we were short on it.

  The night’s heavy cloud cover was a blessing. If the moon was out, we couldn’t tell. It was dark. Dark dark. At 10:00 p.m., I decided we needed to approach the house and check for a basement. There was one, but it was empty, and the barn didn’t seem to have any subterranean compartments. From the barn we scoured the entire property and finally saw something we hadn’t been able to see from the opposite side of the property—from our earlier scouting position in the forest. Behind the propane tank—fifty yards or so from the back door of the farmhouse—there appeared to be a door in the ground behind the stack of hay bales. We were about to inspect it closer when we saw the door lift a couple inches off the ground. A minute later it dropped back down. A storm cellar. And someone is definitely in there. Ten minutes later it lifted again. Apparently, whoever was in there was able to peek through the bales of hay to check for any signs of pursuit. But he couldn’t see in our direction. I flipped the infrared switch on my scope, but it didn’t show me anything, even when the person lifted the door. That could only mean one thing. Whoever was in there had something to block infrared. Hayley wouldn’t have it—wouldn’t even know about it—but Lazzo might.

  I turned to Blake and Keena. “Blake, I need you to come with me. Let’s go check that cellar out. Keena, I want you to sit here and keep a rifle on that door. If things go south, you start shooting and cover Blake and me till we can get out of there.”

  “Dan, if we start shooting, the soldiers are going to come fast,” Blake whispered.

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that then.”

  Blake and I moved out from the barn, slowly creeping toward the cellar door. We were about twenty yards away when it lifted again. We froze, guns locked on the door, assuming we’d somehow alerted the occupant or occupants. It rose a little higher this time, but a minute later it closed again. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe we’re still good. If they had something to block our infrared, surely it would have an adverse effect on their own radar monitoring—if they had any. I motioned for Blake to swing wide to the right and to cover me from there. I was going all the way in.

  When he was in place, I slowly knelt and moved into a prone position, inching toward the door. I was within five yards of it now and could feel my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Easy. Easy, Danny. Four yards. Three yards. If the door lifted again, he’d see me now for sure. I was only two yards away. Now one yard. The barrel of my rifle was only inches from the top of the cellar door. I was now lying as still as humanly possible. It felt like an hour but was actually only minutes later when the door slowly lifted again and I saw a head wearing night-vision goggles peer out. His head rotated all the way around until he was staring directly down the barrel of my gun.

  I expected him to drop the door immediately, but he didn’t. He jumped a little and then calmly said my name. What the hell?

  “Danny?” he repeated in a deep African accent. He spoke with unusual poise for someone who had to be pissing his pants with a gun barrel in his face.

  “What?” I whispered back, unwilling to reveal my name to someone I didn’t know.

  Then I heard another voice in the cellar. “Is that Danny?”

  I’d know that voice anywhere. “Hayley?” I strained to see into the cellar.

  “Danny, yes, it’s me.”

  There’s no way! “Hayley, are you okay?” I still couldn’t see her.

  “Yes, hang on a second.” I could hear the joy in her voice. “I need to unhook the tripwires. Eddie, help me with this.”

  Eddie? “Did you say Eddie?”

  The door swung open, and I rose up on one knee, looking down into the cellar. Hayley came flying up the stairs and tackled me, knocking me straight onto my back. She was laughing—I was laughing. I knew we needed to be quiet, but I couldn’t help it. “Hayley, I—”

  She finished the sentence for me. “I never thought I’d see you again!”

  “Hayley, we need to get inside.” I motioned in the darkness to Blake and Keena in the barn.

  Hayley stood and helped me up, and I followed her down the stairs. Blake was only a few steps behind me. I heard more laughter from Hayley as she wrapped her arms around him. “Blake.”

  “Hey, girl. Great to see you.” He squeezed her tightly.

  At the base of the stairs I stopped in surprise again. Sure enough, there was Eddie. Son of a bitch. “Eddie.” I extended my hand. He shook it firmly. I glanced at the other armed man.

  “Danny, this is Silas.” Eddie said.

  “The bomber?”

  Silas nodded. “Pleasure.” We also shook hands.

  “Likewise,” I said. “I’ve got one more coming.”

  Silas nodded, and Keena joined us a minute later. There were two more people in the cellar, a beautiful African woman and a girl who appeared to be roughly Hayley’s age. Hayley made the formal introductions—Lazzo’s wife, Cera and Captain Baker’s daughter, Flynn.

  “Flynn,” Hayley said. “This is Boy Wonder.”

  I held my hand out to Flynn but she hugged me instead. I gave my condolences to her for the loss of her brother. I couldn’t imagine what she’d been through—couldn’t imagine what it would be like to watch your father shoot your brother.

  My focus then turned to Eddie. “How are you alive, my man? We saw a hundred troops surround you, all shooting at you.”

  “Rubber bullets. Hurt like hell but didn’t kill me.”

  “But why did they need you alive?”

  “Insurance.”

  “Insurance?” I asked. “For?”

  “Forgive me, but these are just assumptions. I believe my brother was working with Commander Boli to secure documents or information from you …” I saw Hayley noddi
ng. Eddie continued. “In exchange for keeping me alive. And Cera, too. I believe the commander made promises he didn’t plan to keep. But he needed to get Lazzo here. If I was dead, Lazzo don’t believe him or come.”

  “So Lazzo knew you were alive?” I was trying to piece it all together.

  “He was told, yes.”

  “But you knew nothing about this? About him kidnapping Hayley to try to save you? About their entire plan?”

  “I did not. I just learned of it. I am not okay with his decisions. Lazzo was a better man than this.”

  I could see Blake didn’t believe Eddie. Hayley sensed the same. “He’s telling the truth,” she said to Blake, then turned to me. “Lazzo told me he couldn’t tell Eddie, that Eddie would have reacted and tried to save their families—that they all probably would have been killed then.”

  It made sense, even if Eddie clearly didn’t like the reasoning. “Lazzo tells you this?” he asked.

  Hayley nodded.

  “So, Eddie, why are you here?” I turned back to him.

  “To stop you. To stop Lazzo. You cannot give Qi Jia what they want.”

  I wanted to tell him I hadn’t ever been planning to, but I knew that wasn’t exactly the truth.

  Blake lied for me. “He wasn’t going to. He didn’t even bring the real book. Danny knew if he couldn’t rescue Hayley, they’d both be dead anyway. He wasn’t going to give up everyone else with him.”

  Now I couldn’t look at Blake. Fortunately what he’d said made perfect sense. I never should have brought the real book. Everyone was quiet, each person lost in his or her own train of thoughts. I finally broke the silence. “So that’s why you blew up the building? To stop Lazzo?”

  “At first we thought Lazzo did it,” Blake added.

  “No, it wasn’t Lazzo,” Eddie answered. “We don’t know where Lazzo is. I’m afraid he—” Eddie stopped and looked at Cera. “We believe he’s—”

  Cera’s head was down. “Dead.” She finished the sentence for him.

  Interesting.

  “I need to say something,” Hayley interrupted. “Someone has to say it. Lazzo made a mistake—a whole series of them, in fact. But everything he was trying to do he was doing for the people he loved. Yes, he killed my boyfriend. He also kidnapped me. But he was lost. I could have escaped any time I wanted to when I was on the carrier, and every day since. Lazzo didn’t know what he was doing, but he thought the only way to save you and your families, was to get Danny to bring the information to the commander.” No one interrupted her or said anything when she paused.

  “Obviously,” she continued. “It wasn’t going to work, but I truly believe he was doing what any of us would have done—anything he could—to save the people he loved.”

  “Hayley.” I reached out for her hand.

  She pushed mine away. “Wait, Danny, I’m not finished. Cera … Eddie … I’m sorry for your loss—I am—but while I can rationalize what Lazzo did to me, there are three prisoners back in Kauai who will be killed if the commander orders it. That would also be Lazzo’s fault, and there are an awful lot of people who won’t be so quick to forgive him for that.”

  “Four prisoners,” I corrected.

  “Four?” Hayley asked. “Who is the fourth?”

  “No idea,” Blake replied.

  “You don’t know?” Hayley repeated.

  “We don’t know.” I confirmed Blake’s response.

  Eddie pounded his fist against the wall. He turned to me. “Danny, I can’t believe it. I am sorry. Lazzo deserves no respect for this—no forgiveness.”

  “Eddie, I’ll admit, I came here to kill Lazzo for what he did. But now I’m with Hayley. I can understand his lack of alternatives and the resulting desperation. Seriously, I was willing to do anything to save my sister.” I glanced at Blake. “Literally anything.”

  “That does not make it right,” Eddie growled. “He was weak and foolish to trust Boli…even if it was to try to save me, Cera … any of us. Hayley tells us you saved his life, and this is how he repays you?”

  “Eddie, put it this way. If he’d have told us what was going on, we wouldn’t have helped him. We probably would have kicked him off the island and maybe even thrown him in prison. Then you’d be dead … both of you.” Eddie looked at Cera and I continued. “Anyway, now it’s done. We can discuss it more later but for now, let’s put it behind us. In a few hours this place will be crawling with troops and covered by every imaginable form of radar.”

  I glanced up at the ceiling and the little black box with the red light.

  “Infrared blocker?” I asked Silas. He nodded. Nice. I looked at the others. “We need to get out of here—like now. Eddie, how did you even get here?” I asked.

  He pointed at Silas. “This man. He helped us escape. He flied us here yesterday.”

  “Silas, you can fly?” Blake asked. Silas nodded. “That’s good. We might need that.”

  “Where’s your plane?” I asked.

  “It’s only a four-passenger,” Eddie answered. “But it’s about four miles south of here. We landed on a highway and parked it in a barn.”

  Four passenger? Crap. That isn’t going to work.

  Hayley read my mind. “There’s a chance they didn’t find ours, Danny.” Everyone turned to her. “Lazzo, Flynn, and I found a smokejumping base about twenty-five miles west of here. We concealed the plane behind some old planes and fire equipment and tried to lure the enemy paratroopers away from there. Our C-130 doesn’t have enough fuel to get back to the carrier, but if it’s still there, it at least gives us an option out. We can all fit in that easily.”

  “We’ll never make it twenty-five miles before dawn,” Keena pointed out.

  She was right. The attack on that building would draw Qi Jia’s undivided attention to this area. I had been expecting drones by now but understood their absence to merely mean they were planning tomorrow’s search. They’d be hitting it hard in the morning. Even if we could make it to the hangar, the skies would be full of aircraft and drones. We’d never be able to take off and would be shot down immediately if we tried.

  Before Commander Boli wrote off my bringing him the book, he would do all he could to find out who had blown up the building. They’d easily find the bodies in the ditch—if they hadn’t already. They’d have no trouble tracking us to the farm—especially in the daylight with their dogs. I could think of only one alternative, and given what Lazzo had attempted to do in kidnapping Hayley, it was definitely a risky one. We had to trust Eddie. We had to trust Silas and Cera. We had to risk the safety of all surviving Americans to try to keep ourselves alive.

  We were five miles from the secret back entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain bunker, an entry only presidents and vice presidents knew about—well, and me, thanks to the book. We had to get there, and we had to take three non-Americans in there with us.

  FORTY-TWO – Traitor (Danny)

  Early Morning Hours.

  ---------- (Wednesday, August 10, 2022.) ----------

  Cheyenne Mountain bunker. Colorado Springs, Colorado.

  I told Eddie they needed to trust me and follow me. He didn’t object. We set out for Cheyenne Mountain and arrived at the back door a few minutes after 2:00 a.m. I found the dead tree the book mentioned and dug out the base of it until I found a long bolt. I pulled the bolt out and pushed the tree trunk over. There was a lockbox under the trunk with a scroll-lock. I entered the five-digit code and lifted the lid on the box, revealing another keypad. I had memorized the twelve-digit code for that as well and typed it in. A hum slowly turned into a whirring noise as the ground in front of me began to move. A four-by-four square hole was revealed, with a ladder leading down into the darkness.

  I looked back at the others. I had no idea what to expect in there. I knew the secret tunnel was nearly two miles long—that was about all I knew. Eddie had a puzzled look on his face. “What?” I asked him.

  “I studied maps of this place for hours. This tunnel, it was no
t on the maps.”

  “No, I know. Only the presidents knew about it.”

  “And vice president?”

  “Yeah, he did too.”

  “He told you about this?”

  “Kind of.” I nodded.

  That seemed to be enough for Eddie. “You want me to go first?”

  “No, Eddie, I need you to come in with Blake last. We don’t know what we’re going to find in there, and if there are Americans in the tunnel, they’re not going to welcome you.”

  “Danny,” Eddie put his massive hand on my arm. “We don’t have to go in if you don’t want us to. You don’t have to trust us. You have risked and lost enough.”

  “I appreciate that, but I’m not leaving you out here. Cera doesn’t deserve any of this. I’ll deal with what comes for bringing you in. But you stay at the back. You let Blake protect you.”

  “We will give you our guns then.”

  “How about this? We leave them at the base of the ladder here. We’re probably going to have to exit this way again anyway. We’ll have them here if we need them.”

  “Sounds good.”

  We all climbed down the ladder. Eddie, Silas, and Cera left their rifles and handguns at the base of it. I gave Blake the code to seal the exit, and I moved on ahead. To my right and left there were two large steel doors I knew to be garages. Each garage supposedly held a transport vehicle and two motorcycles. As the vehicles had been replaced annually, they’d only be a couple years old. Hopefully they’d still run if needed. I didn’t open the doors for fear of making noise, though I was definitely curious about how the vehicles were intended to get out.