Xander of course was exaggerating a bit, but his arms were about as dead as he could ever remember them being in all the time he had been a soldier.
“Xander, hang on just a sec,” Jack said. Then Xander heard him talking to Kyle. “Do what? I’m talking to Xander now. Yeah, he’s okay. I’ll tell him. Get that girl out of there, Kyle!” Then Jack’s voice came back to the phone. “Xander, you gotta get over to that Ferris wheel now. There ain’t no time to wait for the Coast Guard.”
Xander’s heart jumped into his throat.
“Someone is shooting at that poor girl. Has been for a minute, Kyle said, but they just figured it out.”
“A sniper?” Xander said.
“Well, I don’t know. You figure a sniper’d be able to hit her already. But you’d better hurry if you’re close.”
“I’m on my way. Tell Kyle to let SWAT know we’re coming.”
Xander ended the call. From somewhere in the bottomless pit of his brain, he remembered Jonathan always scoring low on the sniper tests. It had to be him. He was trying to cover his tracks.
“I don’t like that look, boss. Every time Xander King get look like that on face, Viktor get shot at.”
“Sorry to tell you, Viktor, this time is no different. Take us back to the Ferris wheel, you’re going to help me save a young woman’s life.”
Viktor bounced in his seat with excitement and steered the helicopter back toward the pier.
“I love when boss let Viktor help save people.”
Xander shook his head. He couldn’t believe his life was once again in the hands of that lovable wacko.
52
Holding On for Dear Life
A large crowd of first responders, SWAT members, and EMTs had gathered on the pier, but most looked to be steering clear of the Ferris wheel. Who could blame them when someone was firing at it from a distance? Xander knew he couldn’t worry about the bullets that would be coming his way as he helped Carrie to safety. He had no choice but to hope that Jonathan was as bad as he remembered. So far, if she hadn’t been hit yet, chances were that he had only gotten worse.
“Bring us down as close as you can to the very top, Vik. Even though I am saying it, it goes without saying that you have to be steady.”
“I have been lots of practice, boss. Only one customer so far at helicopter tour company is suing.”
“A real shot of confidence,” Xander said.
“I know, right!?”
Xander could see in his eyes that he actually believed it was a good thing.
Viktor slowed the helicopter over the top cart on the wheel. Though Xander didn’t have a lot of confidence in Viktor keeping the copter steady, he could tell that he had improved.
“Right here, Vik!” Xander shouted back as he made sure the rope ladder was still secure.
He looked down over the edge, but due to the construction of the Ferris wheel carts—they were like saucers on the bottom, but over each of them was a metal awning, fashioned like an umbrella—he couldn’t see if Carrie was there, much less if she was still alive. While the awning would make it easier for him to step down if needed, it completely blocked his view from above. If Carrie was still alive, he imagined she was most likely frantically waving her arms at the moment, screaming for help.
Something smacked loudly against the back end of the chopper.
“I think that was bullet, boss! Might want to hurry!”
Thanks, Viktor.
Though Haag wasn’t a great shot, the helicopter was big enough for a novice to hit. As Xander put his first foot out over the edge, he hoped that Haag didn’t get lucky. And as it normally did in situations like this, his mind flashed through dozens of missions where he had stepped off a helicopter into far worse situations than this. But that didn’t make it any less dangerous, because the cargo he was determined to retrieve this time was much more precious.
As he climbed down toward the top of the cart below him, a quick glance told him that there were a lot of hotels Haag could be firing from. But the boys in blue would find him. He could see the lights of their cars searching for him now. Even if Haag was successful in what he was trying to do, Xander knew it would all be for naught. The LAPD would never let him get away.
Another bullet clanked off the thick white railing just outside the cart Xander was aiming for. Haag was getting closer. Xander hurried his pace, his arms feeling the fatigue as he steadied on the rope ladder. The umbrella top of the cart was just below him now, about five feet. But he was out of ladder. The jump down wouldn’t be a problem; it was getting back to the rope that made him nervous. A stiff breeze moved through just as Xander was about to jump, blowing him out away from the cart. Viktor really was doing an amazing job, and he didn’t even have a spotter telling him left, right, up, or down. And right on cue, Viktor waited out the breeze and floated Xander right back where he was. Xander jumped and landed on top of the cart.
The cart shook violently back and forth, but immediately his question of whether or not Carrie was in there, and alive, was answered with an ear-piercing scream. Xander leaned over the edge.
“It’s okay, Carrie,” he shouted. “It’s me. From the basement. Are you hurt?”
Looking down at the fear on her face as she huddled in fetal position was heartbreaking. But Xander had to get her out of there. The wind that the helicopter’s rotors were creating was violently swaying the cart now.
“I’m okay!” Carrie screamed.
Xander could barely hear her over the noise of the chopper.
“But I can’t move! Someone is shooting at me!”
“I know, Carrie, but I need you to get up now and take my hand!”
Xander reached down over the edge of the metal umbrella. Carrie didn’t move.
“I can’t! He’ll shoot me!”
This time a bullet ricocheted off the metal not two inches from Xander’s leg.
“Carrie, I need you to trust me! I got you out of that basement, didn’t I?”
She still didn’t move.
“Didn’t I?” Xander shouted again.
Another bullet cracked metal, this time only a couple of inches from Carrie’s head. Xander watched as she eyed the bullet hole in horror, then she jumped to her feet.
“That’s it, just grab my hand!”
She did.
Xander squeezed her hand with his left as he gorilla-gripped the edge of the metal umbrella with his right. He had no leverage, and he had nothing to secure himself with; this was going to have to be all arm. He decided since he was weak that faster was a better plan, so he jerked her upward as he rolled to his back. As soon as her chest was above the lip of the cart’s cover, he wrapped his right arm around her waist and pulled her on top of him.
He got her out of the cart.
Before her mind could register a measure of safety, Xander scooped her up with him and then bent back down on a knee.
“Grab hold of my back, and don’t let go!”
By now, Carrie had learned not to question the man who kept saving her, so she jumped on and squeezed her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.
“Hang on tight!”
Xander didn’t give her much time to squeeze before he reached for the bottom rung of the ladder. He was going to have to pull all of their weight up the first few rungs, all arms. It was not going to be easy, and the longer he waited, the harder he figured it would be.
So he didn’t wait.
As soon as the breeze brought the ladder to where he thought was the closest it was going to get to him, he reached out for it. At the same time, a bullet crashed through the windshield of the helicopter and Viktor must have been startled because it moved out away from the Ferris wheel. But Xander had already leaned for the ladder. There was no turning back. With the tip of his shoe that was still touching the top of the metal umbrella, watching the ladder move away, he gave as much extra push as he could. It was enough to get his left hand to the ladder, but the way his body jerked when his
grip caught their weight, it shook loose Carrie’s grip, and she slid down his right shoulder.
Xander felt her lose her grip around his neck, and in reflex, he shot his free hand down to her leg that was wrapped around his waist. He caught her leg at the knee, and he dug his fingertips into her leg as he squeezed. When he looked down, the 150-foot drop beyond her dangling dark hair seemed to morph into a thousand. She screamed in terror, and probably in pain. Xander would break her leg in half before he let go of her. But after the night he’d had, his mind was more powerful than his grip. And slowly, her jeans began to slide through his fingers.
When you’ve seen as many things as Xander had seen in war, been through as many horrifying missions, filled with death, betrayal, and death-defying stunts, you’d think you would’ve felt every sort of fear a human can feel. But feeling this innocent young girl literally slipping through his fingers made Xander terrified in a way he never thought possible. Her leg was like sand: the harder he squeezed, the faster she fell. At the last second, he caught her shoe, and he thanked God for a brief moment that she had tied it tight. But that didn’t help him get her out of this.
Xander’s left hand felt like it was melting into the bottom rung of the ladder. He knew Viktor couldn’t see him, and that he couldn’t step away from the controls for a second to check on him. He knew he would hold it as steady as he could until he saw Xander come up from that ladder. But there was no way that was going to happen. It was impossible for him to pull Carrie up now and then pull himself up too. And anyway, his grip on her shoe was failing him.
A flood of emotions ran all through Xander’s system—pain, fear, anger—and when the helicopter began to lower slowly and in fact get closer to the Ferris wheel, you could add shocked to that list. He instinctively looked up, but of course there was nothing to see but the belly of the helicopter. It was when he looked back down that his entire emotional axis shifted yet again. Somehow, Kyle Hamilton had managed to crawl up the Ferris wheel and make his way out to the passenger car that was smack in the middle of its downward trek—the cart at the outermost point of the wheel. Later he would let Xander know that there was a ladder that ran up the middle of the wheel, and that it was only shimmying out on the crossbar the last fifty feet or so that had been tricky. But all Xander knew in that moment was that his friend had just magically appeared in the outermost cart, and somehow Viktor was able to see him. And although this gave Xander new life, it couldn’t give him a new grip, and he was losing Carrie fast.
53
Fueled by the Fire
A few feet lower, and Xander finally understood how Viktor was able to navigate where he was going. Kyle was leaning out from the cart, a cell phone to his ear. Xander couldn’t hear him, but he knew Kyle was talking to Viktor; it was the only thing that made sense. They were still too far away from the wheel, because they had to be; otherwise, the rotors spinning atop the helicopter would hit the side of the wheel. But it didn’t matter anyway; he couldn’t hold on to her any longer.
As Carrie screamed, so too did everything inside Xander. His lungs, his muscles, his heart.
“I can’t hold her!” he shouted. Emotion and strain distorted his voice.
He didn’t know why he said it, but maybe he was hoping someone in another realm would hear him and help him.
Then he remembered the moment he had in front of the mirror back on the plane. He didn’t need to call on someone from another realm to help him. All he needed to do was reach inside those flames that burned deep inside him. The fire that he realized was there for moments just like this one.
“Swing the ladder!” Kyle shouted up at him.
“I can’t hold her!”
Xander squeezed her shoe. At least he thought he did. He could no longer actually feel his arm below the elbow.
“Fight it, X! Swing the ladder and drop her! I’ll catch her!”
Xander looked back up at his hand on the ladder; it was bright white. All the blood had drained from it. He looked back down at Carrie, then beyond her to Kyle. Though he didn’t at all like what Kyle was asking of him, it was the only chance he had of saving her. She was about to fall either way; he might as well give her a chance. No part of his body wanted to move, but he pulled strength from that burning fire and lifted both legs out in front of him, then swung them as hard as he could backward, then immediately forward again. As he went to kick back one last time, he finally lost his grip on her.
“No!” Xander shouted.
“Aaaah!” Carrie screamed as she dropped.
“I got you!” Kyle shouted as he caught her.
The swinging motion had been enough. Kyle’s words at just the right moment had saved her life. Xander watched as Kyle pulled her inside the cart. She was safe. As he reached up and hooked his elbow around the bottom rung to give his hands a break, it occurred to Xander that he hadn’t heard another bullet come near them. The police must have closed in on Haag and either captured him or at least caused him to make a run for it.
“She’s okay, X! I got her!” he heard Kyle call up to him.
He took his words in and slowly began to pull himself up. He couldn’t bear to look down again. Not even one more time. He made it up to the entrance of the helicopter and collapsed onto its floor.
He had given everything his body had been capable of giving.
And it had been enough.
54
The Cable Guy
The sun was high in the sky as Xander and Sam rolled down Sunset Boulevard through Beverly Hills, California. Their windows were rolled down, and they were letting the warm breeze wash over them. On the radio Chris Stapleton was telling everyone how his lady was as smooth as Tennessee whiskey, and traffic wasn’t even all that bad, considering they were in Los Angeles. It had been quite the week since they managed to shut down Francisco’s entire human trafficking operation. Or Gabriela’s. It was still unclear who had really been pulling the strings. Sam told Xander that Javier Romero had said it was Gabriela. And it didn’t seem too far-fetched to them because, as it turned out, she indeed was the daughter of one of the highest-ranking bosses in the Sinaloa Cartel.
The CIA told Reign that they had heard rumblings from some of their contacts in Mexico that retaliation plans for the deaths of Gabriela and Francisco were being made. But until anything actually happened, Xander wasn’t going to let any of those rumors bother him. Not today anyway, he was in too good of a mood.
Carrie was home recovering with her family. Xander had in fact broken her leg in two places while he was trying to hold on to her. When he went to visit her, his apology for breaking her leg was met with a hug. “My leg will heal,” Carrie had said. “And thanks to you and your team, I’ll be back to normal in no time.”
The police had indeed apprehended Jonathan Haag. He of course told them that it was all David. Xander knew that he was telling the truth, but being guilty by association, combined with the fact that he was instrumental in helping David with his plans, was going to win him a lot of years behind bars.
“You look ridiculous, Xander,” Sam told him from the passenger seat.
“And you don’t?”
“They are never going to believe that you are the cable guy. Not a chance. Look at you.”
Xander toggled the rearview mirror downward and took in his red polo shirt with the cable company logo on it.
“What? It’s not that bad.”
“Not that bad,” Sam shifted in her seat to get a better look at him. “You look like you raided an eleven-year-old’s Halloween costume drawer. Seriously, how did you fit into that shirt?”
Xander looked again. It was a little small, but he didn’t let on that he agreed.
“Oh yeah, Sam. ’Cause eleven-year-olds dream all year of dressing up like a cable guy on Halloween.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that you look ridiculous.”
“Maybe.” He gave an inch. “But at least I still look good.”
“And I don’t?”
“No, Sam, that shirt is so big you’re swimming in it.”
“Ask your best friend if I look good in it. I barely got it back on before you showed up in this van.”
A wry smile grew across her face.
“You and Kyle are disgusting.”
“Just because you’re going through a dry spell doesn’t mean you should take it out on us.”
Xander changed the subject. “Are we getting close, or not?”
“Yes, Mr. Sensitive, there is our turn right there.”
Xander ignored Sam’s jab about being sensitive and pulled up to the gate. He pressed the call button on the box, and a voice came through asking who was there.
“Cable guy,” Xander said. Then he turned to Sam and whispered, “I always wanted to say that.”
Sam, in typical Sam fashion, just rolled her eyes.
The gate opened to a beautifully landscaped driveway, and Xander pulled the mock cable company van forward.
“You know you can’t kill him, right?”
Xander didn’t answer.
“Xander, I’m serious. The only reason the FBI let us run your little charade here is because Director Hartsfield called in a personal favor. But she promised you wouldn’t kill him. That’s the only reason they’re letting you do this.”
“Pretty awesome, right? Remember when Charlize Theron did it in The Italian Job?”
“No, but are you wearing the same shirt she was?”
Xander put the van in park just a few steps from the front door.
“I’m not going to let you ruin this for me. I get it, the shirt is small, move on.”
Sam laughed. Then she patted him on the arm.
“You really are a rare breed, Alexander King. How such an amazing soldier, so big and so strong, can be such an absolute child will always baffle me.”
“Whatever. Just stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”
King's Reign (The Xander King Series Book 4) Page 23
