by Sam Sisavath
She nodded, then sought out Will’s pulsating blue eyes, now peering back at her from the darkness.
“It’s started,” he said.
25
LARA
“HE PULLED A GABY ON ME, Lara. That asshole.”
Lara had to fight back a smile, but was mostly unsuccessful and hoped her friend didn’t see it. Carly had been saying the same thing since they left the Trident. Lara was inclined to blame it on all the coffee they had drank—she’d had two herself, each one packed with as much sugar as she could stomach—but knew better. Carly was angry for a very good reason.
“He Gaby’d me, Lara,” Carly had said as soon as she saw her. “That asshole snuck off while I was still asleep. He snuck off.”
“I’m sorry,” she had said, and she was.
If she knew what Danny was planning, she would have tried to stop him, for all the good it would have done. Danny was still tortured about letting Gaby go with Will, essentially taking his place. The news of Bonnie’s death might have been the last straw for him. A child on the way or not, Danny couldn’t stay behind again.
And she knew exactly how he felt. There was something very wrong about being here, safe on the island, while her friends were out there risking their lives. Gaby and Blaine with Will, Danny and Keo with the strike team.
I should be out there with them.
With him…
“What exactly are you going to do out there?” Keo had asked when she brought the topic up last night, while they were in the conference room onboard the Trident coming up with, essentially, the battle plan to sell to Rhett’s people.
“Something,” she had said. “I would be doing something.”
“No offense, but you’d just get in the way,” Keo had said, with that seriousness that was rare for him. “This is what I do, Lara. Let me do my job, and you do yours.”
He had said it with such straightforwardness, as if he were telling her the ocean was blue, that she didn’t know whether to be angry or grateful.
And Danny had stood there during their back and forth and hadn’t said a word. Looking back now, she had a feeling she understood why. Keo’s words didn’t just work on her, but it had with Danny too, because like Keo, this was what he did: Danny was a soldier.
I should have known he would do this. I should have seen it coming.
“That shithead,” Carly was saying next to her. “He promised me, Lara. He promised me he wouldn’t go.”
“Did he say anything last night?” Lara asked.
“He didn’t say a damn thing. He came back from your meeting and went straight to sleep.” Carly sighed. “Normally Danny leaving me alone in the early mornings is a good thing, but this time… That shithead!”
Carly was still fuming as they walked through the facility’s hallway. The place was strangely empty, as if everyone knew what was about to happen today and decided to stay out of it by hiding in their quarters. Except for her and Carly, there was just Jolly behind them, keeping a respectable distance. Lara had grudgingly let the young man follow her to Black Tide, but she was still embarrassed to have an armed escort, even if it was just one man.
“We should just nuke the whole city,” Carly was saying. “Drop a big one and take them all out, King Ghoul and all. That would keep Danny from having to go in there.”
“You have a nuke stashed away you haven’t told me about?” Lara said.
“Well, no.”
“Then there’s that whole radiation fallout mess. We kinda want to reuse Texas after this, Carly.”
“Stop making too much sense. Anyway, Danny deserves to get a little radiation roast for what he did.” Carly narrowed her eyes at her. “And you swear you don’t know anything about it?”
“I swear I didn’t know what he was going to do,” Lara said, looking her friend back in the eyes.
Carly nodded and sighed heavily again. “I hate him so much right now.”
“No you don’t.”
“You’re right, I don’t, and that makes it worse.”
They turned the last corner and approached the Comm Room, which had two guards outside. They both stood a little straighter when they saw her, and the only thing missing was a salute.
I’ll never get used to this. Never.
Lara did her best not to let her discomfort show on her face and gave both men a pursed smile.
“You ready for this?” Carly asked next to her.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Lara said.
“I’m not sure I even want to be here. Should I be here?”
“I need a friendly face with me, Carly. Everyone else is out there.”
“Okay, then, let’s do this.”
One of the men opened the door for her, and she stepped inside with Carly. Jolly didn’t follow them in.
Rhett and Riley were already there, along with Jane, the young woman who manned the communications equipment. The two men were standing in front of a wall with a large map of Texas taped in place. The banner was a new addition and was already heavily annotated with colored markers. Houston was circled, as were multiple points along the Texas shoreline.
Riley looked over. “Got a good night’s sleep?”
“No, but I had a lot of coffee,” Lara said.
“That makes three of us.”
“Four,” Carly said.
“We drank about a gallon of the stuff,” Rhett said. “So if I need to call a bathroom break, you’ll know why.”
“You guys have bathrooms in this place?” Carly asked.
“Yes, but you have to look for them.”
“This is Carly,” Lara said. “Danny’s, uh…” She looked over at Carly.
“The mother of his demon spawn,” Carly said, and shook Rhett’s and Riley’s hands.
“I heard he went out with Striker this morning,” Riley said. “That was a surprise. I thought he was sitting this one out.”
Carly grunted, but didn’t say anything.
“That’s what we thought,” Lara said. “But apparently he had other ideas.”
“Gotta say, I’m glad to have him out there,” Rhett said. “You can never have too many Rangers on your side.”
“He’s not going to be on your side for very long, because when he comes back, I’m going to kill him,” Carly said.
“She doesn’t mean that,” Lara said.
“The hell I don’t.”
“Where are we now?” Lara asked the two men.
“We’re on course to hit the target by noon,” Riley said. He pointed out the locations on the map as he talked. “Eagle One and Two are ahead of everyone, as expected. We’re expecting real-time reconnaissance from them very soon. Striker’s getting ready to lift off as we speak, and Rolling Thunder’s already inland and is reporting no troubles so far.”
“No one’s tried to stop them?”
“According to Rolling Thunder, the regular patrols all seem to be MIA. They haven’t run across a single collaborator, on foot or on a technical. Looks like Keo was right, which should make the road to Houston mostly uneventful for the teams.”
“Uneventful is good,” Lara nodded.
“A good news, bad news situation if I’ve ever seen one,” Rhett said. “The teams won’t have to fight their way to the equipment they hid while they were pulling back, but there’s going to be a hell of a lot of personnel waiting at the roadblocks.”
“Have you heard from Willie Boy?” Riley asked.
Lara walked over to the map and looked it over. “I talked to them last night. They were already moving into position while we were all trying to sleep.”
“How will we know when they’ve made it there?”
“Striker will make contact.”
“You have an awful lot of trust in this Frank guy,” Rhett said.
He died and came back for us. For me. How do you not have faith in someone who did that for you? she thought, but said, “You would too, if you knew him as well as we did.”
Next to her, Riley kep
t quiet but shuffled his feet slightly.
“Willie Boy will be in position when the time comes,” Lara continued. “Everyone else just has to play their part.”
“They’ll get it done,” Riley said.
“Is it going to be enough?” Carly asked. “The ones that volunteered. Are they enough?”
Lara looked back at her and pursed a smile. “God, I hope so.”
“EAGLE ONE TO BLACK TIDE. Over.”
Rhett picked up the microphone and keyed it. “We read you loud and clear, Cole. What’s it look like up there?”
“Empty,” Cole said, his voice piped through the room’s speakers. “I’m confirming the earlier scouting reports that collaborators have stopped their daily patrols around the southeast part of the state and begun to amass around the Houston city limits.”
“How many are we talking about?”
“A few hundred per each defensive position, concentrated around the major arteries into the city.”
“God, that sounds like a lot,” Carly said quietly.
Because it is a lot, Lara thought, remembering the size of a city like Houston and all the many ways in and out of it.
“What kind of weapons are you seeing?” Rhett was asking into the mic.
“Technicals, machine guns,” Cole answered. “No heavy firepower from what we can see from up here, but they could be hiding it, waiting to bring them out when Rolling Thunder gets closer.”
“I thought for sure they’d have added some tanks to their arsenal after what we did to them,” Riley said.
“Maybe we gave them too much credit,” Rhett said. Then, back to the mic: “Wheeler. What’s your take?”
Wheeler was the pilot of the second Warthog, codenamed Eagle Two. Cole had been telling the truth last night when he told them he was on the verge of convincing a second pilot to join him.
“Ditto what Cole’s reporting,” a second male voice said through the speakers. “They’ve got perimeters pretty well set up. Roadblocks with cars on the highways, along the feeder roads. Everything into the city. Haven’t taken a shot at us yet, so I don’t know what they’re waiting for.”
“Don’t jinx it, kid,” Cole said.
Wheeler laughed. “Sorry about that, old timer.”
“You got an ETA on Rolling Thunder?” Cole asked.
“Two hours,” Rhett said. “How are you for fuel?”
“We’re good to go. Eagle One out.”
“Eagle Two out,” Wheeler said.
“They know we have planes,” Riley said. “So why no anti-aircraft measures?”
“Maybe Rhett’s right; maybe we give them too much credit,” Lara said. “They’re just civilians, after all. They don’t have the added benefit of Army Rangers helping them prepare for a battle. According to Willie Boy, they weren’t summoned to Houston until two days ago. That’s not a lot of time to hunt down and drag something like anti-aircraft weapons into position.”
God, you’re getting good at lying to people, Lara thought, marveling at just how calmly and confidently she had said everything.
“There are easier ways to shoot down planes,” Rhett said. “A few of the smarter ones began arming themselves with shoulder-fired missiles after R-Day. Those things are point-and-shoot, and one of them could just as easily lock onto an A-10.”
“Do Cole and Wheeler know that?” Lara asked.
“Cole’s an old pro; I didn’t need to tell him. Wheeler would have done the same thing since they’ll be flying in formation most of the time, and Cole wouldn’t let him make himself an easy target.”
“What about the tanks?”
“Dodging rockets comes with the territory. They’ll deal with it. After R-Day, they have experience doing exactly that.”
“You said they were only two hours away. I didn’t know they could move that fast.”
“The M1 Abrams are faster than you think, especially when they can open up on a highway.”
Lara checked her watch. “What about Striker?”
“They’ll be taking off from the Erin soon,” Riley said.
Lara smiled at the name. Rhett’s people had rechristened the Ocean Star to Erin in honor of the woman who had brought Keo to Black Tide. According to Danny, renaming FOBs after lost heroes was a common thing in the military.
“How good is the pilot that’s going to be flying them in?” Lara asked.
“He’s the best we have,” Rhett said. “He trained the other three helicopter pilots. If anyone can get Striker to where they need to be, it’s him.” Rhett looked over at Carly when he added, “Don’t worry. They’re in good hands.”
Carly didn’t answer, and Lara walked over and put a hand on her friend’s arm and squeezed. She could feel the tension radiating from almost every inch of Carly’s body.
“He’s got Keo with him,” Lara said. “He’ll be fine. They both will.”
“I know,” Carly nodded back before giving Lara a pained smile. “I’m still going to kick him in the balls when he gets back, though.”
Lara couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll hold him for you.”
“THE RIG definitely looks better in the daytime,” Keo said through the radio. “The name change was a nice touch, too.”
“That was Rhett’s idea,” Lara said. “Where’s Danny?”
“He ran away when I told him I was going to contact you guys before takeoff,” Keo said. “I have no idea why.”
Lara glanced over at Carly. “I guess Danny’s smarter than he looks.”
Carly sighed. “Only until I smash him in the head with his own boots.”
Lara turned back to the microphone. “Are you guys ready?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Keo said. “Lots of raw nerves, but they’ll get over it. I would be extremely doubtful this thing is going to work if I didn’t know Frank as well as I do. The guy knows his stuff.”
“What about you?”
“Not my first time on the roller coaster. Besides, who else is going to make sure this thing actually works? Danny boy’s a bit rusty. I guess that’s what happens when you start playing house with redheads.”
“I’m going to kick Keo’s ass, too,” Carly said.
“Carly sends her love,” Lara said into the mic.
“I’m sure she does,” Keo chuckled. “Tell her not to worry. I’ll keep Ranger boy alive long enough for him to come home and get his just desserts. I’m expecting at least a couple of kicks to the groin area.”
“At least once,” Carly nodded.
“Do me one favor, though?” Keo said.
“Anything,” Lara said.
“I can’t get Danny to promise to name his kid after me, so how about rechristening the Trident to the Keo? That has a nice ring to it.”
Lara smiled. “I’ll think about it.”
“Sweet.”
“I always wanted to ride around on my very own Keo,” Carly said. Then, before Lara could repeat it over the radio, “Don’t say that.”
Lara didn’t, and said instead, “Bring everyone back home, Keo.”
“I’ll do my very damn best,” Keo said.
Next to her, Jane had snapped to attention. She was wearing a headset and leaning over the controls.
“I have to go, Keo,” Lara said into the mic. “Good luck.”
“Luck’s got nothing to do with it,” Keo said, “but thanks anyway. Striker out.”
A second later, their connection went silent.
Rhett had walked over and taken the headset from Jane. He adjusted the mic and spoke into it. “Roger that. Continue on course and keep us updated.” Lara waited for Rhett to remove the headset and look in her direction. “Rolling Thunder. They’re halfway to the city and are still reporting zero enemy contact.”
“Where did you hide those tanks, anyway?” Carly asked.
“We had an entire year to plan this, remember?” Rhett said. “There are contingencies for contingencies. We scouted the entire state from east to west, south to north. There are whol
e swaths of Texas that the ghouls don’t waste their time searching because there’s nothing there. Say what you will about Mercer, but he made damn sure we were ready for a long campaign. He always saw this as a crusade that wasn’t going to end in our lifetime.”
“That’s the right word for it: crusade,” Riley said solemnly.
Lara walked back to the map and looked it over. “Rolling Thunder is moving too fast. They’ll reach Houston before Striker does.”
“We had factored in opposition on the roads,” Rhett said. “The lack of that is putting them ahead of schedule.”
“Tell them to slow down. The last thing we want is for them to get there too soon and get bogged down in premature skirmishes.”
“Danny hates it when his skirmishes start prematurely,” Carly said.
Lara smiled back at her before turning to Rhett. “I’ve been thinking about them. The collaborators. Maybe there’s a way to cut down their numbers.”
“How?” Rhett asked.
“I’m going to ask them.”
“Ask them?” Riley said. “Ask them what?”
“To leave the battlefield.” Riley and Rhett exchanged a look, but she ignored them and turned to Jane. “We had a program on the Trident that allowed us to broadcast a recorded message through all the frequencies. It cycled automatically and repeated the message. Riley told me you came up with something similar?”
“Like what you did with your broadcasts,” Jane said.
Lara nodded. “Yes.”
“Mercer had me look into how you guys were doing that. It took a while, but fortunately I had a lot of time on my hands.”
“What are you thinking, boss lady?” Carly asked.
“I want to give them a choice,” Lara said. “Keo once told me about a collaborator town where people were secretly listening to our broadcasts. Maybe it wasn’t just confined to that one town; maybe there are others out there still tuned in.”
“You want to broadcast to the collaborators ringing Houston?” Rhett asked.
“Yes.” Then, before she could hear the doubting words she knew were coming from the two men in the room with them, “I know they’re not all just going to throw down their weapons and walk away at the sound of my voice. I’m not that delusional. They’ve been committed to their ghoul masters for a year now, and it won’t be easy to turn them.”
