The two older pre-1983 semi-automatic KG-9s, modified to be fully automatic, he’d secreted under the Sikorsky’s control panel with duct tape, weren’t filled with blanks. Each was equipped with a twenty-round magazine. Jarrett was trained to always expect the unexpected and in this case, he expected things might go to shit the minute the inmates started to enter the helicopter. No fucking way was he facing them unarmed. The KG-9s were small enough to hold in one hand and the guns would be lethal enough to mow down the inmates, when and if it became necessary. His job was to get Sarah and Dev out of the helicopter as soon as the FBI rushed the aircraft and began firing. He could only pray the women—and whatever prison guards the inmates had decided to take as hostages—wouldn’t get hit by friendly fire in the melee.
The door edged open slowly and the barrel of a gun appeared in the crack. A few seconds later, the door opened even more to reveal the bloody form of Sarah, blocking the taller body of Robert Rios who held her in front of him with an arm around her neck. Her hands were behind her back, probably in restraints. Jarrett debated just shooting Rios’s arm to make him drop the gun but if he missed the bone, the bullet would pass through soft tissue and hit Sarah. He couldn’t risk it. Besides, Dev still wasn’t visible. He had to go along with the plan that he and the prison officials had mapped out or they’d never get the women and the guards out safely. Still, it was hard to sit passively and see his bloodied friend being pushed through the entrance to the door. If no one else were at risk, he’d have already put a bullet through Rios’s head.
“We’re coming out!” Rios yelled over the loud thump of the copter’s blades. “No one shoots or the bitch dies!” The barrel of the pistol he held in his free hand was snugged tightly against Sarah’s temple. If one of the FBI’s sharpshooters decided to open fire, Sarah would die. Jarrett could only pray they followed orders and exercised restraint.
“Get out here then,” Warden Jones said through the bullhorn. “Your money is waiting in those backpacks.”
Jarrett looked down at the backpacks the FBI had lined up on the ground between the prison and the helicopter. Each of the twelve had been left unzipped revealing tons of cash, flapping wildly in the breeze from the helicopter blades. They’d been tied together with bank straps denoting that each bundle contained ten thousand dollars. There were a hell of a lot of bundles and only Jarrett, Thayne, the FBI, and the prison officials knew the bundles on the bottom were nothing but newspaper. He hoped the prisoners would scoop up the backpacks and climb into the Sikorsky without checking too closely or their plans would be shot all to hell. He wanted to get the prisoners inside the helicopter and then bail out, taking Sarah and Dev with him. Then, if there were any other guards along for the ride, they’d be rescued by the TAC teams and the prisoners either forced to surrender or killed if they wouldn’t.
Sarah met Jarrett’s eyes and he reached up, pulling the sunglasses off his face so she could see his eyes and expression. She looked relieved and he was forced to keep his face blank as he nodded to her. He really hoped the inmates would think he was a pilot and nothing more but he suspected that some of them, Rios among them, would realize that the FBI wouldn’t put a civilian in the pilot’s chair. Jarrett also prayed they weren’t planning on putting a bullet in his brain before they got everyone loaded. It would be just their luck that one of the inmates would end up being a pilot who would want to take his place. He had to remain cool even though nervous energy was racing through him.
Rios shoved Sarah out in front of him. She stumbled as he held her by her neck, trying to set a pace with the man’s longer legs that wouldn’t have her falling before they even got to the line of backpacks. Another person appeared in the doorway and Jarrett recognized his other friend. Dev was being pushed the same way Sarah was. She was much taller than Sarah, nearing six feet, but the man behind her was a massive mountain of a man, dressed in bloody orange. Dev had blood running down her face from her hairline and looked quiet beat up. She’d obviously been injured but the expression on her face was clearly defiant and very much alert to what was happening.
Jarrett had to give her a hell of a lot of credit because she was a rock, looking taut like a bowstring, ready to do whatever she was ordered to. Dev’s hands were also behind her back but as her gaze met Jarrett’s eyes, she slowly pulled her hands out from behind her back, leaving them at her sides but turning the palms to face him. Blood stained her palms and his keen sniper’s eye could pick up on slashes in them. She was restrained but she sawed through it. Jarrett’s heart sped up, knowing that if she was free, Sarah might be as well. Jarrett nodded, trying to keep the motion of his head as imperceptible as possible.
“Dev got out of her restraints,” Jarrett said into the mouthpiece on his headphones. “Sarah probably did as well. I don’t think they have any intention of making it as far as the helicopter and they’ll wait for us to make the first move.”
“Roger. We see that, Evans,” Thayne’s voice said into his ear. “Wait for all the hostages to get out of the building,” Thayne was saying, probably to the others involved in the rescue. He wasn’t addressing Jarrett.
Jarrett watched the inmates come out of the building, each holding a guard in front of him. There were five guards in total and they were all bloody, having been beaten, some of them severely. Some limped in front of the inmates who kept them close and others could barely raise their bloodied heads. Counting the one dead guard the inmates had shoved out of the door earlier, that meant that at least two other guards had been left behind and were probably already dead. He prayed the warden wouldn’t flip out, knowing some of his men weren’t getting out of this. The inmates filed toward the helicopter, following Rios who was still pointing the gun at Sarah’s head. They hadn’t made it more than thirty yards out of the prison when suddenly a shot rang out.
“Son of a bitch!” Thayne yelled into the earwig Jarrett wore. “Who fired that shot? Hold your fire! Hold your fucking fire!”
He caught sight of Sarah’s panicked expression and then a second later, she and Dev both dropped just as the guns aimed at their heads went off. At first, Jarrett thought they’d been shot but when Sarah twisted with her back on the dirt, and kicked upward right into Rios’s groin, he realized he was wrong. Rios screamed and went stumbling back. Dev did the exact same thing to the inmate holding her, kicking him in his family jewels as hard as she could. The inmate screamed and bent over, clutching his groin as the women rolled out of the way.
In a perfectly choreographed move, both women were off the ground in a second, grabbing the barrels of the inmates’ handguns. Jarrett watched as both Sarah and Dev took the guns and pulled them forward and to the side, throwing the inmates off balance while pivoting. Each woman brought a heel down on the top of an inmate’s prison-issued slippers. Rios, and the inmate unlucky enough to have been holding Dev, both screamed and loosened the grips on their weapons, allowing the women to disarm them. Just as deftly, Sarah and Dev both managed to turn the barrel of the guns they now held and pointed them directly at the inmates’ heads. Jarrett and Thayne had just taught them those moves in the ATF gym. Pride swelled his chest. It was like watching poetry in motion.
Jarrett leapt into action just as the exercise yard erupted in gunfire. Inmates were falling right and left. He grabbed the two KG-9s and jumped out of the Sikorsky, landing on the tarmac, and running toward the melee just as the women hit the deck. In the confusion, some inmates opted for self-preservation and let the guards go, throwing up their hands, and trying to duck low as the FBI TAC teams swarmed them. Jarrett mowed down four of the more aggressive inmates who’d gotten a hold of guns and turned to cover their escape, returning fire. In a matter of seconds, all the inmates were down and bleeding, filled with bullet holes. Only one guard seemed to lie unmoving on the ground.
Jarrett wanted to find the idiot who’d fired before Sarah and Dev were free because he was going to strangle him. When he saw the women getting to their feet, filthy from having rolled in
the dirt and taken control of their captors, all his anger bled away. Their smiles were wide as they glanced around at the carnage strewn in the dirt around them. They were safe and that was what mattered. Jarrett was still going to have words with Stanger when he had the chance—if Snow let his SAC live long enough. But he supposed there was no way Stanger or SAC Diaz could have known about the prison riot. Still, sending them into a men’s prison alone to get information hadn’t been the best call either.
****
Nico worked in Drake Archer’s outer office the rest of the afternoon. He went through the email accounts they’d accessed before, searching for anything they might have missed and finding nothing. He knew a shipment was going to China and he knew two people with the initials TL and FR were going to be there to receive it… unless of course, the initials stood for Team Leader and Force Recon as they’d speculated. They needed proof that it was palladium as they suspected and they needed proof that Stryker-Dunn had taken over security at the mine in South Africa and that they were facilitating the receipt of palladium by a rogue Chinese player. Just because the undercover CIA operatives in the mine said it was happening, didn’t mean Congress would cut Stryker-Dunn off and make sure they got no more government contracts. They had to have proof. Nico was aware that Stryker-Dunn gave millions in campaign contributions to Congressmen. Most of all, they had to stop Stryker-Dunn and their army of mercenaries. He hoped the answers to all their questions were on those Minnow disks. He had to find them.
More than anything, Nico had been struggling with a niggling feeling that something big was happening outside his insulated world. He’d stepped outside the outer office into the hallway where Mac was guarding the door only once all afternoon with the excuse of using the bathroom and then hurried to his room to try to contact someone using the earwig. He’d gotten nothing but radio silence and it worried the hell out of him. He’d run back to Drake Archer’s office feeling as though he and Mac were cut off from the world.
It was nearing 8:00 p.m. when Archer finally came out of his office. Nico had gone through his entire computer and found nothing helpful to their mission. He hadn’t been able to find a single list of anything relating to record albums, music, anything of the kind. He’d even hacked Archer’s iTunes account, thinking that maybe he’d put the albums where he’d hidden the disks in some sort of playlist. He’d been able to find nothing at all and he finally admitted to himself what he’d suspected, that whatever he needed was on Archer’s desktop computer locked in his office.
Archer looked tired when he came out of the office and Nico was anxious to get back to his room where he could once again use the com unit to check in with his team. The earwig had stayed completely silent that afternoon and no one had tried to contact him or Mac all day long. That alone worried Nico more than he wanted to admit. Being stuck in a building with three thousand people who would have no qualms about killing him, kind of freaked him out just a little bit. He put on his cop face and tried not to panic.
“Have you been through security again, Flynn?” Archer asked as he locked his office door.
“Yes, sir. I’ve been through the entire system again.” Nico stood up and scratched at the stubble on his chin. “I’m not sure there’s a problem here so I’m a bit perplexed why you need me to stay in the building until China receives the shipment.” He thought he’d give freedom one more go. Archer walked over to stand in front Nico’s desk.
“I just feel better if I have my closest people with me. You don’t have a problem staying do you? A pressing engagement elsewhere?”
Archer didn’t sound especially suspicious but for all Nico knew, the guy was trained in psych ops. Nico shook his head. “No, sir. Staying here is fine.”
Archer smiled and nodded. “Good. Well then, I’m done for the day. I’ll be returning to my room after I grab some food. Care to join me in the mess?”
Nico hesitated. Mac would have to join Archer and as much as he wanted the reassurance that Mac’s presence would give him, he was desperate to connect with the rest of the team outside the building. He had a burning desire to assure himself that everything was fine and find out what, if any, information Sarah and Dev had gotten out of Robert Rios at the prison. He decided that he should return to his quarters where he could try to contact his team on the earwig where he couldn’t be monitored. Maybe he could get a few hours shut eye since he figured that evening he and Mac would be right back in the thick of it, trying to get into Drake Archer’s office with the help of Adael Dayan, a man he really didn’t like at all. If everything went all right and he was able to memorize the information on the Minnow disks, perhaps they could plan an escape from the building with Dayan’s assistance. Nico needed to get the hell out of there. He was feeling cornered.
“I-I’m not really hungry, sir. In fact, I think I’ll retire to my room and turn in early tonight.”
“Good enough. I’ll see you in the morning then, Flynn,” Archer said. He patted Nico on the back and the two of them walked out of the office. Mac was standing at attention in front of the door.
“Are you ready to go, sir?” Mac asked. He stared straight at Archer, seemingly ignoring Nico, though Nico could sense how desperately Mac wanted to look over to him, acknowledge him, or say something to him.
“Yes. Mr. Flynn is going back to his quarters but I’m starving. Let’s go to the mess,” Archer said. He turned and spoke to Nico. “Goodnight, Flynn. We have a lot of work to do in the morning. I will have some things to be put on a fresh disk.”
“Yes, sir,” Nico replied. “Goodnight.” Nico nodded at him and then glanced at Mac. “Goodnight, Black.”
“Sir,” Mac said.
Nico watched his lover’s lip twitch just a little before he turned to follow Drake Archer down the hall away from them. Nico headed off toward his room feeling just a little more lost, the farther away Mac got.
****
Nico was lying on his narrow bunk with his fingers threaded behind his head staring at the ceiling, counting off the minutes until 2300 when Mac was due to arrive. He wore only the pants of the black fatigues he’d been given and even with the air-conditioning, the room felt stifling. He prayed Adael Dayan would do as he’d promised and distract whoever was in the control room so Mac could get inside unobserved. He’d gotten back to the room and finally been able to contact his friends. When he’d found out what had gone down at the men’s prison in northern California, it had almost made him sick. Thinking of Sarah and Dev being injured while he’d been sitting in an air-conditioned office all day, made his stomach roll. He wondered whether Mac had been able to listen in. He hadn’t said anything on the com but he might have taken it out of his ear when he was with Archer. Who knew? Nico was just glad to get an update from Snow and Galvez who apologized for going dark while the mission at the prison was going down. He had smiled when he thought of Jarrett at the controls of a Sikorsky, though. How fucking cool was that?
He was still lost in thought when he heard a light rap on the door. He jumped up and ran to the door, yanking it open. Mac stood outside, looking anxious. Before Nico could say or do anything, Mac barged right on in.
“Shut the door,” he said.
Nico did as instructed, closing and locking the door quickly. “You know what happened, then?” he asked, staying in Mac’s personal space.
“Yeah,” Mac said. “Just talked to the team. You had your com out?”
“Yeah. But I just put it back in. Needed some down time after hearing all about that. I’m just happy the women are safe. What they went through… damn,” Nico said. “You think Dayan was able to distract the control room long enough for you to get inside?”
“I sure hope so. If not, we’ll find out soon enough,” Mac said.
Nico winced. “That would be bad for both of us. You have no excuse for being here.”
“Yeah it would be bad, but I had to see you and make sure you are okay.” Mac reached for him suddenly. Nico didn’t even have the time to f
ully acknowledge his lover before he was swept into a massive bear hug and pressed back against his door. Mac’s mouth came crashing down on his and his arms instantly slid around the large man’s middle. Mac pressed him back against the door as Nico opened and began kissing him back. He tasted so good, desperate, and delicious. Mac’s arms closed around him, pressing their bodies up against each other as he devoured Nico’s mouth. Nico gave in to the kiss for a few seconds and then pushed back at Mac, separating their mouths. He stared up into his eyes.
“Wait,” he whispered, reaching up and grabbing the earwig, pulling it out and pushing it down into his pocket, grateful that the flag pin camera was still attached his black fatigue shirt, draped over the chair. Whatever was going to happen here, he certainly didn’t want the rest of his friends listening in or God forbid, watching. That wouldn’t be good. Mac smiled and did the same thing, taking his earwig out and pushing it into his pocket before removing the flag pin. He placed both hands against the door on either side of Nico’s head.
“Now, where were we, baby?”
Nico smiled and snaked his arms back around Mac’s thick body, pulling him forward and lifting his face where they could resume what they’d been doing. He knew having Mac in the room was dangerous. If the cameras in the corridors had picked up Mac’s huge form walking the halls and stopping at his door, there was a good chance their cover would be blown; they both knew they were taking a big risk but like Mac, Nico needed to know his man was okay. The risk they were taking was selfish but if they were going to die in the Stryker-Dunn building, he needed to know that Mac’s face was the last friendly face he’d ever see.
There was a better than average possibility that neither of them were coming out of this alive anyway. Not after he and Dayan broke into Drake Archer’s office in a few hours. Besides, he still had to tell Mac what he and the Israeli planned on doing. His lover would freak the fuck out but Nico knew if they didn’t get hold of those disks so that he was able to read them, they’d fail in their mission. If the rogue Chinese company got hold of the palladium and somehow was able to corner the worldwide market, their country and those of their allies, would be well and truly fucked.
Endings and Beginnings (Death and Destruction Book 8) Page 20
