by Greg Gotti
Finkes looked away and said nothing, which seemed to anger Fuentes as his patience began to wear thin. He swatted at a plastic bottle containing a solution of some kind and sent it flying across the room.
“You both have been given a chance, and you are both too foolish to know what is best for you! Your Sergeant Heredia is leading a massive search team. They will find Martinez within the hour. You are obviously dishonorable men and traitors! You know what we do to traitors here; don’t you? You are not worthy of a simple firing squad! Maybe when the High General finds out what you did to his daughter, he will let me find a more creative way to end your miserable lives! He is going to be the President soon, you know. He will let me do as I wish, and I do wish to harm you. Did you really think you could touch my future wife and not suffer my vengeance?” Fuentes’s voice grew raspy as he yelled and remained so as he lowered it. His face grew red and he scowled at the two men in his anger.
“We didn’t touch her. You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Perez said slowly. The drugs were beginning to take a real toll on him.
“So now you choose to speak. You had better hope she tells me that you have not laid as much as a finger on her. No man touches her except for me. She would have no man but me, and anyone who would try to defile her will have to do so over my dead body. I will… What is so funny?” Fuentes stomped over to where Finkes was laughing and glared at him. “You think this is a joke?”
Perez joined in the laughter, and Fuentes whirled back to face him. He couldn’t believe their laughter until he remembered the effects of the drug cocktail they had been given did such things. It was beginning to work its magic, and Fuentes smirked.
“Why don’t you two tell me and the lieutenant here what is so amusing?” Fuentes said whimsically as he sat on the corner of the table.
“You think we touched her,” Perez said still laughing. “We aren’t the ones you should be yelling at.”
“Oh? And who exactly should I be yelling at? Colonel Martinez?”
Something about that made both men laugh even harder.
“Martinez would never do such a thing,” Perez said.
“Oh, well that is certainly good to know,” Fuentes said playing along. “Why don’t you tell us who would do such a thing then?”
“Probably the guy who knocked her up, bro!” Both men laughed hysterically as Fuentes jumped off the table.
“What did you say?” he growled.
“John Wallace… the guy we just gave back to the Soona; he’s the father, dumbass.”
Oh crap, thought Martinez. This isn’t good.
“What are you talking about?!?!?!” Fuentes screamed as the men laughed even harder.
“He doesn’t know!” Perez exclaimed. “John Wallace knocked up your little girlfriend. She had a baby while she was over there, so my guess is he probably touched her.”
“And didn’t need to go over your dead body to do it,” Finkes said laughing uncontrollably. “I hear he has red hair and everything!”
Fuentes pulled his firearm from its holster and fired a bullet into the head of each man before anyone could move. The laughter stopped and he was left staring at Diaz, who stood frozen in shock. He stood covered with droplets of blood; his face twisted with rage and breathing heavily as Martinez looked on from behind the wall. He drew his own sidearm and didn’t bother closing the door. He checked his watch and saw they had eleven minutes before detonation. As he hurried down the passage, he pulled the coded radio from his pocket. This one was designed to work despite the Soona jamming. He typed in the code, held in the transmit button and began to speak.
Tex piloted the helicopter in a circuitous path to the rendezvous. He knew there were Rista soldiers in the woods below, and most of them would have never seen a helicopter before. He didn’t want to give away the location of their actual landing zone. They needed to draw the Ristas away so Martinez’s party could reach the rendezvous safely. He wondered if anyone would shoot at them as they flew overhead. There was no way of bringing them down with rifles. The helicopter’s light armor made it bulletproof, and the glass was actually an advanced transparent polymer that would deflect all but the most advanced bullets, which neither the Ristas nor the Soona possessed. As long as Martinez made the rendezvous on time, they should all have a nice, uneventful ride home.
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden transmission on the chopper’s radio system, which operated on a coded frequency unaffected by the Soona jamming.
“Basket, this is Moses. Do you copy?”
Tex and Schwarz looked at each other as Schwarz reached for the transmit switch.
“Moses, this is Basket. Go ahead.”
“Basket, we are going to have to change plans. I cannot make the bulrushes for retrieval. We are going to have to change the LZ.”
Tex looked incredulously at Schwarz as he guided the aircraft over the treetops and began a wide turn to keep the Ristas guessing as to what direction he was going.
“Understood, Moses,” Schwarz answered. “Proceed to the alternate LZ and give us your ETA.”
“Negative, Basket, we cannot reach any of the predetermined LZs. We have two men down and one senorita captured. I am going to extract her now.
Schwarz turned and shot Wallace a look. John was still staring out the window. He couldn’t hear Martinez’s side of the conversation because he wasn’t wearing earphones like he and Tex were. Schwarz exchanged looks with Tex again. This was bad.
“Moses, are our clocks still in sync?” Schwarz was asking if Martinez was still going to destroy Facility 4 on schedule.
“Yes, Basket, alarms are set. Check your clocks. You see what time it is. There is no more time for talk. There is a clearing outside. You will have to set down a safe distance to the south and extract us. We may need cover fire as we come to you. I know this raises your suspicions, but if we are going to make a new world, trust will have to be part of getting there. I will use purple smoke as planned to show our position. Be watching. Moses out.”
Tex shook his head as Schwarz switched off and the Rista chatter resumed.
“He jus’ say what I think he said?” he asked Schwarz.
“He wants us to pick them up right outside Facility 4,” Schwarz confirmed.
“He wants us to land our state of the art transport chopper in the easiest location for the Ristas to capture it?”
“It would appear so. The Ristas must have captured the girl and killed the others. If he’s telling the truth, he’s mounting a one man rescue op as we speak.”
“Can we trust ‘im? What if it’s all a trick to capture a helicopter?”
Schwarz had the same thought. His mind was trained to suspect everything, and Martinez had changed a lot of things about this operation over the past few days. He looked over his shoulder at John, who sat looking out the window. If they didn’t go, he’d never see Maria again. He knew Wallace had only ended up in the middle of all this because of him. He needed Martinez to be on the level. There was no going back now anyways.
“I think Martinez is on the up-and-up, Tex. I don’t have time for anything but what my gut tells me, and my gut tells me he’s legit. Let’s go get him.”
Tex nodded his head reluctantly “Alright, we gotta go straight there at high speed now. Hold on.” He turned the chopper hard to the right, causing Williams and Wallace to brace themselves in the back.
“Whoa! What’s going on?” yelled Williams.
“Change of plans!” answered Schwarz. We are going to have to mount a rescue, so listen up!”
Chapter Sixteen
Fuentes stormed down the hall and into Room 52 where Maria sat alone waiting. He still held his pistol in his hand, and blood spatter covered his face and shirt. Maria saw the familiar rage in his face and froze in fear.
“Is it true???” he shouted as he stopped a few feet in front of her.
“Is what true?” she managed to answer.
“Do not play games with me, Maria! Is i
t true? Did you bear the child of John Wallace???” Fuentes screamed the question at the top of his lungs.
Maria felt her heart turn to ice in her chest. “Diego, I…”
“Yes or no, Maria!!!!!!!” Fuentes yelled. “Now!” He raised his gun and pointed it directed at her face.
Diaz entered the room and his jaw dropped.
“Captain! Wait! You can’t…”
Fuentes wheeled around and pointed his pistol directly at the young sergeant.
“Say the wrong thing, sergeant! Go ahead!”
Diaz shook his head and took a step back. Fuentes sneered at him and turned back to Maria who sat visibly shaking as a tear rolled down her cheek.
“Is it true?” he demanded to know.
Maria turned away from him and broke into sobs. Fuentes practically leapt at her and stuck his gun against her temple as she shrieked.
“Sir! Her father is going to know we brought her in here alive!” Diaz exclaimed. “If you kill her, her father will kill us. It won’t matter what story we give him!” His voice was almost panicked, and Fuentes wanted to shoot him dead with all his heart. He grabbed Maria by the wrist and yanked her to her feet.
“You filthy prostitute!” he screamed at her. “You would be a Soona whore instead of Rista royalty? You are nothing but street trash! You have disgraced your father and your people! Do you hear me? You are a disgrace!!!!” He held his face an inch from her nose as he screamed; pouring out all of the hatred that was in his heart.
From behind the wall, Martinez watched helplessly. He could do nothing from where he was. He breathed a quick prayer as he drew his own pistol. He would have to make a desperate dash to reach her before she was killed, but Fuentes suddenly stepped back and holstered his weapon.
“I would like nothing better than to end your worthless existence right here,” Fuentes said in a voice dripping with disdain and disgust. “That would be too good for you. It would be too easy, and I did not work this hard to have my career ruined by a piece of filth like you.”
He raised his hand and Maria threw her arms up in an attempt to block his blows, but instead, he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the room. She screamed in pain, crying as he pulled her down the hall where the prisoners were kept. He could see faces in the window of the few occupied cells.
“Which one of these was where Wallace was kept?” he roared at the prisoners.
All three prisoners pointed at a cell across the hall, and Diaz nodded to verify it. Fuentes dragged Maria over and threw her in. She cried out as she hit the floor palms out and the side of her head scraped the concrete floor. Fuentes spit at her and slammed the cell door shut.
“You want to be a Soona; I will treat you like one! Enjoy your new home, Maria! It is the same one your pathetic lover called home for the last year! Learn to love it!”
Fuentes stomped off down the hall, and Diaz made sure to avoid eye contact with him as he waited for the furious man to pass before following him down the hall. From behind the back wall of the hallway, Martinez smiled at his good fortune. ‘Well, this will do just fine, Lord,” he whispered.
Maria sat up on the cold floor and stared at the small window in the door that provided the only light she had. She had really played up her terror to give Fuentes a sense of power. The man did terrify her, but she was done letting him control her. Right now, the game was all about staying alive long enough for her father to find her. John would be safe with their son. Maybe they could be reunited someday. She wiped her tears away and began to wonder what would come next, when a sudden grating sound came from behind her.
She whirled around to see the bottom half of the concrete wall sliding back. She felt a sudden rush of cool air and saw a bluish light. She didn’t know what to make of it until Martinez suddenly appeared, crouched behind the wall.
“Maria! We have to go! Hurry!” he implored as he motioned her to come with him.
She actually laughed as relief washed over her. She scurried through the opening and into a tunnel of some sort, and he helped her up.
“We don’t have long before this whole place blows up,” he explained as he took her hand and ran through the tunnel. “John and the others are picking us up outside. We will have to make a mad dash for the helicopters. You stay with me, and don’t hesitate! Understand?”
Maria wasn’t about to hesitate.
Schwarz looked at the digital map Tex had brought up on the screen and pointed to a spot close to Facility 4 just on the other side of some trees growing about 200 yards from the wall.
“Right there!” he cried. “That’s where we need to set down. There is no line of sight from the complex and it’s about where he asked us to put down. That was probably the exact spot he had in mind!”
“So we won’t have much time before the place blows?” Wallace asked.
“Under two minutes,” answered Schwarz. If they’re near the new landing zone, we should be off the ground and away before detonation. If they aren’t, it will be close.”
“We’re comin’ up on the LZ in less than a minute,” Tex shouted. “Lock and load!”
“Set us down with my side facing the complex,” said Schwarz. “Williams, get that M60 ready. We may have hostiles in the trees, and you shred them if they fire on us. John, are you locked and loaded?”
“Ready to go!” yelled John.
“Ok, startin’ our descent after this next group of trees,” Tex announced. “Get ready!”
Martinez led Maria out of the passage and into the cave. She was bleeding from where her head hit the floor, but it wasn’t anything that wouldn’t heal. Martinez had his pistol drawn and a smoke canister ready in his other hand. He’d told Maria the whole place was going to blow soon and the two of them ran for their lives past the digital countdowns and out the cave entrance. Martinez twisted the top of the canister and threw it down as purple smoke began to spew and rise towards the sky. They saw the helicopter clearing the top of the trees and setting down right where Martinez had hoped they would land.
“Run, Maria! Run!” He urged as he looked all around them. The chopper was about 200 yards away as it disappeared behind a thin line of trees. Maria ran with everything she had as Martinez led her towards their escape.
Fuentes stormed through the doors and into the courtyard of Facility 4. He needed fresh air to clear his head. He squinted in the light of the rising sun as the two men standing guard atop the wall looked down at him. He needed to calm down before he went back inside to deal with Maria. He wanted to choke her and watch the life drain from her eyes. He wanted it more than he had ever wanted anything in the entire world. He knew Diaz was right about her father finding out about her being here. He couldn’t kill her and not have it come back on him. Rodriguez might not kill him for letting his daughter die, but at the very least, he would make sure he never saw another promotion. He might even throw him out of the military altogether. He would have to return home to his parents in shame. Years of careful planning would be ruined.
On the other hand, if he allowed her to live, she would return to her father and tell him how he had just treated her. She might even convince him to be sympathetic to Wallace! That was unthinkable to him, and he scowled at the thought. He would still find his career stalled at best, if not over altogether. And the humiliation he was going to receive when word got out about what she had done! Fuentes realized he had gotten himself into a no-win situation, and he was determined to find a way to win anyways. If he was going down, he was going to at least have the satisfaction of taking Maria with him. He decided he was going to enjoy killing her. Everyone was out on the manhunt for Martinez. Nobody would be there to witness what he had done. He would make Diaz help him in order to keep him from talking. If he refused, the body count would grow by one. He began walking back to the door.
“Sir! Purple smoke!” one of the men above him shouted.
Fuentes looked in the direction the guard was pointing and saw thick, purple smoke billowing into the s
ky. He ran through the yard and the open gate. The smoke was coming from the other side of the hill the facility was built into, but that wasn’t what now captured his attention. It was the two people, one male and one female, running in the direction of a descending helicopter a few hundred yards away. Fuentes took off running as he drew his pistol and screamed in rage.
“MARIAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
Tex felt the chopper touch down just as the first bullets hit the aircraft. They could not penetrate the armor, just as he had promised the others. Most of the Rista soldiers in these woods weren’t Special Forces; just local militia units called to duty and a small contingent of Facility 4 forces. Wallace opened the door opposite the incoming bullets, and he and Schwarz jumped out and took position behind the chopper at each end. They fired a few bursts into the woods where they saw muzzle flashes and the incoming gunfire suddenly stopped for a few seconds. Amateurs, John thought as he grinned.
Williams slid open the door on the other side and opened up with the M60. He moved it slowly from left to right as it sent a hail of bullets into the woods, ripping it to shreds. The tracer rounds throughout the clip tracked the trajectory of his fire as the fearsome thunder of the weapon echoed through the hills; drowning out the greatly reduced sound of the rotors that still turned overhead. Tex slid out of his seat and attached new clips as Williams fired the weapon in a steady torrent of destruction.
Schwarz was the first to spot Martinez and Maria running towards them from their left. He yelled to John, and they both took off running to meet them as they emerged from the line of trees. John’s legs carried him across the open field like a deer running at a full clip as Williams laid down constant cover fire. He reached them in seconds and put his body between Maria and the woods. He and Schwarz fired into the trees as they ran for the helicopter. The side of her face was covered in blood, but she seemed to not be seriously hurt. They reached the chopper and boarded through the far door as Williams continued to lay down heavy cover fire. Schwarz followed them in, and Tex jumped back into the pilot’s chair.
