Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines)

by S A Monk

  Nick cussed under his breath. “Did you get all the weapons?” he asked his brother again.

  “All of yours. The rest I dumped into that tall empty crate.”

  “Let’s get out of here then,” he urged as he rearmed himself.

  A friendly hail came from the end of the corridor. They headed toward the sound of Kurt’s voice. It was still too dark to see clearly. They hadn’t gotten far when a round of bullets pinged against the cement wall.

  Nick spun around and raised his assault rifle. He could just barely make out four men running down the opposite end of the tunnel, in the direction of the main house, toward them. They were firing as they ran, which was why their shots weren’t accurate.

  Nick pushed Hanna toward the wall, behind a stack of discarded furniture. “Get down! Take cover!”

  She hit the wall and dropped immediately to hide behind an upholstered sofa stacked with several barrel chairs.

  “Lance!” Nick shouted over his shoulder and threw his brother a couple of smoke grenades. “Cover me!”

  Lance threw one grenade, and Kurt fired at the oncoming assailants, while Nick ran back to Li Chen and hauled him to his feet. A blanket of thick smoke obscured the distance between the two groups of combatants. Nick took the few seconds he was given to retrieve the drug lord and drag him to the stack of furniture Hanna and Lance were hiding behind.

  “Kelly! You’ve violated your bail.”

  Nick immediately recognized Sheriff Thomas’ voice. He laughed. “No shit!”

  “I’m going to kill you… for resisting arrest. The doctor and your brother, too.”

  “You better think about that. I’ve got your boss. The FBI is here, too, Thomas. This operation is finished.”

  The only reply was a blind hail of bullets. The furniture that they crouched behind felt like pathetic cover. More alert, Chen was struggling to free himself. Nick had his hands full keeping him secured against his chest.

  Kurt finally joined them, but he had to dive into their location as the four attackers opened fire on him. Hanna was terrified. When the smoke cleared, the shooting would become more accurate. As it was, a stray bullet was a distinct possibility.

  Eventually, the gunshots ceased.

  “Get behind me when I get up, then run like hell!” Nick ordered Hanna. “Kurt set up cover fire for us, but do it on the move. Lance, throw another smoke grenade as cover.” He looked over at Hanna. “This time you go! Don’t stop for anything. Understood?” She nodded. “Ready?” They all nodded grimly.

  Nick rose to his feet and thrust Chen in front of him, ramming his Glock into the man’s temple, his finger on the trigger. “Lance, now!” he directed his brother in a low growl.

  The diminishing smoke from the first grenade revealed their pursuers for an instant, and then Lance tossed the second one. The corridor was quickly blanketed in another thick grayish-white cloud. Hanna rose to her feet and took one last look at Nick.

  “Go! Go! Go!” he shouted to her, starting to jog backwards, with Chen in tow.

  “Don’t let them get away!” Chen shouted to his men.

  Nick snarled something at him. The firing began again, even though there was no way they could see who they were shooting at. Hanna was surprised that Chen’s men risked killing their boss. But the Sheriff must have been ordering them to open fire again. It occurred to her that Thomas probably would like to see Chen dead because it would leave the operation in his hands.

  “Run, damn it, Hanna! Run!”

  She was, but not so fast as to leave Nick behind. With Chen to pull along, he was moving more slowly, and she was not about to abandon him.

  The smoke was beginning to thin. “Come on, Nick, hurry!” She looked back over her shoulder and saw a bullet hit him in the arm. She screamed.

  A round struck Chen in the leg. He shouted and halted to grab his thigh. His momentary paralysis brought Nick to a stop. He was trying to grab him by his belt and drag him along anyway when Hanna whirled around and ran back to assist him.

  “Get out of here!” he yelled at her furiously.

  “I won’t leave you!” she shouted over the automatic rifle fire. “You need help.”

  Nick swore and reached out to push her away. She turned to head toward the exit again when she felt a sudden explosion of pain in her shoulder. She knew instantly she’d been shot. Before she had time to react, another bullet struck her, this time just below her waist. It was worse than the first hit. She couldn’t move.

  Terror raced through her. “Nick!” Shock gave way to fierce pain. Her legs collapsed beneath her.

  “Aw Christ! Hanna!” Nick’s savage primal roar echoed off the cinder block walls.

  Bullets continued to whiz and ricochet around her, mostly above her now. Then there was a crushing weight on top of her as Nick threw his body over hers and returned fire at the men who were shooting at them. Hanna could see Chen huddled on the ground next to them. They were all going to die if the shooting didn’t stop soon.

  There was a shout from somewhere. It sounded like Kurt. Then there was a bright flash and a loud bang in the distance. Maybe one of those flash-bang something or others, Hanna thought in a daze, beginning to feel numb.

  Kurt ran up to them and reached down to lift Chen to his feet. From her fuzzy vantage point, she could see that his pant leg was soaked with blood. Nick rolled off her and onto his knees beside her. She looked into his anguished face. She tried to touch his cheek, but she couldn’t lift her arm that high. She tried to speak to him, but her voice was nothing more than a barely audible croak.

  Nick ripped off his Kevlar vest. Hanna heard the loud noise the separation of Velcro made. She shook her head in horror. He shouldn’t be giving up his bulletproof vest, she thought desperately. Next, he yanked his long-sleeved black t-shirt over his head. To her relief, he hastily put his protective vest back on, but quickly balled up his shirt and pressed it, hard, against her abdomen. The pain was almost more than she could bear. She cried out in agony.

  “I’m sorry, Hanna, but I’ve got to stop the bleeding and get you out of here fast. Hang on, sweetheart.”

  Oh God, it hurt! She tried to block the pain from her mind. What happened to the numbness, she thought wildly.

  She groaned as he rose smoothly and powerfully to his feet, lifting her, then cradling her in his arms, high against his chest. She was still aware enough to feel the blood streaming down his bare arm, onto her.

  “Nick.... You’re hurt....”

  “I’m okay. Don’t talk, honey.”

  They were moving faster now. It was bumpy, but Nick was trying hard not to jolt her too much. She could see Lance up ahead a few feet, looking over his shoulder at her worriedly. Kurt was running beside them, dragging Chen along with him. Sheriff Thomas and the men with him must have been temporarily stopped by the second grenade Kurt had just thrown. No one was firing at them at the moment.

  “We need to get her out of here fast!” Nick called over to Kurt. “Toss that son of a bitch into the elevator and set up cover fire until everyone’s inside. Lance, make sure Chen stays with us.”

  Nick hit the elevator button with the side of his bloody clenched fist. The door opened instantly. He stepped inside with Hanna. Kurt threw Chen in, then raised his assault rifle and prepared to open fire on anyone coming up behind them. Lance dashed in and grabbed Chen, hauling him once again to his feet.

  “How is she?” Hanna could hear Lance ask.

  Nick looked at his brother and gave him an expression Hanna couldn’t read. His beloved face was getting harder to focus on, his image fading with each painful breath she took.

  Damn! She didn’t want to pass out. She was afraid that if she did, she’d never wake up again. She knew she’d been shot, twice, once in the shoulder region and once below her waist. Nick was trying hard to staunch her blood loss, but strength and awareness were flowing out of her as fast as her blood.

  She couldn’t die, not now! She hadn’t even told Nick yet that she l
oved him. She wanted him to know that before she died. She tried to form the words. But nothing emerged except the desperate whisper of his name.

  “Shhh... Honey, it’s okay. I’ll get you to a hospital as soon as possible.” She was still aware enough to see the pain and desperate anguish etched on his blood and paint smeared face. “Hang in there! Do you hear me, Hanna? Hang in there. I’ll take care of you.” But she barely heard his words this time as she slipped from consciousness, clutching his forearm.

  CHAPTER 27

  NICK FELT HANNA GO LIMP IN HIS ARMS and instantly checked for a pulse, placing two fingers at the base of her throat. Relief washed over him when he found that she still had one, faint though it was. “We need to get her to a hospital fast!” he growled in savage frustration.

  Kurt had just backed into the elevator. He hit the button that closed the doors and took them down to the docks. Nick was still pressing his shirt tight against Hanna’s lower wound, but she had lost a lot of blood. The bullet that had struck her below the waist might have ruptured something internal. He couldn’t tell exactly where it was. He had to get all of them out of here first. The other bullet had struck her in the shoulder region, and while it was leaking blood, it wasn’t bleeding as heavily as the lower wound. Thank God, the entry point was above her lungs and heart! It couldn’t be dismissed, but it didn’t appear as dangerous as the lower one. Christ, the bullets had gone in just above and below the damn Kevlar vest he’d put on her! He had to get her some replacement blood as fast as possible. Shit, she needed the best doctors available and a trained trauma unit! Shaken to the core of his being, he curled her tighter in his arms and bent to kiss the top of head. Her lack of response tortured him.

  He looked to Kurt. “Get the Coast Guard on your SAT phone and have them meet us at Stormy Harbour with their fastest medical evac helo. I want to be in the air to Port George within a half hour. Then call Trisha and have her round up a top-notch trauma team from Harbor View. Tell them to get to George Vancouver County General as fast as they can.”

  “How serious are her wounds?” Lance asked from the rear of the elevator.

  “Serious,” Nick answered grimly.

  “Let’s fly her to Harbor View then,” Kurt responded. “They have the best trauma unit in the region.”

  “It’s too far to Seattle.”

  “Victoria?”

  “Port George is just as close,” Nick snapped back in reply.

  “You’ll never get her and yourselves out of here alive,” Li Chen interrupted with a sneering chuckle. “Give yourselves up to the Sheriff and let my doctor here take care of her. At least she’ll live.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” Nick snarled. “If she dies, so will you, even if I have to break into a jail cell to do it.”

  “I won’t go to jail. I’m a Chinese citizen.”

  “You’ve just been extradited,” Kurt advised him with a short humorless laugh. “By now half the FBI, DEA, and the Canadian authorities in the region have gone into your compound to shut your operation down.”

  Chen paled and said nothing more.

  The elevator door opened. “Did you take out all the guards?” Nick checked, looking at Kurt.

  “Every one of them,” the FBI agent confirmed. “The boat is fueled and ready to take us to Stormy Harbour.”

  “You gonna blow the elevator?” Kurt asked as they rushed out and headed to the waiting speed boat.

  “Not yet.”

  Nick stepped into the speed boat as carefully as he could, with Hanna still in his arms. The craft rocked beneath his feet, but he braced them wide so she wouldn’t feel it, although he knew she was beyond feeling anything now. While Kurt started the engine and Lance found some rope to tie Li Chen up with, Nick watched the elevator doors close as the lift was recalled to the top of the bluff.

  “Any chance those men of yours are in that elevator?” he asked Kurt.

  “No, they’re coming in from the landing strip.” The FBI agent checked his wrist watch. “It’s too soon for them to have found the tunnel yet.”

  “You sure?”

  Kurt gave him a funny look and nodded affirmatively.

  “Did you set those charges on the elevator?”

  Kurt nodded again.

  Nick reached into his vest pocket for his remote detonator, withdrew it, waited a moment, then pushed a button. There was a huge explosion half way up the cliff. Rocks, metal debris, and fire flew outward from the center. Thomas and Chen’s guards had been in the elevator, following them to the dock, Nick was certain. A grim smile curled his mouth. The bastards who shot Hanna were definitely on their way to meet the devil.

  Stormy Harbour was only fifteen minutes away by water. A fog-shrouded sun was rising in the east, bleaching out the darkness. Gradually, the fog began to dissipate, promising a clearer day than the two they’d just lived through.

  As they pulled up to the government wharf in the village, fishermen were just getting ready to set out for the day. Most of the residents appeared to be surprised by all the Coast Guard and police activity on the docks.

  As soon the speedboat pulled up alongside the wharf, Nick stepped over the side and onto the wooden platform with Hanna still unconscious in his arms. She was wrapped snugly in a blanket to keep her warm and prevent her from going into shock. Lance had found a second one onboard the boat and made Nick drape it over his bare arms, also.

  His injuries had stopped bleeding for the most part, and though the t-shirt pressed to Hanna’s waist was soaked, she was not bleeding as heavily as she had been. There was probably some of his own blood mixed with hers. But his wound was only superficial. The bullet had just grazed his shoulder. And Hanna had nearly died trying to rescue him! God, what a lousy job he’d done of protecting her!

  On the upper deck of the double-tiered dock, not far above their anchored floatplane, the Coast Guard medevac helicopter sat silently waiting for them. Nick was relieved to see that it was their faster jet copter, the Mh-65D model. Two Coast Guard EMTs stood next to it with a stretcher.

  Nick took the stairs to the top level quickly and gently. His arms ached from holding Hanna so long and so close, but he was reluctant to hand her over to the EMTs. When he did so, he assisted them in placing her limp unconscious form gently on the stretcher. Then he helped lift her inside the big bullet-nosed helo. A couple of IV’s were immediately started, one with blood to replace some of what she’d lost.

  One of the men saw the open wound on Nick’s shoulder. “Looks like you need medical attention, Colonel. Anyone else?”

  “My brother. He needs to be looked at.”

  “Is he shot?”

  “No, but he’s probably got a few broken ribs.”

  “Nasty bastards, these Triad gangs,” the military EMT snarled.

  “Tell me about it,” Nick concurred. “We’ve got their boss and he’s got a leg wound.”

  “There are some DEA guys and local police at the Maritime Center. They can handle it.” The uniformed man pointed to the cedar house that sat at the far end of the dock. Several uniformed and flak-jacketed law enforcement officers stood just outside the doorway. Nick didn’t have the time to personally put Chen into their custody.

  Kurt and Lance had followed him up the stairs to the main part of the wharf. Kurt read his impatience and took custody of Chen. “I’ll take care of him, Nick. You take care of Hanna and your brother. I’ll see you at the hospital as soon as I wrap things up here.”

  Two British Columbian policemen walked down the dock to the Coast Guard helicopter, then moved to either side of Li Chen. One snapped a set of handcuffs on him.

  “This isn’t the end of it, Kelly!” Li Chen shouted into the helo. “You’ll pay for my brother’s death yet!”

  Nick stared at the drug lord through the open door of the helo. “Worry about your own life, especially if she doesn’t make it!” he snarled back, then hailed Lance, who stood beside Kurt. “Come on, bro! We need to be off!” As soon as Lance boarded, Nick shout
ed at the pilot. “Good to go, lieutenant!”

  As they were lifting off, he went over to where Hanna was lying on the chopper’s medical bed, hooked up to all manner of portable interventions, and sat down on the bench seat next to her. He’d flown out of dozens of hot zones with critically injured team members, but none of them had ever meant as much to him as this woman. His life wouldn’t be worth a damn without her! As he was strapping himself in, his brother came to sit beside him.

  “Think she’s gonna be okay?”

  Nick couldn’t answer. Fear and anguish had put him somewhere no one could reach. The medic answered instead.

  “She’s young, healthy, and getting the blood she needs. It looks like the bullet opened a femoral vein, not an artery, which would have been more life-threatening. She’s got a fighting chance, I’d say.”

  “Yeah, she always has been a fighter,” Lance replied grimly, reaching out to stroke Hanna’s limp hand.

  Within a short time, they were in the air, headed out of Quatsino Sound, over the Pacific Ocean, down to Port George at maximum speed. Because of the jet engine, the Coast Guard chopper would make it home in a fraction of the time it took for them to get to Stormy Harbour.

  Lance sat next to his older brother and stared at the woman on the bed beside them, trying to remember every prayer he had ever learned. If Hanna died trying to rescue him, he’d never forgive himself!

  BY NOON, NICK was sitting in the waiting room, outside the emergency operating room at George Vancouver County General, staring morosely at the double doors ahead of him. The trauma team from Seattle had arrived at the hospital an hour ago, not long after the Coast Guard helo had landed on the rooftop. Hanna had been unconscious, but stabilized. She had gone into surgery a half hour ago.

  Kurt’s wife, Trisha, had rounded up the best medical team she could put together on such short notice. The operating surgeon was a friend and mentor of Hanna’s from the University. He had brought a former student of Hanna’s to assist. Ashley Davis was on the team, as well as Dr. Penman, the resident ER doctor Hanna worked with.