by Steve Richer
“There,” he whispered to Bill, pointing to it.
The big man nodded and they both scurried in that direction. Rogan was half expecting to be shot from behind, maybe that was the trap he was falling into, but no such thing happened. The closer they got to the wall and the faster they ran.
By the time they got there, Bill collapsed on the ground, leaning against the wall and breathing hard. He was smiling as if he had already won. Rogan did his best to appear unfazed. If Bill thought Rogan was in control, then he wouldn’t freeze or argue with his orders. At any rate, Rogan was terrified of the unknown.
He peeked over the wall and down on the other side. There were no mercenaries hiding there.
“Are we okay?” Bill asked.
Rogan did another sweep of the surroundings, keeping the rifle against his shoulder, his finger inside the trigger guard. Ready for anything. The wind bent the trees, ruffled the bushes. Nothing out of the ordinary was noticeable.
“Look,” Bill started. “It’s the boat we came to shore with.”
The tender was indeed tied to the pier. It was inviting, practically taunting them.
Bill was licking his lips like it was a piece of triple fudge chocolate cake. Frankly, Rogan felt the appeal too. Victory was within sight, only fifty feet away. All they had to do was get there, fire up the engines, and sail away to relative safety.
Yet something wasn’t right, Rogan could feel it.
Chapter 28
Gina walked to the cockpit and sat in the pilot’s seat. She looked at the control panel in front of her. There were five round gauges, nine digital display screens—all off, naturally—and dozens of switches and buttons.
“I think…” Sabatini began.
“What?”
“I think I saw the pilot consult a manual once. Under the seat.”
Gina felt around and she instinctively smiled when her fingers closed around something. It was a binder. She pulled it up to her lap and opened it.
“Oh man!”
“What’s the matter?” Paul asked.
“This thing must have a hundred pages.”
She was wrong. It had in fact a hundred and forty-four. She signaled Clifford to bring the light closer and she read the table of contents.
“We have to be wasting our time,” she muttered. “We don’t even have keys.”
“I never saw the pilot use a key,” Clifford replied. “I don’t think choppers need keys.”
“Oh, that’s good. If we can get this thing working anyway.”
Gina flipped through the manual.
“And?”
She didn’t say anything, continuing to search. Mass and load limits, forward flight, main transmission oil pressure, she couldn’t find anything about the radio or communications.
A sense of panic growing, she turned her attention to the console. Everything was labeled in shorthand. OFF, NORM, CPDS, W/U… What did any of this mean?!
“Gina, there are more switches above, on the ceiling.”
Clifford’s voice made her sigh with disappointment. As if she already didn’t have enough choices to sort through. At last, she decided to take the logical approach. She found the headset, put it on so she wouldn’t be encumbered, and followed the wire to see where it was plugged in.
No dice. The cord plugged into the side, nowhere near what could possibly be a radio. But then she spotted two likely candidates on the central console. They looked like a car radio with knobs and a narrow LCD display. She turned the knobs but nothing happened.
“I think we need power,” she said.
“Nobody knows how to fly this thing, right?” Paul said. “Because I don’t think it’s smart to start the chopper. We’re liable to end up in a wreckage.”
“Yeah,” Clifford agreed. “And there’s a hurricane—they said it would miss the Bahamas. Bunch of liars! So I’d really like it if you didn’t hit any of the wrong buttons.”
Gina barely heard them. “We just need electrical power, not the engines. At least, I think. There has to be a switch somewhere…”
She turned her attention to the overhead panel. She grabbed the phone from Clifford and illuminated the switches. There had to be an easy way to find the master switch, no? It was probably so simple that she had overlooked it three times by now. She went back to looking at the central console, and up again. She was like a poodle looking at a ball, the light following her movements.
“Come on…” she mumbled to herself. And then she tried a switch that seemed promising. It lit up some of the LEDs. “Yes!”
“Good job!” Clifford cried. “Great job! Now get the Marines to come and get us.”
Gina returned to what she thought was the radio, but wasn’t quite sure if there were any buttons to push. She had to wing it.
“Uh, hello? Is there anybody out there?” There was no answer. “Mayday, we need help!”
She had trouble hearing her own voice because of the wind howling outside so she had no idea if there was someone responding.
“If anyone can hear us, we’re on Murder Island in the Bahamas. We’ve been attacked!”
The one response she did hear loud and clear was the gunshots. A volley of rounds punctured the windshield.
~ ~ ~ ~
“We’ll stay afloat in these waters, won’t we?” Bill asked, his gaze riveted to the ocean as he lost some of his enthusiasm.
Rogan didn’t look at him, still watching out for some sort of ambush. “Sure. I’ve seen a couple of Deadliest Catch episodes before. I have a general idea how to drive a boat.”
Bill’s head snapped toward the other man. “Are you shitting me?!”
“Yes, calm down. I know how to navigate. People used to call me Christopher Columbus Junior,” Rogan joked.
“Christopher Columbus was aiming for India and ended up in Central America. Not exactly boosting my confidence, man.”
“Relax, Bill. I got this.”
“I can’t believe I don’t have Dramamine. But screw it. I’m ready.”
With that, Bill popped up from behind the wall and jogged to the pier. It caught Rogan off guard.
“Bill! Stop! Get back here!”
The big man either didn’t hear him or he just wanted to get it over with.
“Get down, Bill!” Rogan said louder.
He still didn’t comply. He was slowing down the farther away he got, his shoddy physical fitness catching up to him.
Rogan was pissed because that was how people got killed. They didn’t follow orders and the plan unraveled. Then again, Rogan looked at the boat. It was right there. In thirty seconds, they could be heading away from danger. It was a tremendously appealing prospect.
Fuck it.
He got up and ran after Bill, holding the rifle across his chest. He was looking straight ahead, his eye on the objective. He was going faster and soon he would catch up with his new friend.
That feeling of something not being quite right kept nagging him though. What was it? What was he missing?
When he realized what it was, his heart sank. He couldn’t breathe.
It was the rain and how it was splashing down at the entrance of the pier. There was some sort of glimmer in midair. It caught the faintest light and reflected it where there shouldn’t have been anything.
It was a tripwire.
Rogan picked up the pace, flat out running now.
“Stop!”
Bill swiveled his head, but didn’t stop walking. “What?”
“Don’t take another step!”
His words didn’t come out fast enough. Bill was still walking. Rogan decided there was only one solution.
He jumped on Bill just as his foot got snagged on the thin fishing line that was stretched between the two pillars.
“What the…”
He grabbed him by the neck and used his weight as a pendulum, making them both plunge off the pier as the explosives were triggered.
~ ~ ~ ~
Clifford shouted, “Oh fuck!”
The bad guys had found them, Gina realized. Using the phone as a flashlight had been a deadly mistake. The light must have reflected inside the cockpit, making them as bright as a Christmas tree.
There were more gunshots hitting the chopper!
“We have to get out of here,” Sabatini said.
In the back, they scrambled toward the exit and Gina did the same. She struggled with the handle on the cockpit door, but eventually figured out how it worked. She opened it—with difficulty because of the wind—but leapt out in a hurry as the bullets came their way.
The mercenaries had to be quite far because she couldn’t see them. Also, if they were closer they would be dead already.
“Over there, in the trees,” Paul suggested.
There was no time to analyze their best option. They simply needed to get away quickly. She ran with the others as more rounds were fired. They hit the helicopter, smashing against the metallic fuselage.
Go, go, go! She couldn’t say this out loud, but in her head she urged the others to run as fast as they could. They all stayed low to avoid detection.
Then, a shot didn’t sound like the others. It began as a muted whomp. That couldn’t be good, Gina decided. And it wasn’t.
A second later, the aircraft exploded.
Someone had fired a grenade at the chopper. The first detonation was the grenade, but then the fuel tanks ignited and a bigger explosion followed.
Gina had to squint because everything around her was so bright. What’s more, it happened almost simultaneously as another explosion occurred farther north. It was at the marina.
They weren’t being killed, she thought. They were being hunted. Exterminated.
Chapter 29
The concussion wave of the blast was like having a boulder dropped on you, Rogan thought. The upside was that if he was conscious enough to make this comparison, it meant that he was still alive.
He had been thrown away from the pier as he’d jumped off with Bill, losing the rifle instantly. They landed hard against the gravel beach, feeling the flames expand overhead like a canopy. They remained low to the ground—not that they really had a choice as they rolled around on themselves, propelled by the explosion.
And then Rogan saw the ocean. There were heading straight for it!
“Hang on!”
He noticed Bill’s eyes grew the size of saucers because he understood the implications. If they continued to skid this way down the slope, they would plummet into the churning sea and drown within seconds.
At once, they both dug their feet and hands into the cold, wet rocks to slow their movements. It worked!
“We have to get out of here…”
They pedaled desperately hard until they gained forward momentum.
“Come on!”
Rogan took hold of Bill’s arm and dragged him along as they ran away from the pier as quickly as they could. Then came the secondary detonations.
“Shit!”
They were thrown to the ground once more, but Rogan wasn’t sure whether it was because they were in the blast radius or because they were scared, on edge. Regardless, they were out of immediate danger.
The two men couldn’t help themselves and glanced over their shoulders as they sprinted away again. The boats were blowing up one after the other. The bastards had rigged the boats—and the boathouse—with explosives. They were scuttling all the boats, cutting off access to any escape route.
With the boathouse ablaze, the marina was entirely visible for the first time since dusk. The sinking boats were now unmoored, dotting the harbor with shipwrecks. But that’s not what spelled disaster for Rogan. No, it was something else.
Away from the boathouse was a fuel dump. The flames danced against the metallic reservoirs. They would go off any minute now…
“Bill, hurry!”
The fat attorney opened his mouth, about to ask for details, when he saw what Rogan was looking at. He didn’t argue and they both teared off, going back toward the jungle.
Just as the fuel tanks exploded, they were confronted by another blast in front of them in the distance. It was near the main house.
What was happening? Was it Gina and Oliver? Had they just been killed?
~ ~ ~ ~
Blake walked quickly to the nearest window. He was staring at the explosions illuminating the skies, an orange glow giving him, for the first time, an idea of how large and menacing the clouds were.
“What do you think, boss?” Beta asked.
“That’s the helipad.”
“And the other? The marina, you think?”
“Has to be. Epsilon rigged the place with C4. But it really drives home the problem at hand.”
“What’s that, sir?”
“There’s really somebody else running around out there.”
Beta nodded. “The blast probably took him out. I mean, nobody could have survived that.”
“Remember the operation in Sanaa? It was on Good Friday.”
“I remember.”
“Just because the Air Force Reaper dropped a laser-guided Paveway on the meeting of scumbags, vaporizing that farmhouse into oblivion, it doesn’t mean they didn’t send us in afterwards to check.”
“That’s true.”
Blake looked at him to see if he remembered how that had turned out. Even though there had been nothing left of the dilapidated farmhouse, when his team got there they saw that two of the ISIS lieutenants had made it out in time. They had survived. Blake and his team had had to eliminate them personally.
“Trust, but verify. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, sir.”
Blake motioned Gamma over and reached for the radio. “Blue Team, this is Alpha. Come in.”
“Alpha, this is Blue Team.” It was Epsilon’s voice. “We had enemy contact. Over.”
“You destroyed the chopper? Over.”
“Affirmative, but subjects disappeared in time. We are in pursuit. Over.”
Blake acknowledged and told Blue Team to go after them. Getting to Sabatini and Paul Bloom was paramount. He instructed Epsilon and his two men to track them down quickly and efficiently.
Next, he turned to Beta. “I want you and Purple Team to go out there.”
“Aye aye, boss.”
“Help Blue Team and then check out the marina. We might be able to come up with a pincer strike once you get me eyes on the ground. We can’t afford any loose threads, you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, sir.”
Beta snapped to attention before jogging away with his men, Xi and Tau. Blake watched them go and was confident that he would prevail. This had become a search and destroy mission. With two teams working in tandem, they would flush out Sabatini and his right-hand man, Bloom.
“You look confident, Blake.”
The voice belonged to Raymond who was coming closer to the windows to watch the fireworks. Renna was at his side, her head on his shoulder.
“I am confident. We have all night and my men are skilled. You will get the results you asked for.”
At that, Renna turned to Blake. “I asked for these results.”
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
“I’m tired of everybody pretending I’m not here or that I’m just part of the scenery. It’s not what I am, okay? This whole thing was my idea.”
Raymond grinned and nodded before kissing her tenderly on the lips. A moment later, the young woman extracted herself from his arms and made her way to Blake.
“All my life people thought I was just some dumb blonde, that I would never get anywhere. But if I’m so dumb, how was I able to get the great Santo Sabatini to marry me? How did he never suspect that I was playing him?”
Blake shrugged. “None of my business, ma’am.”
“Everything would’ve stayed perfect if my husband hadn’t decided to turn things around. I saw Raymond behind his back, he was involved in his business—and probably involved in some girls younger than me on the side, too. But he had to screw ever
ything up when he decided to retire.”
She came even closer, her face twisting into anger.
“He never asked me permission. He never asked me how I felt about that. Isn’t marriage supposed to be a partnership? Aren’t you supposed to consult your wife on important decisions like this? He was throwing away hundreds of millions of dollars. He was throwing away his position of power. To hell with that!”
“Goddamn right,” Raymond muttered while he approached.
Renna nodded to him before turning toward Blake again. “I don’t want our business to be legit. In fact, I want us to expand. That’s why we hired your outfit. By attacking us and killing everyone, this gives us the legitimacy to strike back against our old enemies. No one will be able to contest it. It will be our right.”
“You’re a genius, baby. You’re fucking crazy, but you’re a genius.”
Instead of being offended, Renna’s eyes glowed with passion. With pride. She kissed Raymond hard and pushed back away.
“You need to be crazy to succeed in this business and I intend to do it. Our crews will go to war for us, taking out all the competition between Boston and DC. Raymond will be justified in avenging his father’s death. We’ll be more powerful than we ever were.”
Blake nodded softly, but he was scared for the first time in years. It wasn’t every day that you met someone truly evil. This bitch really was fucking crazy.
Chapter 30
Gina could hear herself breathe over the sounds of the wind and rain. She wondered if the others could hear as well. What if it was all in her head?
She was running through the lush vegetation, not really seeing where she was going. The leaves and bushes were wet and slapped against her face with every step. Paul, Clifford, and Sabatini were right behind her.
“What was that other explosion?” Clifford asked.
“I think…” Sabatini began, his breath ragged. “It has to be the marina.”
Paul groaned, struggling to keep his drenched bathrobe closed. “So we don’t have any boats to leave this island?”