‘Wait,’ he shouted.
Larry stopped.
Kyle had paused next to a door.
‘Ross’s brother is in here,’ he said. He spoke to Larry, but his gaze remained on Nina as he spoke. ‘Get her out of here. I’ll be right behind.’
‘I’ll help you.’ Nina lurched forward.
‘No.’ He held up his hand. ‘Enough, Nina. Too many people have died already tonight. I’m not letting them take you.’
He turned to Larry. ‘Get out of here – fast.’
Nina thought her shoulder would be ripped from its socket as Larry spun round and started running down the length of the passageway, putting as much distance as he could between them and the explosive charge.
She tried to stop him, to explain they had to wait for Kyle and Ross’s brother to catch up with them, that they couldn’t leave them behind, but the special agent kept running, refusing to slow.
‘We’ve got to get out of here,’ he yelled. ‘When someone says ‘go’ in this job, they mean it.’
Nina gritted her teeth and concentrated on running. She wondered how many explosives had been laid throughout the building and how far away they’d need to be to escape the onslaught.
How much time did they have?
A loud boom from outside shook the walls, sending plaster tumbling from the ceiling and walls around them.
Nina cried out as part of the structure crumbled, sending a shower of debris over her head. She stumbled, and her leg caught on something that tripped her, then wrapped around her calf muscle and pulled.
She looked down and screamed.
Dani had crawled through the smoke and flames, her face bloodied from the fallen masonry, one leg bent backwards at an impossible angle. She glared up at Nina, a manic gleam in her eyes.
‘You’re mine,’ she hissed, a split second before her gaze snapped sideways.
‘No she’s not,’ said Larry, appearing at Nina’s side, and aimed his gun.
Dani’s eyes widened, and then the bullet hit her square in the forehead, and she jerked backwards, dead before she hit the floor.
Nina gulped, fighting down the urge to be sick, and stepped back quickly, the dead woman’s fingers sliding from her leg.
Repulsed, she covered her mouth with her hand before Larry grabbed her arm.
‘We’re not out of danger yet,’ he urged.
‘Hang on.’ She stopped, jerking Larry to a standstill, and wiped the plaster dust from her eyes.
‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then don’t slow down!’
He tugged her arm and pulled her back into a run.
Nina swallowed the argument that threatened to burst from her lips and instead forced another burst of energy from her aching legs.
As they reached a corner that angled round to the right, Nina risked a glance over her shoulder.
There was no sign of Kyle or Tim.
She turned her attention back to Larry as a loud curse emanated from him. He slid to a halt, and she careened into him.
‘Stand back and cover your ears.’
She did as he commanded, her eyes widening as he handed her his gun. He removed a large calibre pistol from the waistband of his jeans and aimed it at the locked door in front of them.
He winked at her, a manic expression crossing his face, and then angled his head away from the blast zone, closed his eyes, and pulled the trigger.
Even with her fingers in her ears, Nina’s body shook from the explosive force.
The door splintered, the metal parts of the locking mechanism spinning across the floor before Larry began to kick at the remaining woodwork and then beckoned to her.
‘Get out. Now. I’ll be right behind you.’
Nina scrambled through the narrow opening. Before she’d stepped clear, the special agent was already on her heels.
He grunted as he forced his body through the small gap, then grabbed her wrist and pulled.
‘Move.’
Nina stumbled after him, glancing left and right at the sheer devastation around them.
Two of the outbuildings were on fire, accounting for the explosions they’d heard while still trapped inside the main house.
The shed she and Kyle had destroyed smouldered to her left, the rain having dampened the flames.
She forced a burst of speed and drew alongside Larry.
‘Where are we headed?’
‘That tree line over there,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘If we can make it.’
A third explosion rocked the earth, closer this time, which sent them diving to the ground for cover.
Nina peered over her shoulder as the initial noise died down.
A crater had appeared where the machine shed had once stood. Now, a fire pit of twisted metal replaced the structure, the stink of burning fuel and plastic filling the air with a noxious black smoke.
Larry was already on his feet, reaching down to her. ‘Come on. The house is next.’
‘But…’
‘Nina, now!’
She scrambled to her feet, exhausted, but realising how much danger they were both in, she followed Larry towards the trees at the edge of the property line.
She held her arm across her nose and mouth, breathing through the smoke and fumes that wafted across the landscape around them.
She copied Larry as they reached the trees and dropped to the ground. She hoped the branches above would lessen the impact of any falling debris.
Larry pushed her head down as, one by one, the gas tanks exploded and shot jagged metal and flames skywards.
Nina whimpered as large pieces of metal flew into the trees around them.
A loud whack cut through the noise, and Larry cursed.
‘That was close.’
Nina twisted her neck and looked at him, then glimpsed the shard of metal sticking out of the tree trunk next to his head.
‘Stay still,’ he said. ‘That wasn’t the last one.’
Nina closed her eyes and lowered her head to her arms, hoping neither of them would be decapitated.
Sure enough, the final gas tank exploded with an enormous whump, and the branches above them shook as shrapnel flew into the trees.
When the noise died away, Nina raised her head and glanced at Larry beside her.
He had raised himself up on his elbows and was staring, jaw clenched, at the direction from which they’d fled.
Nina eased into a crouching position to see what he was looking at and then cried out, her hand covering her mouth.
The house had been completely destroyed, fallen masonry and household items littering the area.
Nina stared from one side to the other, her mouth open in shock at the devastation before them.
The house had been cleaved in half. To her left lay the remains of a dining table, its surface split in two. On her right, a whole wall had collapsed, flames licking at the fallen roof beams that lay split and torn.
A jagged line stretched through the middle of the remains of the building, the path of the explosive charges laid bare for all to see.
Nina sank back onto her heels, her hands dropping to her lap, shaking.
She squinted, peering into the flames, desperately looking for movement, for signs of life.
A roof beam creaked, then exploded in a shower of sparks and tumbled to the ground, sending up a flash of flames and smoke.
No shadows moved. No-one emerged from the smoke.
Larry joined her and placed a hand on her shoulder before squatting next to her. ‘I’m sorry, Nina. He would’ve done all he could.’
She nodded, unable to form the words that clouded her thoughts.
38
‘Get down!’
Nina dived for cover as Larry dropped to the ground next to her.
A helicopter swept low over the treeline, the wash from its rotor blades flattening the undergrowth and saplings above Nina’s head.
‘Shit!’
‘I wondered where
he was hiding.’ Larry leapt into a crouch, shielding his eyes from the detritus that flew in the air around him. ‘Stay here.’
‘Where are you going?’
Larry pointed at the helicopter. ‘That’s Hudson’s escape plan,’ he shouted over the noise of the helicopter. ‘He was never going with the rest of his men – I have to stop him!’
‘How?’
A grin spread across his face, and Nina noticed the same look in his eyes as she’d seen in Kyle’s only hours before.
‘I’ve got a present for him,’ he said, patted her shoulder, and then ran through the tree line and back towards the ruins of the machine shed.
Nina crawled until she could peer through the undergrowth and see what he was doing.
Hudson appeared from the side of the ruined house clutching his right leg, his face blackened and his short white hair singed at the edges. Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
He waved frantically at the helicopter and then pointed to a clearing at the far end of the paddock, made sure the pilot followed his instructions, then limped to meet it.
‘He’s getting away, Larry,’ murmured Nina. ‘Whatever it is you’re going to do, you need to hurry.’
The pilot landed the aircraft without incident, and she watched, frustrated, as Hudson moved towards it.
As Hudson began to climb into the aircraft, a shout from the obliterated barn caught Nina’s attention.
Hudson appeared to notice too, turning his head towards the sound.
One of the men that had captured Nina, the younger one they called Peter, staggered across the paddock, his face bloody and burned. He cried out again, holding up his hand to wave at Hudson, and tried to move faster.
Nina watched as Hudson spoke with the pilot, who handed the older man an object.
‘Oh no,’ she whispered, covering her face as she realised what he was going to do.
A single shot rang out in the grey dawn beginning to crest the horizon, echoing around the paddock.
Nina opened her eyes.
Peter’s body lay prone in the mud, unmoving, while Hudson climbed into the helicopter and fastened his seatbelt.
As the rotor blades began to spin faster, Nina stood and moved forward, wondering where Larry was.
‘Come on,’ she muttered. ‘He’s getting away.’
She sensed movement near the burned-out machine shed, next to one of the old rusting tractors.
Larry appeared, a long thick tube slung over one shoulder.
‘Oh my God.’ Nina’s eyes opened wide. She’d seen what he was carrying on the news coverage of wars in foreign lands – never in California. ‘Where the hell did he hide that?’
The helicopter lifted from the ground, its tail rotor nearest to Larry, the pilot oblivious to the danger he was in.
Nina’s gaze moved between the helicopter and Larry, wondering why he was waiting, and whether it was possible to miss with one of those things.
As the helicopter continued to rise, Larry remained still, tracking its movement with the weapon.
When the helicopter was level with the treeline, it began to move away from Larry.
Still the DEA agent remained immobile, his feet planted shoulder-width apart.
Nina spotted movement in the cockpit of the aircraft.
As the helicopter had turned, Hudson’s line of sight over his property changed and, with it, he had full view of the large man standing in his paddock aiming a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at him.
He began to wave his hands, turned away to speak to the pilot next to him, then turned back to face the sight below him.
A flash from the muzzle of the grenade launcher preceded a fiery smoking trail that arced towards the aircraft.
Nina watched as Larry threw himself to the ground and covered his head, then took the hint and copied the manoeuvre.
As the helicopter exploded in the sky above her, the air seemed to shake, heat and debris surging across the paddock.
The blast subsided quickly, and Nina raised her head in time to watch the burning wreckage fall from the air, a lump of twisted molten metal that shook the ground on impact.
She pushed into a crouch and then stood, a smile on her face as Larry ran towards her.
‘That was brilliant!’ she shouted as he neared.
He didn’t slow down.
Instead, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him, away from the crash site.
‘No time to celebrate!’
‘What? Why?’
‘Fuel tanks.’
‘Oh shit!’
Nina forced another spurt of energy to keep up with him.
‘Over there – behind that truck!’
They slid next to the vehicle, panting.
A second later, a loud crump filled the air, and the stench of burning fuel wafted on the breeze.
Larry began to chuckle next to her, and Nina shook her head, amazed.
‘Where the hell did you hide that thing?’
Larry rested his head against the vehicle. ‘I buried it next to one of the old tractors, when I first got here twelve months ago. Took a bit of organising, but we did it. No-one ever went near the old farm machinery, so I figured it wouldn’t be found. I thought it might come in useful one day.’
Nina snorted. ‘It certainly did.’
‘Did you see his face? I don’t think he could believe what was going to happen.’
Nina couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice. ‘Serves him right.’
Larry held up his hand to silence her, and she realised that sirens were drawing closer.
She frowned. ‘Police?’
‘Stay here.’
Larry stood and began to jog towards the track that led from the property to the main road.
Nina watched as one police cruiser and then another swept up the driveway and slid to a stop next to the Federal agent.
The police officers leapt from their vehicles, weapons drawn, and placed themselves in a defensive position, shouting orders until Larry held up his hands and knelt on the ground.
Nina began to run as the police advanced on him.
‘Stop!’ she yelled. ‘He’s a Federal agent!’
She stumbled to a halt as all four officers swung round and aimed their service revolvers at her.
‘Put your hands in the air!’
Nina raised her hands. ‘Please – listen to me! He’s a DEA agent. He knows Kyle Roberts with the FBI. They’re trying to stop a poison being released. You have to help us!’
She fell silent as one of the four officers lowered his weapon and walked towards her.
His three colleagues kept their weapons raised, two at Larry, one at her.
Nina’s legs were shaking from fatigue and fear, but as the police officer drew closer, she held her chin up defiantly and stared him in the eye.
He stopped a few paces from her.
‘State your name for the record, Ma’am.’
‘Nina O’Brien.’
‘Address?’
‘Mistake Creek Truck Stop.’ She frowned as the officer’s shoulders relaxed slightly, and he lowered his gun. ‘What? What is it?’
‘Ma’am, we received a phone call from Mistake Creek Truck Stop sixty minutes ago, from Ross Flanagan,’ he said. He leaned forward and caught Nina by the arm as she stumbled.
‘He asked us to let you know he’s alive.’
39
Nina sat inside the ambulance, her legs swinging over the edge of the rear fender as the paramedic moved the beam from a small flashlight across her eyes.
His brow creased at the impatient sigh that escaped her lips, and he lowered the flashlight and glared at her.
‘Keep still. I’m trying to find out if you’re concussed.’
‘I was keeping still. You’ve been pointing that thing in my face for the past two minutes. I think we can safely say I haven’t got a concussion.’
He ignored her complaints, put down the flashlight, then wiggled the ends of a stet
hoscope into his ears and motioned for her to turn around.
‘Lift up your shirt for me.’
Nina bunched the material up under her armpits, flinching when the cold surface of the stethoscope touched her skin.
‘Deep breaths please.’
She began to breathe in and out through her mouth and tried to ignore the tightness in her lungs as the paramedic moved the small silver disc over her shoulders and rib cage.
He tugged her shirt down for her when he was done.
‘You’ve got some fluid on your lungs. You’re asthmatic, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘When was the last time you had an attack?’
‘About six hours ago, I think.’
‘Take anything for it?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘My inhaler’s still at the truck stop.’
He leaned past her, reached into a box and extracted a plastic case, and handed it to her.
‘Keep that one. Just in case.’
‘Thanks.’ She put it on the floor next to her. ‘How did you get past the landslide and floods? Have the roads been cleared?’
‘No,’ said the paramedic. ‘They’re still waiting for the water levels to go down. The police organised a dozer to carve enough dirt from the landslide to get our vehicles through, but the road won’t be open for days. Have you got somewhere to stay?’
Nina frowned. ‘I’m not sure. I think my home is currently being treated as a murder scene.’
The paramedic’s eyes opened wider. ‘Oh.’ He dropped the stethoscope into a box, then wrapped a Velcro strap around her arm and began to take her blood pressure.
‘How long is this going to take?’
‘I need to make sure you’re going to be okay before I release you,’ he said. ‘The last thing we want is you thinking you’re fine and then collapsing in a few hours’ time.’
‘I’m just tired.’
‘We’ll see.’ He peered at the digital display on the machine next to him and grunted. ‘Right, let’s get those cuts and bruises cleaned up.’
Nina jerked her head away as the sting from the first swab of antiseptic fluid swept across her cheek.
The paramedic glared at her, then held her head still with one hand and continued to dab at her face with the other.
Two FBI thrillers: Before Nightfall and Mistake Creek Page 40