by Sam Sisavath
Gaby blocked it out and concentrated on what lay ahead.
Get to Lara. That’s all that matters now.
Get to Lara and keep her safe. If we lose her, then it’s over, and all of this will be for nothing.
They kept moving at a brisk pace through the alleys, slipping in and out of shadows while gunfire ebbed and flowed across the city. There was just small arms at first, but that didn’t last. Soon, they were hearing machine gun fire, too. The shooting came from everywhere—north, east, west, and even south where the Gulf of Mexico splashed against Darby Bay’s shores. Were the attackers coming from the ocean, too, or had they just progressed so far into the city that they were now surrounding them?
We’re not ready for this. God, we’re so not ready for this…
“What happened? Anyone know what happened?” Angie was asking behind her. Gaby didn’t think she was talking to her.
“We’re under attack,” Springer said.
“I know that. But what’s happening?”
“I don’t have a clue. I only know what you know. The alarms went off, and suddenly everyone’s in the hallways. Next thing I know, the streets are on fire.”
“This is bad, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, this is pretty bad.”
“What happened to your arm?”
“Huh?”
“Your arm,” Angie said.
“Oh,” Springer said. “I got shot.”
“Keep up,” one of Parrish’s men, Becker, said. He was behind Gaby, too, probably watching their backs while Goldman led the way in front of her. “You fall behind, and we’re not going back for you.”
“Hey, I got one good arm,” Springer said.
“Excuses, excuses,” Goldman said.
“You need help with that?” she heard Becker asking someone.
Angie, because she answered. “No. It’s my responsibility.”
“It looks heavy.”
“It is.”
“Suit yourself.” A second or two later, Becker was walking next to Gaby. “You hit, ma’am?”
“What?” Gaby said. The question had caught her off guard.
“You’re favoring one leg, ma’am.”
Gaby shook her head. “I’m fine.”
He gave her an I don’t believe you look, but she ignored it.
Gaby glanced back at Angie and Springer instead, trailing behind them. Angie spent more time looking at the fires behind them than she did forward. The pulsating blanket of orange and red had spread from the apartment to the buildings around it, the extra materials feeding the flames’ growth. What would happen if it kept going? Could it consume all of Darby Bay? There was all that water in the Gulf of Mexico, but they weren’t going to do any good if there was no one to use them.
Forget about the city. Get to Lara. Keeping her alive is the only thing that matters tonight.
Gaby looked over at Becker. “What happened to the radio? I couldn’t get in touch with Lara or anyone else.”
“We switched over to the emergency channel as soon as the captain decided it was time to boogie,” Becker said. “It’s protocol, ma’am.”
Right. Protocol. She had forgotten all about it in the rush to get down from the rooftop, then later, through the chaos in the lobby.
It was Parrish’s job to see that Lara stayed safe. The first step toward that would be to switch to a new radio frequency so their communications couldn’t be intercepted by the enemy. Only Parrish and a handful of people knew what that was. Gaby was one of them. The second step was to proceed to the backup observational post—the OP—from which to coordinate a counterattack. And there was going to be a counterattack. Gaby knew Lara too well to think she was just going to take this lying down. The switch to the emergency channel would be preceded by an announcement on the general comm so the rest of Black Tide’s forces would know what to do. In short: Find your units and wait for orders.
As she listened to a fresh round of gunfire, Gaby wondered how many of their people were doing what they were told right now. She had to trust that she and Danny and the others had trained them well enough. It wasn’t like she had any other choice.
“Captain should have the boss at OP2 by now,” Becker was saying. “They had wheels when I last saw them.”
“Too bad we couldn’t find any for us,” Goldman said from in front of them. “Beats walking.”
“Walking’s good for your health, sport.”
“Broccoli’s good for my health. Walking’s a pain in my ass.”
“Told you you were out of shape.”
“That’s not what your mom said this morning.”
Becker grunted. “You wish. My mom has way better taste than your sorry ass.”
Gaby ignored their back and forth and took out her radio. She switched over to the new frequency before pressing the transmit lever and speaking into it. “Lara, this is Gaby. Come in.”
It took only a few seconds before she heard Lara’s voice. “Gaby. Where are you?” There was relief in Lara’s voice.
“I’m en route to the backup OP now.”
“What about the apartment? We heard multiple explosions. We can see the fires from here.”
“It’s gone, Lara. Everything’s gone.”
“The airfield…”
“The airfield. The school. The barracks. They knew exactly where to strike. All of this was a coordinated attack.”
And it’s not over yet. It’s so far from over I’m scared of what else they have planned for us. What else he has planned for us.
But Gaby didn’t say any of that out loud or into the radio. She didn’t think she had to. Lara would already know who she was talking about even if she never spoke his name. They had been discussing it for the last few days even when Keo was still in Darby Bay.
Buck.
The man who started all of this. The man whose name Keo got “Buckies” from. The same man who had sent Loman and Biden into their ranks days, weeks, maybe even months ago. Who knew how many other sleeper cells he had in their midst that were just waiting for the signal to wake up?
They sabotaged the airfield. There’s no other way it could have happened. They sabotaged it and took away our one big advantage.
Right now she imagined that Lara was thinking the same thing and coming to the same conclusion. Her friend wasn’t an idiot. She was anything but. Lara would know how badly they had screwed up, how ill-prepared they had been for Buck’s attack. All this time, they thought they were ahead in the conflict, dictating what happened next, but Gaby was starting to think they were playing catch-up. They just didn’t know it until tonight.
You were right, Keo. Buck has been planning this for years.
Keo. She wished he were here with them right now instead of…doing whatever it was he was doing in Fenton. Not that she thought one man could change any of what had happened or saved the airfield, but it would have been nice to have him around. If anything, just to know that there was one person she could unconditionally rely on to fight beside her would have been a boon tonight.
She sneaked a look at the people around her. Except for Angie, she didn’t know the others. She didn’t even know Angie all that well, and what she did know—that the woman was a part of the support staff—didn’t inject Gaby with a lot of confidence.
Springer had one good working arm and wasn’t going to be much help in a gunfight. She hated the idea of leaving him behind but if it came to that…
Then there were Becker and Goldman. They were Parrish’s men, which meant they were handpicked. They would be good soldiers, but how good? There was a big difference between security detail and being out there in the field. She didn’t know if either man had experience with that, which left her with a big question mark. She just hoped that when she did find the answer, it wasn’t with bullets flying over her head.
“Gaby,” Lara was saying through the radio.
“I’m still here,” Gaby said.
“We’re waiting for you at the halfway point.
Get over here as fast as you can.”
“Don’t wait for me. We don’t know how bad tonight’s going to get or how long it’s going to take me to get there. You need to get out of the open ASAP.”
“Negative. We’ll wait for you at the halfway point.”
“Lara—”
“That’s an order, Commander.”
Gaby sighed. “Yes, ma’am.” She put the radio away and nodded at Becker. “You heard her. They’re waiting for us at the halfway point.”
“Captain’s not gonna like that,” Becker said with something that almost looked like an amused smirk.
“Yeah, well, she’s the big boss, and he’s not.”
Goldman threw a glance over his shoulder and grinned. “Sometimes I don’t think the captain remembers that.”
“He’ll get over it,” Gaby said. She looked back at Springer walking slightly behind her. She hadn’t noticed before, but he wasn’t wearing a belt and was unarmed. “Where’s your handgun, soldier?”
“Back in my room, ma’am,” Springer said. He lifted his slinged arm just enough to indicate it. “It’s a little difficult to put on a belt when you’re in a hurry with this thing, so I just grabbed my rifle. Speaking of which...”
Gaby glanced down at Springer’s M4 in her hands. “I’m keeping it.”
He sighed. “Yes, ma’am.”
“You have any spares?”
He shook his head. “It didn’t occur to me to grab some, sorry.”
She nodded, thought, At least you did better than most of them, and drew her pistol and handed it to him.
Springer took the gun, along with the two spare magazines that she took out of her pouch. The extras went into his back pocket while he tested his grip on the SIG Sauer with his right hand. “Feels good.”
“Don’t lose it,” Gaby said. “I want it back when this is over.”
“Do I get my rifle back, too?”
“Maybe. We’ll see.”
Gaby turned to Angie, who was either hanging back on purpose or—No, it was the laptop. The woman was having trouble carrying it and matching their hurried pace at the same time.
Angie must have seen the look on Gaby’s face, because she pursed a smile. “It’s fine. I can carry it and keep up.”
“Are you sure?” Gaby asked.
“Do I have a choice?”
“You should give it to me,” Becker said, while holding out one hand.
“No, we need your rifle,” Gaby said.
“It’s okay,” Angie said. “If I fall behind—”
“Keep up,” Gaby said before she could finish.
“Yes, ma’am,” Angie said, nodding back.
Gaby looked forward at Goldman. The man had lengthened his lead on them as they approached an intersection up ahead. She thought about telling him to slow down, but she was dealing with soldiers here. More than anyone in Darby Bay, Parrish’s unit was the best of what Black Tide had to offer.
I hope that’s good enough.
The BOOM! of something exploding nearby shook the alley around them. Goldman instinctively went down on one knee while Gaby and the others followed suit. They looked forward as a ball of flames rose into the air, high enough that they could see it over the rooftops of the buildings in front of them. Whatever had caused it hadn’t been close enough for them to feel the heat of the blast, but the suddenness and noise had been startling nonetheless.
“What was that?” Springer asked.
“Looks like it’s happening from the other side of the city,” Becker said. “Anyone got any ideas what’s over there?”
Gaby shook her head. She didn’t know nearly enough about Darby Bay to remember where everything was. It just never seemed necessary, and a part of her didn’t think they’d be at the seaside city long enough for it to matter.
I guess you were wrong about that, too. Hopefully you’re not wrong about a lot of other things tonight.
“Fuel depot,” Angie said from behind them.
“You sure?” Becker asked.
“Positive.”
Gaby glanced back at the older woman. “Whose?”
“The city’s,” Angie said. “It’s their emergency reserve.”
“Why would they attack that?” Springer asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe they didn’t,” Becker said. “Not on purpose. A night like this, with everyone shooting, bullets tend to go places they’re not supposed to. I saw some incendiary rounds out there.”
Something else exploded, this time coming from behind them. They all glanced back—no, not all of them. Goldman, Gaby saw, had kept his eyes firmly in front of them.
“And that?” Springer asked.
“I don’t know,” Angie said. “There’s a lot of things back there.”
“Ours?”
“Most of it, yes.”
Instead of joining them in speculating, Gaby took the opportunity to pull out a small bottle from her pocket and shake out two white pills into her palm. She swallowed them down, glad to have them on her because she had a feeling she was going to be moving all night.
The squeal of car tires from a nearby street, followed by some kind of collision and the pop-pop-pop of small arms, made her turn in that direction. The battle was much closer that the two explosions, with maybe just a building or two between them and the action.
“You sure you’re okay, ma’am?” Becker was asking her.
She put the bottle away. “Stop asking me that,” she said before standing up. “We’re losing time.”
“Just wanna make sure, ma’am.”
“Keep moving, soldier.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
They were back on their feet and moving again, while still listening to gunfire around them. North, east, west—everywhere. The pop-pop-pop seemed to come from everywhere, like the entire city had come alive and everyone was shooting at each other. The clatter of small arms were being interrupted by the loud crash of machine gun fire more frequently now. She thought she could hear screams, too, but those were harder to be certain of with so much going on.
She sneaked a look back in the direction of the airfield, staring for just a second at the ocean of red and orange in the sky. It looked much smaller than before, which told her the fire would eventually die down before the night was over. She had been afraid it might consume the entire city before it was done, but that didn’t look like a possibility now.
“It’s not just us fighting, right?” Angie was asking behind her.
“What do you mean?” Springer said.
“The townspeople. They’re armed, too?”
“Some of them, yeah.”
“So they’re not just going to let whoever’s attacking take the city from them?”
“There’s a big difference between letting it happen and stopping it,” Becker said. “A big, big difference.”
Gaby kept quiet, but she thought, No one was ready for this. Not the people of Darby Bay, and not us.
“He’s been planning this for years,” Keo had said to her and Lara before he left. “Who knows what else he’s got up his sleeve. For all we know, those people at Fenton might not be everything he has. He could be hiding more men out there.”
She remembered exchanging a look with Lara when Keo had said that. Gaby didn’t think either one of them believed him. No, that wasn’t true. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe Keo, it was more that they thought it unlikely. After five years of fighting and bringing order to their small part of the country, they thought they had seen everything. Buck, in their eyes, was just another power-mad maniac. They’d dealt with his kind before. They always folded quickly under what Black Tide could bring to bear. Always.
Now, as she thought about what Keo had said, she wondered if he was right. Were the people attacking Darby Bay part of a hidden army that they didn’t even know existed? Because they couldn’t have come from Fenton. Their intelligence would have known if such a large force had moved out of the city during the day
to assemble for an attack on the outskirts of the seaside city tonight.
Wouldn’t they?
Unless Keo was right. Unless Buck had another army he was hiding, waiting to spring on us. While we watched Fenton, they moved unnoticed.
There were so many possibilities, and every single one of them led to the same conclusion:
They weren’t ready. They weren’t even close to being ready for something like tonight. She just hoped that mistake didn’t cost them everything.
God, she hoped it wouldn’t cost them everything…
In front of her, Goldman had glanced over his shoulder back at them. “It’s only gonna get harder from here on out, folks, so stay frosty.”
“Eyes forward, sport,” Becker said.
“I got eyes in the back of my head, remember?”
“Won’t do you any good if someone shoots them out while you’re looking back here.”
Goldman grinned, and he was turning back around when something black and green clunked! against the filthy floor in front of him, rolled forward slightly, and a split second later Goldman disappeared in a shower of shrapnel and smoke.
Four
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
The noise burrowed deep into her gut, trying to tear her apart from the inside out. Even the sting in her eyes from all the acrid smoke couldn’t stop her from feeling the immense pain that threatened to overwhelm everything.
Absently, she noticed the lack of feeling in her left arm where shrapnel had pierced skin two inches from the elbow. The foreign object was a small black-gray piece of metal, slimmer than it was chunky. She could see it sticking out of her flesh even as she raised herself up from the ground. Gaby knew there should have been pain from the wound, but she wasn’t feeling it at the moment. She was too busy trying to fight through the screeching in her eardrums.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
It wasn’t anything made by a human being, but it wasn’t mechanical, either. It was somewhere in-between, and it dominated her senses, making it impossible to quickly adjust to the situation. She was aware of moving in slow motion but not being able to do much about it. Her mind shouted, Faster! You have to move faster! But knowing what she had to do and actually accomplishing the task were two different animals.