Falcon: The Quiet Professionals Book 3

by Ronie Kendig

  “It’s over,” Captain Watters said. “Away from the system.”

  “It does not matter if you kill me. The codes and the system are set to send this information to the Chinese government. And the Russians after that.”

  “Down. On your knees.”

  Cassie couldn’t tear her eyes from the scene. Sal and Captain Watters flanked the crazed man, both aiming their weapons at him.

  “Ahhhh!” someone shouted and sprinted into the room, firing.

  The SEALs neutralized the newcomer, who tumbled to the ground.

  Somehow Meng-Li produced a gun. Aimed it at Sal.

  Cassie’s breath backed into her throat, frozen.

  The detonation of that bullet in the barrel punched her in the gut as she watched Sal’s head jerk back. As he flipped around then thudded to the ground, Raptor brought down Meng-Li in a firestorm of bullets.

  “No!”

  Something tightened on Cassie’s collar, squeezing her throat.

  Kiew had her shirt, pulling her. “Help me.”

  Cassie frowned, her gaze diving back to Sal, who wasn’t moving. “No, no…”

  Eagle had rushed toward Sal while Harrier squatted next to Meng-Li and dipped his brown head, verifying Meng-Li was dead.

  “Bomb.”

  Cassie jerked. “What?”

  “Raptor,” Takkar said, “Boris detected a rogue code that looks a lot like a destruct code to the main building.”

  “What about the codes?”

  “He’s crippling the system, but a well-placed grenade would help.”

  Heavy glass walls slammed into place, sealing off the team in the main systems room.

  “My terminal,” Kiew said, her gaze hitting something. “Hurry.”

  Cassie glanced over her shoulder. Saw a desk-like area. The men were sealed in the room, banging on it. Captain Watters knelt over Sal. Shook his shoulder. But Sal didn’t respond. Cassie’s mind warped into panic.

  “Code… Shinji…”

  Leaning forward, Cassie lifted Kiew over her shoulder in a fireman carry. She trembled as she pushed to her feet, her legs unwilling to support the extra weight. But she would, doggone it. She would do this. With one last glance, she prayed Sal hadn’t been killed.

  Captain Watters shook Sal again, and this time, he shifted.

  Thank You, God!

  Cassie focused on getting to the terminal. Saving his team and Kiew. All of them. For once in her life, she’d be the answer, not the problem. She’d stop this insanity.

  The first several steps were made, not with ease but firm resolution. But her knee buckled. Cassie thrust out a hand and caught herself against one of the system tables as Kiew shifted. Cassie counterbalanced. Pushed herself up. Hauled her and Kiew the last few steps.

  Kiew tumbled off.

  Cassie cried out, catching her friend. “Sorry. So sorry.” She adjusted Kiew so she could reach the system keyboard.

  Her friend’s fingers groped for keys. She shuddered and bobbed forward, about to collapse.

  She clicked something and a dialogue box popped up.

  Thuds drew Cassie’s attention around. Sal and Dean were shouting something. Hand on Kiew, she kept her place and tried to figure out what they were saying.

  “Shin… ji…”

  Cassie glanced back. Realized Kiew wasn’t moving. “Hey, you—”

  Head down, arms limp, Kiew wasn’t breathing.

  “No!” Cassie pressed her friend back and glanced at the box. She hadn’t entered the code. “Kiew! Kiew, no! I need you.” Terrorized, she looked at Sal and shook her friend. “Please, Kiew! Don’t do this. Don’t die. Not now.”

  Tears blurred Cassie’s vision, the dose of panic acute.

  “God!” She cried out to her Maker, desperate. Frantic. She clapped her hands over her head, turning to see Sal and Dean banging. They pointed to something.

  She looked and saw a red display with numbers. Countdown.

  Bomb.

  Cassie couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Kiew warned her a bomb would go off. Warned her…

  You’ll have to be Shinji.

  How? How could she be her Shinji when Kiew was already dead? It didn’t make sense. Why bring her here? Why have her…?

  Cassie gripped the edge of the desk. “O God…” Desperation made it impossible to think or pray. “Help me!” she screamed, the words scraping the very marrow of her bones. “They’re all going to die!”

  Shinji.

  “What does that mean?” Cassie screamed again. Okay. Okay. Stop it. Panic doesn’t help. Screaming doesn’t help. “Oh, Jesus, please… please please please…”

  Shinji. A reload movie. You Can (Not) Redo. 2.22.

  Cassie hauled in a breath. “Two point two two!”

  Codes couldn’t have non-numeric digits. Could they? She punched in the numeric digits. Glanced back at the display. Still going. Panic vaulted over hope. She glanced at the screen. Saw she’d typed 2.23. She reentered it, more carefully—slower—this time.

  A buzzing roared through the level.

  Behind her a cheer went up. She looked back, thrilled to find Sal and the others rushing toward her.

  Sal’s eyes widened, he bolted around the corner. “No!”

  Cassie turned to see what he was doing and then noticed the main door to this area dropping into place. Sal dove and rolled into the room, narrowly avoiding losing a leg as the wall slammed into place.

  “No! What are you doing?” she screamed at him.

  “Secondary explosion,” Sal said. “Meng-Li must’ve had a trigger on the main floor. Look!”

  Cassie checked the monitor in the corner—of the penthouse. Flames engulfed it.

  “Go, go!” Sal shouted to the team. “We’ll find a way out.”

  Dean scowled at him but the others were already hustling out of the sub lab.

  “How are we going to find a way out?” Cassie demanded, her childhood fear of fire suffocating her thoughts.

  “Go!” Sal growled as he rushed over to Kiew and lifted her off the chair.

  Cassie couldn’t help but feel a suffocating pressure against her chest as she watched the team vanish, leaving them alone in a burning building. “What are you doing?”

  But he didn’t answer. He rushed toward the panel. Pressed Kiew’s hand against it.

  “Code! Code,” Sal demanded.

  Cassie froze. “I don’t know—”

  Sal punched in a series of numbers.

  The blast shield lifted.

  Cassie gaped. “How—?”

  “Her passcode—she used it earlier with my help.” Sal grabbed her hand. “C’mon!”

  CHAPTER 46

  Shanghai, China

  11 April—2335 Hours

  They barreled through the lower lab, feeling the concussive boom of the bomb that had been set off after Cassie deactivated the first one. Sal caught her hand and flung her toward the door, which was sliding closed.

  “Falcon, report!”

  They shimmied past it and up the stairs. His boot hit a slick spot and he nearly ate it, realizing too late that’s where Kiew Tang had lain when they found her.

  “En route. Two mikes.”

  “Time is short.”

  Fire roared and surged, licking the ceiling. Devouring the furniture.

  Sal pushed Cassie forward, willing her to run faster. They threw themselves at the stairs. Cassie stumbled.

  “Fire has engulfed the three levels below you.”

  Sal’s heart vaulted into his throat, hearing the secondary boom. “Move, move!”

  The explosion shot into the stairwell. Punched him forward, right into Cassie. A scorching wave rushed over his back. He dove over Cassie and protected her, toeing the door shut with his boot.

  Catching her drag strap, he hauled her up. “Go!”

  “Falcon, you’re out of time! Supports are crumbling.”

  Cassie fumbled but finally got on her feet. Sprinted up the stairs two at a time. She flung herself
around the next flight and Sal overtook her, reaching the door seconds before she did. He yanked it open and pushed her onto the roof.

  The chopper hovered and swung toward them.

  A rope rippled down.

  Sal sprinted and caught it. He waved her toward it. Even as he did, he felt the building groan.

  Cassie’s eyes widened as the entire roof tilted.

  Sal wrapped his arm and leg in the rope. “Hold on to me!”

  She frantically shook her head.

  The building pitched and tossed Cassie at him.

  “Now!” Sal hooked her waist and snapped her tight against himself. Almost instantly, they were yanked up. Over the building. Bright white light exploded below them, chasing their legs with its furious heat. With a massive groan that sounded like a freight train, the building surrendered the fight.

  Cassie’s arms clamped around him, her face pressed into his neck. Her legs coiled around his hips, her entire body rigid. The frigid air tore at them. Threatening his grip and their very lives.

  He would not drop her.

  Wind tugged hard, actively trying to punish them for defying gravity.

  Cassie’s frame trembled. He couldn’t hear her for the roar of the air, but he was pretty sure she was crying as they trailed behind the big bird.

  Sal saw another rooftop rushing up at them and breathed a sigh of relief when the rope lowered them from a horizontal position over the road to vertical. They touched down on the roof.

  “You okay?” Sal shouted, now able to feel her hot breath on his neck as she still clung to him.

  “No,” she managed.

  “We need to climb up. Can you?”

  Cassie released him and stepped back. Stumbled and plopped hard onto her backside.

  Eyeing the rope dangling overhead, he held out a hand to her. Sal hauled her back to her feet. “We have to go up,” he shouted. “Have to get out of here.”

  She nodded and he rigged her up. The team hoisted her into the bird and then Sal scaled the rope and climbed aboard. Cassie sat on the steel deck and leaned against him. It was nice to have her cling to him.

  The chopper zipped over the city and then out across the water until it rushed up over a gleaming white yacht floating in the moonlight and landed on a helo pad.

  Sal hopped off and bent against the rotor wash, reached for Cassie, who dragged herself off. They hurried away to give room for the rest of the team.

  Titanis motioned them toward a door. They stepped into a lavish but simple seating area. Once the team and SEALs grouped up, Titanis slid a door closed and the helo vanished back into the night.

  “What is this?” Schmidt asked.

  Sal hovered beside Cassie, the strain of the mission, of losing her friend, unmistakable.

  “Pretty sure it’s a super yacht,” Riordan said.

  “Cute.”

  “Mates, welcome to the ViCross.” He motioned to the seats. “My home is your home for as long as needed.”

  “Come again?” Eagle asked. “This is your ship?”

  Titanis gave a curt nod.

  “Why are we here? Why did that helo take us—?”

  “Until the dust settles, we need to stay out of sight.” Dean removed his tactical vest, and the rest of the team followed suit, shedding gear, along with the physical and emotional weight that went with it. All except Cassie. “It was decided that we’d lay low for a while, once we finished the mission. As far as anyone knows, we’re in the field.”

  “Who decided this?”

  “Burnett,” Dean said. “The mission didn’t go as planned, but we accomplished our objective—stopping Meng-Li and that code. We don’t have a lot of answers about the explosions nor if he managed to get that software out to our enemies, but we did good.” Dean’s gaze hit Cassie. “Walker, good job. You saved the lives of every man in this room. Thank you.”

  A round of applause went up and Cassie’s head went lower.

  Sal rubbed her back.

  “Titanis will tell you about the ship, but I want everyone writing up their reports before grabbing rack time. This is crucial. We can’t lose details to groggy minds in the morning. Clear?”

  “Captain,” Harrier said. “I need to check your arm.”

  “Probably should check Falcon’s head,” Schmidt said. “He ate a bullet through that brain bowl. Look at the hole.”

  Sal held up the helmet, still stunned that the Kevlar helmet had stopped the bullet that nearly ended it all. “Thick skull.”

  Hooahs answered, and Titanis led the men below.

  “How are you doing?” Sal asked Cassie, holding her back.

  Chin dimpling, she ducked. Covered her face with her hands. Sal wrapped her in his arms and held her as she cried. As the tears grew in intensity, Sal tightened his arms around her, hooking one around her head and another around her waist, his lips against her hair. “You were amazing tonight.”

  She shook her head, shuddering. “She’s dead. I couldn’t protect her.”

  “She knew that, Andra. That’s why she told you about Shamu.”

  Cassie snorted through her tears. “Shinji.”

  “Same difference.”

  Her wet and red eyes came to his. “I saw him shoot you. Saw it flip you off your feet.”

  “Yeah, not a graceful swan dive on my part.”

  With a slow swing of her head back and forth, she tried to fight the tears. Then she shook her head faster. “I thought you were dead.”

  Her choked sob tugged at heartstrings he’d forgotten he had. Sal tugged her close again. “Imagine how I felt—with you on the other side of the blast shield after you freed us and ended up trapping yourself.

  “That door about cut you in half.”

  “Better in half that losing the best half of me.”

  Cassie eased back, her dark lashes wet with tears brightening her azure irises.

  “Yeah.” Sal cupped her face. “You.”

  “Don’t tease me,” she said. “I can’t—”

  Sal captured her mouth with his, gentle at first. Testing the waters. Testing whether she’d shove him away. But when she softened against him, Sal deepened the kiss. Her surrender charged his desire. His craving. His memories of their times years ago. Times that had gotten them in trouble. That had created Mila.

  “This going to be a problem?”

  Sal eased off, keeping Cassie close but looking at Dean, who stood with his arms folded. “What?”

  “You two on the same ship. Think you can respect boundaries?”

  “I think I should guard her door,” Eagle said, his thinning red hair cut short, as if he’d buzzed it after showering this morning. “To protect the lady.”

  Sal scowled. “Nobody’s protecting this lady but me. And yes—I will be on my best behavior.”

  “Which has us worried,” Harrier said. “We’ve seen your best before.”

  “Hey.” They were ganging up on him, enjoying it way too much.

  “Walker,” Dean said, motioning her toward the stairs leading up.

  “You can have my room,” Titanis said. “It has a lock on the door.”

  “Oh for crying out loud.”

  EPILOGUE

  East China Sea

  16 April—0945 Hours

  Sal strode toward Cassie, who sat on the upper deck. He passed her a military-grade iPad as he sat beside her on the padded bench.

  Cassie smiled but the dance her eyebrows did told him she was confused. “What?”

  “Can I see her?”

  Her lips parted with a deep smile. “Mila?”

  “Yeah—you Skyped her, right, that night I saw her face from a distance? Can I see her? Maybe…”

  “You want me to tell her—?”

  He touched her hand. “Just let me meet her. This thing is knocking me off my feet. Let’s go easy on her.” He wrapped an arm around her as she accessed the app for a video conference. “We’ll tell her I’m her daddy when we get back home.”

  Cassie’s g
aze flicked to his. “Home? We?”

  Sal gave her a sheepish grin. “You didn’t think I’d let you leave without me a second time, did you?”

  She jabbed his side. “Let’s remember, you left me.”

  “Well. If you want to be technical…” He homed in on her lips and kissed her again.

  “Ahem,” said a voice from the device.

  Sal leaned back to find a face staring back.

  “Amanda,” Cassie said, blushing.

  “Seems you’ve been busy.” Amanda glared at Sal. “Want to explain this?”

  “A long story,” Cassie said. “Promise the full story later, but is Mila there?”

  “Yes,” a sweet, soft voice called from somewhere off screen. “I’m watching Blue’s Clues.”

  “I can’t tear her from it.”

  “Look what I drew!” A piece of paper blurred and blocked the view.

  “Back it away, Mila. It’s too close.”

  Sal eased forward as the paper vanished and a cherubic face filled the camera. “It’s me and you watching Blue’s Clues when you come back, Mommy.”

  Heart full, Sal soaked in her face. Her brown eyes. Her light brown hair, a diluted version of his.

  “Mila, I want you to meet someone,” Cassie said.

  “I know him. He’s my daddy.”

  Sal froze. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because, your picture is in Mommy’s purse.”

  Sal smiled at Cassie.

  “Are you finally going to come home?” Mila asked, her elbows propped on the granite island as she took over the conversation.

  “Well, maybe.” Sal shifted, not wanting to push too hard too fast. “But I have to ask you a question.”

  “What?”

  “Do you like ice cream, Mila?”

  “No.” She pouted then propped her chin on the heels of her little hands. “I lub it!”

  East China Sea

  16 April—1012 Hours

  Dean stood aboard the ViCross with Raptor team and his new band of brothers, the SEALs who warred with him and relaxed with him over the last four days. He’d watched the approach of the private helicopter from the moment it’d been but a glint in the sunlight. Now the bird whipped the ocean water as it landed on the helo pad.

  Last night, watching Sal and Cassie, he knew he was ready. More than ready to make things final. He grabbed a phone and made the arrangements.