Tactical Rescue

by Maggie K. Black

  “I’ll be back as quickly as I can.” He grabbed her other hand. “If I don’t make it back—”

  “Don’t.” She squeezed his hand so tightly his fingers ached, but he didn’t let go. “Don’t say goodbye. Just go and come back. Okay? I believe in you. I trust you.”

  He took a deep breath. “Okay.”

  She dropped his hand. He got out of the truck and jogged down the faded, cracked pavement where he used to run with Rebecca. The base was deserted. He weaved through the empty buildings, staying tight to the walls, keeping out of sight. He looked at his watch. Just eight minutes left. Then he saw the crumbling facade of their old high school. Two large vans were parked outside the door. A man in black fatigues stood by the entrance to the courtyard, clutching a Springfield XD(M) semiautomatic.

  Zack crept around the side of the building, just outside his line of sight, and coughed. The large man ran around the corner and straight into Zack’s fist. He crumpled to the ground. That’s one down. Zack relieved him of his weapon, then bound his hands with the man’s own belt and gagged him with his own handkerchief. He left him unconscious by the remnants of a concrete garbage shed. Not ideal, but he didn’t have a lot of time. He crossed through the school courtyard where he’d stood in the rain as a teenager and said his last said goodbye to Rebecca. Grass poked through the crumbling cement. Not another person in sight. He stepped in the school’s back door and nearly bumped noses with a man leaning against the wall.

  Zack knocked him out, bound his hands, gagged him and left him in a supply closet. That’s two. Just how many more of them were there? He kept going toward the gym and found a third man just outside the gym door.

  This one was barely older than sixteen and looked so twitchy and frightened, Zack’s heart ached. He had a freshly inked Black Talon tattoo on his neck, but no name overtop. This man was such a new recruit he hadn’t even had a first kill. Hopefully, he never would. The young man raised his weapon. In a swift, severe motion, Zack twisted it from his hands and pointed it back at the kid’s face. The boy’s hands shot up.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. I just need to find the hostages. A man and a woman. Now, nod to show you understand me.”

  The boy nodded.

  “Are they in that room?” He tilted his head toward the gym.

  More nodding.

  “How many guards are in there with him?”

  The boy shook his head.

  “What do you mean, no? Are you saying there are no guards in there with him? Zero guards? You’re guarding him alone?”

  The boy’s head shook then nodded, panicked. His fingers formed a zero.

  It made no sense. On the video, Dmitry had been the one guarding Seth.

  Yet the boy looked absolutely petrified.

  “All right,” Zack said. “I’m not going to hurt you. But I am going to tie you up, okay?”

  The boy swallowed hard. Then he turned on his heel and raced down the hallway. Zack leveled the barrel of his weapon at the boy’s back. Then he lowered his sights and let the boy go.

  Zack slipped into the gym. Maria sat slumped in a chair, her hands still bound, her head flopped against her chest. Seth sat alone at a folding table in the center of the room. His hands weren’t bound. His legs weren’t bound. He was just sitting alone, beside a laptop computer, which was attached to a larger desktop computer by what looked like a mass of cables.

  Seth glanced up. His lip was bloody. His eye was bruised. “Zack. You found us.”

  “I did. Rebecca found your video and used it to figure out where you were.” Zack inched his way across the room, checking every corner as he did. “You okay if I go check on Maria?”

  “Yeah, please,” Seth said. “I think she’s okay. They drugged her because she started screaming, so they left me to do the programing on my own.”

  Zack crossed over to her. She was still breathing and her pulse was strong. He carefully slit the rope off her wrists and cut the gag from her mouth. The desktop computer beeped. Zack looked up. A box popped up on the desktop computer’s screen. Seth typed: Reset Timer. The box disappeared.

  “So, you about ready to go?” Zack asked, cautiously. “Rebecca’s here, just outside waiting to see you.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that. See, the decryptions have all been set to go on the laptop.” Seth nodded to the smaller computer. “All I have to do is let the counter on the desktop here get down to zero and it will go off. Bam. Eighteen international sites, all simultaneously unlocked, for Black Talon to plunder at will. Unless somebody like me goes back in and resets all the passwords, and they don’t want that to happen.”

  Seth leaned back and pointed under the table and Zack saw what was keeping him there.

  C4 explosives. Enough to take down the whole building.

  “See, it works like this,” Seth said. “The moment the decryption starts on the laptop, and those sites become live, the big computer detonates the bomb and our old high school goes up in flames.”

  The computer beeped. Seth reset the timer. No wonder so few people were guarding the building. They’d only left those they thought were disposable. A motor rumbled in the air outside. A helicopter was approaching.

  “Is that our rescue?” Seth asked.

  “I don’t know,” Zack said. He set his knife on the table. It was definitely a copter. But only one. And it didn’t sound military. “Can you stop the bomb?”

  “I might be able to electronically disconnect the two machines so that the timer no longer acts as a detonator and the decryption program is no longer connected to the explosions. But not while I have to keep resetting the timer.” Seth’s eyes met Zack’s. His old bully looked exhausted, broken. “I’m pretty sure that kid on the door was supposed to have shot me by now, first kill and all, but he was still getting up the courage.”

  Then he glanced at Maria. “I’m really sorry, Zack. You’re probably every bit as wonderful as Rebecca thinks you are. But I can’t risk you taking Maria to safety and leaving me here to die.”

  Seth jumped up, threw Maria over his shoulder and ran.

  FOURTEEN

  Rebecca kept one arm firmly around Katie’s shoulders and her other hand on the rifle as they ran for the base’s helicopter pad. The white-and-gold corporate helicopter of Mark’s sister’s company, Shields Construction, descended slowly from the sky toward them.

  Katie pressed her lips together hard and squeezed Rebecca’s free hand with both of hers. Her face was so white, Rebecca worried that Katie was going to pass out unless she managed to distract her from the pain.

  “Tell me something,” Rebecca shouted over the roar of the motor. “If being a journalist wasn’t your dream, what was your dream?”

  “To make a difference,” Katie shouted. “To change lives. To help people. I don’t know if I could’ve put it into words back then. I just knew I wanted to be a force for good in the world.”

  The contraction stopped.

  “And you?” Katie asked. “What’s your dream?”

  Rebecca looked from the helicopter to the remains of the base that had once meant so much pain. She’d thought it was to be free. Free to go wherever she wanted, to be able to do whatever she wanted to. She’d wanted to finally feel free from the life she’d lived twenty years ago.

  Maybe what I really wanted was to finally be free from always reliving the memories.

  “I don’t know,” Rebecca said. “Maybe I don’t have one. Maybe it’s traveling to new places and telling new stories with my camera. Creating new memories.”

  “Sounds like a pretty good dream to me.”

  The helicopter landed. Rebecca blinked. A stunning young woman with long raven-black hair was behind the controls. Katie waved to her.

  “Rebecca Miles, meet my sister-in-law,” Katie shouted. “This is Su
nny Shields, CEO of Shields Construction. Sunny, this is Rebecca.”

  A young man in a crisp suit opened the door and reached for Katie’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you,” Sunny called. She waved at Katie. “So, you ready to go?”

  “Absolutely, just give me a second.”

  Rebecca set the rifle down at her feet and hugged Katie goodbye. “Stay safe.”

  “I’m guessing I can’t convince you to come with me?”

  Rebecca glanced back at the high school. “I’m staying.”

  The young man helped Katie into the helicopter.

  “Wait! Hey!” Seth shot around the corner of the building, carrying Maria over his shoulder. “Wait for us! She needs to get to a hospital!”

  Her brother pelted across the ground and bolted for the helicopter.

  “Let Albright take her,” Sunny yelled, as the young man leaped from the back of the helicopter and ran toward Seth. “He’s trained as a paramedic.”

  Albright took Maria from Seth’s arms and carried her into the helicopter.

  Rebecca grabbed Seth’s arm. “Wait, where’s Zack?”

  “Don’t worry about him!” Seth shouted. “We’ve got to go! The building’s going to explode.”

  Seth tried to pull away. But she refused to let go.

  “The building’s going to explode and you just left Zack in there to explode with it? Do you know how to stop the bomb?” Seth looked down. So, that would be a yes. “We’re going back in there to save him!”

  The helicopter rotors thrummed above them. Sunny was yelling that they had to go. Seth yanked his arm away. Rebecca glanced toward the helicopter.

  Then she felt the cold metal barrel of the hunting rifle pressed into her neck. She turned.

  “I’m really sorry to do this to you, Rebecca,” Seth said, the rifle shaking in his hands, “but we’re both going to get into that helicopter and leave. I don’t want to die here and I don’t want you to die here, either. I don’t know for sure I can stop the bomb. I can only try. But even if I can, I’d rather die than end up in military prison, spending the rest of my life behind bars at the mercy of people like the General.”

  “Not everyone in uniform is like our father, Seth. A whole lot of them are good and decent, like Zack.”

  She didn’t even look at the metal pressed against her skin. Instead she looked at her brother.

  “But I understand why you want to run.” Tears filled her eyes. “I get why you’re afraid. I’m sorry I never did before, but I do now. I read your blog, Seth. I know that your father hurt you. I know that you’re my half brother and Maria is our half sister, and that the only reason you did all this was because you wanted to use the decryption program to expose him for who he was, and help Maria prove she was his daughter, and find out what happened to your mother.”

  “Nobody gets it.” Angry tears were building in Seth’s eyes. “Nobody ever has.”

  “Well, I do,” she said. “I might be only one person, but I do. I didn’t get it before, and don’t get me wrong, I still think you were a rotten brother and I still think you deserve to go to jail for stealing that program. But I get why you did it. And I forgive you.”

  * * *

  The computer beeped. Zack typed, Reset Timer.

  Then he swung around to face a skinny thug who’d just run into the gym.

  The Black Talon opened fire. AK-47. Sloppy. Zack ducked under the bullet and caught the man in the chest. The gun fell to the floor.

  Then a fresh spray of bullets filled the air as Dmitry ran into the room.

  Welcome. Coming to check how your hostages escaped and why your bomb hasn’t gone off?

  Zack rolled. Then kicked straight up, knocking the gun from Dmitry’s hands.

  The computer beeped.

  Zack turned on his heel and ran for the computer. The counter was counting down. Zack typed, Reset Timer.

  A gun barrel clicked behind him.

  “Hands up.” Dmitry had recovered faster than Zack had expected. Zack raised his hands. “Now. You stand up, slowly.”

  Zack leaped to his feet and grabbed for the gun. It fired into the air. Plaster fell down from the ceiling. Zack wrenched the weapon from Dmitry’s hands and leveled a blow to his face. Dmitry grunted and fell to the floor. His skinny buddy was passed out cold. There was a clatter of footsteps running down the hallway. Zack spun toward the door and raised his weapon to fire.

  The computer beeped again.

  Rebecca ran through the door. Seth was one step behind her.

  “What are you two doing here?”

  “Helping.” Her hand brushed his arm as she ran past him to the computer.

  Vehicles were screeching to a stop outside. Voices were shouting. Still, none of it sounded anything like the kind of backup he was hoping for.

  Zack kept his gun trained on the door. Dmitry was glaring at him, but not moving. “Where’s Maria?”

  “Woman named Sunny picked Katie and Maria up in the helicopter,” Rebecca said. “Said she’d take them both to the hospital.”

  Thank You, God. “You should’ve gone with them.”

  “No, I shouldn’t.” Rebecca slid into the chair. “If you’re going to blow up here in this stupid gym, I’m going with you.” Then she looked up at Seth. “How do we do this?”

  “You keep resetting the timer every time the computer beeps,” Seth said. “I’ll electronically disconnect the timer from the bomb.”

  An eruption of gunfire sounded from the hallway. Then there was a lot more shouting. None of it was in English.

  “Hate to break it to you,” Zack shouted, “but I think things just got messier. It sounds like more Black Talons just showed up and they’re not big fans of the ones already here.”

  A head popped through the doorway. Then huge tattooed arms bulging out of a bulletproof vest.

  “Stop typing!” The bulletproofed Black Talon shouted. “Now! Or I’ll shoot!”

  Seth kept typing. “Presume you got this covered, Zack?”

  “Yup.” He more than had it covered. That vest might keep Zack from killing him, but he’d still feel the impact. Zack fired, his bullets hitting the man square in the chest. Behind him he could hear fierce typing. The computer beeped a single long, drawn-out beep.

  “Got it!” Seth yanked the laptop away from the larger tangle of machines and wires. He stood up. “Now, all I’ve got to do is shut down all eighteen decryption sites one by one, before Black Talon robs a bank or sets off some nuclear weapons.”

  Dmitry leaped to his feet. Zack decked him in the jaw. He fell back down. “Any chance you can deactivate the decryption while we run?”

  “Absolutely.” Seth grabbed the laptop and stood up.

  “Great.” Zack looked at Rebecca. “How did you get Seth to come with you?”

  “I told him I believed him and when all this was done, I’d do what I could to continue his search for his mother and any other half siblings we might have, and prove Maria’s really our sister.”

  Zack nodded. That would be a pretty tall order and one he probably couldn’t be a part of. But right now, all they could do was fight the battle in front of them.

  “Did you ever learn to shoot?” he asked.

  “I’ve always known how to shoot.” She grinned. “What I did was learn how to aim.”

  “Don’t shoot except in self-defense, okay?” He grabbed a Glock off Dmitry’s limp body and handed it to her.

  “You’ve got it.” Damp hair fell over her face. Her eyes glistened.

  He’d never loved anything as much as he loved her right now.

  “Do whatever you’ve got to do, Zack,” she added. “Give me whatever orders you need to give me, and I’ll follow them. You’ll get us out of here, alive. I trust you.”
>
  Zack took a deep breath, and felt calm as clear air entered his lungs. His pulse slowed. He had this. They ran down the hallway single file. A firefight had erupted in the old cafeteria between two warring groups of Black Talons. He clipped one thug who was firing from the landing by the science lab. Then he led them down into the basement and wove through the old locker hallways, and finally up the back stairway by the parking lot. There was the roar of rotors above. They looked up. A fleet of military helicopters was descending from the sky. Police vehicles swarmed up the driveway. Thank You, God.

  Seth ran toward the vehicles and raised his hands above his head, still clutching the laptop. “I’m Seth Miles! I’m surrendering! But I’m also busy defusing the decryption program hub by hub. I’m down to the last four. So don’t take the laptop away unless you know advanced programming.”

  He disappeared into the crowd of officers.

  Zack ran to the nearest officer and briefed her on the situation inside the building. But as the authorities mobilized to surround the building, Zack took Rebecca by the hand and quickly led her down the road through the maze of oncoming vehicles, back to where they’d parked Katie’s SUV. All four of Katie’s tires had been shot out, no doubt by the second batch of Black Talons as they’d arrived. But thankfully his green bag was still under the front seat. He pulled it out, then turned to face Rebecca.

  “You’ve got to get out of here,” he said. “The situation’s going to get really violent and pretty nasty and there’s still a chance someone could set off the bomb inside the building. This is no place for civilians. I’ll try to find someone I know and trust to take you in. The good news is that it looks like there’s no warrant out for your arrest, at least according to Jeff, but you’re still going to be wanted for questioning.” He dropped the bag by his feet and pulled her into his arms. “But right now, I’m just glad we got a chance to finally say a real goodbye.”

  “And then what happens with you?” She looked up at him.

  “Well, despite the fact I’m in fatigues, I’m still not on active duty,” he said. “I’m going to report in for duty and hopefully catch a ride back to base. If all goes well, this will be sorted out quickly with my superiors. I never actually disobeyed a direct order, so I shouldn’t face disciplinary action, especially as Seth turned himself in, Maria is safe, the decryption program has been found and our police are currently taking down a pretty large foreign terrorist cell. Hopefully, I’ll still be able to be deployed overseas with my unit, this week.”