Levont stepped up first. “Dude, you know I love you like a bro, and I’d follow you into the gates of Hades, man, but on this you’ve lost me.”
Lopez slapped Levont on the back. “What is the big deal? I’ve stolen amphibious cars, jet fighters, submersibles. No biggie. Why are you wigging out on this one?”
Levont didn’t seem to want to answer so Prenner stepped in. “Because this is a space shuttle we are talking about. Emphasis on space.” The tall soldier turned to face Lopez squarely. “And no offense man, but none of us are astronauts.”
Lopez rolled his eyes. “They’re just fighter pilots with stupid suits on. Besides they have been sending civilian scientists up there for decades.”
Clearly Lopez was not going to be talked out of this easily.
And Stark’s mother wasn’t helping anything. “The easiest thing is going to be to bust the shuttle and its carrier out of the hangar. I mean 1985 is calling and wants its security system back. The question is can you take off before the National Guard arrives, that’s the question.”
Malvern stepped forward to join the men clustered near the stairs. Bunny nearly jumped out of her skin as a lone snake slid over her boot. Seriously this day couldn’t get much worse.
Malvern glanced over his shoulder to check on her. She must have given a squeak of surprise. Bunny shook her head, indicating she was okay. He gave her a faint smile.
Why did she like it so when an older man gave her any attention at all? Damn, but he was one fine silverback of a man.
He turned to address Lopez though, his voice somber. “Are you trying to tell me you think you can fly a space shuttle?”
Lopez laughed heartily, then looked around the room as none of the men joined him. “Come on, does anyone in the room really doubt that if I say I can fly a space shuttle, that I can fly a space shuttle.”
“It is more complicated than that, Lopez and you know it,” Davidson piped up.
Lopez shook his head. “No, it isn’t really. Prenner you are rated for the jumbo jet, aren’t you?
The tall soldier nodded his head.
“And I totally have the shuttle, so I repeat, what’s the problem?” Lopez challenged his team. “Or are you guys just chicken?”
As always, the men surprised Bunny as they joined in the laughter.
“Ya, that’s our problem,” Levont chuckled. “You’ve sold me.”
Prenner and Davidson nodded as well. Crazy asses.
Malvern stood silently for a moment.
“Well?” Lopez asked. “You said you signed up with us because we don’t just think outside the box, we act outside of it.”
Malvern shrugged. “You’re right. I am just your humble servant.”
Lopez whooped. “Hello, Cape Canaveral here we come!”
CHAPTER 9
Davidson shifted in the tiny jump seat in the small UN transport plane. It was the best that Stark could do on such short notice. Haiti didn’t exactly have hourly flights to Florida after all.
They were back down to six after Liza insisted on staying with the old woman. She said she owed the woman and needed to repay the debt. No one argued with the girl. The Righteous seemed done with her and her VP step dad seemed capable of getting her home when the time was right.
Stark had tried to follow the movements of Baasha and his team mates, but they were lost in the shuffle of slum.
At some point they were going to need to find the Righteous strong hold and route them, but for now they needed to get up to that satellite and destroy the thing before it triggered a nuclear World War III.
The rumble of the plane actually helped settle Davidson’s nerves. He liked straight up assignments. The kind with an enemy on one side and them on the other. He could take his shot from his perch and save the day.
A mission like this cut a little too close to home. It reminded him too much of the Knot. He’s shaken off so many of those threads, yet some seemed to run straight through his spinal cord, embedded, still controlling his actions. To think that once he was on the wrong side of a religious war. He couldn’t help but shutter.
What people could justify by saying they were doing God’s work. It was horrifying.
Starting a war to hopefully bring about the end of days? And the Righteous seriously thought that God would reward them? Davidson kind of felt if God wanted the world to end, he could take care of that all by himself.
Glancing over at Lopez, he wasn’t surprised to find him sleeping, his MP3 player buds in his ears. He seemed so calm. So serene. Like he didn’t have a care in the world. Not like he was about to try and steal and pilot a space shuttle. Davidson sometimes wished he could be as casual as Lopez. The man had no shame in having his baby momma live at his house. No shame that he had a bastard child.
Whereas Davidson could barely look at Bunny without a thousand emotions being stirred and not all of them pleasant.
And now that Malvern had shown up? Davidson knew Bunny’s history with older men. He’d met Lochum in Paris. He’d seen them together. And even that priest had on some level made sense. But Bunny was like a moth to Malvern’s flame. You could see it in her face. That piqued interest. That slight smile always at the edge of her lips. The way she flounced her hair every chance she got.
He remembered when she did all of that for him. But how long ago was that? How many opportunities to grow closer to her had he let slip by?
Didn’t that mean that he didn’t care? Shouldn’t it mean that he didn’t care.? Yet, sitting here irritated by Bunny and her hair clearly he did care. Or was it just a situation that he didn’t want someone to have something if he couldn’t have it?
Was he that petty? Or did he still have unexplored feelings for Bunny?
Ugh. Hadn’t he done enough soul searching for one lifetime? And where was Brandt when he needed him? Back in California living in marital bliss with Rebecca.
Did he really need to talk to Brandt though? Didn’t he already know what his mentor would advise him?
“Tell her and let the chips fall where they may.” That’s exactly what Brandt would say, which was kind of the opposite of Lopez’s “Hit that,” advice.
Even if he could put aside his upbringing and finally tell Bunny the truth, now was probably not the best time or place.
They had a space shuttle to steal.
* * *
Bunny took Malvern’s hand as he assisted her down out of the transport. A light rain was falling in Florida. Enough to make the ramp slippery. Not that she couldn’t have made it down herself, but it was nice to accept a gentlemen’s help.
She leaned into his support, relishing the feeling of closeness. It was a small thing, but weren’t you supposed to enjoy the simple things in life?
Too soon she made it to the bottom of the ramp and stepped onto the dark tarmac.
“There it is,” Levont said, holding out his binoculars to Bunny. She took them and looked through the lens. Sure enough across the way was the open hangar with the piggybacked space shuttle.
It looked ripe for the picking.
“And you guys have a plan?” Bunny asked. She’d overhead a bunch of talk on the flight here, however nothing concrete.
The men looked amongst themselves seeming confused at her question.
Lopez talked very slowly as if English wasn’t her first language. “We are going to steal the space shuttle, gas it up then go knock that satellite out of orbit.”
“Yah, I got that,” Bunny snapped back. It had been a while since she had eaten, showered, or slept. “I was looking for a little more detail than that.”
The men still seemed confused. “Like how are we going to avoid the National Guard from stopping us?”
“Oh that,” Lopez chuckled. “Stark and his mom have a nice surprise all ready to go.”
That did not necessarily make Bunny feel much better. This all seemed like an insane long shot. Like the hail Mary of all hail Mary’s, but they had little choice. Stark and his mom had tried to hack
the satellite to no avail. It was locked and loaded, ready to rain down hellfire on earth, starting a nuclear chain reaction that couldn’t be stopped even if they tried.
So, stealing a space shuttle right out from under the noses of the National Guard it was.
“Everyone knows their role?” Malvern asked.
“We got it,” Lopez stated. “Prenner, Bunny and you will be on the jumbo jet. You guys are probably going to take the most heat. They are probably going to send up a few fighter pilots to see what in the hell is going on.”
Malvern frowned. “I really wish you’d let me reach out to the agencies involved. I could get us clearances.”
Lopez chuckled. “Yah, right. In a few hours you are going to convince every acronym on the books that we need that space shuttle.”
“We’re way more the beg for forgiveness kind of guys rather than the ask permission kind.”
Prenner patted the older man on the back. “It takes a while to get used to, but once you do, its pretty damned genius.”
Bunny couldn’t argue. She was usually the one on point to clear the way for the team and there is no way she would walk into that quagmire of red tape. It would take at least three congressional oversight committee meetings to even explore the possibility of the feasibility of their plan, let alone to give clearance to do so.
Lopez smacked Malvern on the back as he passed him. “Time to earn your keep.”
Malvern frowned but didn’t answer. Bunny doubted the colonel had really understood what he’d gotten himself into until it was too late.
“I say we do this!” Lopez exclaimed sounding way too excited for a man about to embark on such a dubious mission.
Bunny sucked in a breath. This was happening. At the least they didn’t expect her to go into space. Especially since she would hurl on even the roller coasters at Disneyland. She did not want to experience what happened in zero gravity.
Falling in with Prenner and Malvern, Bunny trotted across the tarmac, heading toward the hangar. As promised there were only a few scattered guards who only acted mildly surprised as their team, fully armed approached the hangar.
“Great, guys,” Lopez announce, “We’ve got it from here.”
The head guard seemed confused, as he should. “Got what from where?”
“We’re going to guard the shuttle while you go help with the clean up back at the bunker.”
“Clean up of what?” the man asked just as an explosion bloomed on the horizon.
The soldiers all jumped, swinging their guns in the direction of the now raging fire. That would be the distraction Stark and his mother planned. A little clichéd, but on such short notice, not bad.
Lopez patted the lead solider on the back. “Like I said, we’ll hold down the fort here while you go help with the fire and crowd control.”
The man still looked confused until his radio crackled to life and an urgent voice commanded, “We need all hands to the southwest quadrant. We’ve had a propane tank blow. Be on high alert. There are another six tanks in the general vicinity. Again, all hands to the fire.”
Funny, but Bunny felt like she knew that voice. Stark. He had high jacked the guard’s frequency.
The soldier was a good one, he didn’t immediately flee. Instead he picked up his radio. “I need confirmation that I am to turn over my duties at the space shuttle to help with the fire.”
“Confirmed. The shuttle is in good hands,” Stark replied.
Now with true orders, the soldier’s shoulders went back and locked in place. “Thank you,” he said before gathering his dozen or so troops and headed out to the fire.
“Let’s get our boogey on,” Lopez “ordered.”
They trotted over to the stairs that led tourists up to the jumbo jet. Prenner, Malvern and Bunny stepped aside as Lopez, Levont and Davidson followed the stairs all the way up to space shuttle.
Then Prenner hit a series of buttons on the stairs and they retracted away from the jet.
“Ladies first,” Malvern said allowing Bunny into the jet. It looked like any other jumbo jet except for the removal of all the passenger seats. This jet didn’t need to transport people. It was created specifically to carry the space shuttle.
Prenner and Malvern headed to the cockpit as Bunny got herself strapped into a jump seat. This was insane of course. But weren’t all of their plans just a little tainted with madness?
But with the world on the line, madness was their best friend.
Suddenly the engines roared to life as Prenner prepped the jet to back out of the hangar. She could only imagine what was happening on the shuttle. Lopez better know what he was doing.
* * *
Davidson stood by as Lopez tried to open the space shuttle’s hatch…for the fifth time.
“Don’t worry,” Lopez said. “I’ve got this.”
However, this did not bode well for the overall mission if Lopez couldn’t even open the door.
Finally there was the distinct hiss of a hydraulic lock letting go.
“See? No problem,” Lopez said as he opened the hatch and waved everyone in.
Sometimes Lopez's idea of “no problem” and the rest of the world’s was significantly different.
Davidson looked over to Levont who rolled his eyes. Clearly Davidson wasn’t the only one worried. But they were in, so Davidson rushed to the cockpit of the space shuttle. Even though the shuttle was supposedly fully functional, it was also modified. Every component had a small plaque explaining what the item was and what it did. Actually that might come in handy at this point.
It was a little shocking how large the shuttle was. It had three full levels with several other sub-levels in the cock pit alone. Correction. It was called the crew module. They climbed a short metal ladder to get up to the flight deck.
The flight deck was a Trekkie’s wet dream. There were enough lights and switches and toggles to keep a PS4 junkie happy for a decade.
“You sure you know how to fly this thing?” Levont asked, looking askance at the multitude of controls.
Lopez waved a hand over the control panels, snorting. “I totally know what half of these do.”
“Half?” Levont squeaked.
“I’m sure the other half aren’t vital,” Lopez casually responded.
“It’s a space shuttle,” Davidson commented. “I think they’re all vital.”
Lopez grunted as he jumped, literally jumped into the commander’s seat. “Just get strapped in. Prenner’s getting us moving.”
Levont lowered himself into the pilot’s seat. Davidson glanced around. There were no other seats on the flight deck. In theory on a real mission the rest of the crew would be secured back in the crew deck, however Davidson wasn’t about to leave Lopez up here without some adult supervision.
“Just bungee yourself to the grate,” Lopez suggested.
Sure, that sounded safe. However with their current plan, bungeeing himself to a grate didn’t even move the stupid meter. He opened his pack, grabbed a bungee cord and hooked it to the grate. Seriously if things went badly he didn’t think the bungee was going to be the primary problem.
“Wahoo” Lopez yelled as the plane began backing up. The dim hanger slowly started to recede away. This was really happening.
“Isn’t there some kind of launch window we have to hit?” Levont asked.
“Window, smindow,” Lopez sneered as he frantically pushed button and flipped switches.
Yes, that made them all feel better. Luckily Stark’s mother came on the line.
“I’m calculating now the pitch and angle of ascent. Lopez will have the data before he launches.”
Okay, that did make Davidson feel a little better. Stark might be annoying, but his mom seemed to have her head in the game. The shuttle rattled as Prenner made the turn out of the hangar and headed forward toward the fence. The museum didn’t have its own runway so they had to go across the way to access the tarmac, which meant going through a fence and across a grassy meadow.
Even with the fire, Davidson noted that the troops that had left the hangar, were now turned toward the shuttle, racing after it.
He could only imagine how that lieutenant felt. But who expected someone was going to steal the shuttle? They had counted on the incongruity of it all to make this mission work.
The plane popped over the tarmac and rolled down the relatively smooth runway. Prenner really started to push the speed, ramping up to take off. He had to. This shuttle was heavy. It was going to take an incredible amount of thrust to get them off the ground.
The radio squawked to life, the air traffic controllers screaming for them to stop.
“Ya, join the club,” Lopez grumbled as he turned off the radio. No need to hear the voice of reason, not this late in the game.
“You ready?” Prenner asked over the com.
“I will be by the time we reach fifty miles up,” Lopez replied. Again, not exactly engendering confidence.
Not a lot that Davidson could do about it though. He felt like a third wheel, sitting here bungeed to the grate. There was absolutely nothing he could do about their situation.
The walls around him vibrated as the plane revved its engines, getting ready for takeoff. For Davidson there was always that stressful moment between being on the ground and truly being in the air.
Prenner punched it and they started to takeoff, but didn’t have quite enough lift and came back down hard on the wheels.
“Hit it,” Lopez barked. “Don’t hold back.”
Prenner clearly was not quite as insane as Lopez. The man was usually aggressive, however calculating. He needed to shed that little bit of inhibition if they were going to get airborne.
The engines beneath them screamed in protest as they gained even more speed. Now that was the sound Lopez usually drew out of an engine. Davidson recognized it easily.
Bull's Eye Sniper Chronicles Collection (The Second Cycle of the Betrayed Series) Page 12