by Melissa Good
Everyone exchanged glances. “Well...” The burly terrorist Red Sky At Morning 251
hesitated. “We’re their target, so yeah, I guess.”
“If they’re shooting real bullets, that could be a problem.”
Andrew scrubbed a hand across his face. “Lord,” he sighed. “Ain’t this a mess. I think we’d better all just get on out of here, Dardar. Pick up your gear, and let’s move.” He touched Dar’s lower leg. “Need to get you back to where Dr. Steve can take a peek at that skull.”
Dar had to admit that was probably a good idea. The spot where she’d been hit felt hot and swollen, and it ached. Kerry had found a large bruise spreading down her neck, and with everything else that had happened, even Dar couldn’t argue with being on the safe side.
“Okay.” She glanced at her redheaded tech. “Is that download done?”
Doug, his name was, if she recalled.
“Almost,” Doug replied.
“Dar, forget it,” Kerry urged gently. “Let’s just get out of here. It’s not worth risking you.” She could see the unevenly dilating pupils in Dar’s eyes and guessed she had a concussion. It was all too much, and she found their jobs counting for less and less as each minute went on.
“C’mon.”
For a moment, she thought Dar was going to refuse. The blue eyes studied her face quietly, searching it intently before Kerry saw the surrender, then the faint nod of agreement. Dar handed her the cell phone. “I’ll tell Mark to sneak out and meet us in the parking lot.”
Ceci stood up and let Andrew get around next to Dar, gently helping her up. She had put the sling back on her daughter’s arm with surprisingly little resistance, and now Dar accepted Andrew’s assistance with the same silent gratitude.
Frankly, that scared the poo out of Ceci. The only time she’d ever seen Dar meekly submitting to this kind of babying was when she’d been really, really hurt. That broken leg, she recalled, was the last time, when the sixteen year-old Dar had huddled in Andrew’s arms, trying very hard not to cry as he carried her into the hospital.
Leaving, she decided, was a very good idea. “All right, let’s go.”
She started to lead the way toward the door when it was abruptly thrust inward and Chief Daniel entered, slamming it behind her. “Ah.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you.” Daniel pointed at Dar, so angry she was almost spitting. “Went right to your buddy and told him, didn’t you?”
Dar stared at her. “No. We didn’t tell anyone here.” She glanced over to where the JAG officer had been crouched, then realized he was gone. “Wh—”
“Someone did,” the chief spat. “’Cause they’re coming through this place and wrecking everything they can get their hands on.” She turned and looked at the terrorists. “You better get your asses out of here, because they’re on the way. Unless you want to end up looking like hamburger, get lost.”
They heard a crunching sound, from not far away.
252 Melissa Good
“Too late fer that,” Andrew stated quietly. “Looks like we got us a problem.”
CECI WATCHED THE men in fatigues move cabinets in front of the door. “Should we call the cops? Andy, this is getting out of hand.” She was standing behind Dar, who was seated again at the console, laboriously pecking at the keyboard with a single index finger.
“Don’t got time,” her husband replied as he hopped up onto a desk and peered out through the glass panels that topped the wall separating them from the hallway. “Cops gotta come down from Largo, anyhow.
They get a lick of traffic, might as well ferget it.”
“So what are we doing?” Ceci knew she sounded nervous, but the loud noises of destruction were coming closer, and she had a lot of things to worry about in the room. Andrew, for one, who tended to believe in his own indestructibility.
“’Specting us to hold em off, so that’s what we’re gonna do,”
Andrew replied. “Give ’em ’nough trouble to make ’em run off somewheres else.”
Chief Daniel snorted. “This is where they want to be.” She pointed at the mainframes. “They won’t leave those standing.”
The leader of the terrorist SEALs glanced between Andrew and the chief, obviously confused. “Ma’am, just what the hell’s going on here?”
“You don’t want to know,” the chief told him point blank. “Because if you did, you’d have to spend the next ten years in some admin’s office doing paperwork on it, got me?” She looked around the room and shook her head. “We can’t hold this place.”
“Sure we can,” Andrew disagreed. “Just need us some unconventional ammo, that’s all.” He looked over to see Kerry crouched next to Dar, ostensibly watching the screen, but with her attention obviously focused on her injured friend. “What you got in them guns, paint?”
The lead terrorist nodded, then jumped as they heard the distinct sound of bodies thumping against the wall in the hallway. “Here they come.”
“All right.” Andrew pointed. “Ceci, get down behind that there cabinet. Take the kids with you.”
Dar and Kerry exchanged glances, then looked at Ceci. “Kids?”
Kerry objected, but got up to move anyway. “Come on, Dar.”
“In a minute,” Dar replied absently, typing in a final command.
“This is almost done.”
“Dar.” Kerry heard the crackle of a megaphone outside. “Now, please?” She tugged very gently on her lover’s uninjured arm.
“You there inside,” a voice boomed out. “We know you’ve got hostages. If you know what’s good for you, let them go.”
Dar reluctantly got up and joined Kerry and her mother behind the Red Sky At Morning 253
big computer consoles, where Doug and his co-worker were also crouched. She took out her cell phone and opened it, redialing Mark’s number.
“You stay where you are, or these guys get it,” the terrorist leader recited dutifully. “I got women in here, and I’ll waste ’em.”
Andrew gave him a look.
“That’s what they told us to say, sir,” the man rumbled apologetically. He deployed his men to either side of the doorway and told them to keep down. “They’re going by the plan, too. You sure this isn’t just part of the exercise?”
At that instant, the lights went off. A thick, dark silence fell over the room as the air conditioning stopped and the computers shut down in a sad, dying whirr of fans.
“Note to self.” Dar’s voice cut through the gloom. “Recommend independent UPS systems.”
“Jesus,” Kerry whispered.
“Doug, disconnect the box, and pull it over toward me,” Dar said quietly.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Andrew blinked, then blinked again to see if that would help him see anything in the darkened room. No such luck. His mind ran through the possibilities and didn’t much like any of them. “Figure they’re gonna toss something through them there winders next,” he muttered.
“Gas? Yeah,” the terrorist leader agreed softly. “We got masks.”
“Not enough of ’em.” Andrew let his eyes close as he stood up.
“Stay here. You hear something, get down.”
“Yes, sir.”
Doug crept across the tile floor dragging the big box. “Okay, here it is, ma’am.”
Dar felt the equipment, making sure the cover was tightly on and the back ports were secured. She thought a minute, then felt around her until her hand touched a box of fanfold paper intended for the big line printer nearby.
As is always the case with computer paper, it was nearly empty.
Dar inverted it and slid it down over her black box. Then she sat down comfortably on top of it and exhaled. “Okay. Whatever happens, keep your heads down and don’t move.”
In the darkness, she felt Kerry nestle closer to her, pressing their bodies together and sliding a hand to curl around Dar’s thigh.
“You’ve got one chance to come out,” the voice boomed.
/> Dar heard a slithering sound nearby, and something that sounded like dead fish being slapped on a dock. “Dad?”
“Hush.” Andrew’s voice echoed softly. “Just you stay down.”
“We are,” Kerry whispered back. “What are you doing?”
“Never you mind, kumquat. Just stay put, and keep yer head low.”
“I’m warning you!” their terrorist called. “You do anything, I start 254 Melissa Good shooting in here, and I won’t care what I hit!” A few whispered orders followed, and the shuffling, very faint, of booted feet. “We got gas masks, so don’t bother trying anything, not unless you want these hostages gassed!”
“Didn’t know they were selecting them for intelligence this year,”
Ceci muttered under her breath. “Nice.”
“Mom.” Dar bit back a smile, invisible as it was.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, they only pick SEALs who are smart enough to save the teams’ asses.”
“Don’t none of you be standing ’fore that door there,” Andrew rumbled softly.
The SEAL team leader stepped a pace closer. “You sure this isn’t just reg stuff, sir? They’re going right by the plan so far.”
“Ah don’t know,” Andrew replied. “But I am not taking chances with mah wife and my kids in here. Them folks had best hope they come in with them little paint balls and a lot of hollerin’, and not with anything worse, or it’s gonna get messy.”
A loud thump was heard. Then there was silence. Everyone waited, sweating in the motionless air.
Then everything happened at once. The top windows blew in, and hard, round things entered, bouncing off surfaces with wild abandon.
That was followed by a very strange noise, like an overshaken soda can being popped.
An acrid smell began to fill the room, then stopped as an indescribable noise started and the stink was replaced with a second overwhelming scent, this one chemical.
Dar wrapped her good arm around Kerry and ducked her head as popping noises started and a crash came from the front door. She could sense things happening around her, but the sounds didn’t evoke any logic, and the smell of smoke and sweat and chemical made her queasy.
Now men were yelling. The attacking SEALs poured in the door, and the explosive sound of guns firing filled the room. Tiny red tracers raced everywhere, dotting the walls and floor; then the yells turned to hollering as the odd noise returned, along with a loud whoop Dar recognized as her father.
“What in the hell is he doing?” Dar hissed to Ceci.
“You’re asking me?” her mother hissed back. “You’re the one who checked out the entire Jane’s weapons series from the library, remember?”
“Son of a bitch!” A yell rose up. “What the fuck!”
Now the noise sounded more like cattle being herded into a pen, one filled with Jell-O. Dar could hear bodies colliding, and the chemical smell became almost overwhelming. Then she heard something behind them.
Boots. Shuffling. The cocking of a shotgun.
Instinctively, Dar grabbed hold of Ceci and Kerry and pulled them Red Sky At Morning 255
all down to the floor, ignoring the pain in her arm as the world exploded behind her. She felt the shudder in the equipment they were leaning against, then heard a grunt, another cocking, and pressed her body against the floor.
Another shot. Pieces of plastic showered over them. The shouting continued on the other side of the room.
A red tracer danced lazily through the blackness.
Dar watched in stunned disbelief as it traveled over her chest and stopped. For a second, all she could hear was her own heartbeat turned into a thunder as her mind realized what was happening.
The shotgun cocked.
“Dad!” Dar let out a yell, knowing if she moved, she’d expose Kerry and her mother.
She closed her eyes.
Then there was a thud, and a curse, and the sound of something ripping.
Metal hitting flesh. Flesh hitting flesh.
An animal growl.
“All right.” A commanding voice rose over the chaos. “Hold it!
Everybody stand down!”
And then the lights came on.
“WHAT IN HELL is going on in here?” A tall, burly man strode into the room and put his hands on his hips. “I thought I—Andy?”
Andrew dropped the arm he was holding and straightened from a crouch, turning to face the newcomer. “’Lo, Steve.” His eyes anxiously checked the sprawl of bodies between the ruined computer consoles.
“You all okay?”
Ceci squirmed out from under Dar’s outstretched leg. “Fine.”
Kerry didn’t move an inch, preferring to remain where she was with both arms wrapped around her lover. “Yeah.”
Dar grimaced, shifting her weight off her bad arm as she met her father’s eyes. “Thanks.”
Andrew nodded, then returned his attention to the newcomers. The SEALs, both protectors and attackers, were sprawled everywhere, fatigues in jungle pattern and black smeared with paint and a thick, glutinous coating that also covered the floor and was spattered on walls, consoles, equipment, and every other surface within the room.
Andrew let the end of the fire hose he’d been wielding drop off his shoulder, then he glanced down at his feet with a sense of tired disappointment. He reached out a sneakered foot, rolled over the slumped form dressed in similar black fatigues, and gently booted the rifle he’d taken from the attacker far out of range. “Damn.”
“Holy shit.” Steve Drake had picked his way over to where Andrew was standing. “What the hell’s the CO doing here? Did you hit him?
256 Melissa Good Why? What the hell are you doing here? Who— Hey, ain’t that your little girl and the missus?”
“Steve,” Andrew exhaled.
“What happened to these damn machines?” The SEAL commander turned and glared at the slowly disentangling team members. “I thought I told you people not to touch any of this—” Steve stopped talking as a large hand fit itself over his mouth.
“Hush,” Andrew exhaled. “We got a lot to talk through. Get some medics in here first.”
“But—”
Andrew’s voice took on a crisp, stern quality. “Just do it.”
Dar managed to push herself upright, hampered by both her arm and Kerry’s tenacious hold on her. She let her head rest against the wreckage of the console and blinked. “Doug?”
“Just fine, ma’am.” Doug and his companion crawled out from between the computer and the nearby wall. They were both covered in dust, but unharmed. “That other lady officer took off in the dark, though. I don’t know what happened to her.”
Several possibilities occurred to Dar and caused her to smile unpleasantly. She hurt too much to enjoy them, however. “Take the box and get outside. Mark’s waiting for you. Get it into my car, and just get off base.” She kept her voice low. “Move it.”
Doug hesitated, then his freckled face scrunched into a grimace, and he nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Be careful.” He and the other tech carefully uncovered the disk assembly and lifted it between them, then started to make their way quietly toward the door, dodging the cursing, slipping SEALs.
Kerry’s eyes were on the still form at Andrew’s feet. “You were wrong,” she murmured.
“Yeah,” Dar agreed sadly. “I guess I was. I was hoping I wasn’t.”
She closed her eyes. “He was trying to use the exercise to cover wiping his tracks, I guess.”
Kerry shook her head. “I don’t get any of this. What about that petty person? Was she part of it, too? Is everyone in this place messed up, Dar?”
“I don’t know,” Dar answered. “I don’t want to think about it right now.” She let her eyes open and examine the hole in the console just opposite her. “I hate this.”
“Well, hon, I don’t think anyone would like being in a half-shot-up room full of fire retardant foam and cursing sailors,” Kerry joked weakly. “I know I don’t.”
It was more li
ke a bad dream. Dar felt a hurt beyond the physical as she considered the consequences of the day. Never had to nail a friend, have you? She accepted the self-acknowledgment with a bitter taste in her mouth. It was sure easy enough for you to do this to some damn strangers, wasn’t it, Dar? You used to laugh about it, remember? It was true, she Red Sky At Morning 257
knew. She remembered exchanging bets with Duks on how many people she could nail at companies they consolidated. What was her record? Fifteen, wasn’t it?
Her eyes went to the ceiling. Well, she had a job to do; after this, chips were going to fall where they fell, that’s all. After all, there had been that laser scope on her chest, and now Dar had to face the possibility that given another few seconds, her family’s “old friend”
might have chosen to pull that trigger.
That close, with a shotgun. There was no doubt she would have died. It would have been a “mistake” during an exercise; that was all.
Friendly fire. And civilians who had no authority to be where they’d been, anyway.
Dar’s lips twitched. Damn, life just really sucks sometimes. She inhaled, then rolled her head to one side to meet Kerry’s eyes. Had Kerry seen the scope? Did she know what almost happened? “You okay?”
“Me?” Kerry almost spluttered. “I’m perfectly fine, Dar. Can you stand up? I’d like to get the hell out of this room. The smell of that foam is making me sick.”
No, Dar realized. She didn’t know. After a moment’s hesitation, she decided to save the news for later, when they were alone. “Sure. That’s a good idea.” She got her feet under her and slowly stood up. Kerry held onto her, for which she was glad, as a wave of dizziness nearly sent her right back down to the ground again. “Whoa.”
“Easy.” Kerry wrapped an arm firmly around her. “I got you.”
Dar waited a moment for the buzzing to fade, then laid her arm across Kerry’s shoulders and took a look around the room for the first time. “Holy shit,” she blurted, shocked at the compound disaster the area had become.
“Leave it to your father.” Ceci had come up on the other side. “He could do that to a perfectly clean carport, too.” She looked up at Dar.
“You doing all right?” There was a faint hesitance in her voice. “Or is the smell in here killing you as much as it is me?”