Hawk trained his gun forward and moved cautiously down the hall. Kejal had warned about the inaccuracy of his timetable when it came to guard schedules and other variables, such as intermittent roaming security personnel. In essence, Kejal promised nothing other than to get Hawk in position to save Blunt and Alex.
As Hawk passed each cell, he glanced inside to find them almost all empty. He found one occupied with a man who wore a headband around his keffiyeh that contained Al Hasib in Arabic. He was huddled in the corner and scraping the floor with a pebble, either unconcerned or unaware of the presence of Hawk and his team.
Hawk slipped past four more empty cells before reaching one with a woman, who looked like she was fortunate to even be alive. Her cloak was bloodied and her face partially wrapped. Her eyes were visible, and the area surrounding them appeared puffy and swollen as if she had been beaten by someone.
Hawk swallowed hard and braced for what he might see when he found Blunt and Alex. He motioned for Wright and Quinn to continue moving. They snuck past three more empty cells before Hawk found his two Firestorm partners.
Alex had a bruise over her left eye along with a cut that had scabbed over. Other than a few nicks on her arms and face, she didn’t look nearly as disheveled as the woman Hawk had just seen.
“Hawk, is that you?” Alex asked in a weakened whisper.
“It’s me,” he said, rushing over to her.
“Oh, thank God,” she said. “I kept thinking they were going to kill us today.”
Hawk glanced across the cell at Blunt, whose body dangled, his arms chained to the wall.
“You all right, boss?” Hawk asked.
Blunt grunted before answering. “These damn terrorists don’t know a thing. I feel like I’ve been captured by the most incompetent people on the planet. They sure as hell don’t know how to treat a prisoner. Hanging me up by my arms? I swear these punks deserve everything they have coming to them.”
Hawk nodded at Wright and Quinn, who propped up the elder statesman. Slicing through the metal bindings, Hawk freed both Alex and Blunt.
“How did you find us?” Alex asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it now because of prying ears, but let’s just say I had some help. Now, I’d love to catch up, but I’m afraid we may not have much time. We need to move right now.”
Hawk motioned for everyone to follow. Stopping at the gate to the cell, he glanced left and then right before re-entering the hallway. One by one, the rest of the crew filed out with Alex and Blunt sandwiched between Hawk and the Delta Force team members.
“Do you have a weapon for me?” Alex asked.
Hawk pulled a gun from his belt and handed the weapon to Alex, never once taking his eyes off the path in front of him.
“Don’t use it unless you absolutely have to,” Hawk said. “I don’t want you signaling the cavalry.”
“Roger that,” she said, grimacing as she moved forward in a crouching position.
They crept toward the door and into the main hallway, stepping over the bodies of the guards. After several turns, Hawk and his team were within a hundred meters of the doorway to the outside, Hawk heard the thunder of footsteps.
“They know we’re here,” Hawk said. “We gotta move out.”
As Hawk led his team around the corner, they were met by a slew of guards. He held out his hand, preventing anyone from surging past. Bullets pelted the walls around them.
“Is there any other way out of here?” Wright asked.
“I’m sure there is, but I wouldn’t know how to find it,” Hawk said.
“So, you’re saying our only option is to go through these guards?”
Hawk nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
“Well, let’s not waste any more time talking about it,” Quinn said as he tossed a smoke bomb around the corner and waited a beat before sprinting to the other side of the hallway.
Wright followed Quinn and before the smoke started to clear, they started chipping away at the men standing in their path. Bodies started to drop in a hail of bullets.
Less than a minute later, the smoke cleared. Hawk peered around the corner to see only five guards remaining. From a sheer numbers perspective, Hawk and his team were still fighting the odds. Despite giving a weapon to Alex, Hawk was sure she wouldn’t be able to withstand much. And Blunt could barely raise his arms, much less aim a gun at someone firing at him.
Across the way, Quinn nodded at Hawk before hitting the guards with tear gas. As the men started to wilt under the gas, Quinn and Wright picked them off until there was nothing left but dead bodies.
Wright looked at Hawk and flashed a faint smile. “Major, Delta Force will need immediate extraction in less than a minute. Stand by.”
They hustled through the lingering tear gas, coughing as they avoided the guards sprawled out on the floor. Hawk ushered everyone in front of him, choosing to take up the flank in case Al Hasib sent reinforcements.
They took another turn toward the final hallway when Hawk stopped, confident that he heard approaching footsteps.
“More are coming,” Hawk shouted.
Everyone quickened their pace as they walked toward the door. Hawk’s head was on a swivel, his gun trained on the unoccupied space behind him.
When they reached the door, Wright tugged on the handle. The door didn’t budge.
“What the hell,” Wright said, yanking repeatedly. Still, it wouldn’t move.
“Let me try,” Quinn said, whose attempts also failed.
“Where is your laser cutter?” Wright asked Hawk, who was still waiting for the troops behind them to arrive.
He dug into his pocket and flipped it to Wright. “Make it quick. They’re almost here.”
Wright sliced through the dead bolt that was locked in place. But there was no key, only an access pad that served as a way of keeping people in as well as out.
“Hurry it up,” Hawk said. “I can hear them.”
The lock split, and Wright pulled the handle. Floodlights poured through the crack, the sound of Delta Force Humvees rumbling just a few meters away.
Quinn exited first, followed by Alex. Wright prepared to walk out with Blunt, but he hadn’t moved.
“Come on, Senator,” Wright said. “We need to go now.”
Blunt hobbled toward the door but froze when the sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway.
A dozen guards rounded the corner and raised their weapons. Wright grabbed at Blunt’s shirt but missed. Shuffling backward toward the exit, Hawk started firing his gun, dropping several of the guards in front. But the ones in the back returned fire.
“Noooo!” Blunt screamed as he lunged in front of Hawk.
A bullet ripped through Blunt’s chest as the old man crumpled into Hawk’s arms. Wright held the door open as far as he could, utilizing it as a shield. Hawk dragged Blunt’s body behind the door as the guards continued to fire.
“Come on, buddy,” Hawk said as he dragged Blunt across the rocky ground. “Stay with me.”
Two Delta Force team members rushed over to help Hawk hoist Blunt into the back of one of the Humvees. Wright pulled the door shut behind him and scrambled for cover. Two of the vehicles with gun mounts waited for the door to spring open before spraying the guards and staving off any designs they had on a counterattack.
Alex and Hawk climbed into the Humvee with Blunt before the entourage of vehicles roared away from the Al Hasib hideout. Hawk felt Blunt’s wrist for a pulse while one of the medics on the Delta Force team worked to halt the bleeding.
The wheels bounced along the bumpy road, jarring them each time. A missile exploded a few meters away, and Hawk felt the searing heat through the window. Another missile fell harmlessly behind them.
“I think we’re out of their range,” Wright said. “We should have a rather pleasant ride back to the airfield. Only fifteen more minutes before we reach our chopper.”
Hawk had already disengaged with the mission details, content to let Delta Force han
dle the rest. All he cared about was Blunt, who had yet to open his eyes or squeeze Hawk’s hand.
“Just give me a sign,” Hawk said.
He glanced over at Alex. With all she’d been through, he thought she might be numb to the whole situation, but tears streamed down her cheeks as she grabbed Blunt’s other hand.
“You can’t die on us,” she said. “Not like this. Not now.”
Satisfied that the bleeding had stopped, the medic tried to stabilize Blunt after determining his vitals were in disarray.
Hawk pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. “I’m not letting you go out like this, taking a bullet for me. What were you thinking?”
The next few minutes were a blur for Hawk. He barely remembered any of the ride or how he even found his way to the waiting helicopter. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears. But he couldn’t any longer, the dam breaking as the chopper lifted off the ground. Through bleary vision, he watched as two Delta Force team members worked on Blunt.
Hawk threw his head back and said a prayer.
CHAPTER 30
Landstuhl, Germany
HAWK GRABBED ALEX’S HAND as they sat at Blunt’s bedside, hoping that he would soon wake up. Forty-eight hours had passed since they escaped Al Hasib’s hideout, but Blunt’s status hadn’t changed. He remained unconscious, stable yet in serious condition. U.S. Army doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center had managed to remove the bullet, which just missed his heart and several major arteries. They didn’t foresee any further complications but remained skeptical that Blunt had the physical stamina necessary to recover from such trauma.
“He’s a battle axe,” said Blunt’s attending physician, Dr. Nelson, as he looked over Blunt’s medical chart. “He’s definitely not going down without a fight.”
“What do you mean?” Hawk asked.
“A man his age shouldn’t survive something like this, but he’s not giving up.”
“You don’t know the senator,” Alex said.
“Actually, I do,” Dr. Nelson said. “We were friends another lifetime ago. I shouldn’t make such bold predictions, but if anyone is going to survive what he just went through, it’s J.D.”
“But you’re not changing your prognosis?” Hawk asked.
“There’s nothing to change until he does. But we’ll keep him here as long as we need to until he wakes up and can walk out of here.”
Hawk chuckled. “You know those two things will happen simultaneously, right? The moment he wakes up, he’s gonna want to walk right out the front door.”
Dr. Nelson smiled and winked. “We’ll make sure he only leaves here if he’s fit. Don’t you worry.”
“You’re the one who needs to be worried, making claims like that,” Hawk said. “He’s become even slier in his old age.”
“Somehow, I’m not surprised,” Dr. Nelson said before he exited the room.
Alex looked at Hawk. “What are we gonna do without him?”
“This isn’t the first time we’ve been faced with this situation,” Hawk said. “Only this time, I know Blunt isn’t faking anything.”
“Without Blunt, do we even have Firestorm? What’s waiting for us back in Washington if he—”
“Don’t say it,” Hawk said. “It’s not gonna happen.”
“But—”
“No. Just don’t, okay? We’ve seen him pull through worse before. He’ll pull through this time, too.”
“Even if he does, Blunt won’t live forever. We need to think about what happens after he’s gone.”
“What’s gonna happen is we will continue to fight against all the evil forces trying to ruin our freedom, no matter where they come from. They may be in the Middle East or they may be in Russia or China or North Korea. Wherever they’re attacking us from, it doesn’t matter because you and I will do what we can to stop them.”
“But what about us? What’s our future going to look like?”
Hawk sighed. “If you’re imaging that we’d get married, buy a house with a white picket fence, and fill it full of children, I think you’re going to be disappointed.”
“That’s not my dream—at least not all of it.”
Hawk arched his eyebrows. “Then what is part of your dream?”
She let go of his hand and wrapped her arms around him. “The part where we get married.”
Hawk exhaled. “Phew. I was hoping you weren’t going to say the part about a house with a white picket fence. I think we would definitely need something more sturdy than that.”
Alex laughed and kissed Hawk.
Hawk was about to say something when a coughing noise from Blunt’s bed startled both of them. Hawk and Alex both turned around.
“Why don’t you two get your own damn room,” Blunt grumbled.
Hawk leapt to his feet and rushed into the hallway. “He’s awake! He’s awake!”
“Do you have to announce it like that to the whole world, Hawk? I swear, sometimes I don’t know about you.”
A wide grin spread across Hawk’s face. He shook his head and looked down at Blunt.
“You lost some blood, but I think that’s about all you lost—certainly not your sense of humor or your sarcasm,” Hawk said.
Dr. Nelson breezed into the room and started checking Blunt’s vitals.
“How in the hell am I still alive if this guy is my doc?” Blunt asked.
Dr. Nelson smiled and then turned toward Hawk. “I think he’s going to be just fine.”
CHAPTER 31
Washington, D.C.
THE NEXT DAY, Hawk and Alex returned to Washington, satisfied Blunt would make a full recovery. There weren’t any pressing matters to attend to, but they both wanted to be back in time for the election. Their future plans hinged on the outcome. If Firestorm was to continue, it would require a champion in the White House, something James Peterson would never be.
Hawk eased onto his couch to watch the returns with Alex. The rote reports rolled in, news networks calling states mere seconds after the polls closed with less than one percent of the precincts reporting.
“How do they do that?” Hawk asked. “I don’t understand. Are there time travelers who deliver these results?”
“Beats me,” Alex said. “But they only seem to do it on the states that are locks for one party or the other. It’s comical, if you ask me. I mean, if you live in those states, why even bother voting?”
Hawk glared at her. “We might fight now.”
“What did I say?”
“These are some of the things we’re out there battling for and trying to protect. You’ve been with me all over the world. You ought to know that even the seemingly insignificant freedoms we have should never be taken for granted. It’s amazing what we can do in this country.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “Based on your reaction, you would’ve thought I just advocated for a communist takeover.”
Hawk was about to say something smart when the news anchor on television said something that caught his ear.
This election appeared to be in the bag for President Young, but the dramatic revelation about the lie told regarding Conrad Daniels’s death seemed to have shaken things up a big, at least in the minds of some voters.
A news report aired, recapping Young’s revelation at a rally in Texas just hours after Al Hasib attempted to shoot down Air Force One. Young spoke to a packed house at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, a sea of faces barely visible through all the shimmering American flags being waved.
Hawk watched in awe as Young explained how President Daniels committed suicide due to a mental illness. Young recounted how doctors and other administration officials tried to stop Daniels, but he managed to elude several Secret Service members and escape to a place at Camp David where he slit his wrist before anyone could stop him. Young confessed that he was right there by Daniels’s side as he died and wished things were different, but explained that out of respect to Daniels’s family, Young didn’t want to cast a dark shadow over Dani
els’s presidency and give people reason to question every decision made. Young shared how White House doctors were preparing to remove Daniels from office at the time, but he acted impulsively—and fatally.
The reporter then showed how the polling tightened in the days leading up to the election, many voters expressing skepticism over Young’s story and over why the strange timing of the announcement.
“Still think he’s going to win?” Alex asked.
“Why don’t we pop in a Bollywood movie and relax?” Hawk suggested.
“And forego watching one of our precious freedoms? Never,” Alex said.
Hawk sighed. “I just don’t know if I can take this. I seriously thought nothing would happen to Young after he explained what happened.”
“He didn’t exactly tell the truth.”
Hawk nodded. “I know. It’s amazing how close to the truth it is though, yet so far from it.”
“That’s the best way to lie, isn’t it? Just take one detail and twist it. That’s how you stay alive when you’re being interrogated by terrorists.”
“Is that how you stayed alive?” Hawk asked.
Alex looked down. “They weren’t interrogating me for answers. I stayed alive a different way.”
“And how’d you do that?”
“I thought about you—about us. And I wasn’t ready to give up that dream yet.”
Hawk cocked his head to one side. “Seriously?”
She nodded. “All I could think about was that you were going to come for us, even though I had no idea once I dropped that homing beacon and Fazil went nuts.”
Hawk stood up. “Come here. I want to show you something.”
He led Alex up to the balcony of his apartment. A table for two was set and prepared, complete with a chilled bottle of wine.
Alex covered her mouth with her hands. “When did you do this?”
“When you were taking a nap this afternoon,” he said. “I didn’t have time to bake anything, so I got some food from the store. But I hope you like it just the same.”
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