Page 270 of Wild Mustang Security Firm

“We’re coming up on Fariq’s.” She flipped some switches, turning on the monitor. “I had them install a camera on the belly of the chopper, so let’s see if we can’t get a better look at what we’re up against.”

She flipped on the camera and a clear picture of the broken compound below popped up.

“The good news is I don’t see Fariq’s yacht, but you sure did a job on that fortress,” Thom said with a grin.

“Well, there was this guy I’m kind of sweet on, so I went in and saved his sorry ass,” she teased. “His way of saying thank you was to whoop mine.”

“Yeah, he’s kind of a bastard that way.”

She reached over and punched him in the thigh. She’d forgotten how muscled he was and shook her hand to alleviate the pain she’d caused herself. Thom caught her hand and kissed it.

“That’s rule five, baby girl.”

She blushed. “And back to rule seven.”

He laughed. “Let me amend that, he’s one very lucky bastard.”

“Yeah, he is, but so is his little girl. I’m going to fly directly overhead. I want to keep the cloud cover, but I suspect we’re going to hit bumpy air.”

“Go for it. I think I’ve almost cracked their communications. Holy shit!” he said as the chopper suddenly bounced, fighting Avery for control.

“Sorry, like I said, bumpy air.”

“Not your fault, and I’m in.” Thom pressed the headset against his ear. “Avery, get us out of here, they’re tracking us. I’ve got their communications jammed, so they should be cut off.”

Avery banked the chopper in a hard dive, getting under the clouds and into more stable air. Almost immediately, the missile lock beeper went off. Thom grimaced, but he said nothing. Grinning, she jettisoned chaff and banked again, this time going into a steep climb. The missile took the decoy and exploded. The resulting air disturbance shuddered through the aircraft, making Thom grab first his laptop and then his chair, but she got them through it.

Diving back below the clouds, she skimmed just above the water, looking for the launching point of the missile. She spotted the two guards on one of the turrets as they tried to get another lock on their position.

“I don’t think so, boys!” she crowed. Taking aim on their position, she strafed the tower with a hail of bullets. The men fell, as did several others as the wall along the top of the tower exploded. The structure crumbled in a hail of broken rocks, falling down into the sea.

“Get ‘em, Avery!” Thom cheered, admiring the ruin back over his shoulder as Avery took the chopper back out over the water.

“Hang on. I thought I saw something,” she said.

Wheeling the chopper around, she came in low and fast, approaching the walls of the fortress from sea level. She definitely needed one of these prototypes for her own. As responsive as it was, the lightest touch had the helicopter climbing the cliff and compound walls like a spider. “Ark One, Mustang Sally. Incoming! I say, incoming! Two launch boats…”

“Avery, one of those guys has another rocket launcher. Remember last night, when one of us said this might have been a stupid idea…”

She banked hard to get behind the man, now fumbling with his weapon. Before he or the boat could turn to strike at them, Avery fired her guns into the boat just above the waterline. The men on board started jumping off and the boat began to sink. Before the other boat could marshal some sort of attack, Avery had rolled away and headed back above the clouds.

Her headset crackled right before Noah’s amused voice came over the airwaves. “Mustang Sally, Ark One! Hey, leave some of the fun for us.”

“Hey, Noah,” Thom cut in. “I think we should let the boat go and take the compound. I didn’t see Christian and I’m still getting indications that their tech and comm systems are operating at full speed. I’d like to get in there and see what we can salvage. I’ve got their comm system jammed and the compound is cut off.”

“Wait for us. Once we secure the compound, Avery can land her new toy and we can find Christian. The launch is coming right at us, I’d like to get around them and to the fortress.”

“Hang tight,” Avery said, boosting the engines again. “On my way.”

It felt good to be back in her element. At one point, she glanced over at Thom to see if he seemed at all put off by actually seeing her in action, but he was grinning. The proverbial Cheshire cat, he beamed with pride and instead of a thumbs up, he flashed her seven fingers. She laughed when he waggled his eyebrows. Goosing the engines, she climbed back into the clouds to chase down the launch.

“There they are!” Thom said, pointing off her starboard side.

“Hold on.” Almost directly over the launch, she sent the chopper into a steep dive, pulling up to come close behind Fariq’s boat. Once again firing at the boat instead of the people, she peppered the hull along the waterline and flew straight past as the shouting men aboard the now sinking boat scrambled to put on life jackets. “Ark One, you are clear. Mustang Sally going up to keep an eye on things until you give us the all clear.”

“Sounds good,” Noah crackled over the headset. “NATO isn’t far behind us. Markoff got them to get off their butts long enough to help clean up. Have Thom send us the coordinates of both boats and he can pick up the survivors. If possible, Mac wants us to get Finn’s wedding gift and get home. NATO can have the credit for bringing down Fariq’s secret compound and dismantling his organization.”

“No worries,” she laughed as they climbed back into the sky. “Let’s take another spin around the area.”

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