Page 11 of Firestorm

Victor approached from the shack. “Check inside the hangar. We can’t afford to let anyone escape.”

James and Kirk entered the hangar while the rest of the team confirmed the camp was empty.

As they gathered in the center of the camp, Kaid’s phone rang. “It’s Sidney.” He answered the call on speaker. “The threat’s been eliminated. Bring everyone here as quickly as possible.”

“There’s a problem,” Sidney’s tense voice said. “We have reports of massive amounts of military equipment heading this way.”

Kaid’s gaze shot around the group. “They’ve finished their search. They’ll know we got away. Hurry, Sidney.” Kaid ended the call.

“Let’s get those planes going and ready to fly,” James ordered. “We won’t have much time.”

Though James had flown planes before, they had enough qualified pilots in the team so he wouldn’t have to risk making a mistake in the air. He quickly climbed aboard the first C-130 and prepped it for travel. The rest of the men with him had a working knowledge of aircrafts and were able to get the planes operational.

The headlights of the vans appeared through the trees. The first van pulled up close to one of the planes and emptied. Lincoln came over to where James and the rest of the group waited.

“We’ll divide the team up into four groups,” Victor told them once everyone was gathered around. Abby, Lincoln, Deacon, and Henry—you’re flying. Remember, we don’t know what type of tracking systems these planes have on them and for now we won’t have time to upload the cloaking software. Once we’re airborne, we’ll put it in place. Until then, we’re flying visible.”

James pulled Kirk aside. “Call your people. Get them in the air. Now.”

“Copy that.” Kirk placed the call while James made his way over to Sarah.

“Come with me.” He took her hand and boarded the plane that Lincoln would be piloting. James made his way to the front. “I’ll be right back,” he told Sarah and indicated the seat near the front of the plane. He slipped into the copilot position. Once the plane was filled, the hatch closed.

Lincoln was the first to taxi toward the runway. He looked James’ way. “This plane is armed with additional nuclear warheads. I’m guessing the others are as well. They planned to use more on us.”

James’ eyes widened. “I still can’t wrap my head around using nuclear weapons on US citizens.”

“This is a different world, brother. It’s growing more deadly by the minute, especially with Pamphili running the show. They’ll take absolute control, and anyone standing in their way will just disappear.”

James thought about what Dustin said and he was worried about Blake. Pamphili’s men wouldn’t be able to break him. Once they realized it, would they kill him?

“Looks like we have a bunch of company coming our way.” Lincoln’s words roused him from those troubled thoughts.

A wealth of military vehicles entered the camp to their left.

Lincoln radioed the news to his fellow pilots.

“I see them,” Abby confirmed. “We’re stacked up behind you waiting to move forward. Don’t waste any time taking off.”

“Copy that,” Lincoln confirmed and began his taxi.

James kept his attention on the half dozen Humvees zooming toward them. Lincoln was an experienced pilot, and he’d been in this situation before. Still, this was unknown territory. They’d never been in planes that held nuclear warheads. James closed his eyes and whispered a prayer. “Lord, we need Your protection.”

And like so many times before, God was there amongst the chaos.

Lincoln pulled up on the yoke, and the plane left the ground.

“I don’t care how many times you go through this, it’s never easy,” Lincoln said with an expelled breath.

“I’m taking fire. I’ll try to take off.” Abby’s frantic voice came through the radio followed seconds later by, “I’m in the air.” She blew out a breath. “That was close.”

Under heavy gunfire, the rest of the planes cleared the attack zone.

“They’ll radio the breach. We need to get the cloaking software into place.” James brought up the program on his phone and uploaded it to the plane’s computer. Within seconds, the program was up and running properly, but he didn’t doubt there would be fighters searching for them soon enough.

James sent the program to the rest of his pilots, then sat back in his seat. “I sure hope that does the trick before Pamphili’s fighters find us.”

Kirk eased toward the front of the plane and knelt between James and Lincoln. “My people are in the air, but I’m worried about them.”

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