Page 8 of Knight's Fall

Wings kept his expression impassive as he tried to commit the photos to memory. He wanted to be able to recognize the hostages when he found them. They had a file on the missionaries they’d memorized before traveling to Haiti, but the photos used for the auction were the most recent. They showed the early signs of dehydration and the fear that tainted the missionaries’ eyes. They were a shadow of who they were when they left the United States, and these were the people they would rescue, not the happy, optimistic ones who had been in his briefing file. These were the ones who would never be the same.

A crash startled the enforcers andKobraenough to put them on alert, and Wings stiffened in a defensive posture. He knew his team wasn’t responsible for the noise. They wouldn’t breach without alerting him through the coms. Whatever was behind the noise was enough to put the gang members on edge, and he watched closely to see how the gang responded to the unexpecteddistraction.

“Wings? You there? What was that?”

Wings was surprised BB could hear the commotion through the com, even if it was loud. He couldn’t respond to BB’s question out right, so he tapped his ear wig and hoped BB got the message. The two taps would sound more like static on BB’s end, but he would know that was Wings’ way of saying he was good…for now.

Kobrashouted words Wings couldn’t understand and then pointed at him and the stocky man standing closest to him.

“He’s telling you to go.” BB’s voice rang clear, and Wings reacted as if he understoodKobra’s command without the need of a translator speaking in his ear.

The other guard reached the door before him, but Wings was good to fall into step behind him, keeping a slim distance between them in case he had to act. Wings was almost relieved to leave the room. He couldn’t stand by and do nothing while the timer on the human auction clicked down — a reminder of the hostages’ fate if he and his team couldn’t pull off this rescue.

As they turned a corner, Wings realized the hut wasn't really a hut. What should have been one room was actually larger with a corridor and a second room which housed the source of the commotion. The guard in front of him obviously didn’t expect the room's door to be open. He shouted a rapid string of words as he pulled his weapon from behind his back.

“There’s trouble.”

BB’s words was all it took for Wings to ready his weapon and follow cautiously as the guard rushed forward. The man was dropped by a sucker punch to the face from an assailant hidden behind the door, away from Wings’ view. Wings shoved against the door with his heavy frame to take down the assailant hidden behind it. He didn’t have time to investigate theumphhe heard before he was hit from the other side by two bodies intent on taking him down.

Dropping his machine gun as it swung around in front of him, he stopped his fall with his fists and used the momentum to roll over, bracing his feet against the floor to push himself to his feet. He spun around to see his assailants lose their balance from his surprise move and fall to the floor. Then he saw their faces and rushed passed them to close the door. They recovered enough to rise to their feet, their postures posed to strike again. Wings pushed his weapon around to rest against his back, and then he raised his hands to show the three hostages that he was no threat.

“I’m American.” Wings pulled his face covering down to bunch around his neck. “I was sent here to rescue you, and I used this disguise to get inside. I mean you no harm.”

The man that had cold-cocked the enforcer joined his friends, rubbing a spot on his forehead that had connected with the door when Wings pushed against it. He kept wary eyes on Wings even as he spoke to his friends. “He doesn’t sound like the others.”

“How do we know you’re not working for them?” A second man nudged his chin in the direction of the guard lying unconscious on the floor.

Wings pierced the third man with a hard stare. “Because his brother-in-law sent me here to bring all of you home.”

The third man, whom Wings recognized as Tom Jenson, wasn’t talkative, and Wing imagined the bruise along his jaw and the scrape on his cheek were smarting. The missionary’s eyes narrowed.

“Why would my brother-in-law, the Colonel, send you when he has Army resources at his disposal?” Jenson challenged.

“Nice try, Mr. Jenson. Master Chief Rafferty is with the Navy, not Army, and as you can imagine, the military is not going to risk sending their forces to Haiti. I’m with a private company your brother-in-law hired. My team is waiting to breach, but we needed a location on all of you before we did. I could explain further, but we’re running out of time.”

The second man stepped up, and Wings noted the bruising around his eye and his ripped shirt. He had to admire the men for putting up a fight against their captors, even if it was a foolhardy and pointless attempt.

“Name’s Pete Milburn. They separated us from the women. One’s a teenage girl, my granddaughter. There’s five of them total. We haven’t seen them since we got here. I can’t tell you where they’re keeping them. We don’t even know how long we’ve been here. We don’t know if…if the women are…you know, if they’re…”

“They’re alive. I don’t know what condition they’re in, but the gang members are auctioning all of you to the highest bidder. They sent me and this other guy to investigate the commotion. When we don’t get back, they’re going to know something’s up. We’ve got to get you out of here.”

“We’re not leaving without the women.” Jenson's tone was resolute.

The smartest move was to get the men to safety while his team searched and rescued the women, but the men were not going to cooperate. Not that he could blame them, but he had to think fast to come up with a new plan.

“Any of you handle a weapon before?”

“Yeah. I’m a beat cop.”

The man that had been behind the door seemed reluctant to volunteer the information, but Wings was relieved to have some sort of back-up. Wings pulled a pistol from the holster at his thigh. He wrapped his palm around the muzzle and placed the grip in the man’s hand.

“Name’s Wings. I’ll take the lead. You cover the back.”

The cop nodded. “I’m Roy. Is there more to your plan than just having me cover the back?”

Wings wasn’t sure how to reply, so when BB’s voice came over the com in his ear, he felt relieved. “Wings, Panther’s ordered a stealth breach. Zane and I are taking the back, and Panther and Sam are taking the west side. We’ve noticed some activity to the west. Our bet is the women are there.”

“So you heard?”

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