Page 91 of Heart of Danger
“Drone!” Mac barked. “Outer perimeter?”
Nick had his screen set to holo, he positioned it to the side so they could both see. There were three red points running forward, the outer perimeter guards. Fuck, this was exactly what the guards were trained for. Preventing an outbreak.
Nick sent a copy of the holo to the front of the cart, so Jon and Catherine could watch it. They were four minutes out.
IR showed dots converging on them, a hundred meters away.
“They can’t see the helo, they’re coming for us!” Jon shouted.
They needed to get to the helo fast and get out of Dodge. Once they were in the air, they could breathe easy. Until then, they were targets and outnumbered. And Catherine was with them.
She was quiet, hanging hard onto the bar in front of her, beautiful face set, saying nothing. Not wanting to distract them.
Three minutes out.
The dots were running fast toward them, weapons up, seventy meters away. They shouldered their rifles at a dead run. Mac shouldered his own rifle, took aim, feet naturally counteracting the bouncing vehicle, waiting…there it was! A moment of steadiness. He breathed out, and halfway through the breath squeezed the trigger. One down. Another steady moment and another went down. Then swiveled and the third went down.
Two minutes out.
The three guards would have given their coordinates. Now the entire compound would know a Millon cart full of armed men was making a break for it. Nick shouldered his rifle and a man speaking into a shoulder mike behind them went down.
One minute out.
They were near the helo, though they couldn’t see it. It was going to be tight. Red dots were converging on them from all points of the compass.
Mac tapped his ear, to the entire team. “Catherine, put on your gloves and pull the camouflage tarp off the helo. Nick and I will provide security. Jon, load the Colonel and the men. We’ll have a window of about a minute and a half to take off.”
Unspoken was the idea—if we can take off. Little Bird was rated for speed and invisibility, she wasn’t a work horse. She was a sleek piece of technology but she had her limits and carrying eight people was definitely it. The only thing that could save them was that the sick men were so emaciated. Together, the four men weighed as much as two men.
Little Bird would simply have to be up to it.
Mac quickly ran alternate scenarios through his head if they crash landed somewhere between here and Haven. They could steal a van, make it up the mountain…
Here they were! The cart stopped, rocking a little. Catherine raced out and quickly, efficiently started pulling the tarp off. They’d have to leave it behind. It was military issue, not commercially available, stolen from Edwards Air Force Base. If the police tried to track it down, they’d come up against a military wall of secrecy. Catherine would be leaving no prints and no one else’s prints were on it.
Jon had already loaded the Colonel and the men. Catherine had finished and had hopped up and was helping to position the unconscious men and restrain them for takeoff.
Four men were running toward them, shooting. Mac felt a sharp pain in his side and ignored it. The ballistic vest would take care of it. He might have a bruised rib but that was all. He took the fucker down, and the man next to him. Nick took care of the other two.
Jon was in the cockpit, powering up the engine. “Go go go!” he shouted.
Mac grabbed hold of the strut, pulled himself up with a wince. Man, his side hurt like a bitch. Little Bird started lifting, slowly at first. Nick had put on his harness and was hanging outside the open door, laying down suppressive fire. Another bright light, and another man went down.
Something crackled and danced.
Fuck! That was a stunner! Put on high, it would have dropped them like cattle.
A bullet pinged harmlessly off a skid. They would be barely visible to the men on the ground now, and invisible on scan.
Nose down, Little Bird rose in the air, now beyond the reach of bullets and stunners. Mac looked down at the pale green faces, guns pointing in every direction as the guards lost them, unable to track them by sound and radar and IR. Little Bird veered north, gaining speed with every passing second. They were headed home.
Mac heaved a sigh of relief. Nick was disengaging himself from the harness, looking back into the small bay. His eyes widened.
Mac whirled, weapon to shoulder, ready to take down anyone who’d jumped aboard at the last second but there was nobody.
Except…a pale figure slumped over the bodies of his teammates.
Catherine.
