Page 80 of Freedom Fighters
Chapter Fifteen
The eye of the hurricane passed directly overhead. Around ten pm the wind, which had howled like a monster for hours, ceased. It dropped away to nothing within a minute or two. The silence throbbed.
Carmen lifted her head from Garrett’s shoulder and looked up at the roof. There was nothing to see. Not in here, anyway. Every available inch of concrete had been taken by Loyalistsoldiers, who had filtered into the building in ones and twos not long after she had followed the colonel into the building.
Minnie’s husband. Carmen had to remind herself of that constantly, for Duardo was a stiffly upright machine soldier who didn’t miss a single thing. He led his team with fierce efficiency.
He’d rescued her and Garrett, too. Although they had broken out by themselves, Carmenhadn’t allowed for the strength of the wind. She would never tell anyone, even Garrett, that she suspected they wouldn’t have made it across the compound alive. Either the Insurrectos or the wind would have defeated them.
Forty minutes after Garrett had found the little tucked-away space behind the gantry that supported a catwalk and pulled Carmen down next to him, one of Duardo’s team had takenGarrett to the door to identify the rest of their unit, who had climbed up from the beach where they organized their demolition of the bridge.
“The Lieutenant wants you to vouch for them, as they’re your people,” the soldier explained to Garrett.
“Lieutenant?” Garrett questioned, for there had not been a lieutenant in the team that had found them in the building.
“Lieutenant Castellano, sir.He came in with them.”
That would be Nemesis, then, Carmen realized with a start. Nemesis was regular Army, too. So, his real name was Castellano.
Garrett returned five minutes later, settled next to her and drew her up against him, carefully avoiding jolting her arm and shoulder. “They’re all fine. Short on sleep like all of us, but I don’t think anyone will sleep until this storm is done.”
Night had turned the inside of the shed into a dark, warm and stuffy cave, filled with still and silent men. Carmen couldn’t sleep, because the sheets of tin on the roof rattled and stirred, thudding in the wind. She was confident that not even a hurricane could bring down the concrete walls, for they were over a foot thick. The roof was another matter.
Yet she had drifted into a doze anyway,only to be startled awake by the absence of wind.
She sat and looked at the roof once more. No banging. No shifting. No threatening to peel away and leave them all exposed.
“It’s over?” Garrett asked doubtfully. His voice was loud but flattened, as if she had cotton wool in her ears.
Carmen shook her head. “It’s the eye. We’re right in the middle of it.”
Others were stirring in the shed andthe few who had flashlights or a cellphone with a charge had turned them on.
Carmen struggled to get to her feet. “It’s the eye,” she repeated. “Hell’s bells!”
Garrett read her mind. He jumped to his feet, bringing her with him. “Colonel!” he shouted. “We need to brace ourselves.”
Carmen stepped out around the steel superstructure they had been resting behind, searching for Duardo in the darkness.“Colonel!” she yelled. It sounded loud in the still silence.
From somewhere closer to the doors, Duardo spoke, snapping out the order. “Everyone up against the south walls. Brace the doors!Moveit!”
Everyone in the shed scrambled, tripping over each other, grunting and protesting in the dark. Garrett caught her free arm and pushed her forward. “Come on.”
His grip on her arm stopped Carmenfrom stumbling over other soldiers’ feet and legs as they moved across the open area of the shed to the walls on either side of the big doors. Everyone pushed closer to the walls. They were two or three deep in places, although they obediently squashed themselves up against the walls.
A dozen men were standing by the iron doors, their backs against them.
Silence fell over the shed.
“How long?”Garrett asked her.
“I don’t know,” she confessed.
“You’re sure about this?”
She bit her lip.
“Sure about what?” someone asked in the dark.
