Page 47 of Booker's Mission

Wyatt keyed up the mike, glancing at him from the passenger side. “Buddy? I think we’re good. You can gain a bit of altitude.”

Booker huffed, shaking his head as a few dots started eating away at his peripheral vision. Fading the surroundings into muted shapes. “No way. I’m not taking the chance that asshole’s got a chopper inbound. The lower we are, the less likely anyone is to see us.”

“And the less likely you are to recover if something catastrophic happens.”

“Emergencies, I can deal with. RPGs…”

Wyatt didn’t comment, just tightened his harness, staring out the window as if it held the answers. Would give him the right words to convince Booker to ease up. Play it safe.

But he couldn’t.

Wouldn’t with Callie and Wyatt’s lives hanging in the balance. If there was even a slight possibility this wasn’t over…

Forty miles in, and he was still following the highway. Paralleling it in an effort to avoid anyone calling the state police. What could turn ugly before they had a chance to explain. Wyatt had wanted to call Stone, Gunnar — everyone. Get them to send backup. But Booker had refused. If Higgins hadn’t rushed off, yet, the bastard might be able to track them using their radio broadcasts.

Wyatt had compromised and sent off a text. Told everyone to mobilize. That the facility had been infiltrated, and they were heading for Big Sky. Not that they knew if Stone or the others had received it. Between the storm and their positioning, it just kept spinning, trying to send.

Worries for later. After Booker had gotten them safely to the medical center because they were already pushing fifteen minutes, and he wasn’t fairing that well. Those dots took up most of his useable vision. And whenever he tried to move his left arm… It sent a shooting pain into his chest. Made it hard to breathe. To keep his eyes open.

He went against the voices in his head and gained some altitude, hoping it might stabilize the scenery. But it only changed it from a light blur into a dark one. Everything still drifting into that numbing gray inside his head.

“Booker!”

He blinked, realized they were slightly nose down, then corrected, getting the chopper level, again.

Wyatt cursed, snapping his fingers in front of Booker’s face. “You’re scaring me, buddy. I called your name three times before you responded. You still with us?”

Booker glanced over at Wyatt, then motioned to the controls. “Completely focused, but just in case… Remember that lesson I gave you?”

Wyatt snorted. “You mean that hour I spent shitting my pants? Yeah, I remember. Why?”

He paled when Booker simply stared at him. “No. No freaking way.”

“Easy, Wyatt.”

“Easy? I know that look, and there’s no fucking way I’m flying this thing. Not in good weather, and definitely not at night in the middle of a storm.”

“I don’t need you to fly it just… Lend a hand.”

“Lend a hand? What the hell does that even mean?”

“It means put your damn hands on the controls and keep it steady if I drift off for a second.”

“Drift off?” Wyatt muttered under his breath, glancing back at Callie before fisting the controls. Looking as if he’d rather jump than touch the damn things. “I am so kicking your ass once we land.”

“Callie might have something to say about that, seeing as she loves my sorry ass, but…” He coughed, sprayed a few flecks of blood across the bubble, before closing his eyes. Doing his best to shove it all down.

“Damn it, Booker, wake up!”

He jolted, nearly puked from the sudden shifting of the scenery, then glanced around. Alarms blared through the cockpit, several lights blinking on the dash.

He pulled back on the controls, narrowly missing a tree before gaining a bit of altitude. Holding on until the cabin went silent.

Wyatt grunted. “You’re not going to stay conscious all the way to the hospital. We’re close. Just put her down wherever you can, because in all my years as a SEAL, I’ve never thought I was going to die until two minutes, ago.”

Booker nodded, scanning the landscape. Lights reflected in the distance, blurring from the rain across the glass. “There’s nothing but trees and the highway between us and the clinic.”

“Of course there isn’t. Just, land on the highway if you need to, but don’t crash into a truck.”

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