“I’ve been noticing dusk is hitting earlier and earlier the past few nights,” she said. “Visibility sucks. Once the sun’s past the mountains, it’s going to start getting darker earlier. All that smoke and smog.”
“Yep,” Omega said.
They returned inside. She’d sent deputies out to relieve the ones doing road duty down at the junction. So far, traffic that direction had been light, and no one else had tried to bypass the barricade. The people who asked, they told them the road was damaged by the quake.
At least something’s going in our favor.
A large aftershock hit, rattling the walls and her nerves. Omega stared down at her. “That’s one thing I don’t miss about living here full time.”
“Yeah, I won’t miss it, either,” she said.
* * * *
While they waited, there was still unfinished business she needed to attend to. “You want to help me take care of those other two assholes?” she asked Omega.
“Which two?”
“The ones that killed your friend. They’re still sitting in holding.”
“You letting them go?”
“No. But I didn’t know if you wanted to give them a proper send-off before they leave this earthly plane.”
He smiled. “With pleasure.”
She made sure the preparations were ready, then gathered the National Guard guys who weren’t on road duty or guarding the explosives, and a couple of deputies. She had Omega hang back in another corridor, where the two prisoners couldn’t see him. When Gia and her men approached the holding cell, the two men stepped away from the door.
“Which one of you wants out first?” she asked, holding up a pair of handcuffs.
The men exchanged a glance but didn’t answer.
“Okay,” she said. “I don’t have time for this bullshit. Eenie, meenie, you, asshole.” She pointed to the guy on the left.
“I’m good. He can go first.”
“Look, did you not feel that damn aftershock? You want out of here, or not?”
He reluctantly stepped forward and followed instructions to turn around and stick his hands through the access port. She snapped the cuffs around his wrists.
“Okay.” She pointed at the other guy. “You, ass on the bench. You don’t get to leave together. I don’t need more trouble from you sons of bitches. You saw firsthand what I do to troublemakers.”
He sat without giving her any lip.
They got the first asshole out the door and down the corridor, out of the holding area. When they moved into the next corridor, the prisoner pulled back when he saw Omega standing there. The man was leaning against the wall, leisurely, arms crossed, a smile on his face.
“What the fuck’s he doing here?” the guy asked, sounding panicked.
Gia shoved him forward, hard. “It’s your lucky day, buddy. You get to experience Karmic retribution before you die. Maybe you won’t come back as a fruit fly or something on the next go-round.”
“Wha—”
Omega smoothly grabbed the man by the shirt and hauled him up onto his toes. He wore a predatory grin that sent flurries of interest racing through Gia’s body.
That is one good-looking hunk of man.
“Hello, buddy,” Omega said. “Me and my pals here from the National Guard would like to have a little chat with you.”
She led the way to the back of the compound, punching her code to get them outside when they reached the door. Omega didn’t need any help dragging the guy, despite the man’s frantic struggles and vocal protests.
Her and her deputies stood back while Omega held the guy and let the National Guard kids use him as a punching bag for a few minutes. Finally, Gia held up her left wrist and tapped her watch.
Omega nodded. The man, whose face was now a bloody, unrecognizable pulp, moaned as Omega punched him several times in the back of his head before dropping him onto the ground, where they all kicked him until Gia walked over.
“Okay, he’s tenderized enough.” She pulled on a pair of nitrile gloves and uncapped the syringe. With one hand, she tipped his head back. With the other, she probed his neck for his carotid artery with her gloved thumb. Finding it, she slid the needle in, pulled the plunger back, then pushed the po-clo dosage.
His moaning immediately stopped.
Omega spit on the corpse. “That was too good an end for him.”
“Well, sorry, but I didn’t want to waste the bullet. I have a feeling ammo will soon be in short supply.” She stood and recapped the syringe. “If it’s any consolation, just toss his corpse in the Dumpster.” She tossed him a handcuff key, which he smoothly caught. “Make sure to get my cuffs off him first, or you’re going in after them.”
He tipped her a playful, snappy one-fingered salute from his temple. “Yes, ma’am.”
Rolling her eyes, she turned and headed back toward the building. “One of you guys stay out here with them and let them back in,” she said to her deputies. “Make it fast, because we have Asshole Number Two shitting bricks in holding, and I ain’t cleaning that up.”
* * * *
Omega wouldn’t deny it felt good to beat the crap out of the guy. He felt zero remorse about it. Mark had been worth twenty or more of those fuckers. Easily. And the National Guard kid had deserved better than he got, two.
He also admired how Gia handled the situation.
She’s ballsy.
Brains, balls, and beauty. There wasn’t much not to dig about that combination in a woman.
The bonus that he didn’t have to worry about Echo while taking care of business here didn’t hurt. Sure, the pilot would get him there safely and, hopefully, return with Victor. Then Victor could fly back and pick up Oscar or Yankee and they could blow that road.
Well, blow it once they got the convoy safely through.
It would finally appear their group had caught a farking break.
Yay, us.
How long that lucky break would hold remained to be seen.
After taking care of the second asshole, one of the deputies asked about the drunk.
“Go dump him across the street,” Gia told him. “Under a tree or something. Leave a bottle of water with him. If he hasn’t aspirated on his own vomit by now, he probably won’t.”
Omega reached out a hand and touched Gia’s arm, stopping her, holding her back so he could speak with her. “Thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
“This.” He tipped his head to where the National Guardsmen were carrying the second body toward the Dumpster.
“I just hope I haven’t sent the wrong message to those kids,” she said. “That’s not how civilized people should normally act.”
“This is a special case, and there’s nothing civilized about the situation we’re all in. I wouldn’t feel bad about it, if I were you.”
“I don’t,” she said. “That’s why I okayed this.” She stepped in closer. “I logged in before we started this and checked the system status. You know what they did at Men’s Central?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“Apparently this happened yesterday. I didn’t see the report until a little bit ago because it wasn’t exactly on my priority list. They released anyone who was a nonviolent offender.”
“And the rest?”
“They’re now out of po-clo.” She pointed at the Dumpster. “They started shooting them when they ran out. So these two guys, as far as I’m concerned, got lucky. Because apparently they went cell to cell and were doing it, so everyone knew what was coming. Especially once they ran out of po-clo.”
Omega felt a little ill, and that was something that didn’t happen a lot to him. Especially considering all he’d seen in his life. “Wow.”
“Yeah, ‘wow’ about sums it up. They made a call based on lack of personnel, lack of secure transport to move them, and Kiters and riots in the area.” She rubbed at her eyes. The poor woman looked exhausted, the bone-deep kind of tired that even a good sleep wouldn’t fix. ??
?So now we just have to wait for the rest of your people to join us and I can finally draw up a timeline to shut this place down for good.”
He watched her walk across the grounds to the station. One of the deputies hung back with them.
He hoped he and Echo would get a chance to spend more time with her over the next days and weeks.
Maybe longer. If they were all very, very lucky.
Chapter Twenty
Echo swore as the pilot circled the neighborhood.
“Where are they?” Nadir asked.
Echo knew that tone.
It was a “what the fuck, dude” kind of tone. Triggered because of what wasn’t below them.
He consulted the map Nadir had handed him. “This is where we were.”
“I don’t see anyone now.”
“Can we double-back and follow the road?”
The pilot had come in close to the hills, skirting north of most of the houses and nowhere near to the roads they’d taken up to Santa Clarita in the first place. It was after five thirty, and he knew daylight was running in short supply.
“Fuck that noise, dude. My meter’s running, and I want to go home in one piece. I have no desire to turn this bird into a skeet clay.”
“Stay up a couple thousand feet,” he said. “Please?”
“How about I drop your ass right here and you walk or hot-wire a ride?”
“How about you please don’t bust my balls? Your family is going to be in a world of hurt if we don’t get that road blown, you know. You’ll be looking at your six all the way out. You really want that?” He pointed in the distance to the 210, where it looked like traffic was heavier than it had been that morning. Not anything close to approaching an infamous rush hour, but enough that it slammed Echo’s point home to the pilot.
Nadir glanced at him before swearing and veering as he lifted the bird higher. “No doubling back. We don’t find them, I drop your ass at a car dealership in Sylmar and leave you. You can steal a car from there.”
“Deal.”
Echo kept a sharp eye out as he retraced the route. There would, no doubt, already be an extraction team on the way. What Echo didn’t know was where the rest of the convoy would be. He hadn’t expected Papa to roll the rest of them out that fast, but then again, it made sense logistically.
It took them ten minutes, but Echo breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted the RV embedded between their trucks and other vehicles in a residential neighborhood. “There. That’s them.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” He looked around. “There’s a park right there, a block ahead of them. Let’s land there.”
“Okay.”
Nadir landed, leaving the engine running. “Make sure to remember to duck when you get out,” Nadir said. “You’ve got ten minutes to get your helo jockey back here or I’m leaving without him. And I’m keeping it running.”
Echo unbuckled his harness and bolted out the door, sprinting, hoping they had spotted the helo. He cut through a yard, rounding the corner of a house where he nearly collided head-on with Juju.
“Fuck, dude!” Juju yelled, pulling up short and turning to the side, pointing his carbine away from him. “Fucking scared me!”
“I need Victor. Now.”
“What the fuck? Where’s Omega?”
“He’s fine. I need Victor.”
They ran back toward the convoy. Papa was already stepping out of one of the trucks. “Where’s Omega?”
“No time. I need Victor. I gotta send him back with the helo.”
“What?”
“Seriously, sir, I need Victor.”
Papa turned and whistled, motioning. Victor climbed out of the truck he was riding shotgun in behind the RV and jogged up.
“What?”
“Come on,” Echo said. “With me. Now.”
“Where’s Omega?”
“Nice to see you, too. Come on.” As he ran back toward the helo with Victor, he gave him the basics. “You fly back here and pick up Oscar or Yankee.”
“Can’t.”
“What? What do you mean you can’t fly this?”
He snorted. “I could fly one of those little birds drunk, stoned, and half asleep.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Yankee and Oscar aren’t here. They’re on their way to Santa Clarita with the extraction team to rescue your asses.”
Of course they were. “Shit. Fine, get this guy back to Santa Clarita, and get your ass back here. I’ll see if we can raise them on the radio, get them back, or at least get their twenty and catch up with them.”
They ducked under the blades and over to the cockpit. “Nadir, Victor. Victor, Nadir. Safe flight. Victor, get your ass back here pronto.” He slapped him on the shoulder and ducked, getting to safety before turning to watch as the helo’s engine spooled up again and the bird smoothly lifted up and off toward Santa Clarita.
He rejoined the group and filled Papa in.
Nodding, their commander got on their two-way and updated all the drivers in the convoy, as well as gave them a course correction. Scrap the plan, they’d head to Santa Clarita after all.
But when he tried to raise the extraction team over the radio, they didn’t respond.
He frowned. “What the hell?” He went to another vehicle and tried hailing the extraction team from that radio.
Still nothing.
Papa looked grim. “This is not good.”
“You sure they’re on the right frequency?” Echo asked. “Maybe they got mixed up.”
“That’s not like Lima.”
“Burner?”
“You said cells weren’t working.”
“Never hurts to try.”
Papa did try, and with predictable negative results. “We don’t have time for this. Let’s follow them. They’re probably almost to Santa Clarita by now.”
“That’s it?” Echo asked.
“That’s all we can do. You go ride with Uni,” Papa said. “Take Victor’s place.”
“Roger roger.” Less than thirty seconds later, the convoy was moving again.
Uni looked over at Echo. “Well?”
Echo was now dying of thirst from the heat and his double-timed run back and forth three times from the helo to the convoy, and all the talking. “Alive, fine, helo, pilot, need Oscar and Yankee.” He dug into the cooler between the seats and came up with a bottle of water, Twisting the cap off, he chugged it.
Uni laughed as he shifted the truck through its gears. “You can pilot one of them damn birds,” he said. “Little bitty thing like that. You handled the Exhart like it was a virgin bride. I was there shitting my pants when Victor let you take the stick, if you’ll remember.”
Echo let out a belch. “Yeah, well, I decided to stack the deck in my favor and borrow a local. I don’t know the area, and didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else.” He went through half of another bottle of water before he could get the whole story out.
After Echo finished, Uni nodded. “Sounds like we’re going to have a new addition to our convoy.” He glanced at Echo.
“I don’t have time to think about that right now.”
“Well, I’m sure there will be time soon,” he said. “If current events are any indication. Lucky bastards.”
“Don’t count on it.” This wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have right now.
Especially not with Uni. He liked the guy, but it wasn’t any of his damn business.
“Well, can Victor and I talk to her if you guys don’t make a move?”
A spike of jealousy flared through Echo, startling him. “Dude, what the hell?”
Uni grinned. “Just fuckin’ wit’ ya. I think that’s the answer right there, though, isn’t it?”
Echo sat back and studied the neighborhood around them. “Let’s table that discussion.”
“Roger roger.” Uni fell into silence.
As before, the area felt eerily quiet, devoid of the usual activity Echo would expect to
see, especially at that time of day. The lengthening shadows throughout the valley and the mountains rising up on each side only added to the bleakly grim landscape. The lack of any hint of green vegetation due to the drought and summer heat only piled on the blatantly obvious metaphors until it nearly choked Echo.
A dying city, breathing its last gasps. It saddened him. This could be a preview of many American cities if their mission failed.
He didn’t want to be the reason for that failure. And no matter how much Gia Quick intrigued him, he wouldn’t let her become a distraction that borked their mission.
Then again, life was short. Maybe turning down a chance for happiness was a boneheaded move of Godzilla proportions.
He sat back in his seat and studied the landscape with an eye for any potential problems, all the while trying to get thoughts of the cute deputy’s ass out of his mind.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lima had used the sat-link on his tablet to pull up local scanner channels. As he ran through the bands, he found either nothing, or garbled, sometimes frantic traffic that made little to no sense before it disappeared into a sea of static.
Weird.
There should have been far more traffic on the bands than he was finding. Different departments used different frequencies but shared common emergency frequencies. The emergency frequencies had even been hit by this problem.
“Anything?” Alpha tensely asked.
He shook his head, one hand on his earpiece, the other quickly working the scanner interface.
Then he had a thought and tried contacting Papa and the main convoy.
No response.
He called back to Yankee and Oscar in the other car using their team’s short-distance two-way, the earpiece in his other ear from the one where he was listening to the scanner. “You guys copy?”
“Roger roger,” one of the twins replied.
“Can you try raising Papa for me?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t know anything’s wrong yet.”