“Hold on.” A moment later he came back on, sounding concerned. “No response.”
“That’s what I just got.”
“You think something happened? Should we turn back?”
“No, we need to keep going. I think someone’s jamming that frequency and a bunch of others.”
“What’s going on?” Alpha asked him from where he was driving. He could hear their two-way traffic through his own earpiece. “Why do you think it’s being jammed?”
He continued scanning. “Because there’s a lot of traffic I should be hearing, even civvies jumping on those bands, ham radios, a lot of stuff, and there’s nothing but static.”
“Why would someone jam the signals?” Alpha asked. “Especially now in the middle of a disaster?”
“Why does the military do anything,” he shot back. And the more he scanned, the more he was convinced that was exactly what was going on. Only the military would have the capability of that kind of wide-scale jamming.
If the military was jamming all those channels, it would be difficult for people to spread the word about what might really be going on in certain parts of the area.
It would also make it difficult for anyone in the media to get a bead on what was going on.
When they hit the junction at I-5 and Highway 14, Alpha stopped the car and waved Foxtrot up so he could talk to everyone in the other car without using the radio. They rolled down the passenger side windows. Foxtrot was driving, with Kilo riding shotgun and Yankee and Oscar in the backseat.
“Any difference from when you were here before?” Alpha asked Kilo and Foxtrot.
Long shadows cast by the mountains painted the area with swaths of dim light. “Looks like they’ve got more barricades on the freeway than they had before,” Kilo said. “Traffic up there looks heavier heading south now, too. Maybe more personnel up there. Hard to say.”
“Okay. Stay close on our six. Lima’s plotted us a route to the station.”
“Roger roger.”
Lima thought Alpha sounded a lot more confident than he himself felt. He hoped he had a route planned. But as they had discovered, things could change from dessert to shit soup.
Quickly.
“Wish we were doing this at night,” Alpha muttered as he drove on.
“Don’t want to wait that long,” Lima shot back. “We might not have that much time.” He’d just pulled up the latest satellite imagery taken that morning. Large swaths of the city were either cloaked by smoke, or had burned. He didn’t think it was all the result of earthquake damage, or the riots. Some of the burn patterns were too regular, like someone had been going block-by-block to level neighborhoods.
Methodical.
Military precision.
It wouldn’t be the first time scorched-earth policy had been used by an army. Get the survivors out, burn what was left to keep people from coming back.
It was one way to force them to leave.
And if they left, they had to go somewhere.
Barstow kept coming up like some grotesque foreshadowing in an old horror movie. He supposed if he was a desperate refugee who’d just lost everything, he might buy it, too.
But as a highly trained and even more cynical soldier, he didn’t buy it.
Not for a second.
He guided them north into Santa Clarita, taking a longer way than they might otherwise, but he’d tapped into the county’s tracking system and had located the LASD units operating in the area so they could avoid them.
They all had trackers, even though they were supposed to be on a secure channel. Well, it was secure, just not against him.
Lima brought them to a stop in a commercial neighborhood, behind a deserted shopping center. “We’re three blocks from the station,” he told Alpha. “How we want to do this?”
They all got out and stood around Lima, staring at his tablet as he showed them the sat photos.
“We need a plan,” Alpha said. “That station has a secure perimeter. Not like we’re going to scale the fences.”
“We need someone to get inside,” Yankee said.
Then all the men looked at Annie.
Lima felt badly for the woman. Her eyes were still slightly puffy from her earlier cry when she learned about Sparky’s death.
But he also admired her. She was a fighter, had a warrior’s heart.
She would fit in well with their unit for the long-term, he suspected.
When she realized they were all watching her, she frowned. “What?”
Alpha smiled. “Annie, we need you to play a damsel in distress for us.”
* * * *
From what they could see of the secure facility, it didn’t appear they had too many people there, unless they were all buttoned up inside. Lima tried to monitor radio traffic from the station, but there seemed to be little of that.
As shadows lengthened, they heard a helicopter landing and taking off somewhere at the rear of the facility, but they couldn’t see it from their vantage point. They loaded Annie up with a flak jacket and stuffed her pockets full of grenades, flash-bangs, smoke bombs, and a couple extra clips of ammo for the nine millimeter she carried.
“If I get myself killed, you realize Roscoe and Niner will kill you guys, right?” she snarked.
“You won’t get shot,” Alpha assured her. “Just get inside, grab whoever they have manning the door and make them open it, and then let us in.”
“I hate to say this,” Lima told her, “but think about Mark and your friends and cry your ass off.”
“That just makes me want to blow someone up,” she darkly muttered.
“That’s our job,” Oscar and Yankee said.
Alpha rolled his eyes, but put his hands on her shoulders. “I wouldn’t be sending you in there if I thought it was a suicide mission. Just back yourself into a corner with your human shield, and toss the flash-bangs at them and wait on us.”
“Isn’t there a quieter way to do this? Maybe just ask them for our guys back? Pretend we’re with the National Guard and that they’re our guys who got separated?”
“Then we’ve lost the element of surprise,” Alpha told her. “And they wouldn’t say they’re with the Guard, anyway, because if there really is a Guard unit there, it’d be too easy to see through their lie. Go on. It needs to be you.”
She turned and headed on foot down the back side of the shopping complex and around the corner. The men waited thirty seconds to follow her in the vehicles, positioning themselves on either end of the complex and watching as she approached the main gate.
Lima held his breath as she appeared to take a deep one of her own before pressing the intercom button. They could hear her speaking to a woman over the intercom through their two-way radios. She gave a sob story about her family being killed by thugs as they were driving into town. A moment later, she was admitted. They watched as she stopped in the first man-trap.
The woman gave her instructions to administer a stick test. They watched her do it, then hold the stick up to be viewed by a camera.
After a few moments, when it was proven she was clear, she was admitted to the second man-trap, and then through to the main entrance, where she disappeared through the front doors.
The men were already up and moving and rushing toward the gate as they heard the scuffle through their earpieces, and then the sound of Annie’s voice.
“Look, I don’t want to hurt you, ma’am, but I’ve got to do this.”
“What the—”
The gate was already buzzing when they reached it. They pushed through it and the other two without delay, even as Annie was yelling threats to someone that she had a live grenade and would use it if everyone didn’t back the fark off.
They pounded through the front doors and nearly collided with Omega, gun drawn, coming around the corner. He burst out laughing.
“Holy shit, guys. I’m flattered, but you could have just knocked.”
* * * *
Once Gia got her heart started a
gain and assured herself Sharon was okay, she realized she still had her sidearm drawn. She reholstered it with a shaky hand. “Okay, someone want to tell me what the unholy fuck that was all about?”
Omega was still chuckling and exchanging hugs and backslaps with the men, and the woman, who’d just breached the front door of Gia’s station.
“Sorry, Chief. They must not have gotten the memo.” Yes, Victor had warned them that their extraction team was out of contact and on the way, but she had expected a stealthier approach.
Or one they could have waylaid simply by holding up their hands, asking for a moment to explain, and giving them an update.
Not a Normandy-worthy incursion. In fact, her deputies at the junction had been notified to keep an eye out for the convoy, and to give them safe passage and protection back to the station. They would arrive at the station within the next half hour or so based on the report from the deputy who’d intercepted them and passed the word to them that their presence was eagerly awaited.
But the extraction group had slipped in without notice.
The guy in charge of their extraction group, Alpha, was the unit’s second officer. He stuck out a hand. “Sorry about that, ma’am. We didn’t mean to scare you.” Gia shook with him.
“You’re a little late for that!” Sharon yelled from her post, her voice shrill from shock and fear.
“Sorry,” the woman said. “We didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
A sound almost like a keening bark escaped Sharon before she collapsed into her chair behind her desk.
“So, wait, these are your two demo experts?” Gia asked Omega.
“Yep. In the flesh.”
Her receding fear was immediately replaced by exhilaration. “Gentlemen, you two have been eagerly expected. Follow me. Now.”
She didn’t bother to wait for them to reply and headed down the corridor toward the garage area.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gia fought the urge to hold her breath as Yankee and Oscar looked over the van’s contents. The men started talking in terms she didn’t understand and didn’t want to.
She only wanted to know one thing. “Nick said that there was enough here to take down half the side of a mountain. Was he right?”
The brothers looked at each other and started laughing, then looked at her.
“Lady,” one of them said, “there’s enough in here to blow up half of what’s left of LA County, if we wanted to.”
“So…”
“Yes,” they said. Then the other one said, “We can do exactly what you want, and more, with plenty to spare,” he said. “Your guy was probably not trained in precision demolition. We don’t need nearly as much as you do for excavation.”
“Then do it. The sooner we can blow that highway, the sooner I can call those deputies back and let them go home.”
Alpha looked at the men. “You heard the chief,” he said. “Let’s get it done.”
Sharon’s voice came over the station’s intercom. “Chief, more arrivals. I think they’re the ones we’re expecting. One of our guys is leading them.”
“Fanfuckingtastic.” She walked over to a phone on the garage wall and dialed the front desk. “I’ll send someone out the back gate to guide them all in. If they go up to the front intercom, tell them we’re waiting for them in the back. Send our unit back out to the highway junction for now.”
Twenty minutes later, it was full dark and there had been more introductions, happy reunions, and Victor had safely returned with the helo and Delta, who’d been riding along as a spotter for the convoy to make sure they didn’t hit any trouble.
Everything had gone smoothly for them.
As exhausted as Gia felt, she still wanted to be there on the front lines when it happened. But with it feeling like the world was starting to ripple and fold around her every time she stopped moving for more than a few seconds, she realized she’d hit a dangerous level of sleep deprivation.
As they prepared to head out to the highway junction, she handed off her keys to Echo, who was standing closer to her than Omega. “You drive,” she said. “I’ll ride shotgun.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the damn chief,” she wearily said as she turned and walked toward her unit. “That’s why.”
Omega took the backseat. “No offense, Gia, but you’re starting to look a little bit like hard-ridden road.”
She tipped her head back against the headrest. “I feel like it.”
She didn’t realize she’d closed her eyes until Echo was gently poking her in the shoulder seconds later. “Hey, they’re ready to blow it.”
She sat up with a start. They were parked on the 5, but facing south in the northbound lane. The night sky was occluded by smog and smoke, leaving even deeper shadows. She saw red lights bobbing around nearby, looking like they were heading in their direction.
“Holy crap,” she said as she rubbed at her eyes. “How long was I out?”
Echo glanced at his watch. “About two hours. We decided to let you sleep. Looked like you needed it.”
“Thanks. Where’s my deputies?”
“We cleared out all your personnel. Moved some of the barricades down to street level roads, too. Won’t stop everyone, but might slow them down even more.”
She nodded, trying to process, her brain fuzzy and muddied and refusing to engage. “Okay. Thanks.”
Papa walked up to the passenger window, which was down, and leaned in. “Hope you don’t mind we took liberties,” he said. When she didn’t respond at first, he added, “With the demolition operation.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Sorry I tanked out on you.”
“No worries. It’s under control. Everyone else is hanging back. You ready for the explosion?”
“Sure. Any time you guys are.”
He let out a long, low whistle. The bobbing lights bobbed faster and drew closer until she realized they were headlamps on four different men.
Well, if the twins were considered different men.
Which, she supposed they were, but in her sleep-deprived and sleep-interrupted state, she wasn’t even sure of it at that point.
She wasn’t even sure she still occupied a vertical orientation in relation to the car seat under her ass.
One of the twins held up a remote. “You want to do the honors?”
She took a breath. “Sure. Might as well take full responsibility for it.” She took the remote from him. “What do I do?”
“Hold on.” He pressed a finger to his ear. She suspected it was for an earpiece that was part of a two-way network. “All personnel clear of the area?” Once several people had replied in the affirmative, he continued. “Fire in the hole…fire in the hole…fire in the hole. In three…two…one…mark.” He pointed at her.
She hit the button.
It sounded like a rippling series of farting firecrackers going off. From her vantage point, she couldn’t see much at first. Then she felt a rumbling through the tarmac, transferred through the SUV’s tires and into her seat, and she heard the dull roar that followed.
Ahead, she was aware of a cloud of dust billowing up into the darkness, where it was swallowed by the night.
“One strip of highway overpass, turned back into chunks of rocks and dirt,” the man said.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” she muttered as she returned the remote.
“Yep. Now, do you want to be present for the other two overpasses we take out?”
She shook her head. “No. Let’s get everyone else back into town. Just keep whoever you need here with you.”
Another disconcerting time warp, and she opened her eyes to Echo gently poking her again. “What’s the magic word,” he said.
“Huh?” They were parked outside the rear gate at the station.
She told him the code and he reached through his window to punch it into the keypad.
The gate rolled open.
In the distance, with the windows open and the SUV in quiet solar mode
and running on batteries, she heard another distant boom, followed by a rolling rumble.
“That would be the second overpass,” Omega said.
“The second one?”
“Yeah, we hung out while they did the first one. You slept right through it.” He grinned. “I did put the remote in your lap and grabbed your hand to push the button though. So technically, you participated.”
She rubbed at her eyes and tried to swallow the nasty, fuzzy taste out of her mouth. “Holy crap. How long was I out that time?”
“Only twenty minutes or so. They’d preset the first overpass already before they blew the junction. That’s why it went so fast.”
“Oh. Well, all right then.”
They drove the SUV into the garage and then it hit her. “What about the others? Is everyone back safely?”
“One of your guys stayed behind to make sure our guys got in okay. We sent the National Guard kids back a while ago. They’re all buttoned up and safe grabbing rack time.”
“Oh. All right.” She slowly opened the door, holding on as she wobbled a little while sticking the landing upon jumping out.
“You all right?” Omega asked, staring at her with intent concern.
“No. Tired.”
“I think you need some sleep,” Echo said.
“I think I need a lot of sleep,” she shot back.
She slowly made her way to the lobby. Sharon sat behind the desk, headset on, computer screen showing video.
“How goes it?” Gia asked her.
“No calls for service. I don’t think anyone but us has phones anymore,” she said.
“The medical center evac go okay?”
Sharon shrugged. “They haven’t called us.”
Gia knew from Sharon’s smile that she should have laughed, but it was like her brain was trying to run in fourth gear while her body had downshifted into first.
Or, maybe, reverse.
Sharon’s smile faded. “You look like crap. You need sleep.”
“Not a news flash. So anything I need to take care of?”
“Not at this moment. Unless you mean you paying a visit to the Sandman.”
Gia made a pit stop in the bathroom, stopping to splash water on her face after washing her hands. She started when she looked in the mirror and saw herself.