Captain Wallace Nash and his SWAT unit of eight men were in standby mode when they landed. Randal helped her out of the helicopter but she walked over to Nash and his team unassisted.
“Joan,” Nash said, “it’s good to see you again.”
“Hi, Wally.” She waived to the unit. “I’m glad it’s you guys. They took Shana and two other kids.”
“We were only told about the ones Colter has with him.”
“Just let me get my vest and we’ll go.”
“Joan, we’ve been ordered to stay put. Colter has saturated the area surrounding his main compound with mines and IEDs. We’ve lost six agents, three from your FBI friends, three from ATF. Our bomb disposal unit is out there now clearing what they can. Two more units from the army will be here in two hours. I was told there were hundreds.”
“We’re not going that way. There’s a tunnel.”
Nash and his whole unit perked up at that news.
“You’re kidding.”
“It comes up in that old shed over there.”
“He dug a tunnel? To here? Why?” He quickly shook his head and held up his hand. “On second thought, don’t bother.”
“They likely have the kids in the tunnel. And it will get us past the traps on his farm.”
“That’s assuming there are no surprises waiting for us in there. You have a knack for finding these guys, don’t you?”
“I think the tunnel was dug to be an escape route. Colter hadn’t intended to launch anything yet. My daughter and her two friends triggered all this when he caught them spying. He knew they had recorded evidence against him. He knew Shana had escaped with it. They were forced to come here to retrieve that evidence if their bigger plan was to proceed as intended.”
“He has a bigger plan? This guy sounds like a real—”
“He is.” She looked over to the unit. “All of you were at the Crowley farm. You know what that was like. This is much bigger. I have the utmost respect for all of you, but the truth is I can’t guarantee there aren’t traps in the tunnel or men waiting to ambush us. I am going to get my daughter and her friends. If you—”
Nash and his unit slapped their guns.
“Thank you. I’ll be as quick as I can.”
She retrieved her bulletproof vest from its box in the back of the burned-out Suburban. The lower third of it was scorched.
Nash had a Colt M4 for her when she returned to them at the shed. He signaled two of his men to take point and sent them ahead. After giving them a thirty second head start, and hearing no gunfire, the rest of them entered the building.
The tunnel was a model of military engineering ingenuity. If it had been big enough and long enough, it could have been a commuter tunnel for New York. Colter’s crew had angled the exit to the tool shed at a gentle slope that brought it to an eight-foot vertical hole below the floor. They had cut an opening in the floor and secured a ladder to the wall of the hole. The sloping part of the tunnel was the tightest part after the vertical drop. They had to proceed in single file for about sixty yards before the tunnel leveled out and opened into the spectacular achievement it was.
Randal whispered into her ear, “I think we’ve just crossed that fine line between.”
The arched tunnel rose thirty feet or more above them. It was wide enough to drive a tank through it. Three trucks parked off to the side directly ahead of them were easily visible because of the overhead lighting. One of them was Albert Nguyen’s Golden Star Deliveries van.
Nash and his unit looked over their surroundings. Most of them had the same expression of wonder and disbelief on their faces at what they saw. There was some damage from small explosions and signs of gunfire.
The two men Nash had sent ahead came trotting back past the trucks. The lead one whispered into Nash’s ear.
After getting the report, Nash turned to her and shrugged. “They’re all dead.” Realizing he’d said the wrong thing, he quickly corrected himself, “Colter’s men are dead. They’re strewn all over the place up ahead.”
The two lead men took them along the tunnel past the parked trucks, two motorcycles, three riding mowers, and a Hummer. Once past the obstacle course, they had an unobstructed view to the other end. They proceeded cautiously anyway, with the unit surrounding her and Randal, but they reached the other end of the tunnel without an IED going off and without being ambushed.
They passed a dozen or more bodies, all of whom had been shot. She didn’t look at them. What if they weren’t all Colter’s men?
At the other end, they found Shana, Lily and Donny unharmed. Zemar was guarding them. Boxes of weapons and supplies were piled everywhere.
Shana ran to her crying. “He killed Saleha. She was looking right at me. She held my hands and told me it would be all right, but he snuck up and stabbed her from behind. She died holding my hands. She just fell into my arms still holding my—”
She embraced Shana and looked at Zemar. Saleha was lying at his feet.
“He hid us,” Shana sobbed into her shoulder. “He killed the men guarding us and hid their bodies. He hid us when more men came through the tunnel.” She took deep, ragged breaths. “When they left men behind to look for the others, Zemar killed them, too. When more came back, he killed them. He protected us, but Saleha was already gone when he got here.” She bawled in her mother’s arms.
The SWAT team suddenly turned to face the way they’d just come and aimed their guns.
“No,” Zemar shouted. “He’s tame.”
Caesar, his head held low, came trotting along the tunnel to Shana. When Shana dropped to her knees and hugged him, he started purring.
“He saved my life,” she said. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Zemar picked up his sister and came to her. “I kept them down here when I heard shooting and explosions. I didn’t know if it was safe to return to the farm. I didn’t know if it was safe to take them out at this end.”
“Thank you. I’m so sorry about Saleha.”
Randal stepped forward. “Can we do anything?”
“I’ve got her.”
Nash came over to her. “I’ve let Foster and Madsen know we’re in here. They recommend we return to the Harding farm.”
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
One of Nash’s men brought over Lily and Donny.
Donny had his arm around Lily for support and wore a bloody bandage on his left ankle. “Is it true? Are they both dead?”
She nodded.
Lily, her head bowed, said, “Our guards told us, but we hoped they were just. . . .”
“I’m sorry.”
Still on her knees with Caesar, Shana said, “Mom, these guys are sadistic, vicious pricks.”
“Triple-O.”
Nash said, “Let’s go, everybody.” He gathered his men around Joan, the teenagers and Caesar.
Caesar jumped to his feet and started growling.
“It’s okay.” Shana reached down to reassure him, but he jerked back, turned and ran.
Explosions started going off overhead at the Harding end of the tunnel.