“We can’t move her.” Komodo turned.
“We have to.” Kinimaka walked over to the bed. “We’ll all die if we stay here.” He leaned over and spoke quietly. “You ready to check outta this place, Hay?”
“I am if you are, Man.”
As gently as if he was lifting a newborn, Kinimaka picked Hayden up and cradled her in his big arms, making sure her head was nestled into his shoulder. Komodo urged Karin to her feet at Kinimaka’s insistence, supporting her with his arms. “Where do you plan to go?”
Smyth answered that one without missing a beat, “The only way is up.”
Outside the room, the guards were listening to their comms. Smyth tapped one of them on the shoulder. “You should come with us. Radio your colleagues and tell them to get the hell out. Those guys will kill you all.”
“But this is a hospital,” the guard answered. “There are patients here.”
Smyth shook his head. “They ain’t bothered about your patients, bud. They want us. And the only danger to you or your patients is if you try and stop ‘em.”
Point made, Smyth made a beeline for the nearest set of stairs. Kinimaka followed close, Hayden’s weight not causing him any bother as he padded along. Smyth cracked the doors and listened. No sounds of flying feet echoed up the stairwell.
“Three floors up,” he said. “Then to the roof.”
“Are we trapping ourselves up there?” Kinimaka asked.
“We’re Delta, bud,” Smyth rasped, indicating Komodo and himself. “We don’t get trapped.”
From back down the corridor came the sudden burst of automatic weapons.
“Didn’t take long,” Smyth murmured.
“Hospital is unprepared,” Kinimaka said. “They have no support. And I’m guessing this is a first. Attackers are prepared and unmatched. Only one outcome.”
Smyth stared. “CIA teach you that?”
“What?”
“That kind of ‘lie down and die’ bullshit. There’s always a chance, man. You just gotta grind it out for yourself.”
Smyth started up the stairs. Kinimaka followed at pace, Komodo urging Karin along behind. Explosions rattled out at their backs, sliced apart by the screams of the guards. Smyth bounded up two sets of stairs and came to the next floor. Without pause, he ignored the stairs and barged through the doors and into the corridor beyond.
“Where the hell’s he going?” Komodo asked. “I thought we were headed for the roof?”
Kinimaka leaned against a wall. “Just give him a minute. I have an idea what he’s up to.”
Three nail-biting minutes later, Smyth came back. In his arms he held three rifles and two handguns. Quickly, he distributed the load. “Knew they kept the armor on the third floor,” he breathed. “And shit, these friggin’ SPEAR IDs are like laminated gold bullion. One scan and you’re in. Think I’ll start using mine at Walmart.”
Karin held her head up long enough to accept her handgun, then Smyth held the last piece out to Hayden. “Wasn’t sure if you could use it, but hey,” he shrugged, “Can’t hurt to try.”
Kinimaka took the gun and fixed her hand around it. A smile lit her eyes, and Kinimaka winked. “Always happier with a gun in her hands.”
Smyth took off again, now pounding up the steps. He didn’t stop until he reached the top floor, then held the door open for the rest. “Roof access is at the end of the corridor,” he said. “We’ll have to break down the door.”
“Not a problem.” Komodo led the way now, still with Karin at his side. As the team moved into the corridor, they heard the sound of feet battering the stairs below. The attack team was minutes behind.
A shot fired up the stairwell, impacting with the wall. Smyth let the door close behind and searched for a way to block it.
“Forget it,” Komodo called. “Won’t last more’n a few seconds anyway. We need to get to the roof.”
The broad soldier looked nothing like the mild-mannered, clean-speaking, easy-going chef that Kinimaka had grown used to back at the HQ these last few days. Instead, the new image had been sloughed like an old skin, leaving the raw, hard-hitting ex-Delta soldier to take the reins. Komodo hit the stair-access door hard with his shoulder and watched it splinter, then kicked it off its hinges.
“Up.”
He urged Karin inside, then the others. Smyth passed him last as the stairwell door flew open. “We don’t have much time.”
“Shit.” Komodo ducked back in. The team climbed one more stair switchback, then pushed open a final door that led out into the night. Kinimaka pushed it wide with his shoulder, already studying the roof area. The first thing he saw were the bare tops of scaffolding poles sticking up above the rear of the building.
Komodo slammed the door shut behind them. “We have two minutes at most.”
“No cover,” Smyth took it all in. “Damn. What’s that?” He sprinted past Kinimaka and reached the edge of the roof first. “Scaffolding goes all the way to the ground,” he said, peering over. “But I don’t see a ladder. Can you jump with that load, big man?”
Kinimaka pursed his lips. “Can’t guarantee the landing. It’s risky. The whole scaffold could collapse under my weight.”
“Staying here is riskier.”
“About a minute,” Komodo warned as he took aim on the access door. “Make a decision.”
“Crap.” Kinimaka wrapped his arms tighter around Hayden’s body and walked to the edge. “I’ll protect you as best I can.” He glanced into her eyes.
The smile told him she already knew and drove another spike through his heart.
“Ready?”
“Wait!” Karin’s piercing cry froze them all. She was standing at the roof’s edge, toward the side, overlooking the adjacent building. “This would work better.”
Kinimaka was glad to hear her voice again. He’d been scared one of their most essential team members would collapse into shattered little pieces and never let herself be put back together again. But she was made of sterner stuff, this Englishwoman, and had dwelled deep in grief before.
The harshest lesson to learn was also the simplest one — sink or swim.
Karin told them her plan. Within seconds, Smyth had rushed off and jumped down onto the scaffold to grab hold of one of the scaffolding planks. With Komodo’s help he managed to heave and haul it onto the roof. Together, they laid it across the gap between both buildings, forming a makeshift, unsteady bridge.
Then bodies hit the inside of the access door, each blow accompanied by shouts.
“Crap.” Smyth raced across the bridge, arms out, swaying as he ran and adjusting to the warped wobble of the long, rough plank. As soon as he was over he took cover, lining up the access door with his rifle and calling the next person across.
Kinimaka stepped up. The black night above him was no more than a reflection of the yawning abyss below, and a sharp crosswind gusted past his bulk. He fixed his concentration on the two-foot-wide plank of wood that rested unevenly before him, but countless overriding factors tore at his concentration. Questions made a pincushion of his mind.
A stiff gust buffeted his body, sending him off balance. His heart juddered. The access door crashed open and Komodo opened fire. Kinimaka almost turned and unslung his weapon, but then the quietest of sounds broke through his turmoil, a sweet whisper on the wind.
“Mano, it’s okay. Whatever happens, I love you.”
Kinimaka looked down at her. “I will always protect you.”
“I know.” Hayden’s eyes closed, sending daggers through his heart. The Hawaiian stepped up and walked resolutely across the shifting plank. When its unsymmetrical base rolled to the left he saw it coming; and, concentrating hard, when it shifted suddenly to the right he shifted with it. When the wind slammed him halfway across, as he knew it would, he leaned in and kept moving. Before long, he stepped off the other end and laid Hayden carefully down onto the hard ground.