Eddie, meanwhile, had gone directly up to the general and put a gun to his head. As the rest of us scrambled out of the ravine, Danny directed us to the helicopter. He ordered Blake and Sam to stand guard while he gathered Eddie and Lazzo. Danny ran towards Eddie and the general. “Eddie, wait. Don’t,” Danny yelled.
“Listen to your American friend, you cowardly traitor,” the general sneered.
“Why the hell should I?” Eddie demanded.
“Let me show you why,” General Roja replied.
“You have two minutes!” Eddie yelled. “Talk.”
“I only need one,” the general replied. “But I need radio.” Gun pressed to the general’s head, Eddie shoved him towards the tent with the radio. The general picked up the radio and looked to Eddie to make sure he could talk. Eddie rolled his gun as if to suggest he hurry up. “Turn on the lights,” the general ordered.
Below them on the river a boat suddenly lit up. It was several hundred yards away, but it wasn’t hard to tell the boat contained several soldiers and a prisoner. Then the general turned back to Eddie. “Because I have your wife.”
The stunning admission left Eddie speechless and reeling. He stared at the general. Then, suddenly, Eddie picked the general up off the ground by the throat. As the general struggled against Eddie’s anger-driven strength, Lazzo finally spoke up. “You lie.”
The general gasped out, “No.” He pointed at the boat as it approached.
“Eddie,” Danny urged. “We have to go.”
Eddie dropped the general and he yelled into the radio, “Put her on.”
A static voice replied confirming the general’s words. It was Eddie’s wife. Eddie stood there unmoving as tears formed in his eyes. Lazzo spoke to him. “Eddie. They’re stalling. Look at the soldiers. They’re coming.”
Eddie glared at the general. “What do you want?”
“You let me go. I let her go,” the general wheezed.
“No way, Eddie. He’s lying,” Danny reasoned. “You know it.”
Eddie nodded. “And my family?”
“They’re all alive,” the general said with a smile, convinced he was getting through to the giant man.
“And if I go?” he asked.
“They all die,” the general replied.
“If I stay?” Eddie eyed the general. The general shrugged.
Soldiers were taking the boats to the shore. Soon they’d be scrambling up the hill. They’d be here in a matter of minutes.
“Eddie,” Danny urged. “Come on. They’re going to kill you no matter what.”
Eddie turned and looked at Danny. “I know. But I can’t leave her. You go.”
“One problem with that,” the general said.
“What?” Eddie replied.
In an instant, the general raised his arm and fired a bullet from a small handgun in his sleeve through the head of the helicopter pilot standing next to us.
“No!” Danny screamed, as the pilot slumped to the ground—dead.
Eddie grabbed the general again. He looked at the soldiers climbing out of the boats below, hurrying towards them. “Lazzo,” Eddie shouted. “Get everyone in the helicopter. I’ll be right there.”
Danny could tell Lazzo didn’t believe his brother, but as Danny pulled on his arm Lazzo turned with him and ran. I watched Eddie and the general’s heated conversation from a distance. The general appeared to hand something to Eddie and Eddie looked down at it for a minute. Then Eddie looked back up, shoved the general and took a swing at him, knocking him down. The general didn’t get back up—didn’t move at all—and Eddie turned towards us. Eddie ran around to the pilot’s window and leaned in towards his brother. I couldn’t make out what they were saying but clearly Lazzo didn’t like it. I heard him say “no” twice. Eddie handed something to Lazzo and then stepped away from the helicopter, lobbing a grenade towards the radio tent. It erupted into flames seconds later and Eddie began walking towards the troops coming up the hill.
Danny grabbed Eddie’s arm as he started to walk away. Eddie held out his hand. “I’m sorry,” he yelled above the din of the motoring blades.
“Me too, my friend,” Danny replied. “Good luck.” Eddie spun back towards the troops and Danny jumped into the helicopter. “Let’s go,” he shouted at Lazzo.
Lazzo’s extensive flight training took over. He flipped the switches and lifted the Blackhawk off the ground, motoring it towards Page. There were lights approaching through the air. More helicopters. Lazzo flew directly at them while taking one last glance at Eddie below. It seemed wrong to leave him like that, but Eddie’s wife was down there. Eddie couldn’t just walk away from her either. The last I saw of him he was on his knees in the middle of a circle of armed soldiers. As soon as the general was revived Eddie would likely be dead. His wife as well. I could only imagine what he must be feeling. Lazzo too, for that matter.
The two approaching helicopters were Apaches, far more armed and dangerous than their Blackhawk, but they weren’t expecting the helicopter to be hostile. As Lazzo flew the Blackhawk inside their defense range, he fired two missiles at each. The Apaches tried to avoid them, but it was far too late. They both exploded into flames, and Lazzo flew the Blackhawk directly between the balls of fire. Danny directed him to fly to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. It was north from the direction we’d been traveling but through largely remote desert space. From the helicopter we could hear nothing but radio silence for now, thanks to Eddie. That wouldn’t last long. While it was unlikely anyone would be radioing Denver directly from the lake, it wouldn’t take them long to get past Eddie and get to a radio in Page. The higher chain of command would be reached and updated quickly after that, and half an hour or so later they’d be mobilizing aircraft from all the southern bases. It was unlikely anyone would see a reason to contact Nellis, well north of Lake Powell. At least that’s what Danny was counting on.
He turned around and looked back at the rest of us. Tara and Kate smiled up at him. Blake and I both gave him a thumbs up. Sam was sitting a few feet from him, with his back to Danny. Danny tapped him on the shoulder and Sam turned to look at him. Danny held his hand up. “High five!”
Sam smiled. “Ha ha. Jackass.”
Man, it was good to see Danny smile!
EIGHTY-TWO: “In Flight”
This time Danny was right. No one was expecting us to head north, at least not to Nellis Air Force Base. We landed at the base, not long after midnight, and caught the few guards who were there by surprise. They approached the helicopter, and Lazzo ducked out, in uniform, to talk to them. The rest of us stayed in the helicopter. A few silenced gunshots later, Lazzo opened the passenger doors and led us towards a dark hangar. We entered the hangar and found the midsized cargo plane, a C-130, right where the last living guard had told him it would be. He and Danny hid us on the plane and then left for about twenty minutes with some explosives. They came back and calmly boarded the plane, merely nodding to the rest of us. We didn’t ask any questions.
We knew the plane engines would draw a curious crowd but powered it up anyway, pulled out of the hangar, and rolled towards the distant runway. Sure enough, troops came scrambling out of a nearby building to see what the noise was. Fortunately, without reason to suspect any form of threat, they merely either headed back to bed, or wandered towards the tower to see what was going on. The explosion that greeted those who opened the tower door also took out the entire communication system. Similar explosions followed minutes later as we took off and the troops behind us scrambled to open the other hangar doors. As best they could, Lazzo and Danny had limited their options of both communication and pursuit.