I kept nodding. Eddie knew I was telling the truth. It was evident in his eyes. He was angry but not at me. He’d already been told I was kidnapped but had refused to believe it from Boli. From me…he definitely believed it.
“You knew this?” All he could do was shake his head.
“Lazzo told me on the carrier.” I couldn’t believe I was about to defend his actions, but this had to be really hard for Cera to swallow as well. This was how her husband had died. “He didn’t feel like he had a choice.” I took Cera’s hand. “I understand.”
“That is no excuse. Hayley, that is no excuse.” Eddie was riled up.
“Eddie, it’s done. He thought he had to do it to save you, Cera…and Isabelle. Is Isabelle…”
“Hayley.” Eddie put his hand on my shoulder. “Commander Boli has Isabelle.”
Panic filled my face. “Here?”
“No. He would not trust anyone else with her. She is probably in Denver or around there—wherever Boli is. Hayley, there is no excuse for what Lazzo did. I am truly—”
“Eddie, you don’t need to apologize for Lazzo. No one does. I understand.” It was clearly not in his nature to excuse this in any way. “Trust me, Eddie, I would do anything for my brother if I thought it would save him.” I let that sink in. “Anything—right or wrong.”
He was silent. Now he was the one nodding. He understood what I was saying. I wasn’t defending Lazzo, but I knew why he’d done what he’d done. “You’d have done the same thing?”
“Pretty much.” I nodded, staring back into his half-sad, half-angry eyes.
“So when did he die?”
“If he did, it happened last night.” My eyes moved back to Cera.
“And you still went to the Knight mountain?”
“Knights Peak? Yes. There are three girls still being held prisoner back in Hawaii by the men Lazzo was working with. If Boli gives the order, they will be killed. I thought the only way to save them was to kill Boli. Besides, I knew my brother was coming, and I knew where he was going—generally anyway. Lazzo gave me the meeting site. It was my only chance. I had to be here.”
“Danny would not be expecting the explosion.” Eddie’s voice had regained its typical commanding tone. “And when Boli hears about the explosion, he will send more soldiers to try to find who did it and capture them. If he knows Danny is in the area, he will send everyone to find him. If he cannot, then—at that point—he will certainly give the order to kill the hostages. We do not have much time.”
“You think Danny is close enough to have heard the explosion? Or seen it?”
“General Roja was here. He would only have come for Danny. He knows what Danny looks like.”
“So you think they know Danny is near?” I couldn’t keep the hope out of my voice.
“Yes. You said Lazzo was killed last night?” Eddie’s mind was apparently still on his own brother. “There was gunfire?”
“Of course.” I gave him a puzzled look.
“Lots of gunfire? Loud?”
“Yes. Loud gunfire.” What is he getting at? “Why?”
“I think if Danny is here, Danny would have heard it.”
I hadn’t thought of that. Gunfire out here—if Danny was anywhere nearby, he would definitely have heard it. And we were far from the rescue plane. Danny would assume Qi Jia was fighting with someone. He’d be trying to figure out who. He’d be trying to figure out if it was Lazzo and me.
Eddie continued. “I think, if your brother heard the gunshots last night, then yes, I think your brother was here and saw the explosion.”
“Then we need to go find him.” I stepped in front of Eddie, looking up at him.
“No.” He blocked my access to the steps. “We stay here in this tunnel.”
Storm shelter. “But—”
“We stay here. If I’ve learned anything about your brother by now, it’s that he will find us. We stay here.”
We stayed put.
THIRTY-SEVEN – Red Hot Mess (Danny)
I admit I was a little confused. I was certain the paratroopers were searching for us, that they’d seen us driving toward the mountains and been sent to capture or kill us. And then there was that gunfight in the valley that had nothing to do with us. So now I was wondering if Baker and his men had already rescued the people in Cheyenne Mountain, come out the back exit, and started that firefight. But even that didn’t make sense because the bunker’s back tunnel had been sealed off for security reasons several years ago. The tunnel wasn’t on the map Baker had, and the airfield he’d intended to land at wasn’t anywhere near here. It wouldn’t have surprised me in the least if he’d gotten lazy or greedy and changed his plans, landing closer—too close—to Cheyenne Mountain. But that gunfight had sounded awfully one-sided—more one hundred to one than one hundred to fifty. That left Hayley, Lazzo, and Baker’s daughter. The gunfight had come to an abrupt end, and there had been no more shots after Blake’s last sniper kill. So either the soldiers had gotten what they’d wanted, or their targets had escaped. We didn’t hang around to find out.
I didn’t want to overthink it, because where my mind was now, I couldn’t imagine their targets had escaped. The soldiers hadn’t been in any urgent pursuit after the last shot had been fired down in the valley. There hadn’t been torches, flashlights, or dogs cutting through the forest below us—not in either direction—east or west. If they were searching for someone, it would have been visible to us up on the ridgeline. That train of thought was disturbing. I was hopeful the targets hadn’t been Hayley and Lazzo, but it was all that made sense. I considered going down to investigate, but I also knew we had between six and seven miles to go to reach the coordinates before daylight.
We maintained our elevated approach along the ridgeline for the next few hours and found a secure perch over the designated meeting place about a half hour before dawn. We were there when the trucks arrived and the helicopter flew in. I watched through the rifle’s scope as a man who looked like General Roja ducked out of the helicopter. I thought you were dead. How did that grenade not kill him at Lake Powell? The general marched into the building, followed by a majority of the troops. A short while later, most of the troops came back out and took up patrols around the perimeter of the plateau. We saw a few patrols heading our direction and figured they’d been ordered to take a high position. Sixteen men. Manageable.
I told Blake and Keena to keep an eye on them as I continued to watch the compound on the plateau. I saw four men go down the hillside to the west, and then about twenty minutes later a single man came back up. None of the four who had gone down the hill wore backpacks, but this man had a pack slung over his shoulder. What the heck?
“What?” Blake was looking at me.
I must have said that last part out loud. “Not sure yet.” I watched the man talk to a couple of troops at the corner of the building and then disappear around the back. “There’s this guy…”
“This guy? Could you be a little more—”
“I don’t know. Hang on.” Only a few minutes passed before he came back into view—this time without the pack. He shook hands with the soldiers at the corner of the building and headed back down the hill. Where is he going? He disappeared down the side. No sooner had I dismissed it as nothing, than an explosion disintegrated the large building, leaving a mess of burning wood and twisted metal and a decent-sized crater. Holy shit! A landslide of boulders rained down from the mountain, crushing everything in their path and crashing through the debris. There was no way anyone in that building had survived. If that was General Roja who had entered, he was certainly dead now.