“Danny, you want me to go back and check on her?” Hayley asked through the other headset, since she couldn’t see me at the moment.
“No.” I slipped into the cell with Hayley. “She’s okay.”
The girl named Ava was assisting another prisoner. He too was severely beaten—almost unrecognizable—but I saw the tattoo on his arm as she helped him by. It was distinctively Navy SEAL. One of Baker’s guys? “Get him in, quick,” I whispered to Ava.
The prisoner who had taken the gun from the guard stuck his head into the cell from the tunnel. “Those other three are already dead. Just leave them.”
“Kellen, we can’t do that,” Ava hissed at him. “I won’t leave John here.”
“Ava, he’s dead. He—” A gunshot cut off Kellen’s reply. I dove back into the tunnel and looked at the screen. It was blank. Keena had cut all the feed. We were blind. Crap. I heard shouting and more gunshots. I reached back into the cell and grabbed Hayley’s leg. “Get in here.”
Hayley basically shoved Ava in before her, then slid in as I entered the code to close the door.
It slid into place, and I turned to look at everyone. Ava was standing right behind me with tears in her eyes. “You okay?” I put my hand on her arm. She nodded. I looked at the others then down at the door on the right. We were going to have to close that one in a minute.
“Blake, Kellen, you two go see if you can get to Keena.”
Kellen shook his head. “I can’t leave the general.” Blake, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate. He dove into the storage room.
“Kellen, go.” We all heard the general’s whispered order.
Kellen gave him a questioning look, then nodded and followed Blake through the small square door. I knelt down and watched as Blake opened the door on the other side of the storage room and glanced out. He put his arm out immediately and held Kellen back. They came back to the tunnel.
“What’s going on?” I asked, searching Blake’s face.
“I can’t get to Keena.”
Shit. “How do—”
“She’s in the hallway… Silas too. He’s dead. Two soldiers have Keena—gun to her head. Baker’s in there…”
“Blake, we have to—”
“I’m sorry, Dan.” He crawled past me into the tunnel. “The place is crawling with troops. She must not have gotten the door down.”
I wanted to go see for myself, but Blake seemed to sense that. He was blocking my path. I sighed and punched in the codes to the open door, and it shut tightly.
The loss of Keena was devastating. I was sure Eddie would feel the same about Silas when he connected the dots in a minute. And clearly the Ava girl felt the same about the John we’d had to leave in that cell. To make matters worse, I had no idea what Keena had accomplished in the computer room. Maybe she wasn’t able to do anything at all.
In the dimly lit tunnel, people’s expressions were a mixture of pain, sorrow, and devastation. Kellen was kneeling beside General Niles, whispering to him. Ava was giving the badly injured SEAL some water. Blake and Hayley had moved down the hall a ways, likely to try to find Eddie, Flynn, and Cera. Ava glanced back at me, stood, and approached. “Who are you? And why are you here? How did you find this cave—this place—whatever it is?”
As first impressions went, I didn’t know what to think. I couldn’t see her well in the darkness, but she had a stunning outline. She also seemed angry—very angry—and we’d pretty much saved her life. “Take it easy… I’m—”
Kellen walked up behind her. “The general would like to speak with you.” He pointed at me. “With both of you.” He nodded at Ava.
We knelt beside General Niles. “Yes, sir, what can I do for you?”
“What’s your name, son? I feel like I recognize you,” he wheezed.
He was badly beaten, perhaps even had some broken ribs. “Yes, sir, I’m Captain Danny Miner.”
“You were in Hawaii?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Son, I’m not going to make it—”
“Daddy, don’t—”
“Ava, hush. I need you to listen.”
“Daddy.” Ava took his hand.
“Ava, please, let me talk to Captain Miner.”
She bit her lip and nodded, tears pooling in her eyes.
“Captain, I need you to promise me you’ll take care of my daughter.”
“Of course, sir. I’ll do what I can.” I gently patted his shoulder.
“That’s not good enough.” The general coughed and winced—both from the pain and from how loud his cough sounded in here. There was enough noise in the adjacent bunker now I wasn’t too worried about being overheard, but it was a good reminder that we could be.
“There are no guarantees, sir, but if I can keep her safe—trust me—I will.”
He looked me in the eyes for a minute, then nodded. “You must be someone special if you knew about this tunnel. I guarantee you less than ten living people even know it’s here, and half of them wouldn’t know how to access it—not from the back. So, whoever you are exactly, I have instructed Kellen that he is to fulfill the same duties for you as he would for me. If you get my daughter safely back to Hawaii, the governor is to promote you to major—”
“Sir, that’s not necessary. I’ll—”
“Bullshit Captain, necessary or not, you took great risks to come here, for whatever purpose. Were I not in this state, you would have effectively rescued me. You would—” A coughing fit cut his words short. He buried his face in a towel he held. It cut the noise but appeared to increase his pain.
“Daddy, you need to rest.”
“Ava, I’ll have plenty of time to rest soon enough.” He took her hand with both of his. “I just need a few private moments with the captain here first.”
She nodded and backed away toward Kellen.
“What can I do for you, sir?” I asked.
“How well do you know that other captain?”
“Other captain? You mean Baker, sir?”
“Yes, the one you were fighting with on the conference call.”
“Sir, I’m sorry about—”
“Never mind that.” He coughed again. “There’s no need for apology.”
“Sir, yes, sir.” I thought about the best way to answer. “I don’t know Captain Baker well at all. I know he was in a rush to get here and prove himself.”
“The selfish prick proved himself a traitor, that’s what—” Another coughing fit interrupted him. This time he closed his eyes and slammed his head back against the wall.
I winced and glanced sideways at Ava, the concern evident on her face. I knew what he was doing though—redirecting pain. “Sir, he’s a Navy SEAL. Perhaps he—”
I had forgotten about the other soldier lying in the darkness until he interrupted me. “He shouldn’t be. And I can’t believe you’re defending him.”
Valid point. “You were with him?” I asked the SEAL, kneeling beside him.
The man coughed. “Yes.” Another cough. “You could say that.”
He sounds as bad as the general. Broken ribs and punctured lungs must be Qi Jia’s calling card. “So what happened?”
There was more coughing but no response. I felt someone standing behind me. Looking up, I saw Ava had come back over.
“The first plane was shot down,” she began. “Unfortunately, Baker was on the second one and flew them too close to here. When they landed, there were troops waiting for them. Baker sent his guys out to fight, and most of his men were killed. When he saw there was no way they’d make it out of there alive, he surrendered. It was Baker and two of his men against two or three hundred soldiers. Tyler here was shot four times. He should be dead.”