Ava didn’t understand why we couldn’t just take one of the Hummers—even after Blake explained how Qi Jia’s THIRST radar systems worked. The Hummers gave off a lot of heat—they’d be picked up quickly. If we took our time on the bikes—and got lucky—we might not be picked up at all. It depended entirely on whether they noticed the Hummers first and pursued them. The Hummers had to be the decoy.
She still didn’t like it, and Eddie had tried to convince me to leave him behind. He wanted to go after Isabelle. Male pride and ego being what they were, I didn’t know that I could have talked him out of it. So I let Cera. Isabelle was—after all—Cera’s daughter. It wasn’t easy, but—against what she really wanted—she managed to sway him. Hayley helped by making a valid point. If Isabelle were still alive, it was probably because Boli intended to use her as leverage somewhere else. Maybe we’d get another shot—perhaps even a better one.
We opened the doors at nine, and the two Hummers roared out, churning to the southeast. I stood outside with Blake, Hayley, Flynn, and Ava and watched them drive down the valley and disappear around the bend. We stood silent, listening for any sounds of pursuit. It was almost forty minutes exactly before we heard them. Three helicopters whirred overhead—also heading south—no doubt hot on the Hummers’ trail. Two more helicopters flew over a few minutes later. I set the timer on my watch for fifteen minutes. It would take the choppers about ten minutes to catch up to the Hummers, and their missiles would determine how much longer the pursuit lasted. At that point our decoy would be as far away as they’d get. That would be our best chance to move.
Fifteen minutes later we left the back entrance of Cheyenne Mountain on the bikes. Ava rode with me, Blake with Cera, Hayley had Flynn, and Eddie was on his own. It was slow going down the ravine—bikes being far less stable than the Hummers—but Eddie did remarkably well. He did crash once, likely banging himself up pretty good, but he hopped back up, climbed back on, and kept going. Driving just under ten miles per hour—for the first thirty minutes—it took us a full hour and a half to reach the smokejumper base where Hayley, Lazzo, and Flynn had parked the plane. We didn’t see a single Qi Jia vehicle, chopper, or plane the entire way—didn’t meet a single bit of resistance. On the one hand, we were relieved. But on the other, it seemed too easy. Way too easy.
At the end of the driveway leading up to the base and hangar, I stopped and shut off my bike. Everyone else did the same. “Let’s drop them here in the ditch, guys, and walk in.”
No one argued with my suggestion. We were approaching the hangar through the woods when I saw Blake—ahead of us—wave his hand for us to get down. I spun toward Ava and pulled her down, and Eddie did the same to Cera. Hayley and Flynn were behind us and followed suit. A second later, I realized I had wrapped my arm around Ava’s chest to pull her down. To make matters worse, I still had my hand on her left breast. She was staring into my eyes, the slightest of smiles on her lips. I dropped my hand down to my side. “Sorry.”
“No problem.” Still smiling.
I could feel my face flush and warmth surge through my body as I turned away from her and peered through the darkness toward Blake. “Stay here,” I whispered, looking at everyone except Ava. Damn it, Danny. Let it go. I crawled up to Blake. “What’s going on?”
“I swear I saw a light in the hangar… a brief flicker.” Suddenly he pointed. “There. There it was again.”
I saw it that time too. Someone was in there. “Is that all you’ve seen?”
He nodded. We watched and waited for the light to come back on, but it never did. It was getting late—just after eleven—maybe whoever it was had gone to sleep.
“We need to get closer, Blake. We need a better look.”
“Which way do you want me to go?”
“You go around back. I’ll take the front. Do not engage, okay?”
“Ten-four.” Blake saluted.
“We’ll meet on the other side of the hangar about this same point, okay?”
“Got it.”
Blake broke off to the left. I went right. I slunk across the front of the hangar without seeing anything out of the ordinary—still no further sign of anyone. I had just entered the tree line on the other side of the hangar when my foot pressed up against a wire or tight string. I heard a small jingle off in the distance—seemingly from inside the hangar. Crap. A tripwire of some sort.
The wire hadn’t broken though, and I felt around beneath my foot and couldn’t feel anything. It didn’t seem as if I was standing on explosives of any kind. I slowly removed my foot and took a step backward into the trees. I stepped behind one as Blake came into view about twenty yards from me. I was about to whisper to him when I saw movement to his left. Someone was following him. I raised my gun but couldn’t see anything through the scope. Whoever was back there knew how to use his cover. I had to get to Blake first—and fast. As the shadow behind Blake went left around the next tree, I went right. When he reversed, so did I. He reached Blake seconds before I did and raised a handgun to the side of Blake’s head. “Don’t move.”
I stepped up beside the hooded man with my own gun raised to his head. “You either.”
“Shit.” Even through gritted teeth that voice was unmistakable.
“Axel?”
Axel turned to look at me. “Danny?”
I lowered my gun. “Yeah.” I clapped him on the back. “How the hell are you here?”
“Hey, Axe,” Blake interrupted, Axel’s gun still pressed to the side of his head. “Do you mind?”
Axel looked at Blake and dropped the gun down. “Sorry.”
I wrapped Axel in a big hug. “I thought you were dead, man. How did you even find this place?”
“Long story short… it took me frickin’ forever to get to shore when they shot us down. I tried to find you guys but couldn’t—lost my damn dog tag and tablet. So, I latched on to the smaller boat that passed by and hitched a ride in. I followed the plan and went to the Pringtime Reservoir, but I was a full day behind schedule then. When I saw the choppers circling ahead—or east I should say—I followed them but turned back at the explosion. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. The next morning troops were all over the reservoir—nowhere else, just the reservoir—and they found your vehicles. It didn’t take me long to realize you’d dumped it there—that the soldiers had somehow been led directly there.”
“That’s crazy, dude.” I shook my head.
His voice was filled with excitement. “It gets better—obviously. Man, there were paratroopers everywhere, and I couldn’t find my way through the lines, so I checked out the areas the paratroopers weren’t and found this crazy-ass winding road out here. I found this driveway this morning with the freshly sawed off US Forest Service sign and investigated. Since it was an old Smokejumping facility I thought they might have a spare plane around here. I hit the jackpot with the C-130H in the back. I figured it just might get me back to Hawaii.”