Part 37 (1/2)
Then there was screaming. The praying stopped with a series of tearing noises, and that signal died.
”Fajkus. This is Nagano. Retreat. They're all dead. We've got to-Aarrgghh-” then that one was gone too.
I flipped back. ”Jill! Reaper!” I tripped and sprawled face first into the slush. Rolling over, and bounding back to my feet, I had tripped over the body of an Exodus operative. It was dark, but it was obvious that he had died horribly, his chest torn open, white ribs sticking out.
”Lorenzo!” Jill finally responded.
”You've got to get out of there. The Montalbans are coming to kill you.”
”I know. I just shot two of them, I think,” she replied, sounding rather fl.u.s.tered. ”They showed up, but I had stuck out those claymores just like you showed me. I'm driving now. We're both okay. I don't know where we're going though, I don't think they're following me, but I don't know how they found us.”
”Tell Reaper that they're triangulating off the radio signal he uses to fly the Little Bird. I'm glad you're okay,” I said, still running. ”Put Reaper on . . . Reaper? What do you see? What's going on at the silo?”
”A counterattack. Exodus is getting slaughtered.” Reaper didn't sound very good. He sounded kind of confused and out of it. ”I . . . I don't know.”
”What do you see?”
”Something . . . I don't . . . I don't know . . .”
”Come on man, focus, I'm going to be there in a second.”
”Don't go there. Run, Lorenzo. Run away. Get out of there. Get on the chopper and fly away. Please.” His voice was desperate, and . . . afraid? He was miles away staring at a video screen.
”What is it?” It was unlike Reaper to freak out like this. He was young, but he had seen a lot. He had never choked on me before in all the years we had been doing this together. ”What's going on?”
”Quit yelling at me!” he cried. ”I don't know what it is, okay? Just get away from it!”
”d.a.m.n it! Reaper, listen to me. Take down Little Bird. The Montalbans found you because of that signal. Take it down now!”
”Okay. Okay. Okay,” he stammered. ”Here's Jill.”
”Honey, I'll be in touch. Just keep driving.”
”Be careful, Lorenzo.” The line clicked off.
Then the choppers were in view. The four of us tore toward them at a full run, our breath leaving clouds of steam hanging behind us. The one working chopper's blades were turning fast, only seconds from lifting off. There were a shockingly small number of people milling around near the choppers, and most of them were spread out in a skirmish line between the Halo and the pit, muzzle flashes indicating that they were firing against the silo.
Suddenly the chopper was airborne, blowing snow everywhere in a giant tornado. As I got closer, I could see a figure standing in the open door of the Halo helicopter. I only recognized that it was Svetlana by the big sniper rifle in her bandaged hands. She turned and shouted angrily back into the chopper's interior, then turned around and gestured for them to go back down to pick up the other survivors.
There was a muzzle flash from inside the chopper, and Svetlana dropped from the back door of the helicopter and plummeted about twenty feet to the ground. She actually landed on her feet, but her legs immediately crumpled, broken beneath her.
”No!” screamed Phillips as we charged onward.
The rear of the chopper swiveled toward us as it continued to rise, tracers strobing from the door gun down into the Exodus wounded as Anders murdered everyone he could. A lone figure stood in the door, braced against a strut, her blond hair billowing in the turbulent wind around her. Katarina waved.
”Kat!” I shouted as I raised my gun and opened fire at the retreating chopper, but it was moving too quick. ”d.a.m.n it!” That was our way out.
”Where's the chopper going?” Fajkus shouted across the radio. ”Wait, what the h.e.l.l is tha-” His radio cut out suddenly.
”Attention, Exodus. This is Katarina. Our business arrangement has, sadly, come to an end.”
We're screwed.
My team reached the remaining members of Exodus at the LZ. There were only a handful left, and all of them appeared to be injured. Anders had shredded the skirmish line with the chopper's door gun, and there were screams from the dying. Shen and Phillips tried to help them while Roland attended to Svetlana, who was moaning in the snow, a jagged chunk of bone sticking out the side of her pants.
”Fajkus! This is Lorenzo. Come in.” There was only static on the line. I realized that all of the gunfire from the silo had ceased, and with the chopper getting further away, the compound was gradually quieting. After so much commotion, it was rather disconcerting. I glanced around. ”Who's in charge?”
The sh.e.l.l-shocked Exodus survivors looked at each other, trying to ascertain who was the senior-member still standing.
”I believe that would be me.” A deep voice from the direction of the silo. I turned my flashlight on the approaching figures. One large man had a second smaller man over his shoulders in a fireman carry. I recognized them immediately.
”Antoine,” I said, glad to see it was somebody I could count on. ”What happened?”
”I don't know. Fajkus is unconscious,” the tall African grunted as he gently lowered the other man to the ground. Fajkus's parka was covered in blood and torn open in several places. ”Everyone else is dead.”
”We have to get out of here,” I said tersely.
”Agreed,” he glanced upward. ”Why did the helicopter leave? Why did it fire on us?”
”Long story,” I replied, looking over the carnage. Exodus had been exposed. ”f.u.c.king Anders. We can grab some vehicles and head for town.”
”Negative,” Antoine shook his head. ”Reinforcements from the mines are blocking the road. They will be here soon.” What went unsaid was that whoever had just killed most of Exodus in the last few minutes was still in the compound with us.
I scanned the compound. Flames were billowing upward from a dozen points and the air tasted like burning rubber and diesel. ”Okay, we take the back way out, the way my team came in. We rope down to the valley floor, and then hoof it up the canyon.”
Antoine glanced around at the many wounded, both of us already knowing that many of them were not going to make it. The Plan C escape route was a worst case scenario even if you were healthy, let alone carrying a bunch of injured. He raised his voice so that everyone could hear. ”Exodus, my brothers. Move quickly. Take ammunition from the dead and the other Halo. Everyone that can walk, help those that cannot. Follow Lorenzo. He will show us the way out.”
”Brother,” Shen said. I jumped, adrenalin soaked nerves expecting another one of those silent, hooded freaks to have shown up, but Shen was just talking to Antoine. The two men embraced. ”I'm glad to see you made it.”
”We must hurry.” Ling's former teammates began helping the wounded. There were only a few of us in any shape to fight; me, Shen, Antoine, Phillips, and Roland. There were four others a lot worse off. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know how many men Exodus had brought it, but it had to have been at least sixty or seventy. Svetlana screamed as Phillips shoved the bone back into her leg and wrapped it in gauze.
”d.a.m.n you, Katarina,” I whispered to myself as I led the way back across the compound, a horde of fanatics only minutes behind us. This was going to be tight.
My radio chirped in my ear. I hit the mike, expecting news from Reaper or Jill. Instead it was Katarina, calling to gloat. I felt an indescribable ball of rage bubble up from inside my stomach. It made me warm.
”Well, well, well, you're in a predicament now, aren't you, Lorenzo, my dear?”
”I thought you wanted The Crossroads more than you'd want revenge. I was a fool to believe you.”
”Yes, and I was a fool to trust you all those years ago. Now you know how it feels. You abandoned me when I needed you, and now I'm abandoning you.”
”So that's what this is about then?” I spat. I moved quickly through the wreckage of the compound, running forward, and taking up a cover position as the others followed more slowly. ”You're willing to let all these good men die just out of spite?”
Kat laughed over the radio, having a good old time. ”No, of course not, silly. That's absurd. I was going to betray them no matter what. That's just sound business. This was a gamble for me to not only utilize Project Blue, but also to become the sole ruler of The Crossroads, like Big Eddie before me. Being able to destroy you along with Exodus was just a happy bonus.”
I didn't respond. Half of my brain was trying to watch my surroundings, the other half was a calculating how I was going to track Katarina down and kill her. I paused, waiting for Exodus. Something moved in the shadows ahead. I hit the spot with my flashlight, but whatever it was had already moved.