Chapter 5 - FIVE MINUTES TO LIVENathan had always been calm when everyone else panicked.
At Hollow Ridge, while rounds tore chunks from the wall above us, he had once looked at me and said, “Good news. They still hate us.”
I remembered wanting to strangle him.
Now, with less than five minutes before Arthur Voss intended to collapse an entire building on top of us, Nathan glanced at the timer and said, “I’ve had worse Tuesdays.”
I stared at him.
“It’s Thursday.”
“Then we’re doing great.”
Some things apparently survived death.
Grant didn’t appreciate the humor.
“Exit options.”
Dylan pointed toward the far wall.
“There was an emergency conduit tunnel when this facility was built.”
“Was?”
“Voss sealed it.”
“Can we reopen it?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe is currently our best plan.”
Pierce sent two MPs with Dylan while Nathan moved to the communications console.
I stayed beside him.
“You know how to stop the charges?”
“No.”
“Wonderful.”
“I know how Voss thinks.”
“That hasn’t been enough so far.”
Nathan glanced at me.
“That was deserved too.”
I hated that part of me wanted to smile.
I didn’t.
The clock showed four minutes.
Nathan pulled cables from the terminal.
“Voss loves redundancy. He doesn’t trust wireless detonation alone.”
“So hard line?”
“Probably.”
“Find it.”
We traced bundles of cable toward an access panel.
Grant joined us.
“Dylan says the tunnel exit may be blocked by concrete.”
“Then this is faster.”
Nathan ripped open the panel.
Inside were dozens of identical lines.
“Which one?” I asked.
“Guessing gets exciting.”
“Try not to make it exciting.”
He studied the wiring.
Three minutes.
Then we heard Marcus over the radio.
“Carter!”
Grant answered.
“Hale, where are you?”
“Outside the armory.”
“I ordered you to remain in the command building.”
“Respectfully, sir, I’m having trouble with that order.”
Gunfire sounded behind him.
Grant swore.
“Get back!”
“I found the control cable.”
Nathan grabbed the radio.
“Marcus, listen to me. Do you see a utility junction on the north side?”
“Who is this?”
“Nathan Cole.”
Silence.
Then:
“The dead guy?”
“Long story.”
“Fair enough.”
Nathan described the cable.
Marcus moved while security personnel exchanged fire somewhere outside.
I pictured him running toward the building whose basement contained the brother he had spent weeks trying to save.
The timer hit two minutes.
Dylan shouted from the rear.
“Tunnel’s sealed!”
Grant ordered everyone toward the main stairwell.
The door remained locked.
Nathan returned to the wiring.
“This won’t work.”
I examined the timer.
1:34.
“Then we make another exit.”
“With what?”
I looked toward the demolition charges marked on the wall schematic.
Voss had placed them around structural supports.
One section near the eastern wall had fewer charges.
“Can we detonate one early?”
Nathan understood immediately.
“That could bring the room down.”
“It could also open the wall.”
“Or kill us.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
He smiled faintly.
“I missed you.”
“Not the time.”
We dragged a heavy steel desk onto its side for cover.
Dylan and the MPs joined us.
The eastern charge sat behind a maintenance panel.
Nathan bypassed the remote receiver and exposed two wires.
The timer showed fifty-eight seconds.
Grant looked at me.
“You sure?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Apparently generals developed the same terrible sense of humor.
Nathan connected the leads.
“Everybody down!”
Forty-three seconds.
Marcus’s voice came over the radio.
“I found the junction!”
“Cut the black cable with the yellow stripe!” Nathan shouted.
“There are three!”
“Of course there are.”
Thirty-four seconds.
Marcus shouted, “Which one?”
Dylan grabbed the radio.
“Center cable!”
“How do you know?”
“Because I installed it!”
Silence.
Then Marcus yelled something I couldn’t understand.
The timer froze.
00:27.
Nobody moved.
“Did he stop it?” Pierce asked.
Nathan stared.
The timer remained frozen.
Dylan laughed.
Marcus came over the radio.
“I cut it.”
Then the timer restarted.
00:26.
“Secondary trigger!” Nathan shouted.
We had twenty-six seconds.
I looked at the eastern charge.
“Do it.”
Nathan hesitated.
“Nathan!”
He touched the leads.
The explosion hit like a giant fist.
The desk lifted off the floor.
Concrete filled the air.
My ears rang.
For several seconds, there was only gray dust and coughing.
Then daylight appeared through a jagged opening in the eastern wall.
“Move!”
We climbed through one at a time.
Dylan went first with an MP.
Grant followed.
Pierce.
Then the remaining officers.
Nathan pushed me toward the opening.
“You.”
“No.”
“Emily.”
“I’m done leaving people.”
Something passed across his face.
Then he nodded.
Together.
We climbed.
The main charges detonated as we cleared the outer drainage trench.
The ground jumped beneath us.
The old armory folded inward with a roar.
A cloud of dust swallowed everything.
Nathan landed on top of me.
For a moment, neither of us could breathe.
Then he lifted his head.
“You okay?”
“You’re crushing me.”
“That sounds promising.”
I shoved him aside.
Nearby, Grant was shouting names.
Everyone had made it.
Every one of us.
Then Marcus came running through the smoke.
“Dylan!”
His brother struggled upright.
Marcus stopped ten feet away.
The brothers stared at each other.
Dylan looked terrible.
Bloodied.
Thin.
Barely standing.
Marcus crossed the distance in three steps and wrapped his arms around him.
For the first time since I met him, Marcus Hale cried.
Not quietly.
Not carefully.
He held his younger brother like someone trying to make sure he couldn’t disappear again.
I turned away.
Nathan stood beside me.
“You saved them.”
“We saved them.”
“You always say that.”
“Because it’s usually true.”
His face became serious.
“You should hate me.”
“I’m considering it.”
“I believed you betrayed us.”
“You had evidence.”
“I should have known you better.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at the scar crossing his face.
“Where have you been?”
“Running.”
“For eighteen months?”
“Looking for proof.”
“Your daughter thinks you’re dead.”
Pain filled his face.
“I know.”
“You could have trusted me.”
“I know.”
I took a slow breath.
“Say that one more time and I actually will hit you again.”
He nodded.
“Understood.”
That nearly made me laugh.
General Grant approached with the drive Dylan had hidden.
“Counterintelligence will take custody of this.”
“No,” Dylan said.
Grant looked at him.
“No?”
Dylan stepped away from Marcus.
“This archive includes evidence against senior officers. If you put it into normal custody, Voss will know where it is within an hour.”
Grant couldn’t deny that.
Nathan pointed toward the burning armory.
“He just tried to kill a lieutenant general on a U.S. military installation.”
“He’s desperate,” Pierce said.
“No,” I replied. “He’s confident.”
Everyone looked at me.
“Voss wouldn’t attempt this unless he believed he could survive the investigation afterward.”
Grant understood.
“He has someone above me.”
“Or someone powerful enough to protect him.”
Dylan nodded.
“There’s a list on the archive. Lantern clients.”
“Clients?”
“People who paid Voss for information or favors.”
“How many?”
“Government officials. Contractors. Foreign intermediaries. Officers.”
Grant’s expression darkened.
“And the highest-ranking military name?”
Dylan hesitated.
“General Thomas Rourke.”
Grant went still.
Even I knew Rourke.
Four-star general.
Member of the Joint Chiefs advisory structure.
A man who appeared on television whenever the country needed someone reassuring in uniform.
Nathan looked at Grant.
“You report directly to Rourke.”
“Yes.”
The implications were enormous.
Grant’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Then at us.
“Speak of the devil.”
General Rourke was calling.
Grant answered.
“Sir.”
Rourke’s voice was loud enough that those nearest could hear.
“Samuel, I heard there was an incident at Carson. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“Thank God.”
Rourke sounded genuinely relieved.
Then he asked:
“Is Staff Sergeant Carter with you?”
Nobody had officially reported my involvement.
Grant looked at me.
“Yes.”
A pause.
“I’d like you to bring her to Washington.”
“When?”
“Immediately.”
Grant’s expression hardened.
“For what purpose?”
Another pause.
Then Rourke said:
“Because Raven Nine knows something she doesn’t realize she knows.”
The call ended.
Nathan stared at me.
“What do you know?”
I looked at the burning building.
“I have absolutely no idea.”
But somewhere beneath eighteen months of nightmares, there was one memory I had never been able to explain.
During the final hour at Hollow Ridge, Nathan had been unconscious.
Reyes was bleeding.
Our radio was damaged.
And someone had transmitted a new extraction order using General Rourke’s voice.
An order telling me to leave seven wounded soldiers behind.
I had disobeyed it.
Until that moment, I had always believed the transmission was real.
Now I wasn’t sure.
And if Rourke wanted me in Washington badly enough to ask for me before the smoke had even cleared, there was only one reasonable conclusion.
The order I disobeyed at Hollow Ridge had never been about saving Raven Team.
May you like
Someone had wanted those seven soldiers dead.
And I had ruined the plan by bringing them home.
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