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Creed called over the comm units. "Bus approaching."
Van slowed the Humvee down and used the gas pedal to accelerate and then decelerate, making it look like something was wrong with the vehicle. He heard the engine of the bus behind him and exaggerated his movements, making the Humvee jerk.
The bus appeared in his mirror and he slowed the Humvee down; the bend was just up ahead and he had to string the bus along until the bend.
Creed called out, "Bus passed me, I'm on the move forward."
Emmy listened as her teammates began calling out their sightings. She could now hear the engine of both the bus and the Humvee.
Diego then called out, "Bus just passed me, on the move."
Emmy sighted the Humvee now and could see the bus behind it. Raising her rifle, she aimed it at the driver of the bus, and held steady. Inhaling deeply, she let her breath out slowly, as the driver of the bus stood to exit, she squeezed her finger on the trigger, the only sound was the explosion of her rifle close to her ear, her only visual was the pink mist on the windows.
3
One of the grungy men jumped out of the bus as Van leapt out of the Humvee, his gun trained on the man's chest. A split second later, a red dot appeared on the man's grubby t-shirt, then another and another. He dropped to the ground with an expression of disbelief on his face.
Diego and Creed both called out. "We've got the kids."
Emmy kept an eye out for the other two men from the shack as she moved along the steep terrain. They didn't need another two bodies in the dirt, but they also didn't need anyone to know her team had gone rogue. Not yet, anyway.
"How many?"
"Three."
"How many captors?"
"Two. Both dead."
Emmy struggled to get up the hill; her hip was throbbing now but an adrenaline rush gave her some temporary relief. Generally she had to take things like this slower, but they didn't have the time. She'd take a few days to heal up again later, while she made plans for her own agency.
Van carried one child to the Humvee, while Diego and Creed carried the other two. As soon as they were secured in the vehicle, Emmy called out to Charly, "We've got ’em Charly, we'll pick you up on our way through."
"Roger."
Emmy limped to the Humvee, and climbed into the passenger side seat. She still had nightmares about the day her Humvee hit an IED; she’d been blown out of the vehicle onto a pile of rocks and debris that left her permanently broken. Her hip was damaged, but no more surgeries would help her, so she resorted to therapy and long hot baths to help with the pain management and she focused on meditation to ignore the pain when she needed to.
She flicked a quick glance back at the kids, silent tears flowing down their dirty faces, sandwiched between Diego and Creed. Watching up the road as Van slowly moved forward, she saw Charly climbing from the brush and Emmy pointed to her as if Van wouldn't have seen her.
Van stopped the Humvee. "Hey baby, going my way?"
"I am, stud, gimme a lift?" She laughed and Emmy couldn't resist giggling.
Charly climbed in the very back and squeezed herself in among their gear. Moving them out of the area, Van drove slowly to keep the vehicle from bouncing mercilessly about the road.
Pulling her phone from her inside pocket of her cammies, Emmy dialed her Uncle Gaige Vickers, who owned and ran GHOST. Her father and grandfather had started GHOST more than twenty years ago and Emmy had always planned to work for GHOST too. But once she was wounded, she’d had to get her head around the fact that she'd be too slow for what they needed and she refocused. Thinking that Operation Live Again would be her ticket to helping out civilians in trouble and locating missing children, she knew without a doubt that things happen for a reason and this was hers.
It hadn't been the first time they'd encountered a crooked officer or two. But those infractions hadn't been as grievous as today's issue. Leaving kids to an unspeakable fate? She'd not do that, not ever. Not on her watch.
Her colleagues made her proud just now; they were going to do this.
She heard a voice against her ear. "Emmy?"
"Uncle Gaige, I need help."
"Fill me in, what's up?"
"My team and I rescued three kids kidnapped from the US. Our Sergeant was going to call it off and let them be transported elsewhere, so we went rogue. I need help getting these kids home and then I need help starting my own agency so we don't deal with this shit again. I'll call Dad to help out too."
