Page 212 of Deadfall

I released her, and Seven tapped her on the nose before planting his own kiss on her lips.

“Miss you already,” he said.

She tried to hold back the small smile as he winked and stepped away. Then, we were off.

I breathed in the salty evening air as we bounced through the surf, and worked to shut down the emotions so I could focus. What we were doing was not without risk. While we knew there were a few guards that rotated through the lone hanger on the landing strip, we didn’t know if Mahoney had left any additional surprises there for us. Plus, we were working with explosives, which of course were dangerous no matter how comfortable I was around them. It was important I wasn’t distracted.

We made landfall just as the sun dropped below the horizon. Knight signaled to head into the trees. It didn’t take long to break through the short span of cover between the beach and the tarmac. As we knelt in the deepening shadows, we observed the hangar across the way. There was only a lone light next to the door that cast a meager glow across the quickly darkening landscape.

Luckily we had night vision, and once activated the world burst back into bright green focus. I saw a few shapes move through the trees around the hangar—guards on rotation—and we suspected a few more would be inside the structure. Knight signaled for me and Seven to clear the guards on the right wing of the hangar. He would go with Cal around the left.

We broke off into the two units as we crossed the open space of the tarmac and hit the cover of an embankment on the other side. Seven settled at my shoulder and headed toward where two guards with rifles patrolled the edge of the trees. I signaled that the one on the left was mine, Seven’s was the right, and after my quiet countdown, we both pulled the trigger.

“Two down. Third hostile headed your way,” Knight’s voice whispered over comms. “Bathroom break apparently.”

“Roger,” I answered. “Hold for confirmation.”

Seven disappeared to hunt the man down and less than a minute later, his voice came over comms.

“Third hostile down.”

“Roger that,” Knight said. “Move to the rear door. Wait for my signal.”

I confirmed, and we moved to the rear door of the hangar that sat slightly ajar.

“Go,” Knight ordered.

We moved into the hangar and quickly took out several guards playing cards in the corner office. We moved back out into the main area of the structure, but apparently the rest of the space was empty.

“Clear,” I called.

“Clear,” Knight responded.

We met at the jet that sat dormant in the center of the hangar. I quickly dropped my pack and unloaded the C4 and supplies I’d need to rig it to blow. I set to work.

“This doesn’t feel right.” Cal spoke quietly to Knight nearby.

“Yeah, I don’t like it.”

“He has to have another route off the island,” Cal said. “This was too lightly guarded.”

“The plane isn’t even ready to go,” Seven appeared from under the nose of the jet. “If someone was going to use this as a getaway plane, they sure didn’t do any of the prep work.”

“He must have a boat, or a helo, somewhere,” Knight said.

“Why didn’t any of our surveillance pick up an additional escape craft?” Cal mused.

“The pilot that flew me off the island had his cammoed really well,” Seven said. “Maybe Mahoney has one stashed somewhere nearby, and the drones missed it.”

Knight spoke into his comms unit. “Pyro to Command, come in, over.”

“Loud and clear, go for comms, over,” Ghost said.

“Ghost, we cleared the hanger, but it was light work. See if the drones can find us Mahoney’s secondary exfil. Maybe a helo buried in the forest somewhere? Or, a boat, over.”

“Roger that. Stand by.”

I put the last few finishing touches on the elaborate explosive map I’d put on the jet and connected the trigger.