39. Daisy #2
I run and drop to my knees by Eva, taking her hand in mine as I watch the life force slowly drain from her body. Brit is crying hysterically next to me as Owen rushes over and removes her from the situation.
“Get Brit out of here, now!” I yell.
Owen looks at me with a pleading gaze but sees the determination in my face. I’m not going to let Eva die alone. He slings Brit over his shoulder and heads for the second hatch. “You better be right behind me, Daisy.”
“I’ll do my best,” I tell him.
Eva coughs and sputters. “Tell Kenneth I kept my promise. Tell him…that I…found his daughter.”
I tuck a loose curl behind her ear. “I will. You have my word.”
The room begins to glow as Uri stands behind me in all his angelic glory. Eva’s eyes turn glassy as a smile forms on her face. “Am I finally going home?”
“Yes, and the Father is waiting for you with open arms,” he tells her.
When her hand goes limp in mine, I begin crying ugly tears.
Angel urges me to go. “Daisy, we’re out of time! We have to go!”
He drags me toward a hatch as I wail out a mournful bellow. “We can’t just leave her!”
Uri looks at me and says, “Eva is already home, Daisy, and her sacrifice was not in vain. But if you don’t leave now, yours will be. Take the first hatch. It will get you where you need to go.”
Angel doesn’t waste time, pulling me into the tunnel—which is actually a long, metal shaft—and securing the hatch. Like the stairwell, it lights up based on detected motion, and the steps are spaced in a way that makes climbing them easy. They aren’t steep, but they seem to go on forever.
Only seconds pass after Angel secures the door when a series of bombs detonate with enough force to make the ground shake beneath our feet. The metal tube shudders around us, every blast reverberating through the walls as we run as fast as we can up the incline.
“We aren’t going to make it!”
“We’ll make it! Uri wouldn’t have sent us this way if we couldn’t!” Angel exclaims as another explosion sends a violent tremor through the tunnel.
I immediately begin praying, but not on my knees this time because I’m too busy huffing and puffing as we race upward while the metal groans and rattles around us.
“Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! Keep everyone else safe and far enough away from danger! And if you get us out of this situation, I promise to….”
A sharp metallic crack echoes from below as the hatch at the bottom of the tunnel breaks free. I look over my shoulder and nearly stumble when I see water surge through the opening as it swallows the lower steps. It’s rising at a faster rate than our human bodies can manage.
“I promise I’ll make time to learn how to swim!”
The roar behind us grows louder as the water rushes up the tube, slamming against the metal walls hard enough to make them vibrate beneath my hand.
It’s close enough now that I can feel the cold spray hitting the backs of my legs when Angel reaches for my hand and gives me the added boost of strength I need.
“We’re almost there! Don’t give up yet!”
The ground finally stops rumbling, and a few seconds later, the deafening rush behind us begins to ease. I dare to look back and praise God when I see that the water level has stabilized several steps below us. When I see the water begin to drain, I shove a fist into the air. “Thank you, Jesus!”
Angel slows down and bends over to catch his breath. “As thrilled as I am for the answered prayer, I won’t feel safe until our feet are on solid ground. We have to keep moving.”
I trudge up the last hundred or so steps, my energy nearly depleted. Angel must be in the same boat because he has trouble opening the hatch at the top on his own. We work together, and eventually we’re breathing blessedly fresh air.
We climb out and take a moment to stare nearly half a mile to our west where the facility had been. It’s now a pile of rubble at the bottom of the loch.
“Eva died saving Brit, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I can’t even bring her home to her family.”
“No, but you can still give them closure. This isn’t something that we’re going to allow to be swept under the rug, Daisy.
It will make headline news. Grace will see to that because it’s her job as a journalist to share the truth.
Once it does, you can sit down with Eva’s parents and let them know that their daughter made the ultimate sacrifice and tell them with certainty that she’s in Heaven. ”
“That does give me some measure of comfort,” I say, wrapping my arms around his waist and resting my head on his chest as we stare across the water.
“Bennett got away, and now he’s free to continue his work for Dominion.
He doesn’t need the cover of the CIA to do it.
Today, we only exposed a sliver of the vileness that they’re capable of.
I’m afraid we woke a dragon rather than slayed it. ”
We hear shouts and yells as the Southern Knights and the Conways run toward us to celebrate the victory.
I’m in no mood to celebrate when we lost so much to gain merely an inch.
I close my eyes to just relish the strong arms around me, wondering if I’ll ever be truly safe again with Bennett on the loose.
When I open my eyes, I see movement on the hill across the water. I let go of Angel and take the NSR556 he has slung across his back.
“What are you doing?” he asks. “We were having a moment!”
I raise the weapon and peer through the scope. “Yeah, the moment is going to have to wait a little longer. I think I see Bennett on the other side of the loch.”
Angel grabs the rifle and checks for himself. “How far is that?”
“Half a mile, just under 1,000 meters.”
“I can make that shot,” he says.
I take the rifle, flip down the bipod, and drop to a prone position on the ground. Peering through the scope, I activate the laser sight to acquire the target. “This shot is mine to take.”
Normally I’d use the smoke from the explosions to check for windage, but with a smart simunition round, I just need to paint the target and let the computer chip do all the calculations.
It will lock onto Bennett and adjust course like a heat-seeking missile.
The only difference is that this is smaller, non-lethal, and costs $10,000 a bullet.
It’s the price we pay to keep our morality intact; or will pay when the donated supply runs out.
I keep my breathing steady, pulling the trigger when there is no air left in my lungs. The butt of the rifle barely kicks into my shoulder, and the volume of the sim round leaving the end of the barrel is virtually silent.
My eyes stay glued to the scope as I watch Bennett collapse to the ground two seconds later, but there’s no joy in it. There’s no victory.
Angel helps me to my feet. “You got him, Daisy.”
“Yeah, I did.”
He lifts my chin and searches my eyes, which I’m sure look hollow to him. “Then why aren’t you happy?”
“Because Bennett has the chance for redemption, and I don’t think he’s going to take it. That saddens me.”
Angel pulls me into another embrace, resting his forehead against mine. “The consequences of that choice will be his to bear; not yours. You did the right thing, Daisy, and you can live with yourself. You’ve already lost enough sleep over Bennett. Don’t lose any more.”
“Speaking of sleep, I could really use some.”
Taking my hand in his, Angel leads me to the group of people I’ve come to call “family.” My brother is standing with legs spread apart and arms folded across his chest because he’s annoyed that he hasn’t gotten to hug me yet.
However, Roger, Vinny, the Southern Knights, and the entire Conway clan are far more patient.
“Thank you all for risking your lives for what turned out to be a far bigger mission than we could have imagined. I love each and every one of you for putting it all on the line for me.” I hug each of my teammates.
Then I turn to the Conways. “You didn’t have to come, but you did. I’m sure Faith and Angel had a lot to do with it….”
Barbara doesn’t wait for me to hug her first. She embraces me as a mother would a child. “We came for you, Daisy. You might not be a Conway yet, but you certainly have the heart of one. And if my boy ever gives you grief, then you call me. I’ll set him straight.”
They each take their turn doling out hugs to both me and Angel, several of them giving us pat-downs to verify that we are free from injury.
I come to my brother last, partly to needle him, but partly because I needed a moment to compose myself.
“Owen, you are my best friend and the best brother a person could ever hope for. You slept on my bedroom floor so I wouldn’t have nightmares, and when you had to leave for the Army, you taught me how to protect myself.
I know that you joined the FBI so that you could one day help me put my past behind me.
For that, I will be forever grateful, and a ‘thank you’ will never be enough. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Daisy.” He holds me for a moment while I shed some tears. “Are you happy and at peace?” he asks quietly.
I glance over at Angel, who smiles at me. “Yeah, I am. For the first time in 20 years, it doesn’t feel like a lie when I say it.”
“Then that’s all the thanks I need.”