Chapter Sixteen
The ATF group took Sarah and Tim’s large black SUV out to Chatsworth.
They arrived at the Amtrak station about thirty-five minutes later and piled out, walking over to a massive tent that had been set up in the parking lot.
Thayne was surprised to see so many people there.
Besides the six of them, there must have been another ten FBI agents judging by the vests they wore.
Thayne shivered when he saw a S.W.A.T.
truck pull up, remembering his broken nose and concussion at the hands of an overzealous S.W.A.T.
officer.
Not knowing who he was, he’d bounced Thayne’s face off the concrete floor when he’d busted into the warehouse where he’d been undercover with Mills Lang and his crew.
Thayne’s nose was still slightly crooked.
He hadn’t really blamed the guy, but he’d had a hell of a headache for a week or so.
Thayne was slightly surprised by the expression on Jarrett’s face when he came around the SUV and took him by the elbow, pulling him away from the others.
“It’s gonna get crazy in there, Thayne.
I just… please stay close to me,”
he said with great hesitation in his voice.
Thayne frowned, a little offended that his partner didn’t seem to have faith in him being able to do his job.
He lowered his voice and leaned close to Jarrett.
“I know how to do my job, Jarrett.
I promise I’ll cover you.”
“That’s not what I mean…”
His silver eyes pleaded and Thayne watched him swallow hard.
“I just want you to be careful, Thayne.”
Jarrett was practically growling.
When Thayne met his gaze he knew he’d misinterpreted what Jarrett meant and his gaze softened.
“I want you to be careful too, Jarrett.”
He reached out and squeezed Jarrett’s forearm, feeling the taut muscle beneath the skin.
“Things can just get ugly really fast.
I’m not questioning your abilities, Thayne.
I’d trust you to have my back in a firefight any day—in fact, I have.”
Thayne felt whatever anger he’d been feeling completely bleed away as all the air was suddenly sucked out of his lungs.
“I do—I will—always have your back, Marine.”
He patted Jarrett’s chest over the Kevlar vest he wore.
Jarrett’s features softened instantly and a tiny smirk appeared to lift the corners of his mouth in a smile.
“We say six… you’ll always have my six.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“And I’ll have yours, Thayne. Always.”
Jarrett smiled at him and then glanced quickly around the area.
Thayne just knew Jarrett was about to hug him and was only a little surprised when his partner reached up and squeezed his shoulder before patting him on the back.
Sarah, Tim, Craig, and Jose were checking their weapons when Jarrett and Thayne rejoined them where they stood at the back of a truck loaded with an assortment of arms.
An officer was handing out weapons and Thayne grabbed an M4 carbine when the officer held it out to him.
Thayne was always reassured when he felt how solid one of the powerful assault rifles felt in his hands.
He accepted a second magazine and stuffed it down into the pocket of his tac pants.
Next came the helmet and Thayne slipped it on watching as Jarrett’s short white hair disappeared under one of his own.
The helmet had a face mask but Thayne left it up for the time being.
Armed this way it was easy to feel invincible, but he knew that kind of thinking could be dangerous, so he concentrated on making certain he was buttoned up and ready for whatever and whomever they had to face once they entered the building.
Thayne was only slightly surprised when Special Agent Lincoln Snow walked up to them and turned to speak to Jarrett.
“Evans?”
“Yes, Special Agent,”
Jarrett replied.
Snow turned and nodded at the FBI agent standing inside the truck.
The agent gave him a sniper rifle and Snow turned and handed it to Jarrett.
“You won’t need that helmet.
You won’t be going in with us.”
Jarrett frowned.
“Okay, Snow.
What then?”
“You’ll have the sniper position in case any of them get outside.
We want these folks stopped.
You know what I mean and you know what to do.”
Thayne watched as Jarrett took the M24 and grinned.
Damn.
It looks good in his hands.
“Roger that,”
Jarrett said, hefting the sniper rifle and checking to see that it was fully loaded.
He held it with such ease it sent a shiver down Thayne’s spine.
Jarrett turned and glanced at him.
He was grinning like an idiot.
“You take care, Partner.”
The words washed over Thayne and warmed him from the inside out.
If Jarrett had told him he loved him at that moment, it wouldn’t have had any different impact than that simple statement.
In that instant he knew how Jarrett felt about him and he realized how desperately he wanted to say it back because it was true.
He was in love with the brilliant, wisecracking, reckless bastard and he’d never been happier in his whole life.
Being separated from him was getting harder and harder and even this simple separation had Thayne’s stomach swarming with butterflies.
“You too, Jarrett.”
Jarrett followed Thayne into the SUV along with the rest of the team and they drove behind the FBI out to the storage facility.
Located near the Amtrak rail lines that ran north and south through the San Fernando Valley, the storage facility wasn’t terribly large but it consisted of several buildings.
Once they got to the parking lot, they unloaded and began jogging toward Mary Mason’s unit.
Thayne and Jarrett were trained the same way the bomb units of most major metropolitan areas were.
They both had a vast knowledge of various kinds of explosives and bomb making and had spent the months of their training learning all about different kinds of ordinance and devices they might come up against in the field.
The danger in any situation, like the one they were about to walk into, was that they could become complacent, thinking that they had the upper hand just because they had the knowledge.
The fact was, they had no idea what Reverend James Elroy or Mary Mason were capable of or what they’d do to escape justice and continue to preach their hate and blow up innocent citizens.
Snow divided the groups up.
Thayne, Sarah, and Jose were tasked with joining the LAPD when they breached the front door of the storage facility which was nothing more than a large square cement box with a twenty-foot-high roof.
There was also a back door to the unit which was where Chief White sent Tim Darcy and Craig Baldwin.
Thayne didn’t like the idea that he and Jarrett were being separated but there was nothing he could do about it.
He knew his teammates were well-trained and he trusted them.
The FBI was divided up in a similar fashion and S.W.A.T.
was given the breach and point position.
The idea was to try to catch them by surprise so that they had no time to set off a bomb.
They had no idea what all they’d find in the unit and though Mary Mason didn’t impress any of them as suicidal, when cornered, she could decide to take herself, her father, and the whole lot of them out with one press of the button.
Thayne watched Jarrett jog away to take up a sniper position two buildings over from their location, about fifty yards away.
He had a perfect clear shot from the top of the two-story building and he was just far enough away that he wouldn’t be blown up if Mason or Elroy decided to take them out.
That gave Thayne some comfort, but the fact that there was no cover on the top of the building that Evans was scaling, made Thayne nervous.
Still, watching him with the rifle slung over his shoulder, dressed like S.W.A.T.
in all black, was like watching a big cat climbing a tree where he could deal out death from his position and not think twice about it.
Thayne forced himself to drag his eyes away from his partner and focus on his own task.
When he looked back, he caught Sarah watching him with a knowing smirk on her face.
“He’s going to be all right, Wolfe,”
she said simply.
Thayne felt his face flush with heat and color.
He hadn’t planned on outing himself and Jarrett so thoroughly and there were few things he could hide from Sarah.
She’d known him nearly nine years and seen him through thick and thin as his best friend.
She knew he didn’t date and though they’d never talked about his sexual orientation, he knew it was possible she had it all figured out.
She wasn’t a stupid woman and he realized staring at his partner was probably a bad idea under the best of circumstances.
When they were facing a firefight and the possibility of being blown sky high, well, it just heightened everyone’s awareness even more.
He shrugged.
“I know.
Now, turn around and mind your own business,”
he said with a chuckle.
He was only slightly embarrassed.
They turned their attention to the task at hand and watched as the lead S.W.A.T.
guy counted down on one hand.
A second later, he raised the massive battering ram and slammed it into the door.
It sounded like everyone started yelling at once as the LAPD ran into the building.
A second later the massive garage door began to roll up and Thayne realized S.W.A.T.
must have hit the switch the moment they got inside.
Thayne was surprised to see Mary Mason standing calmly beside Beth Quinn and five men.
Anthony Revilla was not among them.
Mary had one hand up and the other on the switch of a detonator.
It took Thayne only a second to realize that the five men and Beth all wore bomb vests.
Behind them, a truck had been pulled into the unit and the back door was open.
Inside it, Thayne counted at least ten fifty-gallon drums wired with explosives.
The C4 and wires stuck to the top of devices attached to the drums were easy to see. Son of a bitch. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks as Mary spoke.
“You cops… get out.
Don’t come any closer,”
Mary Mason calmly said.
“There is enough C4 in this building to take out a city block and I won’t hesitate to take you all out with me.”
“Evans.
Hold your fire,”
a voice crackled in Thayne’s earwig and he realized Snow was speaking to Jarrett in the com units they all wore.
“She’s got a detonator in her hand and a truck packed with fifty gallon drums that are wired to blow.
Besides her, there are six more here wearing vests.”
“Roger,”
came Jarrett’s calm voice in Thayne’s ear.
“I see them.
I’ll wait for your go.”
The words made Thayne shiver.
He had no idea how they were going to take Mason out without getting everyone there killed.
They’d been prepared for one or maybe two killers but for some reason, he didn’t think anyone had anticipated bomb vests on six crazed fanatics and a truck packed with enough explosives to take out a city block and the tract of homes behind the storage facility.
Thayne knew Jarrett was one of the best snipers in the world, but even Jarrett couldn’t take out six bomb-wearing suspects and one crazy lunatic before she set them all off with the detonator in her hand.
“I want S.W.A.T.
to back out of that building now,”
Snow said.
Thayne watched as the men who’d breached the storage unit backed out and set up at least thirty feet from the rolled-up door.
“Now, I’m going to tell you exactly how this is going to work,”
Mason said calmly.
“You’re going to call us a chopper and you’re gonna do it now.
If you don’t, you’re gonna see fire and brimstone rain down on this city block like the wrath of the Lord.
Is that clear?”
“Just remain calm, Mason,”
Special Agent Snow said.
“No one wants that.”
“Good, because we’re not finished yet.
The fun stuff starts tonight and this country is going to see God’s face tonight,”
she said.
Thayne was horrified to realize she was actually smiling.
She’s fucking nuts.
“Now, call for that helicopter.”
“Fine.”
Snow grabbed the radio and called for a helicopter.
Thayne knew he wasn’t bluffing as he radioed for the copter.
When he’d finished, he turned back to Mary Mason.
“It’ll be a few minutes so while we’re here, why don’t you tell us why you killed your husband.”
“Greg stopped being my husband the moment he threw in with my father.
He knew how my father treated me.
At first he was sympathetic but then he began to buy into all of his misogyny.
It was only a matter of time before I couldn’t tolerate him anymore.
I should have done him a long time ago.”
“So you weren’t one big happy family,”
Special Agent Snow said.
“What made you decide to make your move now?”
“I couldn’t handle him anymore.
We finally got a hold of the bootleg fireworks to carry out our final solution and he balked about it,”
she spit.
“Greg told me he didn’t want anything to do with illegal fireworks even though we needed the black powder.
We had a good thing going.
Suki Chang cleared the path from her friends in China but that wasn’t good enough for Greg.
He said it was a matter of pride and that he wouldn’t use the fireworks the Brigade brought up through Mexico.
Do you have any idea how difficult getting them across the border was? Do you have any idea how much we had to pay the Chinese for them? Greg didn’t have a heart for the cause anymore and that was the final straw.”
“I see,”
Snow said.
Why don’t you tell us what you’re planning on doing? And where’s Reverend James Elroy now?”
Mary’s laughter was chilling as she let go with peals of it.
“You’ve got to be kidding.
You think he’s running this show? He gave up that right years ago.”
“Where is he, Mary?”
Mary laughed harder and Thayne watched her thumb shake over the button on the detonator she held.
It made him nervous as hell.
“That old bastard drove my mother to drink with his whoring.
She died when her liver gave out which left me in the hands of an abuser and a pedophile.
He began using me at age ten! What kind of father does that? Reverend James was never a father.
He was an abuser and a monster.
I followed him because it’s all I knew.
I tried to be the good daughter to him but I could never please him.
But it doesn’t matter anymore.
He hasn’t been in the picture for a very long time.”
“He’s still in charge of the Freedom Brigade though,”
Snow said.
Thayne knew he was trying to get as much information about Elroy’s location as he could before the chopper arrived.
“Daddy’s pushing up daisies, FBI man.”
She punctuated FBI as though the letters burned her tongue.
“You’ll find him in my garden.”
“Son of a fuckin’ bitch,”
Jarrett said through the earwig.
“Just when you think there’s a bottom to the craziness, there’s a crazy underground garage.”
Thayne would have laughed if it weren’t so true.
She was nuts and if what she said was true about her father, he didn’t blame her for going off the deep end.
He heard other agents chuckling at Jarrett in his earwig and in the distance, he heard the sound of an approaching helicopter.
“Let them board the helicopter,”
Snow said.
“Repeat.
Let them board.
No one is to shoot.
We cannot risk the pilot’s life if they decide to set off one of those vests.”
Thayne heard the murmured response from the gathered agents and S.W.A.T.
personnel.
Letting Mason and her crew get away was a terrible risk but what else could they do? Thayne watched as Mary looked up to see the helicopter as it appeared, hovering over them.
Snow motioned for the pilot to land and Thayne pulled the face mask of his helmet down to keep the dust from pelting him as the large chopper set down about thirty feet from the entrance to the storage unit.
Mary and her crew began walking toward the chopper and Thayne was stunned when one of the men went around to the pilot’s door and yanked it open.
Before anyone could blink, the man raised a gun that he held and shot the pilot in the chest.
The man tumbled out of the helicopter, landing with a thud on the ground as Thayne’s com unit erupted with swearing and curses from the other agents.
“Hold your fire,”
Snow hissed in the com unit.
The man climbed into the pilot’s seat and once all Mary’s men and Beth were inside the helicopter, it began to rise off the ground.
“Take out that chopper, Evans.
Make them pay for killing that agent,”
Snow bellowed in the earpiece.
“Everyone else, fall back!”
“Roger that,”
Thayne heard Jarrett say.
Thayne grabbed Sarah’s arm and turned as he began to run to get as far away from the helicopter as possible.
The rest of the gathered group did exactly the same.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw an FBI agent run over to the pilot and drag him away as the helicopter climbed over their heads.
When it was a hundred feet off the ground, Jarrett took his shot.
The sound of Jarrett’s rifle shot was followed by a massive explosion as the helicopter came apart in midair.
His bullet had found the gas tank.
The massive fireball that resulted was a glorious thing to see.
Thayne hit the ground beside Sarah and they both watched the pieces of metal hitting the ground.
Mary’s bomb vests must have gone off, vaporizing her and her crew because intact bodies were nowhere to be seen as the wreckage fell from the sky to the pavement in front of the storage building.
“Woo-hoo!”
Jarrett shouted in the earwig and Thayne heard Snow congratulate him.
“Wicked shot, Evans.
Well done, Agent.”
Thayne’s heart swelled with pride for Jarrett.
His lover had just taken out seven terrorists with one bullet.
Of course the pilot had been shot and that was tragic.
Thayne looked over to the man who was being pulled away from the falling debris by two FBI agents.
He wasn’t moving but he was wearing a vest.
He prayed the man had survived.
If so, the mission would have been labeled a perfect success.
He glanced over to the building where Jarrett had been perched and saw him climbing down the side.
When he jumped to the pavement and began sauntering toward them, Thayne had an overwhelming urge to run to him and grab him.
Adrenaline was roaring through his veins and he had to work to stop from making a fool of himself in front of everyone he had to work with.
Just seeing Jarrett and the way he prowled toward him like a gorgeous big cat had Thayne tied up in knots.
He reached up and took out his com unit.
“He’s one fine-looking man,”
Sarah said.
She reached for her earwig and removed it from her ear, shoving it down into her tac pants.
He’d gotten to his feet and taken his helmet off and he smiled as he reached down and held out a hand for Sarah.
She took it and allowed him to help her to her feet.
“Yeah, I guess he is.”
“How long has it been going on?”
she asked sweetly.
Thayne smirked at her and reached around her shoulder drawing her close to him.
“You are a nosy little thing, aren’t you?”
“Well, I have to live vicariously through you.
I don’t have anyone in my life, Wolfe.”
She was grinning.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said.
“So, how long?”
Thayne sighed.
“It started when we were on the run before the trial.
Then, we took a break when he went to Georgia for his training.
When he came back… well, things just kind of happened on their own.
Before we knew it, we were spending most of our downtime together.”
“Well, I can tell you’re happy, Thayne.
I guess if I can’t have you, it’s a good thing someone does and for what it’s worth, I approve of your choice.”
Thayne smiled and squeezed her shoulder again before dropping his hand.
“Thanks, honey.”
He glanced around at Jose, Craig, and Tim before lowering his voice to a whisper.
“Just keep it to yourself, okay? I don’t want Stanger to split us up.
Jarrett is a good partner.”
She reached out and slapped his bicep.
“Seriously? You seriously think I’d say anything? I love you, Thayne.
You’re like a brother to me.
I want you to be happy.”
“Of course he’s happy,”
Jarrett said as he walked up.
“He’s got a great partner.”
Thayne and Sarah both started laughing as Jarrett’s grin fell.
“What did I say?”
Thayne bumped his shoulder with his.
“Nevermind.
Great shot, Jarrett.
I am impressed.”
“Thanks.
Now tell me why you’re happy.”
“It’s a long story.
I’ll tell you later.”
Thayne nodded at Special Agent Snow who was waving them over.
An ambulance had arrived and paramedics were loading the downed FBI pilot into it.
“It looks like Snow needs us. Come on.”
Thayne, Jarrett, and the others walked over to where Snow stood surrounded by all the agents from Homeland and the FBI.
“Thanks to Special Agent Evans and his sniper skills, that ended well.
Special Agent John Simms who was piloting the helicopter was shot in the chest.
He has a collapsed lung but he is alive thanks to his Kevlar vest,”
Snow said.
There was a smattering of applause as gloved hands came together.
“Our work is not over though.
We still have Anthony Revilla on the loose and there is another suspect as well.
Thanks to the suspicious minds of Jarrett Evans and Thayne Wolfe we now know that ATF investigator Suki Chang was involved with the Freedom Brigade.”
He held up what appeared to be a high school yearbook.
“We just found this inside the unit.
We now believe that Mary Mason had one final terrorist act planned today at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills.
Load up your vehicles and follow us over there.”
He looked at his watch.
“It won’t be dark for hours but we need to stop these bastards before the place is crowded with spectators.
LAPD is already headed there.
It is our top priority.”
“Let’s go, Evans,”
Thayne said.
“You can sit with Sarah and me.”
“Kids,”
Jarrett said.
“This bitch wanted to kill kids.
I fuckin’ hate this case.”
Thayne nodded.
They had to stop whatever Revilla and Chang had planned at the high school.
They walked toward the black SUV with the rest of the gang following along.
Whatever the outcome of the day would be, at least he’d have his partner by his side.
****
Less than twenty minutes later, Jarrett and Thayne’s ride pulled into the large parking lot at El Camino High School.
The place was already packed with police vehicles and cops were evacuating spectators from the grass surrounding the Olympic-sized track where a massive bonfire had been set up.
It remained unlit.
As soon as they got out of the SUV, Snow walked over to them.
“You still have your sniper rifle.
Good.
I need you up on top of the announcer’s box, Evans.”
He pointed to a large box situated just above the top row of built-in cement bleachers.
“As soon as you see either Chang or Revilla, you are to take them out.
If you have the shot, take it.
We’re not giving them the benefit of the doubt.
That directive comes from the FBI director himself. Clear?”
Jarrett nodded.
“As a bell, Snow.”
“Good.”
Snow turned back and they all watched as the LAPD evacuated the last of the spectators from the bleachers.
Except for a few people on the field milling around the unlit bonfire, the school’s outdoor track area was virtually empty.
The LAPD had done an amazingly efficient job.
Jarrett turned and exchanged a glance with Thayne.
Thayne looked worried but he was as composed as he probably could be.
“Be careful, Wolfe.”
“You too, Partner.”
Jarrett jogged away and he felt Thayne’s eyes on him until he disappeared behind the concession stand.
He took the steps running up until he reached the top of the cement bleachers.
The sun was high in the sky and even though it was only late afternoon, it was still hotter than hell.
Under the Kevlar vest he wore, his ribs ached like a bitch and he was sweating like hell.
Chang and Revilla deserved whatever they had coming for putting all these people in danger and Jarrett really hoped he’d be able to locate them through his scope once he took up his perch.
He jogged to the stairs leading toward the announcer’s box and took them up, climbing to the top where he’d have a birdseye view of everything and everyone on the field.
There was a small ladder on the side of the announcer’s box and Jarrett walked up to it with the M24 slung over his shoulder.
He reached out to grasp the ladder and lifted his boot, looking down to find the bottom rung almost automatically.
The second that it took him to register the meaning of a tiny curled yellow paper at his feet was just one second too long.
Anthony Revilla stepped out from behind the box, lifted his rifle and slammed the butt of it into Jarrett’s stomach.
His cracked ribs screamed and the blow knocked the breath out of him in an instant.
He gasped, cried out, and doubled over as pain exploded over his body.
No matter how hard Jarrett tried, he couldn’t keep his footing and he crashed to his knees, brought down by one well-placed blow.
When Revilla’s second blow to the back of his head landed, the ground rushed up to meet him and he fell face forward, losing consciousness that instant.
****
Thayne watched Jarrett’s progress as he climbed up the concrete bleacher stairs to the top.
He watched him jog across to the center where the announcer’s box was and then disappear out of sight, probably going around to the side to climb a ladder and get on top of it.
Thayne waited, watching the top of the announcer’s box for Jarrett to appear.
A full minute passed and his attention was captured by Sarah as she walked up, speaking to him excitedly.
“They’ve found Chang.”
“Where?”
Thayne asked.
“She’s over by the bonfire.”
Sarah pointed and Thayne located her.
She was standing next to the unlit bonfire, wearing what appeared to be a bomb vest and she was screaming at the top of her lungs, shouting about God’s wrath and how it was going to reign down on all unbelievers.
“You’ll burn in a lake of fire!”
she screamed.
“Back away from her.
Give her a wide berth,”
Snow said in the earwigs they wore.
“If you have her, take your shot, Evans.
It’s a go! Take your shot!”
Thayne sucked in a breath, waiting for the retort of Jarrett’s rifle and when none came, he looked up to the announcer’s box.
Jarrett wasn’t in his place; he should have been up on top by now.
It was impossible for him not to be there.
Thayne had taken his eyes off him for only a minute.
“Evans.
Come in. Evans!”
Snow said.
“Something’s wrong.
He’s not responding.”
Thayne’s heart pounded.
Where are you, Jarrett? He took off in a run across the parking lot toward the bleachers.
He knew Jarrett was in trouble.
He could feel it in every fiber of his being.
For Jarrett not to respond, if for nothing else than to say he wasn’t in place, it meant that something very bad was going on.
Terror lanced though him as he reached the base of the bleachers.
He began to sprint upward, taking the stairs two at a time as he climbed, shouting into his com unit the whole time.
“Jarrett! Come in! You’re making us all worried, Marine.
Answer me!”
he screamed as he climbed.
“If anyone has a shot, take that crazy bitch out!”
Thayne distantly heard Snow in his earpiece.
“The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it!”
Suki Chang screamed.
Thayne ran and just before he reached the top, the click of a microphone and an amplified clearing of a throat rumbled out of the announcer’s box.
“The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it!”
a male voice echoed what Chang said.
“I will meet the Lord today!”
Thayne stopped, recognizing Anthony Revilla’s voice coming out of the loudspeaker.
That meant he was in the announcer’s box and if he was there, that meant Jarrett was down.
He knew his partner would never allow that crazy asshole to speak if he were conscious.
Stark terror washed over Thayne and he began to run again, heading for the box as fast as he could.
When he was about thirty feet away, a massive explosion knocked him off his feet.
He put his hands over his head for a split second and then looked down to the field.
Where Suki Chang and the unlit bonfire had been only seconds before, only a massive crater in the ground remained.
It appeared that she had blown herself to smithereens, taking a chunk of the Olympic-sized field along with her.
The bonfire must have been packed with enough explosives that had anyone been close, they would have been vaporized.
From what Thayne could tell, there was nothing left of Chang except a whole lot of smoke and a gruesome stain on the ground.
Car alarms blasted in the background but all Thayne could think of was getting to Jarrett before the same thing happened to him.
Thayne got back to his feet and raced toward the box, coming to a screeching halt as he saw Jarrett’s crumpled form on the ground outside the box.
Inside, behind one of the windows, Anthony Revilla stood with his hand on the microphone button staring down at the scene below.
He wasn’t even looking in Thayne’s direction.
Thayne dropped to the ground and crawled the last twenty feet to Jarrett on his hands and knees.
Jarrett lay facedown and Thayne reached out and rolled him, feeling for a pulse in his neck.
His face was bleeding and he was breathing.
Thayne spared only a second to thank God before reaching under Jarrett’s arms and hoisting him up to a seated position where he could bend and get his shoulders under Jarrett’s limp body.
With tremendous effort, his ribcage screaming at him, he positioned Jarrett over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry and used his knees to push himself up into a standing position.
It took every ounce of strength he had to carry Jarrett away from the madman who was screaming about fire and brimstone through the speaker, completely oblivious to Thayne’s presence.
He staggered under Jarrett’s weight but managed to get him about fifty feet away before Revilla’s final announcement.
“I’ll see your face in Heaven, oh Lord!”
A second later, there was another massive explosion and Thayne toppled to the ground, rolling so that he took the force of the impact with his own body.
Pain wrenched a scream out of him as the announcer’s box splintered behind them, sending shards of wood hurtling at him.
He used the last of his strength to reach for Jarrett and covered him with his own body, taking the worst of the shrapnel in his back.
He thanked his lucky stars they both made it through a second before collapsing over Jarrett and losing consciousness.