Chapter Fifty-Six Alejandro
Chapter Fifty-Six
Alejandro
“Alpha, come in. This is Delta One. Status update?” Ryder asked as we geared up inside the bird, preparing for infil.
“Alpha Two,” Gray replied, his voice tight over comms. “We’re in position. We had resistance en route here. Hostiles neutralized. We’re moving in now on the final target. We’ve got eyes on a jet on the tarmac. Engines hot.”
“Do not let them leave the ground,” Ryder ordered. “We’re two mikes out, approaching from the north.”
Delta Shield, along with Hollis, were packed into a modified Black Hawk—one Hollis had arranged personally. Apparently, she could pull helos from thin air like one of the owners of Falcon Falls could.
We’d lifted from the hotel landing zone just before local law enforcement swarmed the site.
“We’ve got a plan to prevent them from flying out,” Alpha Two shared. “We’ve got it covered.”
“We’ll get to her,” Hollis reassured us as she strapped a Glock to her side. She’d changed from her dress into pants and a tee on board when our backs were turned.
The rest of us remained in our suits but lost the jackets and swapped our loafers for boots. We now had chest plates and helmets on, same as Hollis.
“Echo pulled Eden. Now it’s our turn to get Audrey,” she continued, talking over the mic attached to the helmet.
Something told me she was reassuring herself of that as much as she was us.
But she was right.
Two miracles had already happened tonight: The charges didn’t detonate, and Eden was safe. We needed one more now. A fourth tomorrow to get to the real vault in time before that evidence fell into the wrong hands.
“We will, you’re right,” I said, locking a mag into my HK416. “But she’s still out there alone, which kills me.”
“This is Audrey we’re talking about.” Hollis gripped my arm. “She’s stage-trained, remember? Performers adapt. Even pianists. She’s got this.” She let go of me and lowered her night vision in place.
Rhett didn’t know we’d figured out the rest of his plan, and Audrey was going to do her best to act surprised when he didn’t take her to the vault in Arrowtown like he wanted us to believe he’d be doing. Thanks to Gwen and Hollis’s brother earlier this evening, we’d learned the truth.
We now knew Mitch had never set foot in New Zealand. It was all deepfake AI. The vault he’d planted the evidence in wasn’t here. Tasmania, one of the three locations Gwen had originally ID’d from the inscription in the ring, was the real target.
“Alpha One to all units,” Carter Dominick’s voice cut in, punctuated by gunfire. “Boots on the ground. Engaged with perimeter tangos.”
“Status on the plane?” Ryder demanded.
Gunfire crackled. Then Gray answered, “Alpha Two. Runway’s compromised. We blew the asphalt. Aircraft is immobile. HVTs and hostage are still on board.”
Ryder gave me a look. Let’s finish this. He keyed his mic. “Delta advancing northwest. Four friendlies dropping down in thirty seconds.”
“Copy that,” Carter returned. “Perimeter’s still hot. Watch your flanks.”
“Delta Shield on-site,” Ryder confirmed, nodding to us as the helo dipped low. “Fast-roping now.”
We were lowered to the ground under cover of rotor wash. Gunfire erupted to our left as we advanced in diamond formation, Hollis protected at center.
“Three tangos, northwest fence line,” Carter warned. “They heard your bird. Coming fast.”
“Copy. Engaging,” Ryder transmitted back, then went to one knee, sighting in.
I covered his six, squeezing two rounds into a hostile who’d broken from cover.
“Threats neutralized,” Ryder announced once we’d taken out the three tangos.
We pushed forward. Every shot we took calculated. Every second a countdown.
We weren’t dealing with amateurs, but with men who’d received similar training as us, which made my stomach turn.
Operators. Former military. Now turncoats.
“Alpha One.” Carter’s voice popped back onto the line. “We’ve secured the perimeter. All enemies outside the plane are now down. You’re green to move on the plane.”
Then came the gut punch.
“Be advised: Rhett’s still inside with the hostage. He’s requesting a face-to-face. Refuses to come out unless he talks to Delta.”
“This is Delta One,” Ryder said, his voice steel. “Roger. Moving now.”
The hangar lights flickered in front of us, painting long shadows across the field.
We knocked our night vision up when closing in on Alpha Team holding the ground, armed and waiting for us. Our backup had saved the day, thank God.
Now to get Audrey out uninjured. Thankfully, this was what we’d been trained to do in Delta Force: hostage-rescue even from a hijacked plane. We would defeat this asshole. I had to believe that. No suicide missions taking Audrey with him.
“Alpha One,” Carter said. “He’s ready to talk to you.” He gave us the frequency to switch over to as we closed in on Alpha Team.
I turned the knob, catching a new voice as I did. “This is Zero Tango. I know you’re there.” Rhett, the asshole I’d clocked in the woods in Colorado.
Ryder keyed his mic. “We’re listening.”
“I know how this plays. You breach, people die. Probably her. So let’s make a deal,” Rhett continued.
“You’re out of deals and out of chances. Nowhere for you to run—not even for a dead man,” Ryder hissed back.
“Maybe not, but I’ve still got the hostage. I also have both rings. I kill her, you lose her and the evidence in the vault falls into the wrong hands. You won’t be able to access it without her, even if you have the rings. You. Need. Me.”
“The fuck we do,” I ground out, unable to stop myself.
“Ah, the boyfriend.” Rhett’s voice remained steady, as if he actually still believed he held all the cards. “Is that you, Rodriguez? Your ex-wife’s a real piece of work. Though you already know that, don’t you?”
I kept quiet that time, not looking to play into his hands.
“Don’t do what he wants!” Audrey yelled in the background, giving me a heart attack. Both her words and her voice.
“I don’t know how you found our location or figured out—”
“Your hacker girlfriend isn’t as good as she thinks she is. If she was, she’d have figured out how to hack that secure call you knew I’d take with Beth. You’d have found out you’d been played.”
“Bullshit.” Was that Rhett’s girlfriend? “She told you what we wanted her to. You fell for it all, or you’d never have come to New Zealand.”
Ryder advanced toward the jet, methodical and calm, rifle angled low but ready.
Alpha Team flanked wide, their muzzles still trained on the plane, but they gradually peeled off to give us the lead.
Once the cockpit came into view, my stomach sank.
Rhett was in the pilot’s seat, his arm locked tight around Audrey, who was crouched next to him, gun pressed to her temple.
His girlfriend was in the seat off to Rhett’s right, armed as well.
Before I had a chance to process, Hollis nudged me. An elbow in the ribs, and I turned.
She held up a phone. A text response to the one her brother had sent out to everyone back at the hotel, and he’d forwarded it to her.
555-934-3438: Friendly inside.
I immediately killed my mic and tipped my head toward Hollis and whispered, “Who is he? Can we trust him?”
She pulled the screen back and flipped to a profile: Army Special Forces. Joined Helix six months ago.
New. Not yet corrupted. And probably realized he’d been sold a lie.
She showed me the next message forwarded.
555-934-3438: I served with Gray back in the day. I can see him outside the plane. What are my orders?
None of us had masked up. No reason to. That may have been our saving grace now.
“Show this to Alpha Two. Confirm,” I told Hollis.
She went over to Gray and quickly returned a moment later. “He’s the real deal. Not another trap,” she let me know.
I leaned toward Ryder, murmuring, “We’ve got a man on the inside.”
His eyes narrowed slightly; then he faced the plane and resumed speaking into his mic. “Best I can do is offer you a cell at a CIA black site instead of death. Maybe even let you bunk with your girlfriend. But this ends now.”
As Ryder bought us time, I shifted out of view of the cockpit and told Hollis, “Tell me you have something on you to kill the power inside that plane.”
Hollis smiled. “Of course.” She reached into her pocket and produced what looked like a hockey puck. “EMP device.”
“Tell our insider the power will go out in thirty seconds; he should make his move then. Get Audrey away from Rhett, and we’ll take the kill shots through the glass.”
She nodded. “Once I hit this button, three seconds later, it’ll fry everything in a twenty-meter radius. We’ll have five minutes before everything starts rebooting.”
“Good.” I let my sling catch my rifle, then waited for her to send the text before setting the timer on my watch. Another damn countdown. “Go.”
I turned my mic back on and switched to our secure channel to include Alpha Team in on the plan since Reed and Ryder were still on the other line with Rhett.
We moved into position, preparing to knock our NODs in place. I discreetly signaled to Ryder and Reed the time to give them the heads-up, then readied my rifle. Time for one of our own distractions. Us, so Alpha could move in for the kill.
“Alpha Two,” Gray said. “POTUS wants the HVT alive for questioning, if possible.”
Fuck. “If it’s him or Audrey . . .”
“Of course,” he responded as Reed and I flanked Ryder.
Through the side cockpit window, I put eyes back on her again. On the woman I’d made love to tonight. The woman who could even be pregnant with my child right now.
I swallowed. Breathed. And readied myself for only one allowable outcome: her surviving this unscathed.
And then in three, two, one . . . it was go time.
A sharp click.
A dull whump of released energy.
Then total blackout.
“Snipers up,” I ordered, and Alpha Team moved on target as the interior of the jet went dark. Lights, controls, and cockpit screens were dead.
Night vision in place, we didn’t hesitate.
Gunfire from inside.
Audrey out of view.
Two targets acquired: Rhett and his girlfriend.
And one voice shouting the only word I wanted to hear from inside the plane after Alpha Team took their shots: “Clear!”