Chapter 19 #2
“Stay down,” he told her before handing her the detonator. “Whatever happens, you matter. Use this if you need to.”
She glanced at the remote. “Levi, no—”
He moved from cover, knife in hand, ready to die doing what he did best. Controlled violence in service of something he believed in and someone who mattered.
The guards raised their weapons.
And then the world exploded.
Not his charges. Not his work. This was something else. Massive detonations from back in the compound, sound waves rolling through the tunnels like thunder. The guards stumbled, confused, and looked back the way they'd come.
Then the shooting started. Different weapons. Different rhythm. Professional. Precise.
“Phantom,” Levi breathed.
The guards in the junction turned, caught between two forces. Some ran back toward the compound. Others tried to hold their position. All of them died. Z was covered in blood as the last guard dropped.
Phantom and the Guardian team with him swept through the center tunnel like a force of nature. The movement was coordinated, lethal, and unstoppable. Within thirty seconds, every guard in the junction was down. Within sixty seconds, the tunnels were secure.
Phantom appeared at the junction entrance. Tall, broad-shouldered, and moving with the confidence of someone who'd fought a thousand battles and won them all. He saw Levi, saw the knife in his hand, saw the bodies scattered around.
“Cutting it a bit close, weren't we?” Phantom said.
“Had it under control,” Levi replied, feeling the adrenaline crash hit him. His legs went weak. He caught himself against the wall.
“Sure, you did.” Looking past him, Phantom saw Willow propped against the boulder. “Cap! Civilian casualty, gunshot wound, critical!”
A man appeared immediately. “I got her.” He moved to Willow with focused intensity.
“Cap, we have a GSW to left shoulder, through and through,” the medic reported, already pulling supplies. “Blood loss significant but not immediately fatal. She needs IV fluids, antibiotics, and surgical debridement.”
“Can you stabilize her here?” Levi asked, moving to Willow's side. Her eyes were closed now, breath shallow.
“I can keep her alive until we reach the medical facility,” the man said and was already starting an IV, working with the kind of speed that came from doing this under fire too many times. “But we need to move. Now.”
Phantom touched his comm. “Cap, we need to get her out.”
“I’m on it, Phantom. Ranger, Ace, secure exfil route. Rip, if you see anything move, blow it to the moon. I want a complete blanket on this compound.”
A woman’s voice came over the comms. “Sparky, we’ve got some intel in the office. I’m en route.”
“Copy, and be careful, Mouse.”
“Careful is my middle name.”
“No, Echo, it isn’t.” The man laughed.
Phantom looked at him. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let's move. We've got maybe twenty minutes before the Venezuelan military responds to the explosions and what we did earlier. Need to be in the air before then.”
As Levi gathered Willow carefully in his arms, she stirred, eyes fluttering open.
“Levi?”
“I've got you. Going home now.”
“Seattle?”
“Seattle.” He kissed her forehead. “I promise.”
They moved through the tunnels as a unit. Phantom on point, Levi carrying Willow, the man he later learned was Bandit monitoring her vitals, and the rest of the team providing security. Professional. Coordinated. Guardian at its finest.
The compound was a ruin when they emerged.
Levi's charges plus Phantom's assault had turned it into a burning wreck. Bodies were scattered everywhere. Vehicles smoldered where they’d exploded, and most of them were still burning.
Morales's fortified compound was reduced to ash and rubble in one night.
He sneered to himself. Justice served. Sentence executed. Mission complete.
A helicopter sat in a clearing two hundred meters from the compound. A modified Black Hawk, rotors already spinning. They covered the distance at a run, loaded up, and were airborne within ninety seconds.
As they climbed above the burning compound, Levi held Willow while Bandit worked. IV fluids. Antibiotics. Pain medication. Professional trauma care that slowly, gradually, brought color back to her face.
“She's stable,” Bandit said finally. “Still critical but stable. She'll need surgery at the facility, but she's going to make it.”
Levi felt something in his chest loosen. A tension he'd been carrying since the moment he'd seen her pulled from that plane. She was going to live. They'd both survived. Against impossible odds, they'd made it.
“Thank you,” he said to Bandit. To Phantom. To the whole team. “All of you. Thank you.”
“This is what we do,” Cap said simply. “We bring our people home. This guy,” he nodded at Phantom, “saved our asses. We wouldn’t be here without him. We knew you were in need of help and figured the more the better.” He studied Levi for a moment. “Are you okay?”
“I’m done.” Levi looked at Willow, sleeping now, finally peaceful. “After this. After she's safe. I'm out.”
“Things have a way of changing,” the woman beside Cap said. “We know how it goes.”
Cap reached out and held her hand. “Sometimes you need to step away. Other times, you need to step into the fire.”
Levi glanced at Phantom and held Willow closer. “I found something more important than the mission. More important than Guardian. More important than any of it.”
Phantom smiled. “Someone, not something.”
Levi snorted a laugh. “Will you ever stop being an English professor?”
“No. That’s an impossibility. I get it, though. I get it. She's worth it.”
Levi swallowed the emotion that was sitting in his throat, choking him. He nodded and then whispered, “She is.” It was quiet for a moment before Levi frowned. “Where did you get the chopper?”
“Borrowed it from the Cartel.” Phantom laughed. “We accidently drove straight onto a hidden helicopter pad. I don’t know who was more surprised, the grounds crew or us.”
“Thank God Ranger can fly the damn thing,” said the man they called Rip. “Although if he can crash us, he will. Mark my words.”
“Rip, you’re such a curmudgeon,” Echo said.
Bandit and Ace agreed with her.
“Grumpy old fart, you mean.” The pilot chuckled. Obviously, his name was Ranger. “I have two uncles who taught me to fly. I’m not officially licensed, but I know how to get you from point A to point B.”
Con’s voice came over the comms. “Then follow my directions. We don’t have any other aircraft in the airspace; you need to adjust your heading.” Con gave him new coordinates.
“I don’t know … Con, you’re not going to run us into a mountain, are you?” Ranger’s question didn’t sound funny, but the team laughed anyway.
“One time, Ranger. One time. Click was off duty, and I stepped in as a favor. You should be thanking me for diverting that train at the last minute.”
“Oh, believe me, I said a few words. Not sure if they were gratitude or not.” Ranger’s deep chuckle filled Levi’s ears. He closed his eyes as he held his woman. He fucking loved Guardian. It was the best organization in the world. But he knew it was time to build something with Willow.
They flew through the night, leaving the mission behind, heading toward some medical facility, safety, and the beginning of whatever came next.
Levi held Willow and watched the sun come up and the jungle disappear beneath them. He felt her steady breathing against his chest and let himself believe, for the first time in a decade, that maybe he could have something other than the job.
Maybe he could have peace. Maybe he could have normal. Maybe he could have Seattle and sunsets and a life that didn't revolve around controlled violence.
Maybe he could have her.
In his ear, Con's voice said, “Hey, Z. In case no one said it. Good work. I’m glad you didn’t die.”
“Thanks, Con,” Levi said quietly. “Me, too.”
The transmission ended.