102
GAbrIEL
Something was wrong. I’d never had a failed explosion ever in my entire career working with explosives. I didn’t bother attempting the trigger a second time—whatever had happened was at the source.
“We need to go back,” I said.
Knight opened his mouth to respond, but Ghost came over comms.
“It must have been underground, because there’s a pad with a long range bird on it,” he said.
“Where?” Knight demanded.
“North side of the island.”
“Can we get there by boat?” Knight asked.
“Yeah, there’s a small strip of beach,” Ghost said. “You will have to navigate some of the forest, but it’s only about two hundred yards in.”
“Alright, Cal and I will check it out,” Knight said. “Deathwing and Seven are investigating why the explosives didn’t detonate.”
Ghost signed off and Knight nodded in the direction of the hangar. “Figure that shit out. Cal and I will go see about this helo.”
“Careful in the forest, man,” Seven insisted. “There’s some nasty stuff in there.”
“We’ll be careful,” Cal reassured.
We parted ways, and Seven and I went back through the trees until we could see the hangar in the gloom. There wasn’t any movement outside, but something had caused the explosives to fail.
“This is fucking sketchy as shit,” Seven muttered.
I agreed. I didn’t like going back into the blast radius of a previously live detonation site any more than he did.
We jogged across the tarmac and carefully looked through the door into the dim interior.
The jet sat quiet in the shadows. I was about to step inside, when movement near the back door caught my eye.
A lone figure slipped out the back and disappeared.
“They disabled the explosives,” I whispered.
“How? That was fucking fast—” Seven protested.
“Not if you know what to look for,” I answered, my mind already on a collision course with a conclusion I didn’t like.
“You don’t think…” Seven trailed off when he realized it too.
The only person who’d be able to dismantle one of my bombs was someone who knew the structure—my style—already. Someone who knew what to look for.
Someone like Lincoln. Lev. The fucking traitor.
“Time to go hunting,” Seven growled.
We made our way around to the back of the hangar, and Seven quickly picked up Lev’s trail.
We silently followed him into the woods.
Our going was slow at first because Seven meticulously checked our path for any traps or pitfalls.
But it was soon apparent that Lev knew a safe path through the trees, and once we were able to pick up our pace, we spotted him easily enough.
“Lev to Mahoney, come in, over,” Lev said.
We couldn’t hear the other side of the comms conversation, only Lev’s responses.
“They rigged the jet like I said they would.”
Silence while he listened to a response from Mahoney.
“Yeah, I disabled it. I’m headed to check the helo—”
“I know it’s been underground, but—”
“Yeah, I know—”
Lev cursed under his breath before he replied. “Yeah.”
He stopped abruptly in the middle of the path.
“Fuck you. Don’t hurt her–” He paused. “After this I’m done, Mahoney.”
We waited behind him, concealed in the shadows. Lev’s back was stiff and his breathing picked up. Whatever Mahoney was saying was not making him happy.
“Over and out,” Lev growled.
He resumed his trek and muttered curses under his breath. I wondered if he’d been referring to Emersyn, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t forgive someone who left her in the trafficking rings for three years and then helped in feeding false information hindering her rescue.
That was unforgivable, and he was going to pay for his sins.