33. Wynn
WYNN
Boone’s radio went silent.
No gunfire.
No breathing.
Nothing.
Adam called his name.
No response.
The medical jet continued toward Geneva while one member of the Brave chased General Kane through a bunker hundreds of miles away.
Alone.
With a broken ankle.
And a bullet wound in his side.
I stared at the radio as though I could force Boone’s voice to come through it.
Lucas sat beside me.
His hand remained wrapped around mine.
He didn’t tell me Boone would be fine.
Didn’t offer a promise that neither of us could believe.
He simply waited with me.
Hawk kept one eye on the aircraft’s autopilot while working with the damaged tablet.
“Boone’s body camera is still transmitting.”
“Can you access it?” Adam asked.
“Trying.”
The screen flickered.
Static.
Darkness.
Then a blurred image appeared.
Concrete walls rushed past the camera.
Boone was moving through the upper corridor.
Fast.
Too fast for an injured man.
His breathing came hard.
Every third step ended with a sharp grunt of pain.
Adam pressed the radio button.
“Boone.”
The body camera shifted.
He had heard.
He didn’t answer.
“Slow down.”
Still nothing.
“Your ankle won’t support that pace.”
Boone’s voice finally came through.
“Then it should stop complaining.”
Lucas almost smiled.
Adam didn’t.
“How far to the helipad?”
A sign appeared on the bunker wall.
UPPER OPERATIONS.
FLIGHT ACCESS.
“One level.”
“Wait for backup.”
“Kane isn’t waiting.”
Gunfire erupted ahead.
Boone threw himself behind a concrete support.
Bullets chewed through the wall.
His camera struck the floor.
The image tilted sideways.
Two armed men moved through a doorway at the end of the hall.
Boone fired from behind cover.
One fell.
The other disappeared.
“Boone, report,” Adam ordered.
“I’m offended.”
“By what?”
“He shot at me.”
A breathless laugh escaped me.
Even trapped inside an enemy bunker, Boone remained Boone.
Lucas glanced at me.
“He does that when he’s afraid.”
“Jokes?”
“Yes.”
“I thought he joked because he enjoyed annoying everyone.”
“That too.”
Boone changed magazines.
His hand shook.
Pain.
Blood loss.
Exhaustion.
He looked down at his left hand.
A narrow gold wedding band circled his finger.
His thumb brushed over it once.
Wren.
The small gesture told me everything.
Boone wasn’t only fighting to bring the hostages home.
He was fighting to return to the woman waiting for him.
He raised his rifle and moved forward.
The second gunman stepped from the doorway.
Boone fired first.
The man dropped.
“Hallway clear.”
He limped toward the stairwell.
Hawk brought up the bunker’s security map.
“Kane is one floor above you.”
“Can you see the helipad?”
“No camera access.”
“Aircraft?”
“A helicopter is running.”
Boone reached the stairs.
He looked up.
Three flights.
His injured foot touched the first step.
His entire body stiffened.
“Boone,” Adam said.
“I know.”
“You won’t reach the top like that.”
“I know.”
“Find another route.”
“There isn’t one.”
Hawk searched the building plan.
“Elevator.”
“Kane disabled it.”
“Maintenance shaft?”
“Sealed.”
Boone looked at the stair rail.
Then at his ankle.
“Oh, this is going to hurt.”
He slung the rifle across his back and grabbed the railing with both hands.
Instead of climbing normally, he pulled himself upward.
One step.
Then another.
Using his arms to keep most of his weight off the broken ankle.
His breathing became ragged.
Sweat ran across his face.
But he kept climbing.
“Tell me about Wren,” I said.
Every man looked at me.
Boone stopped for half a second.
“What?”
“Tell me what she’ll say when she sees you.”
He dragged himself up another step.
“She’ll say I’m an idiot.”
“Is she wrong?”
“No.”
Another step.
“She’ll probably cry. Then yell. Then cry some more.”
His voice softened.
“Then she’ll hold me.”
Lucas squeezed my hand.
He understood what I was doing.
Giving Boone something beyond the stairs.
Beyond the pain.
A reason to keep moving.
“What will you tell her?” I asked.
Boone reached the first landing.
“That I’m sorry.”
“For being hurt?”
“For making her afraid.”
The answer struck Lucas.
I felt it in the way his fingers tightened.
Boone continued climbing.
“I’ll tell her I thought about her every second. I’ll tell her I knew she was waiting. And I’ll tell her…”
His voice broke.
“That I did everything I could to get back.”
“Then climb,” I whispered.
Boone looked toward the stairs above him.
And climbed.
One step.
One promise.
One agonizing pull at a time.
The helicopter rotors grew louder through his camera.
Kane was preparing to leave.
Hawk studied the upper level.
“He’s moving the hostages onto the helipad.”
“How many guards?” Adam asked.
“Several visible. Maybe more.”
Boone reached the final landing.
He collapsed against the wall.
His chest rose and fell violently.
Blood had soaked through the side of his shirt.
“Status?” Adam asked.
“Fantastic.”
“Truth.”
“Ankle’s broken. Bullet went through my side. A couple of ribs might be cracked.”
“Can you continue?”
Boone lifted his head.
His wedding band caught the light again.
“Yes.”
Adam closed his eyes.
“Then listen carefully.”
He studied the bunker plans.
“There’s a fire-suppression control beside the helipad door.”
“I see it.”
“Activate it.”
“How does water help?”
“It isn’t water.”
Hawk enlarged the label.
“Aircraft-fuel suppression. Foam.”
Boone almost smiled.
“You want me to bury Kane in bubbles?”
“I want you to blind his men and choke the helicopter’s intake.”
“That sounds less fun.”
“It’ll work.”
Boone crawled toward the control panel.
Through the helipad door, we saw the hostages.
Janice.
The pilot’s wife.
Two frightened boys.
Another nurse.
Two soldiers forced Samir’s stretcher toward the helicopter.
Kane stood behind them.
Gun in hand.
Watching.
Waiting.
He knew Boone was coming.
“Kane’s using them as cover,” Lucas said.
Boone reached the suppression control.
A clear plastic cover protected the red handle.
He shattered it with the butt of his knife.
An alarm sounded.
Kane turned.
Boone pulled the handle.
White foam exploded across the helipad.
The security camera vanished beneath it.
So did Boone’s body-camera image.
The radio filled with shouting.
Gunfire.
Screaming.
Then nothing but static.
“Boone!” Adam shouted.
No answer.
“Boone!”
A helicopter engine screamed.
Then coughed.
The rotors began to slow.
The suppression foam had reached the intake.
“He stopped the aircraft,” Hawk said.
“But did he stop Kane?” I asked.
No one knew.
Gunshots echoed through the radio.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then silence.
Adam stood motionless beside the terminal.
I had never seen a commander look more helpless.
“Boone, report.”
Static.
“Boone.”
Nothing.
Lucas gripped the back of Adam’s neck.
Not comforting him.
Holding him upright.
The video feed returned.
The body camera lay inside the foam.
We saw only white.
Then a shadow moved.
A gloved hand reached toward the camera.
General Kane lifted it.
His face appeared.
Foam covered his uniform.
Blood ran from his forehead.
But he was alive.
He looked directly into the lens.
“Your man fought well.”
Adam’s face turned to stone.
“Where is Boone?”
Kane smiled.
“Ask his wife.”
He dropped the camera.
A gunshot cracked through the transmission.
My heart stopped.
“No,” I whispered.
Lucas pulled me against him.
Adam shouted Boone’s name.
No answer.
Kane’s boots moved away.
The damaged helicopter engine attempted to restart.
It failed.
A reinforced barrier opened beyond the helipad, revealing a second, smaller helicopter.
Kane had planned another escape.
He ran toward it.
Then a rifle fired.
Kane fell.
Not dead.
Hit in the leg.
Boone’s face appeared through the foam.
He lay on his stomach.
Blood covered his side.
His rifle remained steady.
“You forgot something,” Boone called.
Kane rolled behind the disabled helicopter.
“What?”
Boone smiled through the pain.
“My wife hates it when I’m late.”
Relief crashed through the cabin.
Lucas laughed.
A broken, disbelieving sound.
Adam grabbed the radio.
“Boone!”
“Still here.”
“Hostages?”
“Checking.”
Janice emerged from the foam.
Her broken wrist remained secured against her chest.
With her good hand, she dragged Samir’s stretcher away from the helicopter.
The pilot’s wife followed with both boys.
The nurse stumbled behind them.
Alive.
All of them.
“Get inside!” Boone shouted.
Janice saw him.
Her expression changed.
She moved toward him.
“Boone!”
“Get the children inside!”
“You’ve been shot.”
“I noticed.”
Janice hesitated.
Then obeyed.
The hostages disappeared through the helipad door.
Kane dragged himself toward the concealed helicopter.
Boone tried to stand.
His ankle collapsed beneath him.
He hit the ground.
Kane reached the aircraft.
The door opened.
A pilot pulled him inside.
Boone raised his rifle.
His hands shook.
The second helicopter’s rotors spun faster.
He fired.
The bullet struck the rear fuselage.
Not enough to stop it.
The aircraft lifted from the pad and disappeared above the mountains.
Kane had escaped.
But he had escaped alone.
Boone rolled onto his back.
His rifle fell beside him.
“Bunker secure,” he whispered.
Then his eyes closed.
The body camera went still.
Adam called his name.
No response.
A second figure appeared through the foam.
Russ.
Blood covered one side of his shirt.
He dropped beside Boone.
“Pulse is strong.”
Every man exhaled.
“Ghost?” Adam asked.
“I got him to the transport crew. Their medic is stabilizing him.”
“Condition?”
“Alive. Unconscious.”
“Medical team?”
“Janice is organizing them now.”
Russ looked toward the damaged helicopter.
“Kane’s men are down. Civilians are secure.”
“And the dispersal unit?” Adam asked.
Hawk checked the ventilation readings.
“Temperature stable. Dispersal disabled.”
Russ sat beside Boone.
For the first time, exhaustion showed on his face.
“We need extraction.”
Adam looked toward Captain Aras.
“Can you contact anyone Kane doesn’t control?”
The pilot nodded slowly.
“My brother commands a civilian mountain-rescue unit.”
“Does Kane know?”
“No.”
“Keep it that way.”
The pilot transmitted a coded message through a civilian aviation network.
No military channels.
No official request.
Only coordinates and four words.
FAMILY ALIVE. brING HELP.
Hawk checked our route.
“Geneva in two hours and forty-three minutes.”
The bank-containment system showed more than five hours remaining before it could no longer guarantee the airtight seal.
We would have more than two hours after landing to reach the bank, enter the vault, rescue Elise and Camille, recover the encrypted drive, stop Minser, and disable the portable dispersal unit.
Tight.
But possible.
Then the bank terminal chimed.
Two video windows appeared.
In the first, Minser sat aboard his aircraft.
In the second, his masked operative stood inside the Geneva vault’s containment chamber.
Blood covered the operative’s face.
Behind him, the portable dispersal unit waited.
The man tore open a maintenance panel beside the vault’s ventilation controls. Sparks sprayed across the floor as he ripped out another bundle of wires.
The containment timer vanished.
A new warning replaced it.
EMERGENCY PRESSURE FAILURE.
SEAL INTEGRITY: 00:29:59.
00:29:58.
00:29:57.
Hawk stared at the screen.
“He didn’t bypass the containment cycle.”
Lucas moved closer.
“Then what did he do?”
“He damaged the pressure-control manifold. The inner chamber will lose its airtight seal in thirty minutes.”
“And the portable unit?” Adam asked.
“Once the pressure equalizes, anything released inside that chamber can enter the rest of the bank.”
Minser smiled from the second video window.
“You have thirty minutes.”
Our aircraft remained nearly three hours away.
“We can’t reach Geneva in time,” I said.
“You don’t need to.”
Minser’s gaze shifted toward the secure terminal inside our jet.
Toward the one-use duplicate key still connected to Fate.
“Complete the biometric confirmation. Give me control of Meridian, and I’ll order my man to stop.”
Lucas stepped in front of the screen.
“And if we refuse?”
Minser nodded toward the damaged pressure system.
“Then everyone inside Banque Laurent dies first.”
The camera shifted.
Through the transparent inner partition, Elise held Camille against her chest.
Neither woman could hear us.
Neither knew the seal protecting them had begun to fail.
The clock continued counting down.
00:29:41.
00:29:40.
00:29:39.
Lucas looked toward the Fate terminal.
FATE CUSTODIANS IDENTIFIED.
LUCAS SPENCER.
WYNN SPENCER.
BIOMETRIC CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Thirty minutes.
One duplicate key.
Two custodians.
And a system powerful enough to control Meridian.
We weren’t going to reach Geneva in time.
If we wanted to save Elise, Camille, and everyone inside that bank, we would have to activate Fate from the air.