Firestorm: Book III of the Wildfire Saga (37 page)

"Hell yeah!
 
Five foot mobiles in front of us."
 
Another burst of gunfire rent the air.
 
"Make that three…"

Cooper looked back at his Team.
 
"Stay frosty."
 
He turned and moved forward again, continuing the process of checking doors.
 
He reached up and grabbed the door marked 'Office of the President's Chief of Staff'.
 
His hand hovered over the doorknob.

"That's
her
office, man," whispered Charlie.

Cooper pulled his hand back from the doorknob.
 
He nodded.
 
It was time to be careful.
 
If the woman could order the death of the Vice President of the United States on live TV, she was capable of anything.
 
He took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob.
 

He coughed.
 
"You smell that?"

Charlie sniffed the air.
 
"Smells like perfume…really strong perfume…" Cooper shook his head to clear his eyes.
 
His vision had gone blurry.
 
"Yeah…"

"Contact, 12 o'clock!" called out Jax as he stepped out behind Charlie.
 
"Freeze!" he called out.
 

Cooper cleared his eyes and saw three figures at the far end of the corridor, all carrying suitcases and backpacks.
 
He only got a brief glimpse of them as they disappeared around the corner, but one had unmistakable golden hair.

"Move, move, move!" Cooper said as he stood and rushed past the Chief of Staff's office.
 
His vision cleared almost immediately.
 
Whatever he'd smelled through the door was potent, but short-lived.
 

The thunder of his own boots rang in his ears as he pounded down the hallway after the fugitives.
 
He reached the corner first and snapped a look around.
 
He pulled his head back just in time to avoid a few rounds fired in his direction that embedded themselves in the door to his left.

"Cutter, Actual, Striker has eyes on target!
 
Repeat: HVT Two has been located!"

"Bring her in alive if possible!"
snapped General Rykker's voice.
 
"Get a move on, son—the natives are getting restless topside."

"Overwatch, what's my time frame?"

"Striker Actual, you're looking at maybe 10 minutes…"
replied Sparky.
 
"They're pushing the Marines hard.
 
Seeing small arms fire—things are going to get ugly up here real quick.
 
I got eyes on birds coming in now for EVAC from the northwest."

"Striker, this is Alpha—we're clearing the Bunker.
 
I'm sending a squad to help in your neck of the woods.
 
They'll be on your six in a few minutes."

Cooper nodded, listening to the amount of gunfire in the background in Gunny Morrin's transmission.
 
He focused his attention back around the corner.
 
Reaching up to his shoulder, he unclipped a stun grenade.
 

"Flashbang out!" Cooper gripped the pin in his teeth and pulled it free, then tossed the stun grenade around the corner and closed his eyes.
 
He heard a muffled pop and the inside of his eyelids went white with the flash.

Charlie leapfrogged Cooper and charged around the corner.
 
Cooper stepped around behind him, just as his XO fired a three-round burst and dropped a Secret Service agent covering a crude hole in the far wall.
 
Rubble, baskets filled with dirt, and electrical wires streamed out of the opening.

"Clear!" said Charlie, stepping over the still-twitching body at his feet.
 

"The fuck is all this?" asked Cooper.

Jax rushed forward and peered into the opening.
 
"Not it."
 

"Jesus Christ, why can't these people just give up?" muttered Charlie as he adjusted his night vision.

Cooper keyed his throat mic.
 
"Cutter Actual, Striker Actual.
 
Be advised, HVT Two as entered an unmapped tunnel heading northwest out of the Bunker.
 
Striker 2-1 in pursuit."

"Actual copies all, make it quick or you'll be walking home."

"Go!" said Cooper.
 
Charlie climbed over the dead into the tunnel.
 
Jax dropped his M60 to the floor, then pulled out his pistol before crouching into the tunnel.
 
Cooper brought up the rear, first kneeling to make sure the agent was dead.
 
He closed his eyes for a second to combat the dizziness that suddenly assaulted him with a fresh wave of pain.

Am I bleeding out?
 

He clenched his teeth and scrambled into the tunnel.
 
"See anything up there?" he asked, hoping to keep the pain from making his voice too tight.
 

No time for pain.
 
Mission first.

"
Nope
," replied Charlie's voice over his radio, "j
ust getting a real good idea what it's like to be a proctologist…"

Cooper ignored Jax's laugh and pressed them forward.
 
"We gotta catch this bitch before she slips away—come on, move!"

After a few shuffled steps, the fire in his knee consumed his senses.
 
Every time he placed the wounded joint onto the rough dirt floor, a lance of pain shot up his leg into his spine, making his shoulders stiffened involuntarily.

The knee brace.
 
He'd forgotten about the damn knee brace.
 
Cooper paused.
 
He gingerly touched his thigh where the broken knee brace had embedded itself.
 
God damn it.
 

He clenched his jaw to keep from crying out.
 
He opened his mouth, panted for a moment to clear his eyes, and looked forward to see Jax's form receding in the distance.
 
Suddenly everything went white.
 
The ground all around him shook and a pile of dirt fell from the ceiling onto his face.
 
Panic gripped his chest at the thought of being buried alive.

"
Fuck!
 
The cave's collapsing—back up, back up!
" cried Charlie.
 
Cooper felt the earth trembled around him and the light vanished ahead.
 
Smoke enveloped Jax's body and roared down the tunnel like a giant snake chasing him through the hole.

Cooper closed his eyes and held his breath as the wave of gray washed over him and brought the sweltering heat with it.
 
He coughed as the smoke front passed him and brought his face down close to the bottom of the tunnel to breathe.
 
Cooper clawed and scrabbled his way back down the tunnel, finally emerging from the ragged hole to collapse on top of the dead Secret Service agent, gasping for air.
 
Jax emerged shortly thereafter and nearly fell on top of Cooper.
 
Cooper rolled and staggered to his feet, one hand gripping his now profusely bleeding thigh.

"Charlie?" Cooper said in a hoarse voice.

Jax coughed violently and shook his head.
 
"Can't see shit in there," he sputtered as he got to his feet.
 
Charlie emerged from the exit in a cloud of smoke, gasping for air and collapsed on the ground.
 
His face was covered in dirt and sweat.
 

"That was too fucking close," he wheezed.

Cooper leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.
 
"Cutter Actual," he said around a choking cough.
 
"Cutter Actual, Striker Actual.
 
Be advised,
 
we've lost the HVT.
 
Repeat: HVT Two sealed the tunnel in front of us.
 
It's gotta have an exit somewhere northwest of Whiskey Hotel," he said.
 
Cooper dropped to his knees and grunted in pain, the world spinning around him.

"Coop!" Jax said.
 
He rushed to Cooper's side and pulled out his emergency first aid kit.
 
He shoved Cooper to the floor and dressed his wounded leg.
 
"Fuck, man, your damned knee brace is halfway inside your leg!"

"Just pull it out," Cooper said through gritted teeth, head resting on the cool floor.
 
Charlie grabbed Cooper's hands to keep them clear so Jax could work.

Cooper screamed in pain when Jax pulled back on the metal and ripped the last inch of bent metal from his flesh.

"Looks clean," Jax reported as he poured a blood clotting agent into the wound, and liberally sprinkled disinfecting powder over the gash before he wrapped it with a bandage.
 
"Gonna have another scar for the ladies, Hoss."

Cooper gasped for breath and blinked up at the ceiling, watching the acrid smoke curl in the air.
 
He pulled out his canteen and took a long drink.
 
"Cutter Actual, Striker Actual.
 
Did you copy my last?"

"All units, Cutter Actual!
 
HQ is being overrun.
 
Get to your EVAC positions, transports are inbound.
 
ETA two minutes!"

"Shit," Cooper said.
 
"Let's go!" he got shakily to his feet with help from Charlie and shrugged off further assistance.
 
"Go, go!" he said, pointing back toward the ruined elevator shaft.
 
He followed Jax and Charlie as they raced down the dark, smoke-filled corridors.

"Striker, Alpha Actual!
 
We're at the top.
 
Grab the ropes, we'll haul you out!"

"Roger that," replied Cooper as they rounded the last corner.
 
Jax was already at the elevator shaft as Cooper limped up behind Charlie.
 
He leaned against the wall and sucked wind as Jax and Charlie linked up with the rappelling rope.

Charlie shoved the third line at Cooper.
 
He barely had time the latch it to his harness before the slack tightened and he felt himself lifted off the ground.
 
It was an odd sensation, being lifted into the air without climbing.
 
It only took 15 seconds to ascend to the top of the elevator shaft.
 
Two sets of hands reached in and pulled him into the Presidential Study.
 
Gunny Morrin had Marines on the ropes, hauling the SEALs up and out of the Bunker.
 

"Let's go," Morrin said, urging his men out of the study.
 
"Helo's on the South Lawn—they're waitin' on us!" Gunny Morrin said.
 
Cooper grabbed his arm as the Marine turned for the door to the Oval Office.

"No time!"
 
Cooper called over his shoulder:
 
"Jax—make a hole!"

Jax step forward and slapped explosive putty in a rough circle on the wall.
 
He stepped back and triggered the igniter without warning.
 
A muffled crump, a puff of smoke, and an entire section of the Oval Office wall fell out.
 
The Marines piled through the hole and Cooper pushed Jax and Charlie out next.
 
He struggled across the South Lawn to the waiting pair of Black Hawk helicopters that sat 20 yards from the West Wing.
 
He glanced past the helicopter to see tracers illuminate the sky.

"Overwatch, you ready for EVAC?"

"
I'm still in position.
 
Don't forget to come pick me up,"
replied Sparky.

Cooper let Charlie and Jax help him into the Black Hawk and lay flat on the floor, resting his leg.
 
A medic on board immediately tended to his bandage, which had come loose during his escape from the Bunker.
 
Cooper relayed instructions to the pilot to swing by and pick up Sparky on the way out.
 
They hovered for less than a minute over the Ellipse Visitor Center rooftop and dropped a SPI/E Rig.

One of the Marines gave the thumbs-up sign and the pilot carried them away from the battlefield, engines whining.
 
Cooper didn't relax until he saw Sparky clamber over the side of the Black Hawk and take position on the floor next to him.
 
He let his head rest against the floor plate of the speeding helicopter and closed his eyes for a moment.
 

As the helo turned to the correct course, Charlie poked him in the shoulder and motioned out the side door.
 
Cooper got a bird's-eye view of the roiling crowd of non-combatants on the South Lawn.
 
Abandoned LAVs and Stryker's lay smoking and scattered about like a toys.
 
There were people everywhere.
 
Some fired captured weapons up at the helicopters, but to little effect.

Sleep.
 
All Cooper wanted was sleep.
 
His vision still hadn't come back to normal after getting a whiff of whatever the hell was inside Blondie's office.
 
He didn't know what was in that perfume, but he knew it was dangerous.
 
He shouldn't be as tired as he was.
 

"Coop!" called out Charlie over the noise of the helicopter.
 
"It's the sat phone!"
 

Cooper turned his head and looked sharply at Charlie.
 
"Aliana?" he croaked.

Charlie looked like he'd been punched in the gut.
 
He shook his head slightly and handed the phone to Cooper.
 
"It's for you."

Cooper put the phone to his ear.
 
"Hello?" he shouted.