Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2) (18 page)

“Holy
shit
he's big,” whispered Nina in awe.

Lisa shook her head, “You may not be able to understand him, but he can understand you... and you're
not
whispering all that quiet.”

Nina shrugged, “Sorry, I wasn't trying to be disrespectful...” her voice trailed off when they entered the kitchen from the hallway. Three NSA agents lay propped against the wall together, the furniture destroyed, the sliding glass doors gone, glass everywhere, the walls riddled with bullet holes. “Are they d-d-dead?” she stammered.

“Nah,” replied Truck, “just phased out.”

“
What did he say?”

“
He said they're phased out - I think it means knocked out...” answered Lisa.

“
Exactly right,” confirmed Truck, tossing the Duffel bags out on the deck. “OK, it's time to go...”

Lisa eyed the mess and scowled at the agents. “Can they talk? Can they understand?”

“Speech and listening are two different brain functions” replied Chief Petty Officer Layora Cress. “They can hear and understand. Talking coherently won't happen for about another ten minutes...”

“
Wish I knew which one was in charge...” the three agents looked up and their heads wobbled, their eyes swimming, but the one on the end was the only one who tried to speak. It sounded mostly like babble but they were more likely just disconnected words.

“
My guess would be that one,” offered Truck.

“
We don't really have time for this Ms. Steele,” advised the Chief.

“
This will only take a minute.” Lisa crouched in front of the agents looking the end agent in the eyes, grabbing him by the vest, “And you government folks wonder why people
hate
the government, well look around you, you
fucking
asshole...
this
is why. You were more interested in finding this little gizmo,” she held up her comm-pad, “than you were in protecting us. Guess what, after all this you're
still
not getting it. And I'm
leaving the planet
to get away from you pricks. That's right,” she added, poking him in the forehead with her index finger, “you heard me. And I've got one final piece of advice for you; put this house back in the condition you found it in. Or Heaven help you... if you think this is bad, wait till my brother comes back, this will look like a walk in the park. By the time he gets finished with you fucks, your dead ancestors will come back just to bitch-slap your mothers for having you...”

“
Bridge to Chief, you have ground threats inbound, on the street and spreading out between the houses... we also have fast air units inbound, ETA ninety seconds... get them out now! ”

The Chief grabbed Lisa by the arm, pulling her to her feet, “Gotta go Missy...” She pushed Lisa toward the glassless sliding doors, “wait on the deck, you too,” she pointed to Nina. “Truck, see if you can slow them down... and try not to kill any of them.”

He was headed for the open front door, which hung crookedly on his damaged hinges, when he stopped to look over his shoulder, “Try not to kill... oh for the love of the Gods, how am I supposed to slow them down then? Harsh language and bad words? I'm sorry; I left my rainbow gun in my other suit...”

“
You'll think of something...” she turned and motioned her people out, “Let's go, let's go!
Six to egress!” she announced on her mic. “D
on't take too long Truck!” she called back.

Truck peeked out of the doorway, looking up the street, “Yeah, yeah, I know...” There was movement in the darkness on both sides of the street headed toward the house but he couldn't see any of them clearly. “Hmm, let's provide some light...” switching to a left hand grip to stay protected in the doorway, he shouldered the light plasma machine gun and took aim at the stalled black SUV in the street, a block up. A three round burst of hot magenta plasma through the front of the vehicle and it exploded much like the first - in spectacular fashion, showering the surrounding houses with fragments and debris, flaming bits and pieces floating through the air. A lone burning tire rolled lazily down the street, losing momentum and dropping over on its side, a thick column of choking black smoke rising above it, carried up the street by the on-shore breeze. Return fire was not immediate, but it did come and it was a mixture of sounds; loud, quiet, popping, cracking... and the splatter of the rounds hitting the outside of the house, chipping away at the masonry. He took his phase pistol out and reaching out the doorway, fired blindly up the street, the blue-white streaks reaching out in a flat trajectory until they met something to stop them, cars, trees, houses,
people
...

The Chief's voice came through his headset, “C'mon Truck..! Quit fooling around!”

“Yeah, just having a ton of fun up here,” he backed away from the doorway, closing the battered door, wedging the shattered hallway table under the doorknob. Trotting though the kitchen he waved at the agents sitting propped against the wall, “Bye fellas.” He hustled out onto the deck and turned toward the 77, seeing the orange and white Coast Guard helicopter for the first time as it circled above his ship, the rotors producing a steady
thump, thump, thump.
The helo's spotlight was focused on the Chief's group on the beach as they neared the ramp, clouds of sand swirling from the rotor wash. “Isn't that nice,” he muttered, running, “he's lighting their way...” Looking at the helicopter's left side, Truck saw the flickers of light through the cockpit glass and the fountains of sand dancing between the group and the ramp before he could hear the staccato of machine gun fire, the sound distorted by the helo's rotor wash. He realized the gunner wasn't trying to kill them, the shots were far too controlled and perfectly spaced between the landing party and the ramp, but he couldn't allow that to happen again. He slid to a stop in the sand, slung the Plasma machine gun and drew the phase pistol, showering the side of the helicopter with shots that, while not debilitating, were colorfully illuminating as the static charge danced across the aluminum skin. Blue tendrils spread outwards like a spider web, disrupting gauges, communications and low amperage systems. All of its lights went out, pitching hard to the right, passing over the 77 and out over the water, disappearing in the darkness. Truck was already running full stride, cradling the plasma machine gun under his right arm.

A series of sonic booms and the roar of jet engines passing overhead masked a flurry of gunfire coming from between the houses as NSA agents, Sheriff's Deputies and local police opened fire on the crew scrambling across the sand. Civilians watching up and down the beach were horrified, screaming and running for their homes as the beach turned into a crisscross of fire and return fire, the sharpshooters at the top of the 77's ramp protecting the landing party as best they could.

Reaching the bottom of the ramp, the Chief turned back to cover Truck as her team hustled Lisa, Nina and Gus up and into the ship. Getting to the top of the ramp and safely inside, Lisa turned back to see Truck pitch forward twenty feet short of the ramp, fountains of sand dancing around him.

“Help him!”
she screamed, pushing the team member closest her back toward the ramp. Additional team members came running from the dark red shadows of the hold behind them, carrying phase rifles. Going prone along the top of the ramp the volume of small arms firepower coming from the ship tripled within a couple of seconds.

“
Bridge to Chief, we need to lift off
now!
”

Truck rolled over on his back and pulled his plasma machine gun out of the sand, spread his legs and began firing between his feet. The Chief had made her way to him and was trying to drag him back, but he was far too heavy. The Coast Guard helicopter appeared back over the hull of the 77 and swung into place over the beach, halfway between the houses and the ship, the machine gunner opening fire on the ramp...

Lisa jumped and ducked all at the same time as two of the 77's defensive gun turrets roared to life and opened fire on the helicopter, their flashes illuminating the beach like daylight, instantly turning the helicopter into a twisted, flaming field of debris, raining down on the sand below, scattering pieces for hundreds of feet. Its destruction created a momentary respite from the gunfire and Truck got to his feet assisted by the Chief and two other members of the team, half walking, half dragging him to the ramp. Once on the ramp, it began to pitch upward, easing them inside. “Chief to Bridge, shields up, we're in!”

They eased Truck to the floor and he lay on his side... “Shot in the fucking ass...” he complained, “this is embarrassing...”

The Chief knelt down alongside him as the medic stuck him with a lancet. “To be honest Truck,” she examined the many dents in the back of his armor, “that's not the only place they hit you...”

The doors had not completely closed when the static hiss of the ship's shields made Lisa and Nina's hair stand out from their heads and they giggled with the strange tingling sensation. As the doors fitted together the feeling subsided, stopping altogether when they locking rams sealed them tight. Lisa moved over to where Truck lay and knelt next to him, “I'm sorry Truck...”

He patted her hand with a gloved hand three times the size of hers, “Why, you didn't shoot me... did you?” He raised an eyebrow, “Did you...?”

“
No,” she chuckled. “I'm sorry you got hurt. I never expected it to get like this, this was
insane!”
She looked around at the others standing around. “Thank you... all of you. I can't believe what a mess this was... I can't believe what they did to my brother's house...” She took a deep breath, “He's gonna kill me...”

“
Chief Petty Officer Layora Cress,” she pulled off her glove and stuck out her hand, shaking Lisa's hand. “Since you're a civilian, you can call me Layora...”

“
Lisa Steele, and this is my friend Nina,” she pointed at the dog who sat sedately nearby watching the conversation, “and that's Gus.”

“So, that was Captain Steele's house?” Lisa nodded and the Chief shook her head, “I am sorry, please tell him...”

“
Not your fault Layora,” she ran her fingers through her hair, “Jack will know that, it's why he needed to get me out. He knew they wouldn't stop.”

“
What
was
this all about..?”

Lisa smirked, “It's a
long
story...”

■ ■ ■

Commander Renae Ribundell went from pacing the stations to her seat as soon as the shields went up, eyeing the lights for the waist doors and ramp. “Helm, take us up, three hundred feet. Set a course for our entry point...” The view on the big screen swung from shore and dropped away, the anti-gravity system propelling the ship flatly upward. The lights on her console winked out, letting her know the hull was sealed. As the 77 rose, the Coast Guard cutter below, completely lost power, the blackout area on the coast widening. Only the F-16s, now flying at five-thousand feet above, were unaffected. “Helm, ease us out...” she didn't want to damage the ship below. The 77 left the shore at about two-hundred miles per hour, passing the motionless cutter in an instant.

Lieutenant RyeCyn was watching the F-16s on the tactical scanner, “The air units were waiting for us to clear the shore. They're off our stern, ten miles and closing...” he adjusted his scan resolution, “they're firing! I'm tracking
four
missiles inbound... thirty-one-hundred miles per hour...”

“
Helm, get us clear!”

“
Yes ma'am...” The helmsman nudged the throttle forward taking the UFW Corvette to over five-thousand miles per hour in about 10 seconds. The Aim 120 AMRAAMs chased their target to the extent of their designed range and having lost any type of target lock, dropped into the Gulf of Mexico after running out of fuel.

The Commander exhaled, twisting her head to pop her neck, “Helm, take us up and out.”

■ ■ ■

Lisa and Nina sat on twin-sized beds facing each other, about four feet separating them. The room had everything; beds, a desk, bathroom, shower... but it was, well...
compact.
Though thankfully
much
more comfortable than Jack's zombie room. Nina leaned back against her duffel bag, rubbing her neck, “That thing
hurt
when she put it in.”

“
I think you're just being a baby, it didn't hurt when I had mine... she numbed it didn't she?”

“
Yeah, but I don't think she waited till it was actually numb.”

Lisa stroked Gus' ear, “Well put the cream on it, she said that would help...” A light musical chiming sound got their attention and they looked at each other curiously. “Did you hear that?”

Nina nodded, “Yeah, what is that...?”

Lisa stood up and looked around, “I don't know, sounds like my cell phone when I get a message...”

Nina stood up as did Gus, “Well
that's
not possible...” she waved her hands, “there it is again!”