Chapter 15
"Damn it," Nigel said under his breath. The thumping rotor noise of the Lynx Mk8 drowned out his words to the other 5 passengers of the helicopter as it moved smoothly 50 meters above the ground.
The explosion just over the hill surprised him and left him with a sense of dread.
"Open the god damn door, deployment alpha, get us the fuck down there!" he yelled, as the tension grew exponentially in the cabin. All of them could see the flames and dark ominous smoke billowing up from just over the next rise.
Sims swung out the door, placing a foot on the landing skid bringing the Sig 556 up to firing position. The men behind him got into their ready positions, Nigel upfront next to the pilot flexed his hands a few times then slid the Desert Eagle from it's holster, hoping without reason that the scene that was about to be revealed would not hold...death for one of his charges.
.........
Tera looked over at Michael's slumped form as he lay on the ground, no movement, no sound, 'he is dead,' she thought to herself; a rage, unlike anything she had ever experienced threatened to engulf her, as her gaze shifted to the gunman on the berm behind them.
She tried to get up, pushing off from the ground but her right arm gave way beneath her, 'wrist broken,' slipped across her mind as she fell back towards the ground.
The gunman saw the movement, was raising his machine pistol again, Valerie was sobbing next to her on the ground, both of them devastated by the loss of Michael, both of them shocked by the sacrifice he made, giving up his own life to save theirs.
Tera slid a full clip from her back pocket, trying in vain to reload with only one useable hand, the killers gun almost level with them now, she screamed out in frustration, more upset about Michael's sacrifice than her own impending death.
Tera's scream was drowned out by the noise of rotor blades as, much to her surprise, a lynx crested the hill behind the assassin, looming up and hanging there like a black swathed angel of death.
............
Sims took in the scene in an instant, 5 down, 3 friendlies at 2 o'clock, one unfriendly at the top of the rise. It only took the blink of an eye for him to assess the situation. Three controlled shots spat from the 556's muzzle, all three hitting their target, turning the unfriendlies' head into a bloody pulp before he had a chance to pull the trigger of his own gun.
"Get us down there now!" Nigel yelled as the helicopter banked right and descended to the road.
............
"You are very impetuous," Aoife's voice resonated around him as he lay on what seemed to be cool damp moss.
Lifting himself up and looking around he was surprised to see a great cavern rising above him, stalactites hung from the ceiling, their milky tips barely visible in the dim light of the fires that burned in ancient iron braziers on the stony walls.
"Where am I," he said, looking down at his body. He was surprised to find himself naked, even more surprising were the seeping, livid bullet holes that moved in a broken pattern across his torso and legs.
"Are they safe?" he asked to the air, remembering the sight of Valerie and Tera beneath him on the grass, the gunman, his jump between them as the assassin's gun began firing.
'His first thoughts are of them,' she thought to herself, not surprising considering his depth of feeling for the two women, but still, 'He can see the bullet holes' she thought smiling.
"They are in good hands, you saved them," she said, watching from her high perch in the upper reaches of the cavern.
"I'm dead," he said to no one in particular as he gingerly fingered a bullet hole just below his left nipple.
"Not...exactly" was the chuckling response that echoed through the cavern.
............
Nigel jumped from the helicopter, his team running after him as they moved over to the women lying beside the road.
"Help Michael," Tera yelled, the pain in her arm forgotten as she crawled toward the fallen figure a meter away.
"Stay still!" Nigel barked at Tera as the rest of the team went to work forming up a loose perimeter around the three people on the ground. The medic moved to Valerie first.
"Are you hurt?" he asked bending down over the sobbing young woman. "I'm fine, a bit bruised, please please check Michael," she sobbed pointing towards his still form on the road.
"They weren't after Michael, Nigel, I didn't know what was going on, he just grabbed me and told me we had to go that she was in danger," Tera said to Nigel as she watched the medic move over to Michael's body.
"They were after her, he knew, somehow he knew and brought us right to her, there were two cars, one ran when the shooting started. Nigel, four of them just dropped dead, no shots no nothing, just dropped like marionettes with their strings cut." She paused shaking her head, the incessant throb of her wrist becoming more and more painful.
"It's ok Tera you did well, not to worry now just sit there we will get you fixed up and out of here in minute." Nigel said, noting the broken look in Tera's eyes as she watched the medic work over Michael's body.
"Sims," Nigel called, "check out that sedan over there, do a full sweep of it and the dead, see if there is anything we can use to track down who these animals belong too."
"Will do," Sims responded as he moved slowly and professionally over to the dead bodies. He found them clean, no ID, nothing but the Finish RK45 assault rifles and spent cartridges. Moving to the sedan he looked over the interiors, again...clean...no registration not even VIN numbers, slick and professional.
"I've got nothing on the hitters or the car Nigel, just RK45's and some spent rounds," Sims said moving back to Nigel while keeping his eyes always scanning the terrain. "Alright, grab the field kit, grab fingerprints and send them to HQ, maybe we will get lucky." Nigel said as he helped Tera to her feet.
Tera walked over to the now standing Valerie, putting her good arm around the other woman's shoulder. "He will be ok," she said in a brave voice that betrayed her own lack of conviction.
