TWENTY-FOUR
Fyodor Yudin was still trying to figure out why the feed from the camera outside went down when he heard the explosion from the direction of the elevator shaft. Every guard in the control room jumped to his feet.
Yudin yelled to two of the guards, “Go find out what happened!”
Then he went numb when it dawned on him that this might not simply be an equipment malfunction. Did Lyla Dhawan sabotage the facility in an attempt to escape?
He looked at the level-three monitor showing the wide hallway where the prison cells were located and realized the situation was far worse.
The door from the south stairwell burst open, and a huge black man charged out, knocking out the guard stationed down there with a single blow. He was followed by an Asian man, who sprinted to the stairwell door at the north end of the hallway, knelt down, and started smearing it with some kind of gel.
After the Asian man came three more people: a blond man, who took the keys from the guard; a dark-haired woman; and Lyla Dhawan. All of them except Dhawan were heavily armed.
The blond man began unlocking cells, and elated prisoners hugged Dhawan as they emerged.
Somehow, some way, Lyla Dhawan was staging a prison break. If even one prisoner got away, Yudin knew he was a dead man.
The two guards returned, and one said, “The elevator is out of order. The hoisting cable must have been cut. The cab dropped a few feet before the emergency brakes kicked in.”
Yudin blanched. This was a nightmare. He had to stop the intruders.
“What about the south stairs?”
“We can’t get the door open no matter how hard we pulled.”
He called down to the second level, and they reported that their door to the south stairwell was also blocked. But they said the north stairwell door was accessible.
The intruders must have jammed the doors, probably with that gel. These were pros. “Every man get a weapon!” Yudin shouted. “We’re stopping this escape attempt at all costs.” By the looks of it, they still had superior numbers to overcome the attackers.
“We’re locked in,” one of the men said. “And we can’t get to the prisoner level or outside.”
Yudin knew the guard was right. They had to break out, but how? The explosives they had were kept up in the shed. Blowing the doors open was impossible. And the intruders had disabled the elevator.
But maybe not the elevator doors. The shaft itself might be accessible from the second level.
He turned to the guard. “Take every man down to the second level and climb down the elevator shaft to the prisoner level. Kill everyone there.”
The guard nodded and waved to the others to follow him.
Yudin called on the radio to the five guards at the beach.
“Come in, zero-nine.”
“Zero-nine here,” came the response from the German. “Zero-six is dead. We can’t find the prisoner.”
“She’s here. We’re under attack.”
“Attack? Who is—”
“I don’t know!” Yudin yelled. “Just get back here on the double.”
“Yes, sir.”
Now that the facility was compromised, Yudin couldn’t wait any longer to activate the self-destruct. He entered his code in the computer and set the timer on the bombs embedded in the prison’s walls. Then he relocked the computer.
Now Yudin was the only one who could stop the countdown. In five minutes, the entire underground structure would implode.
* * *
—
As the cells were unlocked, the prisoners were ushered to the south stairwell and up to the shed, where MacD was waiting for them.
The pounding on the north stairwell door had stopped. Juan’s biggest fear was that the guards had enough explosives on hand to blow open one of the doors. He was trying to get everyone out as quickly as possible. Some of the eighteen prisoners were out of shape, and the long walk to the sunken pier could take too long. Protecting all of them during the hike would be nearly impossible.
“MacD,” Juan said into his comm mic, “prep the tractor. We’re going for a drive.”
“Roger that.”
“Max, what’s your ETA?”
“Still five minutes out,” Max replied.
“Understood. If you can wring out some more from the engines, we’d be much obliged. Might need some cover fire. Got a bit of a situation here. Keep a lookout for us at the pier.”
“Our eyes are peeled.”
They reached the end of the hall and opened the second-to-last cell. A small woman came out and embraced Lyla.
“I’ve got you, Patty,” Lyla said. “We’re going to be all right now.”
“I can’t believe this,” Patty said, sobbing with relief.
She leaned on Lyla as they returned to the south stairwell. Linc joined them to help Lyla while Eddie kept herding the other prisoners up the stairs.
Juan did a mental count and said to Lyla as she walked away, “That’s nineteen. Are you sure about the number of prisoners?”
Over her shoulder, she said, “Yes.”
While he unlocked the last cell, Raven put her ear to the north stairway door.
“Anything?” Juan asked.
“Not a peep,” Raven said.
“I don’t like that.”
“Neither do I.”
Juan pulled the last door open and saw that the small cell was empty. Lyla had been right about the count.
“Let’s clear out,” Juan said. He waved Raven in front of him while he backed down the hall, covering the door behind them.
They’d made it halfway to the safety of the stairwell when Raven yelled, “Contact!”
He whipped around to see Eddie shove Lyla and Patty through the south stairwell door as shots rang out from the elevator, which faced the long wall of the hallway. The rounds barely missed the three before Eddie could close the door behind them.
Both Juan and Raven ducked behind open steel doors on opposite sides of the hall. They swung out instead of in to keep the hinge pins protected from the prisoners inside, so they provided cover for the two of them. Bullets smacked into the doors but didn’t penetrate them.
“Chairman,” Eddie said on the comms from the south stairwell, “report?”
“No injuries,” Raven said as she put her P90 around the side of the door and let loose a volley.
“Linc and I will stay behind to get you out of there.”
“No,” Juan said. “Seal the door behind you and take the prisoners to safety.”
That got a glance from Raven.
“Aye, Chairman,” Eddie said. “We’ll be back to get you.”
“Hopefully, that won’t be necessary . . . Go!”
“Aye, Chairman,” Eddie repeated.
“You seem pretty optimistic,” Raven said before firing another few rounds. “Especially given that we’re now locked in here with ten hostiles who want to kill us.”
Juan held up a syringe holding his supply of anti-glue solvent.
“We won’t be locked in. They will be.”
TWENTY-FIVE
When they reached the shed, Eddie herded Lyla and Patty into the rear of the container, half of which was piled with trash bags filled with refuse from the facility. The other prisoners were already inside, with MacD at the wheel of the rumbling tractor and Linc lying on top of the container to provide cover fire.
“Everybody stay down,” Eddie said. “This may be a bumpy ride.” They all sat on the floor.
“You’re not locking the door, are you?” Lyla nervously asked.
“No,” he said, handing her his flashlight. “But you’ll be safer with the door closed if we encounter any of the guards.”
Having the flashlight seemed to soothe her. “Thanks for saving us.”
Eddie sm
iled and said, “Thank me when we’re on board the ship.” Then he closed the door.
He hated leaving the Chairman and Raven, but he had his orders. He’d used the last of their glue to seal the door behind them. Now they needed to get out of there quickly.
He ran to the front of the shed, stood next to the button for opening the large door, and looked at MacD. “You ready?”
MacD minimized his profile as much as he could in the glass-enclosed tractor cab. He nodded and drawled, “Let’s see what this baby can do.”
Eddie punched the button, and the door began to rise. Light streamed into the shed. He sprinted to the tractor and climbed up to the cab’s roof, then jumped across to the container.
Linc was lying at the back of the container. Eddie flattened himself at the front end and aimed his P90 submachine gun at the rising door.
As soon as it was all the way up, MacD gunned the engine. Eddie braced himself as the tractor lurched forward, jerking the trailer with it.
When the tractor was outside, several rifle rounds peppered the left window of the cab. MacD ducked to avoid the shots.
Eddie swiveled around and saw the returning guards running down the path from the beach. Both he and Linc poured fire onto the path, and the guards scattered into the jungle.
“You okay, MacD?” Eddie called out when the shooting stopped.
“Ah’m all right,” MacD replied. “But next time, one of you gets to drive.”
With the container only half full, the tractor could make good speed, at least faster than a man could sprint. They motored down the wide path toward the pier.
Eddie joined Linc at the back of the container.
“Unless they cloned Usain Bolt,” Linc said, “it looks like we’re in the clear.”
As he said that, the guards in the distance behind them reached the shed. But instead of making a futile attempt to run after the tractor-trailer, they went inside, disappearing into the shadows.
“They gave up pretty easily,” Eddie said.
“Are they getting reinforcements?”
“Maybe. But by the time they reach us, we’ll have the Oregon to provide cover.”
For a moment, there was no movement at the shed. Then three small vehicles raced out.
“Where did those come from?” Linc asked.
“They must have been on the other side of the second container,” Eddie said. Then he called on his mic.
“MacD, gun it,” he said. “We’ve got three ATVs coming our way.”
* * *
—
Juan and Raven leapfrogged back toward the opposite end of the corridor, each providing the other cover fire as they ran from door to door.
Juan called the Oregon in between submachine gun bursts. “Max, we’re going to need a quick evac.”
“Roger that,” Max replied. “The HOB?”
“That’s what I’m thinking. Can Gomez control it from where he is?”
A pause, then, “He says, no problem.”
“Good. Give us a couple of minutes to get topside.”
“It’ll be waiting for you.”
“The HOB?” Raven asked as she ran past to the shield provided by the next door.
“A new toy. Haven’t briefed you on it yet. Still experimental.”
“And we’re the guinea pigs?”
“Unless you want to stay here,” Juan said.
Raven ducked as more bullets ricocheted past them. “Not really. I’d rather be a lab rat than a fish in a barrel.”
They kept going until they arrived at the end of the corridor. Guards attacked as they came out of the elevator and were using the doors as shields themselves. While Raven provided cover fire to keep them back, Juan quickly knelt by the north stairwell door and emptied the anti-glue syringe into the sections of the door that Eddie had sealed shut. The glue deposited there bubbled as the solvent ate away at it.
Juan waited five seconds and then threw his shoulder against the door. It flew open, and he turned to lay down suppressing fire for Raven. She dove through the door, bullets flying over her head.
Juan shut it and coated the jamb with half of the glue supply in a second syringe. Raven had given hers to Eddie for the other doors.
“That should hold for a little while, at least,” Juan said. It wasn’t as strong as using the whole syringe, but it might be enough.
They ran up one flight and repeated the process using the rest of the glue on the second-level door.
When they had the guards locked in, they went up to the top level. Juan opened the door and saw an empty hallway. The guards and Yudin must have gone down to the bottom level hoping to stop them and find a way out.
Juan waved Raven to follow. They walked down the hallway, checking rooms as they went to make sure they were clear.
The fifth door Juan opened was to the deserted control room. He went inside hoping to find at least some hard evidence to take with them. He saw a switch labeled PIER. It was currently set to SUBMERGE. It would certainly be easier if the Oregon could pull alongside the pier to pick them up, so he flipped the switch to RAISE.
Then he noticed that the monitor above the switch showed a countdown timer ticking down.
“This doesn’t look good,” he said. “We’ve got less than two minutes.”
Raven frowned. “Until what?”
He tapped on the keyboard, but it asked for a password. He was locked out from making any changes.
“Lyla said the Bedtime protocol was meant to get rid of all evidence of what went on here,” Juan said. “I think the warden set this whole place to self-destruct.”
TWENTY-SIX
Three ATVs with one rider each were approaching the towed container fast. But they weren’t taking the same path. Instead, the ATVs were driving through the jungle to the right of the tractor-trailer.
“They’re trying to make an end run around us,” Linc said.
“They know we’ll be sitting ducks if they can take out MacD in the tractor,” Eddie said.
Although the ATVs were much faster than the tractor, they had to slow considerably in the dense brush.
“I can’t pick them off,” Eddie said after his shots were blocked by the trees. “Can you?”
Linc shook his head. “I can barely see them.”
“MacD,” Eddie said, “how close are we to the beach?”
“Ah estimate thirty seconds,” MacD replied. “The Chairman must have done something back there because the pier is coming out of the water.”
“Good. Drive onto it.” Eddie looked at Linc. “That should give use some breathing room.”
“If we make it there.”
The ATVs were now almost even with the tractor and began to get closer to the pathway.
“MacD, watch out on your right,” Eddie said.
“Ah’m as low as Ah can be and still drive this thing.”
Eddie and Linc fired off several bursts into the trees. One of them got lucky and hit the lead driver. His ATV careened into a tree and broke apart. The other two drivers swerved away and began firing at the tractor. Their aim was terrible because they had to shoot their assault rifles with one hand while trying to avoid colliding with anything.
Still, they’d get MacD eventually if they kept firing. Eddie saw a way to slow them down.
He pointed to the palm trees loaded with ripe coconuts. They had a clear shot at the fruit because it was higher than most of the foliage.
“Remember the crab we saw earlier?” he said to Linc.
Linc nodded and smiled. They both aimed at trees ahead of the drivers and fired.
Heavy coconuts began raining down on the ATVs.
One of the guards was hit square on the head and fell off his ATV, which veered into a huge bush and flipped over.
The other guard saw what happened and
swerved back toward the path, out of the deadly rain of coconuts. But in his panic, he forgot about Linc and Eddie.
They fired a continuous volley at him, and one of the shots hit a tire. The ATV cartwheeled, throwing the guard high into the air before he smashed into a tree and fell to the ground in a heap.
“We’re there,” MacD said.
They emerged from the trees and drove across the beach onto the four-thousand-foot-long concrete pier.
Then Eddie heard the sound of another ATV. They’d been so distracted by the two in the jungle that they hadn’t noticed the new one approaching along the trail.
They moved to the back of the container and saw the ATV roaring up behind them. It stopped at the beach, and the driver got off. Out of the back of the ATV he pulled out a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
He was now two hundred yards behind them, effectively out of range of their P90s. But the RPG had a range of nearly five hundred yards.
“MacD, step on it!” Eddie called out. “RPG!”
Despite being out of range, Eddie and Linc emptied their magazines at the guard. The guard took his time taking careful aim. The RPG would rip the container to shreds. There was nothing more they could do.
“Need a little help, Eddie?” Max said in his earpiece.
Eddie turned and saw the Oregon approaching fast. Before he could answer, he saw bright flashes of light from the forward Gatling gun. Twenty-millimeter tungsten rounds sizzled into the water and across the beach until they reached the guard. One of them hit the RPG round, which blew apart in a massive fireball. When it dissipated, the guard was gone.
MacD kept driving to put more distance between them and the island.
“Thanks, Max,” Eddie said. “Your timing is impeccable.”
“We’ll stay on overwatch until this is over just in case you get any more unwanted visitors.”
“When you have a chance to dock at the pier,” Eddie said, “we’re going to be bringing a few guests aboard.” Now that the prisoners from Jhootha Island were safe, he was more concerned about the people they’d been ordered to leave behind. “Any word from the Chairman and Raven?”