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.
Valerie looked at the woman next to her, noting the lean face and dangerous eyes, behind which lingered a pain she knew was reflected in her own. "I hope so," Valerie said in a halting voice that held little in the way of...hope.
"He's stopped breathing!" yelled the man crouching over Michael, as he opened a large red case and began cutting Michaels shirt off.
Valerie slipped her arm around Tera and bent her head to the other woman's shoulder, the tears burning hot where they landed on Tera's bruised skin.
...............
"What do you mean not...exactly," Michael asked to the air as he stood up, noticing that he was actually on a small spit of rock jutting out of what appeared to be a large lake within the cavern.
His question was answered with another "Why did you apologize to me in your last instant, why were you not apologizing to your women for leaving them in such a fool hardy, if valiant, manner," Aoife's voice responded, bouncing off the cavern walls, giving the effect that she was everywhere, and no where, all at the same time.
Michael paused before responding, closing his eyes, stretching his body, arms above his head, he was surprised he didn't feel all that bad. Rolling his neck he wished he had a cigarette, then he spoke.
"You have...always been with me, not in the way you have over the last few weeks, but all my life, in those moments of...transition, you were there to help and guide me, you are the one who saved me when I was at my lowest, with the taste of gun oil in my mouth and a singular drive to end it all. While it would be easy to say it was coincidence that whatever...this is..." waving his arms in a long sweeping motion around him before continuing, "...there must be something in it for you, something you need or want me to do, I understand that and I am...sorry I won't be able to provide you with whatever it was you had intended," he finished, closing his eyes again, felling a bit drained, as if the mere act of speaking was using up a great deal of energy.
There was a long pause, the air in the cavern seemed to become heavy, compressing a bit, as if the whole of the place was sinking deeper into the earth. There were occasional splashes as bits of rock and debris fell into the shadowy abyss of the lake, Michael stood on the small island impassively, wondering what the afterlife would be like, wondering briefly if he would see Sasha again.
"You will see here again Michael" Aoife said as a massive gust of wind knocked Michael to his knees, he covered his eyes as it quickly receded.
"But not yet, to much to do, you are strong, you can survive much, and you are strongly lucky, which never hurts" the receding voice of Aoife called as the world went gray and then black, he was overwhelmed by the abyss, slipping into her inky embrace once again.
...............
"Clear!" yelled the medic as Michaels prone form jumped under the shock from the emergency defibrillator.
The pause seemed to last for hours "I've got a pulse, its weak and a bit thready but it's there, we need to get him to a hospital" the medic said as he finished bandaging the last of Michael wounds. He and another member of the team picked up the litter, carrying Michael to the waiting helicopter.
"Ladies, best we away," Nigel said, leading the two women towards the helicopter as it's rotor spun up for lift off.
The trip was uneventful; Michael moaned Valerie and Tera's names a few times, muffled by the oxygen mask over his face.
Valerie could not take her eyes off the bandages, there were six large, red stained triage bandages ranging from Michael's thighs up across his abdomen, chest and shoulder. His skin had a gray pallor to it that reminded Valerie of the corpses she had seen in the cadaver lab at Oxford.
She reached out and took his hand in hers, it was cold, clammy, but as soon as she slid it into hers it closed around her hand, even so close to death he comforted her, the tears began anew.
