Page 50 of Fight or Fly

The next stop on the itinerary was the briefing. Apparently, Nikolayev was in a big hurry when it came to implementing his plan, because he certainly wasn’t waiting around on things. I thought back to what Leona had said earlier.

I’ll stake my life that he’s fraying at the edges right now.

According to the briefing, Beckett and the others were being held at a secure facility near the Alabama coast—a six hundred mile flight that we would be making in a convoy of three Black Hawk helicopters, each one outfitted with an ERFS long-range fuel system. Since the choppers would be broadcasting legitimate Committee identification codes, the plan was to land inside the compound and swarm the facility’s security forces, using the element of surprise to power our way in, secure the three targets, and get out the same way before backup could arrive.

It was the kind of brute-force attack that appealed to me, both for its simplicity and for the opportunity it was likely to provide to bash some heads. It wasn’t, however, the kind of plan I would have pictured Nikolayev coming up with. Of course, his normal job involved bullying politicians and arranging firing squads. Nothing I’d ever heard about him mentioned anything about a military background. He probably had other people to strategize helicopter raids for him.

There were schematics showing a basic layout of the target facility—possibly gleaned from satellite intel—but they were light on detail. In many ways, we would be going in blind—and apparently in broad daylight as well.

Irina’s eyes landed on me heavily. “At no time during our mission will anyone here identify yourselves to the three targets as being associated with either the Committee or Chairman Nikolayev. Is that clear?”

“Crystal,” I said, as the others in the room muttered acknowledgement. And wasn’tthatgoing to make the conversation I had with Alex and Flynn afterward a real treat? Assuming we survived long enough to have it, of course.

Hi, guys—sorry I failed to mention that I helped drag you out of Sloane’s hands so I could dump you into Nikolayev’s, instead... because apparently I’m working for the Euro-Soviet Committee now. Leona asked me to do it, you see—and, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

On second thought, maybe I should leave the explanations to her and Kam, assuming the six of us weren’t chained up in separate dungeons by that point. Christ, what a goddamned mess.

After a few more minutes of tactical briefing, Irina ran her cool gray gaze over the assemblage. “That’s it, soldiers. Let’s go steal some prisoners. Departure is scheduled in fifteen minutes.”

EIGHTEEN

Jax

EACH CHOPPER had apilot, a copilot, two crew chiefs, six soldiers, and two stretchers aboard. As soon as I was strapped in, Irina handed me a bottle of water and two pills.

“Aspirin,” she said. “For your head.”

“Thanks.” I palmed the pills rather than swallowing them, since I had no way of knowing what the hell they actually were. When I was sure no one was looking, I stuck them in a convenient pocket in my tactical vest. Maybe there was no obvious reason why she’d want me incapacitated before the mission, but I wasn’t about to take a chance she might slip me something to make me more compliant or biddable.

The seal on the plastic bottle cap was intact, so I did at least drink the water.

It had been a while since I’d flown any appreciable distance in a helicopter. Ignoring the pounding pain in my skull, I donned my headset and tested the push-to-talk button on the cord, familiarizing myself with the unit.

Within minutes, the engine roared to life. The rotor spun up, and we were off. This would be a twelve hundred mile round trip, mostly over water, with enough fuel for thirteen hundred eighty miles on a good day. There wasn’t a huge margin for error, especially if someone in Sloane’s compound knocked a few brain cells together and managed to shoot out one of the chopper’s external fuel tanks.

It was a calculated risk, since a refueling stop was impractical. Get in, get out, get back to Cuba. That was the long and the short of the mission.

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