kids. The Alaska State Troopers took point with weapons drawn, and Alexa followed close behind, armed and dressed to kill. They all ran for the elevator.
Mercifully, Jess didn’t remember much about the explosion in Chicago, but this place felt different. There were no propane fumes and no shrill alarm to grate on her nerves. Still, she knew Alexa was right. If the Russian had been here, he’d have the place wired to blow. She only hoped they’d have time to get ahead of the blast.
And she prayed Nikki’s good luck had rubbed off on them.
Out of the shadows, Stas Petrovin emerged from the escape tunnel in time to see his men fly away in both helicopters, leaving him alone to face the enemy…and his fate. He glanced at his watch. They had waited nearly forty minutes, well beyond the time he had warned that he would have left them.
What more could he have asked of them?
He shut his eyes and took a deep breath of the cool night air and looked up into the heavens. This place reminded him of Siberia, and he had mixed emotions about that. Casting a bluish haze over the foothills, a full moon shone above him. The sight of it should have made him feel small and insignificant, but nothing could be further from the truth.
He felt powerful and in absolute control.
In his hand, he had the means to bring down the underground facility and implode it under the feet of his enemy, perhaps taking the lives of many with the blast. If he did his duty, Bukolov would be protected once more. Yet for the first time, he sensed he had a choice.
Perhaps that was why he felt in control. He stood on a precipice of change and he knew it.
He contemplated his actions, then made his decision, reveling in the fact that the call was his alone to make. Without further thought, he initiated the detonation, knowing he had a time delay for his escape. But instead of thinking of his own safety, he pushed the envelope and chose to stay, standing in the glow of the moon. After all, it was a night for indulgence, and he had the heart of a poet beating in his chest.
Of this, he was certain.
After leaving the elevator, they barely had enough time to clear the collapsed wall when Alexa felt a familiar rumble under her feet. Self-preservation sent a second surge of adrenaline through her brain.
“Oh shit, not again.”
They raced for the way out, but with the first impact, the ground swelled under her, then dropped out. The quake nearly knocked her down as she ran. She saw one of the troopers hit the dirt, but the man scrambled to his feet, hardly missing a step. And, good man, he never dropped his weapon. The older girls ran one step ahead, their age giving them an advantage. And her men kept the kids out of harm’s way like a team of bodyguards or a strong defensive line in the NFL.
“Pedal to the metal, people. This place is gonna blow,” she yelled, keeping her legs pumping. Her lungs heaved and her thighs were on fire from exertion.
Dust and debris fell from over their heads as they ran. The whole mountain could come down on their ears any minute. She took a quick glance back and saw that Jessica hadn’t let go of Nikki’s hand and Payton had the other. In his left arm the quarterback carried a little blond girl who had his neck in a fierce grip. He didn’t look like he minded the extra burden. She couldn’t blame Jess and Payton for not wanting to let go of Nikki and the smallest girl. The four weren’t making the best progress as they ran, but some things were worth the risk.
A hot vaporous cloud of gases and dirt swept by them as they finally made it outside. Alexa remembered how it felt to barely escape the carnage in Chicago.
“Keep moving. Don’t stop.” And under her breath, more to herself, she added, “And whatever you do, don’t look back.”
A wall of fire belched from what remained of the cinder-block structure they had used to enter the old radar station. She felt the heat crawl up her back as if she’d caught fire. Eventually, cool night air touched the inflamed skin of her face, and she knew she’d beaten the blast once again. When she got free, she did a quick head count and was relieved everyone had made it through, until she saw Jessica ranting up ahead.
Alexa’s hearing had been hampered by the siege at Providenija, where they’d captured Anton Bukolov earlier, the aging captain at the helm of Globe Harvest. But as she neared the bounty hunter, she heard what the woman was complaining about. In the distance, the sound of helicopters brought back a feeling of deja vu.
Only this time Alexa knew things would be different.
“That bastard got away again. Damn it!” Jessica cursed, and flung her arms out in sheer rage, stomping her foot. “We were so close.”
Although the bounty hunter’s words sounded muffled, she heard enough to approach the woman with details she’d been waiting to share. She raised her voice, unsure how loud she sounded, and told Jessica the good news.
“I learned my lesson in Chicago. When we first touched down here, I had one of my men search the perimeter, knowing how the Russian and Globe Harvest liked a back-door escape plan.” She forced a smile, though she ached all over.
“And?” By the smirk on the bounty hunter’s face, she knew what was coming.
“We’ve got tracking beacons on those birds. He and his men won’t get far this time.”
With that news, Jessica grinned and turned to listen as the helicopters flew south. Once again Alexa saw Petrovin and his men were airborne without lights, but even in the distance the rotor noise was unmistakable. They were making their escape, only now she couldn’t help but match Jessica’s grin.
Until the night sky lit up like the Fourth of July.
“What the hell?” They both cried out in unison.
Two huge explosions erupted in the distance like a super-nova up close. Alexa could have sworn she felt the force of the blast from where she stood. Out of reflex, Jessica grabbed her arm, but kept her eyes fixed to the sky. Her mouth gaped open until she finally spoke.
“Oh…my…God,” she muttered under her breath. “Did you have anything to do with that?”
“You may not believe me, but no, I didn’t.” Alexa hated thinking about what had happened to the men onboard. No one deserved to die like that…except for Petrovin.
Jessica never took her eyes off the fireballs that pierced the night. The unexpected explosions shredded both fuselages. The airborne wreckage fell to the earth like heavy globs of molten steel, and where each piece landed, the ground caught fire. The inferno would rage for a while, but Alexa thanked the heavens that this part of the island had few inhabitants. As it was, the residents here would not soon forget the Globe Harvest facility explosion and the helicopters that had been blown out of the night sky…and neither would she.
Alexa stood alongside the bounty hunter, staring into the bright light on the horizon. Eventually, she felt the presence of the others, her team, the troopers, the girls, and Payton Archer, but none of them said a word. After a long moment, Alexa wasn’t sure what to say to Jessica, except that the woman had been through hell and needed to hear something good.
“It’s over, Jessie. This time…it’s over.”
The bounty hunter looked at her for a brief moment with tears welling in her eyes, only nodding in agreement before she turned away.
But even as Alexa had said those words, she wasn’t sure she believed them. Helicopters don’t just fall from the sky without help. And it might take weeks to uncover what happened, too late to do anything about it. Any trail would be ice cold.
Once the shock and the numbing realization that they’d almost died had worn off, each of them would grasp that they had no idea if anyone was left behind. Nikki had done her best to save the girls she had found, but were there others?
Only time would tell…
But she knew that wasn’t what Jessica needed to hear. The bad news would follow soon enough. No, the woman needed to feel her ordeal was over. They all did.
Away from the compound, and in the quiet of a darkened clearing of evergreens, a lone figure crept toward an Alaskan State Trooper helicopter, taking great pains not to be seen. In the confusion of the massive explosion and the aftermath of the sabotaged choppers, it would not be difficult to steal the aircraft from under the nose of the American law enforcement officers.
The man had not anticipated such a random convenience, but he was not above taking advantage of low hanging fruit. In no time he had hot-wired the aircraft to start, a skill acquired from a misspent youth. Once the
