field and onto the roadway. I looked back at Bear barking after us.
“Whatever you’re planning isn’t going to work,” I said. “We need to get your Dad to—”
“What?” Nat said. “He’s not going to surrender, Cal. This is my fault. I’m not just letting it happen.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I think you’ve got a little less than three minutes to figure that out.”
Nat gripped the steering wheel as the road to the airport vanished beneath us. Up ahead the tree cover thinned and the airport’s perimeter fence appeared. Nat reached over and opened a compartment under the dash.
“See what we have to work with.”
I rooted around inside, pushing aside papers and pens until my fingers hit steel. I pulled out another pair of handcuffs and a gray case that sat beside them. I dropped the cuffs in my lap and opened the case.
“Pull over.”
“Cal, we don’t have time to—”
“Just do it.”
Nat cut her speed and moved us off to the side of the road. The airport entrance was just visible a couple miles down the road. I lifted the taser out of its case and held it up between us.
“Okay,” I said, suddenly calm. “Here’s what we do.”
17
The .50 cal gunner on one of the Humvees fired a warning volley and I brought the cruiser to a halt in the middle of the road. There were three Humvees sitting in the revolving blue and red of our dome lights, one dead center in front of the airport entrance, with the other two on either side. Four soldiers stood in the space between them, three with weapons pointed at us, and the other, a compact man with a steel-gray crew cut, watching grimly.
“He’ll be the one in charge,” I said, keeping my eyes forward, not looking at Nat slumped in the passenger seat beside me. “You sure you’re ready for this?”
“I just hope my dad is paying attention back there.”
“Yeah. Me too.” I swallowed a lump in my throat and stepped out of the car slow, careful to keep my hands where the soldiers could see them. No one reacted, so I went around to the passenger side and pulled the handle. Nat rolled out of the seat, her hands cuffed in front of her. I took her arm roughly and pushed her out ahead of me as I approached the checkpoint.
“Not a place you want to be right now, son,” the sergeant announced. “Got no quarrel with kids, but if you don’t want to get yourself shot, you better get in that car and drive back the way you came.”
“You’re here because of a raid on an outpost on Route 84,” I said. “Five soldiers killed, two Humvees and a supply truck destroyed.”
There was a brief pause. “You seem well informed,” the sergeant said.
I shoved Nat onto her knees in the gravel.
“This is the one who led the raid. Her mom was a Fed ranger. She got some of her buddies to help out.”
“And who am I to thank for this out-of-the-blue bit of good fortune?” he asked, his tone as dry as dust.
“Call sign’s Bloodhound,” I said. “I report to Captain Monroe, commander of Cormorant Base just outside Yuma, Arizona. I was detached about a month ago to infiltrate Fed territories. Ended up here on a fluke.”
“You’ll forgive me if I find it a little hard to believe that someone who looks like they should be in day care is working special ops for Cormorant.”
“Uh, yeah,” I said. “That’s kind of the idea, Sarge. Look, you want her or not?”
The sergeant’s eyes flicked over to two of his subordinates.
“Cuff them both; we’ll figure it out later.”
“Wait!” I cried. “I told you, I’m with Cormorant special—”
The closest soldier reached for Nat, just as she scooped up a handful of gravel and tossed it in his eyes. When his hands went up, Nat was on him, throwing her bound hands over his head and pulling him back. He gagged as his Adam’s apple was trapped beneath the cuff’s short metal chain. The second soldier moved forward with his weapon up, but Nat dropped low behind her captive, fouling his shot.
“I will wring his neck right here!” she screamed as the man choked. “I swear, you people will not—”
I jammed the taser into the small of her back and hit the trigger. There was the snap of electricity and Nat convulsed, making an awful retching sound as she hit the ground. I dropped to my knees and pulled her hands from around the soldier’s throat. The second soldier was completely frozen, staring down at me over his rifle.
“Give me a hand!” I bellowed. “She got the brunt of it, but he’s out too. Let’s go!”
We got Nat up and started dragging her back to the checkpoint.
“Throw her in the back of Two,” the sergeant said, pointing us to a driverless Humvvee with a gunner standing up in the turret. “And you, the next time you end up with a prisoner, you cuff their hands
“Yes, sir!”
We brought Nat to one of the Humvees and threw her into a heap at the turret gunner’s feet. When the soldier went to rejoin his team, I followed Nat inside and slammed the door.
“Hey,” the gunner called. “What’s going on down—”
I shoved the taser into this side. There was a flash of blue and he dropped into the rear of the Humvee, unconscious. I grabbed Nat and pulled her up.
“You okay?”
“Fine,” she said, groggy but shaking it off.
It didn’t take them long to notice something was wrong. By the time I got to the driver’s seat, machine gun bursts lit up all around us, pinging off the Humvee’s armor. Nat kicked the gunner out of the Humvee and took his place. A second later the .50 cal was sweeping the area, sending the Path scattering. The thunder of the thing was unreal, punishing.
“Cal!” Nat screamed between bursts. “To the right!”
I looked out the side window. The other gunner was rotating our way. I fumbled at the Humvees’s controls before getting it into reverse and jamming my foot on the gas. We escaped a volley of fire but crashed into the gate behind us. Nat’s next shot sent the gunner ducking back into his rig. After that she shredded the other Humvee’s engine.
I tried to get us moving forward, but there was a metallic grinding sound behind us. We were hung up on the steel fence. Sitting ducks. I gritted my teeth and stood on the gas, but the wheels just spun. Gunfire was erupting all around us now.
Nat turned toward her father’s cruiser, sending a stream of fire into its back end until the car exploded with a lung-battering
“Helicopters are coming in!” Nat cried from behind me.
I gave up trying to go forward and put the Humvee in reverse, crashing through the gate. Once we were through, I got us turned around and we sped toward the runway. We had given Nat’s dad a chance; all I could hope was that he’d made use of it. We had our own problems to deal with.
Two Black Hawk helicopters had started their descent into the airport’s floodlights. Nat opened up with her gun, and the Black Hawks’ engines surged as their pilots aborted. Our reprieve wouldn’t last long, though. They’d find somewhere safer to land and offload their crew of Marines.
The airfield came into view. It was small, just a control tower and two runways filled with a few helicopters and private planes.
There was a blast behind us and I turned to see a fleet of civvy vehicles and police cruisers coming through the wreckage of the burning blockade. Mixed in with them was the last of the Path Humvees with a civilian up in the turret. The school bus was bringing up the rear. They made it. I pulled our Humvee to a stop at the edge of
