“Try your phone again,” Meechum suggested.
The signal had improved.
“I have two bars!”
Meechum motioned across the hills and mountains, toward the city. “We’re getting closer to Colorado Springs. I think your signal will stay strong now.”
She dialed the phone. This time, it went through.
Emily’s voice greeted her. “Hello?”
CHAPTER 26
Cheyenne Mountain Entrance, CO
Brent had become an expert at finding the proper trucks to use for his operation. He and his team spent about thirty minutes driving around the southern reaches of Colorado Springs, finding tanker trucks, then having men jump out and commandeer them. They decided to pair up the men, so there were two guys per vehicle. He and Trish were the last to get their rig.
They’d also raided a hardware store, collecting road flares, copper wire, cinder blocks, and the other fixings they required to detonate the truck.
“This road goes right up to the front door of the base. You can see it from here.”
At the head of his tiny convoy, Brent drove the rig over a bridge spanning I-25. He noticed fewer of the empty flatbeds on the southbound highway below, but one of the trucks had exited and was coming up the ramp toward them.
“We’ll ignore him,” he said, trying to stay calm.
The bridge was the perfect position to see Cheyenne Mountain in the foreground and Pike’s Peak in the background. The hills closest to the interstate weren’t too high, but the bare mountain in the distance towered above Colorado Springs. He’d never been in the area, but he understood why Colorado was such a hot tourist destination. It was beautiful.
He and Trish both sat with a pistol in their lap. As they started up the final roadway, she spoke in a low voice. “You didn’t really think this through, did you?”
“What do you mean?” He didn’t give her much attention; the twisty road required constant gear shifting to keep the engine from bogging down.
“We have all these trucks, but the terrain isn’t going to let us put them on autopilot. You didn’t tell the others, did you?”
He finally glanced over to her, admiring for the thousandth time how pretty the young woman was. Her face was rigid and serious, however, so he answered her directly. “No. This isn’t like the airport. My plan was to get us close, maybe bluff our way inside, then blow them up and cause mayhem.” He took a deep breath. “If I need to stay behind and deal the killing blow, then c’est la vie.”
She turned to look out the window. The pines on each side of the road became thicker as they went into the foothills.
A rumble caught his ear from outside. In a moment of panic, he imagined one of his ex-cons having run off the road and blown themselves up, but he checked his mirror and found all of them behind him. However, far back, on the other side of the highway, a plume of black smoke rose toward the sky.
“Shit, something ain’t right.” He jammed the accelerator, trying to make better time up the winding path.
Trish kept talking. “I never wanted any of this. The attack on the first day. Those apes trying to have their way with me. Even the airport the other night. I wanted to settle down, have a pair of children, and live my life in peace and calm.”
He chuckled to keep his wits. “You couldn’t have picked a worse career. There’s never a dull day in the lockup, you know?”
“No, even when those men are getting credit for good days, there’s always the threat of them eying me like a piece of steak. It’s hard to set it aside.”
There was another explosion behind them.
“We’ve definitely got someone following us. I can’t see because of the trees, but if there’s fireballs trailing us, we need to get out of these trucks, you know?”
She looked worried for the first time. “Yeah, I agree fully. Let’s stop up here.”
The next turn brought them to the parking area for the military facility. To the left, a wide, mostly-empty lot provided plenty of space for his convoy. However, the road to the right went into a dark tunnel.
“NORAD,” he said with awe. It wasn’t simply a hole in the rock. There was a heavy cement archway over the road leading into the mountain, giving it the appearance of driving into a tipped-over coffee can. “But why aren’t there any guards?”
There was no time to overthink it. If there were no guards outside, it was good for him, he figured. They had a little time to jump out of the trucks and see what was coming up the roadway. Once the threat passed, they could head inside and safely release their payloads. That was where the guards were likely waiting.
They parked in a row, facing the tunnel.
“Get out,” he said to Trish, opening his door and climbing down.
The other men ran up to see what he was doing.
He walked to meet them at the tail of his tanker, aware of the approaching danger. The familiar buzz of a drone airplane caught his attention. Surveillance? Attack? Additionally, someone fired a rifle back in the direction they’d come. It wasn’t his men being targeted. If they were, the trucks would already be toast. But who was it?
Terry Long was among the men walking toward him, but he had his shotgun out and ready. A crazy look in his eyes made Brent wary of his approach. When the new guy raised his gun, he was prepared.
“Everybody down!”
They all hit the dirt.
Except for him.
Cheyenne Mountain Entrance, CO
Ted was hit by everything at once.
The trucker on the side of the road shooting at them.
The aerial drones dropping Hellfires like confetti.
And then a missed call from Kyla.
When the phone rang again, he handed it to Emily. “I have to keep my hands on the wheel!”
Emily snatched it up. “Hello?” She switched it to speakerphone.
“Emily! This is Kyla!”
She laughed, despite everything. “We know
