“Stay down!” he yelled.
A fury of explosions ripped the sky above, as if the fireworks people gave it one last finale to try to stop his boat. Guns discharged in winks of light from many places along the shore. He saw them as flash bulbs in his periphery.
“A little more,” he begged of Susan’s Grace.
The darkness ahead beckoned. As he rounded the bend at fifty miles an hour, the fireworks faded along with the gunfire, but the watery path ahead wasn’t much better.
“What. Is. That?” Haley snarked.
Ezra’s hand hovered over the throttle, again unsure if the sight ahead called for them to go faster or slower.
They’d found the reason for all the excitement.
Denver, CO
Petteri fired every round in his gun. The entire time he discharged his weapon, a dozen other guns fired through the dark room, every one sounding close enough to be inside his ear drum. Mr. Aarons told him to fire at anyone coming inside the room, and he’d done as instructed. What hadn’t been explained to him was what he was supposed to do when he ran out of bullets. When he fired the last round, he thought about it for a few seconds, then chucked the gun in the direction of the door.
Dorothy was crying on the floor nearby, but he wasn’t going to go out like that. He marshaled every ounce of his composure and stood in the darkness, ready to take it like a great leader.
Seconds went by. The spray of gunfire became a trickle.
His ears rang like Sunday church bells, but he caught a snippet of Mr. Aarons yelling to his men. He sounded close.
“Are you okay?” a voice asked from directly next to him. “Damn! You stood on your feet through that attack? Hardcore, sir.”
“Mr. Aarons?” he said with surprise.
“I’m going to turn on the lights. Don’t shoot me.”
“I won’t,” he replied, trying to hide how helpless he felt. The other man seemed to thrive in the darkness.
When the lights came on, Dorothy gasped. A dozen armed men, each with the word Police stenciled on their backs, were on the floor. Aarons and his men stood above them, their night-vision goggles shoved up over their heads.
He brushed himself off. “You planned this?”
Aarons beamed. “This was Howard’s idea. I just did like he taught me. He said there was a greater than zero chance the local police would figure out this building was your headquarters. He also worried they would try sending a S.W.A.T. team to decapitate your operation here in the city. He set up this floor to cut all power to the lighting as well as bathe it in a low dose of infrared light so his team could see the enemy. It was a trap sprung to perfection.” Aarons kicked one of the dead policemen.
Petteri experienced a mix of emotions. There was the huge hole created by the loss of his number two, Howard. The guy had planned for everything. He was happy to see Aarons carrying on Howard’s tradition. Obviously, he was pleased to have survived the attack. However, he couldn’t go to war with the mayor of a city. It would set a bad trend.
“What do we do next?” he asked his security chief. Petteri decided he had to trust him.
“Sir, I think we’re safe for the time being. The streets outside are still chaotic. They probably struggled to put together this breach team. You can carry out your business tonight. However, once the sun rises on the streets, we’ll have to reevaluate.”
“Do you think it would help if I called the mayor?” He wanted to chew her a new one, but also to prove the attack had failed.
Aarons shrugged. “You’re in charge of politics. I wouldn’t tell her about this.” He pointed to the men on the floor.
Petteri tapped Dorothy on the shoulder. She remained on the floor, crouched with her head between her legs as if prepared for a tornado, rather than bullets. The dark-haired woman looked up with wet cheeks. “Are we safe?”
He smiled. “Stick with me. No one is going to hurt you.”
She reached for his hand, hesitating for a second, then relenting. “Thanks.”
Petteri basked in the glory of being a hero.
CHAPTER 17
Somewhere in Central Wyoming
“What happened?” Grace asked as she ran up to Shawn Runs Hard, Logan, and Diedre.
Logan spoke first. “My dad heard the chopper coming. Made us jump off the side of the train. It was pretty sweet.”
His father was more tempered. “How did the others fare? It looked terrible.”
Asher hugged his sister, leaving her to answer. “I know one of the engineers was killed. I’m not sure about the others. I think a few were injured.” She turned around. “The wooden car is burning.”
“Do they have any way to put it out?” the Crow leader pressed.
“I don’t know. Robert is in the engine. I’m sure he sees the fire, but he isn’t doing anything about it. If anyone would know where to get fire suppression equipment, it would be him.” She absently glanced toward the horizon. The storm she’d seen before sunset was out there somewhere. If only it were over them. As it was, the fire was too big to use shirts to pat it out.
“So, the train gets smaller,” Shawn said sadly.
They walked back to the others, who now sat farther from the edge of the railroad grade. The fire had spread throughout the boxcar, and the intense blaze burned fast. The survivors were forced to go deep into the grass to avoid the heat.
Robert appeared at the rear door of the engine compartment. “I’ve unhooked from the cars. I’m going to move up the line a little.”
Grace waved at him.
As the engine powered up and
