~
Liam paced in the plane for over six hours. All sorts of scenarios of what was happening to Cora plagued him and was driving him mad. He didn’t know if she would even be alive when he got there. This very well could not be a rescue mission at all. His teammates had tried distracting him to no avail. He wouldn’t relax until he saw Cora with his own eyes and had her safe back at home. It didn’t matter the condition he found her in. She was coming home. He was still stunned that their new commander had allowed them all to go and was flying them. It was surreal. He had been completely prepared to give up his career for Cora. She meant everything to him. He had no idea what he would do as a civilian. He had never given it a thought before. He assumed he would be doing this until the military kicked him out for being too old. Would Cora expect him to quit? They had never discussed it before. Now wasn’t the time to think about it. He needed to focus on the here and now. Cora needed him. He marched over to where the group was gathered over a map of the island and the general area where Hannah had pointed out the island was. It was only a few miles south of his base and completely exposed. Satellite imaging showed there weren’t any good places of entry without being exposed. A HALO jump would be best, but once in the water, they would be sitting ducks. But it was their best and only option, that would get them to the island the quickest.
“It’s time to suit up. We’ll be over Alejandro’s base here in a few minutes.” Commander Jones announced at the top of the stairs. Silently they folded up the map and checked all their gear, preparing to jump. Liam prayed he wasn’t too late.
After landing in the water and separating their chutes, they called out to each other using short whistles. They grouped together quickly and got their bearings. They could see the island using NVD and started swimming for the island. They reached the island in only a few minutes with Midas in the lead. Midas looked around before easing out of the water without making a sound, and low crawled to the edge of the tunnel. Each man followed up quickly and took a point. They could hear low whispered words coming from inside and see torches lit. Obviously, Alejandro wasn’t expecting them. It was time to end this. Liam was getting ready to head in, when he thought he heard someone call his name somewhere in the water. He looked to where he thought he heard it coming from, the left of the island but couldn’t see anything but water and didn’t hear anything but waves.
“There a problem?” Midas whispered to him.
“Nothing. Thought I heard something.” Liam shook it off and refocused on getting inside the tunnel. The team hugged the wall as they slowly made their way inside. The tunnel wasn’t very long. Only a few hundred feet. It opened into a large cavern filled with torches. Liam immediately recognized the room as where Cora was being held. He would have to thank Hannah later for telling them where this place was. Liam eased ahead of the others to do reconnaissance and saw only four men in the room sitting around talking. He kept scanning but couldn’t find Cora. He turned to Midas and signaled four enemies and types of weapons. Midas signaled back about hostages. Liam shook his head. Liam would get them to talk, he had no fear. It was seven to four. This would be a walk in the park. They stayed low and entered the room fanning out. No one saw them until it was too late. Alejandro saw them first and stood up shouting for his men. His goons stood up with guns and started shooting without knowing who or where they were shooting at. Liam and his team took them down quickly leaving Alejandro to fight them alone. Liam took off his helmet. “Where is she?” he demanded.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Alejandro stared them all down.
Liam marched up to Alejandro and gripped the front of his shirt with two hands and lifted him off his feet. “I’m not fucking around. Where is she?”
Alejandro just smiled coldly at him then they all heard the cocking of guns. “You will never live to find her, pendejo.” Liam’s team spun around to face a new threat. Twenty soldiers stood at the opening of the tunnel aiming weapons at them. Liam dropped Alejandro and spun and started firing at his newest obstacle to get to Cora. Bullets ricocheted off the rock walls, and men spread out as they opened fired on each other. Liam heard the ping of a bullet hitting the wall behind him, then a chunk of rock landed on him. This place was a death trap. They needed to end this quickly before the cave fell around them. Midas fired at a man running at him from his right. Tiny and Hound quickly finished off the last of them. Liam looked at his teammates, and a few were hit, but all injuries looked superficial. Most from the ricochets, and not direct hits.
“Tiny, again?” Doc teased him as he looked him over.
“What can I say? I’m a bullet magnet. Good thing chicks dig scars.” Tiny
